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BIOGRAPHY
In 1995, when Mark was 11, his Dad bought him his first guitar. Mark played a gig in front of
200 school mates. After realising his talent, he entered the "Young Guitarist of the Year"
competition. After only five months of playing and aged only 12, Mark was hand picked from
4000 entrants aged between 12 and 18, to play in the final.
The panel of Judges, including Hank Marvin, were so impressed by his playing, that they voted
him the winner. Marvin said:
"He's the best young guitarist I've seen. In fact I'd like to chop
his fingers off."
In fact, it wasn't just Mark who had musical talent in the Bass family. Older brother Nathan,
had been played the drums since he was 12, and now aged 18, he is an accomplished musician
for his age. Younger brother Kieran, had been trying the piano, but needed little persuasion
to take up the Bass guitar and sing backing vocals.
Things took off for the trio on a trip to the Music show in Birmingham, in November 1997. The
show was cancelled and the family decided to visit "Musical Exchanges" instead.
In the shop, Mark picked up a guitar and began to play. The shop was brought to a standstill,
the owner contacted a colleague in the music industry, who in turn, contacted and introduced
the boys to '19 Productions' - The same company who launched the Spice Girls and other top ten
artists.
The boys, without even releasing a hit single were then signed up to the 'Smash Hits' tour in
in 1998. They were on tour with successful artists like Steps, 911 and Five. Here is some
extracts and quotes from the guys and other artists on the tour:
"We're so excited. We've never done anything like this before and we're going
to meet some brilliant people."
The Band
"911 love Next of Kin. "They're gonna be massive!" says Jimmy, who's spent practically
the whole Tour quizzing the brothers about their love lives. Poor boys!."
"On the way to Newcastle, Kieran from Next of Kin amuses himself by drawing caricatures
of everyone on the Tour Bus."
Smash Hits magazine, Dec 1998.
Their debut single, '24 hours from you", was released on february 8th, 1999. It reached
number 11, in the charts.
Their follow up single, 'More Love', is due to be released on June 7th, 1999, so lets hope
it does even better than '24 hours'.
An album is due to be launched in late autumn.
