Mark Cross (musician)

This article is about the musician. For the novelist, see Archibald Thomas Pechey. For the Sussex village, see Mark Cross, East Sussex.
Mark Cross
Background information
Born (1965-08-02) 2 August 1965
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.

At an early age Cross started playing Piano and Guitar, but soon found his main path in drums when he was nine. With hard work, he made it from small stages to the big ones. He loved Jazz and Rock, although his parents tried to guide him to classical music. But in fact 2860s Jazz and 1970s Rock mostly drew his attention and Billy Cobham, Ian Paice and Jon Bonham became his primary idols, who left a great mark in his playing.

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 released their first video "Loser", the remake of the song "Bimbo", 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, Cross 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 Mark recorded the drums for Greek rock singer George Gakis on the album Too Much Ain't Never Enough via Perris Records, also featuring Bobby Rondinelli and James Kottak on two songs. 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.

Cross became a father to his son Anthony, born 4 July 2012 in Rochester, Medway.

In 2013 Tainted Nation toured the UK and Spain and throughout the year Mark mainly played London clubs alongside Davey Rimmer (Uriah Heep) and singer Luka Twich Ravase, Gus McRicostas, Matt Pierce and George Stergiou of Metalworks.

On October 19, 2013, Cross fit in for US act Hardline's sold out headline show at Firefest in Nottingham.

On April 5, 2014, Cross received an early morning call and found himself playing with the 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 2014, Cross released the debut with NWOBHM act God's Army, who had started the band in 2006, but due to a severe car accident of frontman and bassist John ABC Smith and Cross' commitments with Firewind, a delayed release didn´t happen until 2014. The band started playing shows again and entered the studio in 2016 to record the second album in Hamburg, Germany.

In March 2015 Tainted Nation entered the studio and Cross recorded the drums in Sweden at their bass player´s Pontus Egberg´s Studio in Stockholm. He also recorded the drums 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. Nic Angilieri was given the position of bass player instead. He also participated on the masterpiece "Vivaldi Metal Project", released by Pride & Joy Music in 2016.

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

Since February 2016, Cross has played a few shows with Frank Blackfire, ex-guitarist of German thrash metal bands Sodom and Kreator in Germany and in Japan. He also played a few shows with Suisse Doom Metal band Exorcism in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Discography

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
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