About Me
Mark Haydn Griffiths was born and educated in Northampton, England. At school , his only real interests were sports and music. Mark's love of the guitar started, when he heard recordings by Hank Williams , The Everly Brothers and Rick Nelson (with James Burton ). His father encouraged him and bought him his first guitar (a sunburst Framus acoustic) and it soon replaced sport as the most important thing in his life. He left school at fifteen after being offered a job teaching guitar to young students at the Northampton Guitar Studios. listening to many different guitarists, such as Lonnie Mack, Hank Garland, B.B.King, Chet Atkins, Johnny Smith and Hank Marvin , Mark's musical tastes and influences grew ever wider. Most evenings and week ends were taken up playing with different local groups, until the offer came to join ' Harsh Reality ' a group singned to Phillips records. They made one album ( Heaven & Hell ' ) that dissapeared without trace. The producer of that album ( ' Fritz Fryer ' ) recommended Mark on to other
artists and through those connections he was asked to join ' Matthew's Southern Comfort ' . Their MCA recording of Joni Mitchell’s “ Woodstock “ became a world-wide hit reaching number one in the U.K..
On his first ever U.S.tour, he heard the groundbreaking album ‘ What’s Going On ‘ by Marvin Gaye. The bass parts by the late, great James Jamerson, inspired him to take up the bass . His move to bass, almost eclipsed his guitar playing for the majority of his carrer. He has now rediscovered his interest in the guitar and now splits his playing time between the two .
Since those days, some of the artists Mark has recorded and toured the world with include ....
Al Stewart, The Everly Brothers, Sonny Curtis, Duane Eddy, Mark Knopfler, Zoot Money, David Essex, Sherman Robertson, Tom Hall, Steve Gibbons, Sammy Rimmington, Bonnie Tyler, Mike Berry, Billy Connolly, Deniece Williams, Jeff Lynne, Neil Innes, The Rutles, Debbie Davis, Johnny Boston, John Verity, The Ginger Pigs, Dobie Gray, Willy Russell , Gallagher & Lyle , Nina Hagen , Dennis Loccoriere, Iain Matthews , Peter Frampton, Plainsong and Cliff Richard. Mark has been The Shadows and guitar legend Hank Marvin ‘s regular bassist , for the past fifteen years.
Thanks to: Fender Europe, Peavey UK , Hardcase Cases, AER Germany, Line 6 UK, Genz Benz & Dean Markley Strings.
Special thanks to: Seymour Duncan Pickups for their continued support .
