Mark 2

Mark 2 original lineup: Helen, Steve, Smudger and Paul
Following the demise of Sonrise, I worked solo for a while, developing my songwriting. In 1978-9, I renewed contact with my cousin, Paul Raper, who told me he was learning to play guitar. Not long after this encounter, I went over to his house and took my own guitar with me, and we  jammed. He liked some of my compositions and asked me if I would like to play at an event at his church (the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family). I agreed and played a short set at the event which went down well. Afterwards we talked about forming a new band, and soon, Paul and I were practicing and gigging together.

It wasn't long after this we realised we needed more members to create a band. I had thought of naming the band Sonrise Mk2, but eventually the name Mark 2 stuck, and we began to actively seek new members. Soon, we discovered a keyboardist and vocalist by the name of Helen Walrond, who was also at Marjons (where I worked). She agreed to join the band, we rehearsed, and soon we were playing together as a trio. Playing at Dartmoor prison was a particular challenge for Helen, as many of the inmates hadn't seen a woman for a long time!

Our turning point came in July 1979. We played a couple of concerts as the support band for Ishmael United (soon to become Rev Counta) and as a result we radically changed the direction of our music. Ishmael and his band played loud, fast and furious music that could only be described as post-punk, or new wave. It was the high energy kind of music that I immediately identified with, and soon we were seeking a drummer to join the band. We found Steve 'Smudger' Smith at St Andrew's church, and once he had also joined, the line-up was complete. We were now four young musicians representing four different churches in Plymouth, and I began to write new songs that reflected the new lineup and our new sound. The four instruments (me on lead guitar, Paul on bass, Helen on keyboards and Smudger on drums, all of us on vocals, created a completely new sound, and with the addition of a road crew and a beefed up sound system, we were soon beginning to make an impact on the local music scene.

Mark 2 playing the Abbey Hall, Plymouth, c 1980. Photo: Stephen Copp
















In this first iteration, Mark 2 began to receive invitations to play at events all over the South West of England, and then farther afield such as Oxford, Hereford, Chippenham and Lincoln, where we played the Fresh Ground festival. Soon we were planning our first vinyl release. In early 1981 we arrived at Soundtree studios, in Biggin Hill to record an uptempo title track called Stranger, and also a B side ballad called Canticle. They were fairly raw recordings with sparse production, and all the work was completed in a single day. The recording was released as a vinyl single on my own label which I established and financed. Tongue in cheek, I named it Broken Records. You can listen to Canticle by clicking the red/white arrow link below.



Next time: Mark 2 in transition

Previous posts in this series:

My first gig
Onwards and upwards
Dartmoor prison blues

Creative Commons License
Mark 2 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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