Mark Wirtz
Mark P. Wirtz ( born September 3, 1943 in Strasbourg, Alsace ) is a living in the United States record producer, composer, arranger, musician, entertainer, stand-up comedian, author and painter. As a producer, composer and arranger Wirtz has worked with numerous artists, including Kippington Lodge, Marlene Dietrich, Wanda Jackson, Kim Fowley, Caroline Munro, Nicky Hopkins, Thomas Fritsch, Samantha Jones, Kris Ife, grapefruit, Richard Barnes and many more. As a musician Mark Wirtz published under its own name and under different pseudonyms, such as Mark Rogers, The Sweet Shop ( with his then-wife Ross Hannaman ) Philwit & Pegasus ( with Mary Feltham ), The Mood Mosaic and others. As an author, Wirtz wrote columns for magazines and published several novels.
Life and work
In the early 1960s Mark Wirtz studied art and drama in London. His band "The Beat Crackers " in 1963 got a record deal and recorded as " Mark Rogers and the Marksmen ".
1965 Wirtz began to work as a producer. Among his early publications, inter alia, include the album Latin a Go-Go (Mark Wirtz Chorus and Orchestra, 1965) and the singles A Touch of Velvet - A Sting of Brass ( The Mood Mosaic featuring The Lady Birds, 1966, later the theme song the beat club and the music store ), My White Bicycle (Tomorrow, 1967) and Excerpt from "A Teenage Opera " (also known as Grocer Jack, Keith West and the Mark Wirtz Orchestra, 1967). The latter was part of a planned rock opera that was never completed ( published in 1998 a compilation of various songs as a Teenage Opera, of which only four were originally intended for the work: Gocer Jack, Sam, Weatherman and Theme).
In 1970 Wirtz Europe to work as a music producer in Hollywood. Among the artists with whom he collaborated in the 1970s, include, among many others Helen Reddy, Leon Russell, Vicky Leandros, Kim Carnes and Dean Martin.
1979 Wirtz withdrew from the music business in order to take care of his daughter's education. In addition to the different jobs he took during this time acting classes and started performing as a stand- up comedian.
In 1996, Wirtz to Savannah, Georgia. He wrote columns for magazines, exhibited his paintings and published in 2002 under the pseudonym Michael Sinclair his first novel Sisyphus Rocks. Followed in 2003 under his own name the novel Love is eggshaped to the 2005, a soundtrack was released (Mark Wirtz Ear Theatre ).
As a producer, Wirtz in 2003, produced at the request of his daughter, who was living now in Spain, the first CD of the band Les Philippe, Philantropic Philanthropy. After this re-entry into the music business Wirtz produced more recordings, including their own and Lost Pets 2 ( 2011).