VI.BE

www.marksomers.bandcamp.com

Mark Somers, guitarist/composer/singer.

Born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1964.

Grew up on a diet of jazz (Montgomery, Erroll Garner and the like) and crooners/jazz singers (Sinatra, Ella) from my father’s record collection.

Started playing guitar at the age of 15.

Moved through blues, rock, funk, pop, folk and more.

Played in numerous Belgian bands, like Street Legal and The Crawling Kingsnakes, and then settled into playing mainly with English musicians and gigging in England and Belgium, having also lived in Leeds for a couple of years.

Currently working on a solo, mostly acoustic project, also working live the Mark Somers Trio and with cover band Yune.

Previous bands include Short Cut To Trouble with Mhic McGlashan (www.myspace.com/shortcuttotrouble) and British avant garde / blues cult legend Billy Jenkins (www.billyjenkins.com). A concert video of Mark with Billy Jenkins & The Belgian Blues Collective can be found on Youtube.

Started to record at home and in the studio around 2004 and playing bass, sax and drums for home use.

Joined THIS MACHINE & ME in 2006, this time on bass. (www.myspace.com/thismachineandme).

Worked with UK/US folk associates such as Phil Hare, Kate Lissauer, Kelly Rucker, Kate McDonnell, Dave Bowie, and so on.

Mark plays an Oakwood acoustic (www.oakwoodinstruments.co.uk), and a Maybach Capitol.

Amp : Fender Vibrolux

Further acoustic guitars are a Yamaha LL16, an old Yamaha FG331, and an even older FG75 .

1982 – 1986 Desert – bluespunkrock

1986 - 1992 Street Legal – blues & soul, standards and original material,

many gigs in Belgian blues circuit, especially BXL in Blues Corner, Flannagan’s, Grain d’Orge and so on.

Nada Mas – same as Street Legal but with different people

1994 - 2004 Short Cut To Trouble – original material co-written with Mhic McGlashan, tours in Belgium and the UK. Two self-released cd’s – Rottenond and It’s Better To Look Good Than Look Where You’re Going.

2004 - 2006 3 Belgian tours with Billy Jenkins & The BBC , including Cesar Janssens, Bert Embrechts, Thad Kelly, Sam Vloemans and Pieter Van Bogaert.

2006 - 2007 On bass with This Machine & Me – original material by Chris

Brennan, with Olaf Janssens, Robert Van De Laer en Luc Van Haver.

2007 On guitar with Theo Van Hemelrijk (ex-Toy) in a Fogerty tribute band.

2008 On bass with Country-rock band Cousin Pete.

2009 - present. On acoustic guitar with coverband Yune – regular gigs in Belgium and Holland.

2012 - present. Working with Phil Hare, British finger-style hero, UK gigs coming up.

2013 – Release of single 'Online', one of my songs recorded at La Buanderie by Yune, including a video clip on Youtube

2015 - Release of my first solo album 'Sweet Turmoil'.Mark Somers Trio gigs in UK (with Dave Bowie on double bass and Richard Bostock on saxophone/clarinet)

- Solo gigs in Belgium

- Releasing another solo album, featuring an overview of what I’ve been doing over the last 15 years as a solo artist. This includes acoustic songs with vocals, as well as more experimental and electric material.

2016 - Live playing solo, mixing many different songs into the original material mix, from blues to Johnny Cash, from Little Feat to Dylan, from Van Morrison to Frank Sinatra.

- Writing material for a new album, based on the poems of Langston Hughes.

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2017 Solo gigs in Dranouter and other places. Worked with Steve Tilston and Phil Hare.

2018 Working on new solo album, largely based on poems by the great Langston Hughes. Working title

Restless Poetry, release planned March 2019.

2019 'Restless Poetry', recorded in the UK and Belgian, released. With the co-operation of many great musicians, and to great critical acclaim.

2020 UK autumn-tour was planned in, but due to COVID-19, it is now uncertain whether it will actually go through.

“A great combination of thoughtful technique and wild creativity” – David Bowie

“It seems like you’ve invented a whole new genre. Great songwriting.” – Phil Hare