12 posts tagged “mark wirtz”
Flowers, Music, Art and Rock Stars
(or how I met ‘My Guys’)
My name is Rosemarie, I am 45 years old and live in Barnsley, South Yorkshire UK
I am just an ordinary person who has a rather exciting hobby , I design web sites for singers and comedians.
I also paint with wax (encaustic art) and run 3 card making groups on yahoo with thousands of members from all around the world.
I have a tea-bag folding website , and was looking for photographs of flowers to use in the designs for my site when I came across Ed Rambeau who had posted a few albums on webshots full of flowers.
I contacted him and asked if I could use his photographs and right from that initial contact Ed was lovely, polite and very helpful.
Whilst looking around his webshots albums I noticed some CD covers and asked him about them he told me that he was a singer and sang on cruise ships , he had also been in the USA Charts in 1965 with Concrete & Clay and had written songs for a number of artists.
I purchased ‘The Best of The Past’ from him and he sent me ‘The Season of The Heart’ as a present because it was coming up for Christmas.
When these CD’s arrived I was so taken aback by his singing that I asked him if he wanted a website, I am not sure why I did, because I had never written a proper web site before.
That was in November 2002 , the website was designed in a matter of days and on 5th December 2002 the website was launched, I have worked with Ed for just over 5 years and plan to take a trip to New York soon to meet him.
My work dose not stop with just the website , I then found and contacted tons of artists regarding web links for Ed, one of the people I contacted was Diane Reny who had a big hit with a song that Ed had co-written called ‘Navy Blue’ and I managed to put them back in touch with each other after 40 years.
I also joined a lot of sixties music groups and signed thousands of guestbooks and wanted to tell the whole world about Ed Rambeau.
I have met some very wonderful internet friends over the years by belonging to these internet groups like ‘Spectropop’.
Whilst reading through messages on Spectropop in 2003 I read a post by a man called ‘Mark Wirtz’ , I had no idea who he was but I liked his style, so I went to look at his web site and sent him an e-mail, Mark liked my painting and we soon because friends , I sent him a Christmas Card which I had painted and he let me download his unfinished CD ‘Love is Eggshaped’ , but we lost touch.
In September 2006 Ed and I joined mySpace to try to further promote his music, I was looking around myspace and found Mark again , After a few conversations with Mark he asked me if I would help him run his mySpace page and his website , I was delighted to be asked.
Adam B Wild a youngster from the USA found my mySpace page and asked if I would be his UK agent , of course I was not qualified for that so I just did a web site for him instead.
I started a fan club for Mark on Yahoo and it was going really well but Mark wanted it shut down , but I did get the chance to get to know some of Mark’s friends rather well , a DJ and Singer from Spain called John Curtis who had got to know Mark when he did an interview about ‘The Teenage Opera’ , so yes I did a web site for John, and Father and Son Tony & Anthony Rivers who had sung on Mark’s latest CD’s, Tony was in the Castaways and Harmony Grass and was a backing singer for Sir Cliff Richard for many years , after trying for a long time to get Tony to add Mark’s site to his links and helping Tony, Anthony and John Perry (a friend of Tony’s who also sang with Cliff) with their mySpace pages , I took over Tony’s and Anthony’s web sites…. my work expanded.
On mySpace I sort of adopted David Stopp, a singer songwriter from London who had posted a message to Mark about a song he had written called ‘Whatever Happened to The Beach Boys’ David Cooke (Snail) & Bylli Crayone, well they posted so many bulletins on myspace that I checked them out and loved their music.
Bylli is a very nice man - into sexual dance music and Snail is a wonderful artist who has a beautiful singing voice.
Groovy Uncle (who is Glenn Pragnell from the Kraven A’s) and Paul Germana approached me and asked if I would do their sites and I love their voices they are both so very talented.
Recently I have been putting together slideshow/videos for ‘My Guys’ on youtube and as a result Kris Ife who co-wrote a lot of songs with Mark and recorded under the name of Judd got in touch with me , I went down to meet Kris who is a lovely man, and I now do his web site as well.
The latest is a friend of Mark’s another comedian called Chris Gay , but I have only just started on his web site.
I love them all to bits and conside myself very lucky to be associated with them all.
Rosemarie Edwards
Join me on Yuwie
(Great Social Network Site that Pays)
http://r.yuwie.com/zrosemarie
Mark Wirtz has just posted 6 More Popscurities to him mySpace Music page
http://www.myspace.com/dreamtunesmusic
Message from Mark:
I had actually intended to leave the Popscurities trail and return to more recent stuff. However, I had so much mail and positive response to my obscure "oldies," that I decided to post just one more serving for a few days.
Heading the list is "The Singer Sings His Song," which was one of the last songs Kris Ife and I wrote together before I left the UK. It's one of my favorites; only politics kept it from making it into the studio for my "Balloon" LP.
"Geraldine" was the B-side of Zion De Gallier's "Dream, Dream, Dream" single, which, despite the cheap and one-take B-side production, also remains one of my favorites.
"Cradle Me" is fabulous Laura Craemer's original demo rendition of the version that I ultimately recorded myself and included in the "Love Is Eggshaped" CD. I far prefer Laura's simple version to my over-orchestrated one.
"Bye Bye Sadie" is my original home demo of the unreleased "Lost Pets" album track, which did appear on "The Hollywood Years" CD.
"When The Right Hand Don't know" was a home demo of my attempt to write a country song, LOL.
"Judy '04" is a very ruff home demo of a song that I wrote for "Hothouse Smiles," alas, it never made it to the studio because it ultimately didn't fit into the album's concept.
That's it for today, friends. Enough nostalgia; time to move on again...
Thanks for all your messages, mails and appreciation.
Keep it rolling!
"Mr. Romantick" - Mad Mark :)
Please Vote for "Mr. Romantick" - Mad Mark Wirtz ;)
Mark Wirtz has just posted 6 More Popscurities to him mySpace Music page
http://www.myspace.com/dreamtunesmusic
Message from Mark:
I had actually intended to leave the Popscurities trail and return to more recent stuff. However, I had so much mail and positive response to my obscure "oldies," that I decided to post just one more serving for a few days.
Heading the list is "The Singer Sings His Song," which was one of the last songs Kris Ife and I wrote together before I left the UK. It's one of my favorites; only politics kept it from making it into the studio for my "Balloon" LP.
"Geraldine" was the B-side of Zion De Gallier's "Dream, Dream, Dream" single, which, despite the cheap and one-take B-side production, also remains one of my favorites.
"Cradle Me" is fabulous Laura Craemer's original demo rendition of the version that I ultimately recorded myself and included in the "Love Is Eggshaped" CD. I far prefer Laura's simple version to my over-orchestrated one.
"Bye Bye Sadie" is my original home demo of the unreleased "Lost Pets" album track, which did appear on "The Hollywood Years" CD.
"When The Right Hand Don't know" was a home demo of my attempt to write a country song, LOL.
"Judy '04" is a very ruff home demo of a song that I wrote for "Hothouse Smiles," alas, it never made it to the studio because it ultimately didn't fit into the album's concept.
That's it for today, friends. Enough nostalgia; time to move on again...
Thanks for all your messages, mails and appreciation.
Keep it rolling!
"Mr. Romantick" - Mad Mark :)
Please Vote for "Mr. Romantick" - Mad Mark Wirtz ;)
Mark has a new playlist up on his mySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/dreamtunesmusic
Message from Mark:
I'm having some fun today with the new list of obscurities - a veritable "Gloat and Shame" parade ;)
Track one is just a fun little ditty that stands out because of Big Jim Sullivan's damn fine (written!) fiddle arrangement, revealing that he was, at heart, a British, good ol' boy Redneck! LOL. Gotta love that man!
The never released Metal Rock version of "Grocer Jack" is another version not produced by me, except for the kids sections -- I guess nobody could ever get the kids right, so they'd come to me, LOL.
"Let" is one of my original song demos for the half-completed yet aborted, never released, "Lost Pets" album. So sad, too bad, I liked that album.
Helen Reddy's "Catch My Breath," a cool Allan O'Day song, was originally produced by Kim Fowley and me for Helen's "Let's Sing In The Sunshine" album, but taken out by the executive producer in favor of another, inferior, track that he published. Hollywood.
"My Daddy Is A Baddie" is the worst record I ever made. No - the worst record ANYBODY ever made. Why did I make it?
Out of sheer desperation. It was 1969... my champions, the pirate radio stations (without whose support nobody would ever
have heard of me) had been sunk, and the BBC once again ruled as a dictatorial radio monopoly, refusing to play my stuff.
Trying to somehow fit into their niddle-diddle playlists, I no longer made records for the people, but for the BBC.
To no avail. So, as a last resort, facing unemployment as market/BBC poison, I produced the most contrived, unimaginative,
moronic, piece of crap record I could --- untypically even copying the arrangement from a proven hit record (Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da) -- AND sticking in a childrens chorus, since bratty kid voices had made me "(in)famous." Did the BBC play it? Nope. Bastards! LOLOL
It was around that time (1970) when composer/producer Les Reed sat me down and gave me a stern talking to, shaking me up and telling me to stop f... ing around and make my own kind of records again. Having just started his Chapter One label, he went one step further and said,"Produce an album for me. Do anything you want. You have carte blanche." And so, "Philwit & Pegasus" came into being. Alas, despite rave reviews, the BBC once again refused to play it. Worse, they actually banned the P&P single "The Elephant Song," claiming that it was a glorification of bestiality. Huh?? Bestiality?? In truth, it was a metaphor to promote racial integration! DUH!
I had had it and broken heartedly accepted producer Denny Cordell's invitation to leave England and join him and Leon Russell at their Shelter Records company in Hollywood.
Less than a month before my one-way flight to the U.S., Les Reed asked me to produce one final album for him with his new artist Roger James. I did. As a sarcastic "farewell" gesture, I closed that album with the most pompously overblown, overproduced, Bubble Gum track ever put on vinyl... "Something Wonderful" (the final track on this music player list). Two days after the final mix of that track, I departed into exile in America... 35 years later, I'm still here, but good old England will forever be "back home" to me!!
Markie
P.S. Now, look here, amigos... I go down into the dungeon for you, battling cob webs, moth balls, ancient ghosts and weird smells to dig out these obscurities, so be a real friend and give back, would ya? How? By voting for me in the FameCast comedy contest, that's how. Here is the link:
http://www.famecast.com/contest/stage.php?stage_id=44&round_id=178&artist_id=7077
Thank you, my luvly duhlings! :) You're the best! Mmmmmmmwuh!
Love & Hugs
Rosemarie
http://www.markwirtz.com
Please login or register with www.famecast.com
and
click here to Vote for Mark Wirtz
Thank you (re-post this message on multiply,mySpace, Vox, Facebook etc etc)
About the new Music Player list:
http://www.myspace.com/dreamtunesmusic
Message from Mark
This time it's a Smorgasbord of just a few, totally unrelated, unreleased, Popscurities of mine...
Yep, one of them, an unreleased MySpace exclusive, I'M NOT LAZY, I'M JUST SAD, is an -- do I dare say it? -- an "excerpt" from TEMPO, the COMPLETE Teenage Opera, which I finally finished and recorded in 1997 and have had sitting on the shelf ever since -- not too lazy, but lacking incentive or motivation, to release. The other bits are unreleased song demos that are... well, they just are.I don't know how long I can keep it up to post these "oldies," but it'll be a while before my brand-new "Cooking For Cannibals" epic is ready for release. So, I guess I'll keep digging through my draws for stuff that was for most part ignored or overlooked at the time of inception - even by me.
By the way, if you have any requests, lemma know - I'll see what I can do.
Cheers,
Markie in Savannah, GA, where humor is considered bad manners.