Opitz started his career with ABC TV Sydney as part of the studio floor crew. Since then he has worked with many of the Australian recording artists that have graced the international pop charts for the last 20 years, including INXS, the Divinyls, Hoodoo Gurus etc. as well working with other international artists and companies.
Australia's pre-eminent production team of late 70’s, Vanda and Young (Albert Productions), offered Opitz, who was working for EMI Music as the label manager for Capitol Records and the EMI local artist label, a position as their apprentice record producer.. He immediately set to work with Alberts staple artists AC/DC (Powerage), John Paul Young (Love Is In The Air), Rose Tattoo etc. When Opitz was given the job of producing the Angels , a young hard rock band (Face To Face, No Exit albums), he finally stumbled upon gold in the form of a signature, thick guitar sound that ruled Australia's '80s/90s airwaves. Some of the other artists he produced in this phase were Cold Chisel (3 albums including “Eastâ€) as well as projects for Australian Crawl ( Reckless etc.), Hoodoo Gurus ( What’s My Scene etc.), Richard Clapton (2 albums),The Models (Out of Mind, Out of Sight, Barbados etc.), Noiseworks ( No Lies, Take Me Back etc.) The Reels and many more.
An executive switch saw Opitz move to Warner Music Australia as head of A&R. There he signed and produced the Divinyls ( Desperate & What a life albums) as well as produced INXS' album, 1982's Shaboo Shoobah. The 80’s saw Opitz win the Australian Grammy Award equivalent of Best Producer (2x Aria’s and 5 ABC TV Countdown Awards) 7 times.
In the '90s, Opitz was based primarily overseas working with a wide variety of artists. During that time he also produced several more INXS albums, including ‘Welcome to Wherever You Are’ and ‘Full Moon, Dirty Hearts’. He also produced the classic “Live Baby Live†for the band while accompanying them on their yearlong international tour, acting as their music production advisor. This climaxed with the legendary Wembley Stadium show that was released in DVD format in 2003.
Marks’ career has a high international profile; he has been included in USA’s Billboard Producer Encyclopedia publication, which covers all genres of music. Besides the multitude of Australian acts he has produced, too many to mention here, A personal highlight was working with Bob Dylan on his Academy Award TV Ceremony performance of “Things Have Changed†from the movie The Wonder Boys as well as the more recent US double platinum award winning KISS / Melbourne Symphony Orchestra DVD/CD Kiss Symphony/Alive 4. Other artists Opitz has worked with include Lenny Kravitz, Ray Charles, The Beach Boys and many other US, European and Asian artists.In the late 90’s Michael Gudinski (Mushroom Group) invited Opitz to join his executive team his task being to oversee his Australian artists music projects in readiness for the sale to News Limited. As well as production duties with the like of Paul Kelly, Hunters & Collectors and Deadstar, this period also saw Mark working in many facets of the business culminating in the production of the highly successful “Mushroom 25th Anniversary†concert, albums and DVD/TV/Radio specials etc.Over the last few years Mark has concentrated on Music DVD & TV production as well as record production with his company The Best Seat In The House working on projects such as the KISS Symphony TV special, DVD/CD on Sanctuary, the INXS DVD/TV special “I’m Only Looking†Greatest Hits on release through Warner Music in the USA and Universal Music for the rest of the world as well as Kiss Rock The Nation high definition US TV special/DVD released December 05.
Mark is currently working with Rose Tattoo on a new album for release
in 06/07.
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