Mark Free

One day in April of 1987 Judithe Randall called Mark Free on the phone to ask him if he was available to sing some song demos for her and her daughter Robin. She explained that his ex manager of King Kobra, Alan Miller had passed along his phone number to her. Mark left King Kobra in November of 1986 and was now working as a courier driver in Los Angles in between bands and eagerly welcomed the studio work being offered. As a result of this meeting Mark, Judithe, and Robin became life long friends and colleagues in the creation of the musical composition now known as the Mark Free Long Way From Love album. It was recorded one song at a time during 1987 through 1991 in various recording studios varying in quality of sound, and levels of experienced producers/recording engineers. As time passed and the catalogue of songs grew, so did Mark’s reputation as more and more song writers and producers in Los Angeles and around the world started hearing the demos Mark was singing on. Eventually the ground swell of support and overwhelming demand for these demos became an obvious money making venture for the shrewd and eager Mark Ashton (owner of the now defunct Now And Then Records) who propositioned Mark one day during a telephone interview. The deal was struck and in May of 1993 the first solo album from Mark Free was released in England. Soon after sub deals were being agreed upon throughout Europe and Japan to make the album more widely available and the legend grew and grew. Comparing this release to the many other artists releases for the time, at first had many critics up in arms over the obvious lack in production quality. But the pure innocence and ingenious melodic superiority of the songs coupled with the emotionally desperate and angelic quality of Mark’s voice was a marriage made in heaven. One which no one could deny.