Mark Cross (musician)

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This article is about the musician. For the novelist, see Archibald Thomas Pechey. For the Sussex village, see Mark Cross, East Sussex.

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Mark Cross
File:Mark Cross.jpg
Background information
Born (1965-08-02) 2 August 1965 (age 58)
London, England
Genres Rock, hard rock, heavy metal, power metal
Occupation(s) Musician
Instruments Drums
Associated acts Ian Gillan, Metalium, Helloween, Kingdom Come, Winter's Bane, Firewind, Saracen, Tainted Nation, Outloud, Hardline
Website Official Website
Crossroads Productions

Mark Cross (born 2 August 1965) is a British hard rock and heavy metal drummer. He was born in London, England, to an English father and German mother, raised in Germany, the UK and Greece. Cross has played in many bands in his career and is based in London, England and Hamburg, Germany. He grew up in three countries and speaks fluent English, German, Greek and some French. Over the past 25 years he has been working as a professional musician with bands and artists, and earned a reputation in the international music industry as a musician and drummer.

Bands in his roster include German power metal bands Helloween[1] and Metalium,[2] Deep Purple's frontman Ian Gillan,[3] gold sellers Kingdom Come,[4] British classic rock band Saracen, Greek power metal band Firewind,[5] melodic rock outfit Outloud, Whitesnake's and Thin Lizzy's bass player Marco Mendoza,[6] new wave of British heavy metal pioneers Tank[7] and UK´s Tainted Nation.[8] He worked with known producers such as Chris Tsangarides, Charlie Bauerfeind, Frederik Nordstrom, Kip Winger and Tommy Hansen, who have left a great mark in his career.

In 2002, Cross was forced to leave his position in Helloween when he was diagnosed with mononucleosis, a severe virus that affected his immune system and ability to play for nearly one year, but has since fully recovered. In the end he recorded only two tracks with Helloween, both of which eventually featured on their Rabbit Don't Come Easy album in 2003.

In 2005 he featured as a touring musician for At Vance feat. Swedish rock singer Mats Levén and God´s Army´s bass player John ABC Smith and also appeared on the British rock band Saracen's album, Vox in Excelso and Tim "Ripper" Owens´s (ex Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen, Iced Earth) first band Winter's Bane's comeback album, Redivivus.

With Firewind he released Allegiance in July 2006, and toured with them extensively throughout the world in 2006 and 2007 playing more than 150 shows. With their strongest release The Premonition released in April 2008, they started another world tour in Europe in April – May of the same year, followed by thirty concerts in North America with Swedish metallers Arch Enemy. The same year they were present at various festivals and headlined their first tour across Europe, which started on 15 September in the UK. On 13 January 2010 Cross left Firewind. While Cross was not pictured in any of the album artwork or the line up for Firewind's album Days of Defiance, he was credited in the liner notes for performing all drums on the album, but not for writing some of their music and lyrics.[9]

In 2009 Cross and his former band mate Bob Katsionis from Firewind launched a new band and album Outloud. Their debut album We'll Rock You to Hell and Back Again! was released by Frontiers Records and gained superb press feedback, which apparently led to a dispute between Firewind and Cross, although band leader Gus G had joined the band of Ozzy Osbourne.

On 27 July 2011, Outloud's second album Love Catastrophe was released by AOR Heaven in Europe, which once more gained tremendous reviews from the world press. In June 2011 they opened a show for Twisted Sister in Athens, Greece.

In October 2010 Cross announced UK supergroup Tainted Nation with main song writer Pete Newdeck,[10] on vocals (drummer of Eden's Curse, ex-Killerrs, Grim Reaper), Ian Nash on guitar (Steve Grimmet band), Joel Peters on guitar (Fury) and Pontus Egberg on bass (King Diamond, ex-The Poodles).

The album had been mixed in 2011 by Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Unisonic) and got signed by German Management Rock'n Growl and Massacre Records in 2012. The band has toured the UK and attended on the Smokehead Rocks Tour in October 2011 and toured as headliners in Spain in October 2013. They also landed their first song "Dare You" on the Magazine Fireworks CD in 2011.

The band also released their first video "Loser", the remake of the song "Bimbo", originally written by Max Martin, Alexander Kronlund and Per Aldeheim for the Swedish pop-rock band Lambretta, which had landed in the Swedish charts a No. 2 in 2001; it has now been re-titled "Loser" and received over 240K hits on YouTube. "Loser" appears on Tainted Nation's debut album, F.E.A.R., which was released on 25 January 2013 via Massacre Records.

In 2011 Mark stood in as touring drummer for NWOBHM veterans Tank, featuring original members Mick Tucker and Cliff Evans on guitar, Doogie White on vocals and Chris Dale (Bruce Dickinson) on bass.

In February 2012 Greek rock singer George Gakis released his new album Too Much Ain't Never Enough via Perris Records, where Cross drummed on the entire album, except for two songs, which were played by Bobby Rondinelli and James Kottak. This album also featured special guest vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, Greg Smith (Over the Rainbow) on bass and legendary Greek guitar player Yannis Spathas.

In December 2011 Outloud announced the release of More Catastrophe, a six-song EP which contained three new songs plus the aforementioned Christmas single, a flamenco version of the song "Falling Rain" and a piano and vocals version of the track "We Run".

In 2012 Cross recorded a song for Italian composer and bass player Alberto Rigoni's new album Three Wise Monkeys and also played a few shows alongside Marco Mendoza, ex-Whitesnake, Ted Nugent, Thin Lizzy, Backstair Riders (now Dead Daisies') bass player and Soren Anderson on guitar (Glenn Hughes). The three of them played six shows in the UK in October.

Mark became a father to his son Anthony, born 4 July 2012, and devoted more time to his family the following 2 years. Besides playing shows with Tainted Nation and London clubs with friends Davey Rimmer (Uriah Heep) and singer Luka Twich Ravase throughout the year mostly, he stood in on 19 October 2013 for US act Hardline's sold out headline show at Firefest in Nottingham, England.

In March 2014 Mark relocated to Hamburg, Germany.

On April 5, 2014 Mark received an early morning call and found himself replacing James Kottak, who had been arrested in Dubai the previous night, for one show with Scorpions at the Grand Prix Formula 1 in Bahrain in front of 30000 spectators. Rumours say that he had been asked to fit in weeks before Kottak's arrest.

In March, Mark also released the debut with NWOBHM act God's Army AD, who had been working on the album since 2006. A severe car accident of frontman and bassist John ABC Smith and Cross' obligations with Firewind delayed the release until 2014. The band had recently started playing shows again and also entered the studio to record a second album.

In March he laid down drum tracks in Sweden for the new Tainted Nation album and also for newcomers Tower of Babel, a new combo featuring Csaba Zvekan on vocals, Joe Stump on guitar, Maestro Mistheria and originally Craig Gruber (Elf, Rainbow) on bass, who died on May 5, 2015. Andreas Passmark of Royal Hunt was given the position of bass player.

Tainted Nation announced the European release of their second album On the Outside via German Label Pride & Joy/Edel on February 26, 2016.

In February 2016 Mark joined Frank Blackfire, ex guitarist of German thrash metal bands Sodom and Kreator for a few shows in Germany and Japan.

Discography

  • [1985 feat. on Soundtrack "Time of Growing" by Dimitri Papadimitriou CBS Records]
  • [1987 feat. with Analog Dreams on "Greece Attacks" Metal compilation]
  • [1989 Magna Carta "Magna Carta" MBI Music ]
  • [1992 Bad Habit "Bad Habit" CRP Records 2002]
  • [1993 Mike Rakintzis feat. Ian Gillan "Getaway" EMI Records]
  • [1999 Nightfall "Diva Futura" Holy Records]
  • [1999 Nightfall "Electronegative" single - Holy Records]
  • [2000 Kingdom Come "Too" Eagle/Spitfire Records]
  • [2000 Metalium "State of triumph Chapter II" Massacre Records]
  • [2000 Metalium feat. Helloween tribute "Ride the sky" Arise Records]
  • [2000 Metalium feat. Abba tribute "Thank you for the music" Nuclear Blast Records]
  • [2000 Metalium feat. Scorpions tribute "Another piece of meat" Nuclear Blast Records]
  • [2001 Metalium "Metalium Attack Vol I" DVD - Locomotive Records]
  • [2001 Metalium "Metalium Live Attack Vol I" Locomotive Records]
  • [2002 feat. Metalium "Hero Nation" Bonus live CD ]
  • [2003 feat. Helloween "Rabbit don´t come easy" Nuclear Blast]
  • [2005 At Vance "Chained" AFM Records]
  • [2005 Winters bane "Redivivus" ]
  • [2006 Firewind "Allegiance" Century Media Records]
  • [2006 Firewind "Breaking the silence" single - Century Media Records]
  • [2006 Firewind "Falling to pieces" single - Century Media Records]
  • [2006 Saracen "Vox in Excelso" Escape Records]
  • [2007 feat. Battleroar "Age of Chaos"]
  • [2008 Firewind feat, Nevermore tribute " " Century Media Records]
  • [2008 Firewind "Mercenary Man" single - Century Media Records]
  • [2008 Firewind "Premonition" Century Media Records]
  • [2009 Firewind "Live Premonition" Century Media Records]
  • [2009 Firewind "live Premonition" DVD - Century Media Records]
  • [2009 Outloud "We´ll rock you to hell ...." Frontiers Music]
  • [2011 Outloud "Love catastrophe" AOR Heaven]
  • [2011 Firewind "World on Fire" single - Century Media Records]
  • [2011 Firewind "Days of defiance" Century Media Records]
  • [2012 Outloud "More Catastrophe" single - AOR Heaven]
  • [2013 Tainted Nation "F.E.A.R." Massacre records]
  • [2013 feat. George Gakis "Too much ain´t never enough"] Perris Records
  • [2014 God´s Army AD "God´s Army" Massacre Records]
  • [2015 feat. George Gakis "Too much ain´t never enough"] Rock of Angels Records (re issued)]
  • [2016 Tainted Nation "On The Outside" Pride & Joy Records (Edel)]

Bands to have featured Mark Cross

References

  1. ↑ Helloween
  2. ↑ Metalium
  3. ↑ Ian Gillan
  4. ↑ Kingdom Come
  5. ↑ Firewind
  6. ↑ Marco Mendoza
  7. ↑ Tank
  8. ↑ Tainted Nation
  9. ↑ Mark Cross' official Linkedin page
  10. ↑ Pete Newdeck

External links

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