Mark Williams was born in Leongatha, in South Gippland, Victoria and it was here that he first became aware of music, listening to the radio. At the age of 12 he discovered his elder brothers record collection and immersed himself in the music of T-Rex, Tangerine Dream, The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, Jefferson Starship and Bad Company before starting to collect his own albums one by one. This collection grew with music from artists such as Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Daddy Cool, Slade and compilations from local, American and British artists. As he listened he began to teach himself to play guitar on an acoustic picking out notes from the melodies he was listening to. At 14 this guitar was replaced with a SG copy and with some careful modification by a school friend his mono record player was converted into a 10 watt guitar amp. This led to the discovery of open tunings and the world of jamming with friends.

At 15 he experienced two life changing events, the first was attending his first live concert. Held in the local show grounds three acts played, Buster Brown (later to be known as Rose Tattoo), ACDC (featuring Bon Scott) and headlining were Australian cult ledgends Skyhooks. A poster Mark still has today advertised a '600 watt' sound system, at that time the sound was nothing like anything he'd heard before and left an incredible impression of power and energy. Later that year after lengthy parental negotiations he was allowed to go to the 1975 Sunbury Festival with his elder brother. This three day event ignited his passion for music to a level that he still has today. Three days of rain left him covered in mud but ecstatic that he was able to see and hear major Australian artists and headline act Deep Purple, getting a close up view of the musicians he'd spent so long listening to in his bedroom. In 1975 Mark moved to Queensland with his family where he continued learning the basics of music by playing in school bands, and later joining local covers bands.

Mark's first job as a professional bassist was with a cabaret band playing a 6 night per week residency at Ceasers Palace night club in Towoomba, Queensland. Entertainers such as Qld radio and TV personality Jamie Dunn were amoungst the regular artists appearing that Mark backed. Continuing to develope his skills, Mark also worked part time during the day writing jingles for a Brisbane advertising agency and at night played in nightclub cabaret bands backing a variety of local vocal artists, comedians and strippers.

In 1980 Mark joined curcuit covers band 'Applejack', which won best new act in the Queensland rock awards and toured Queensland extensively. After 2 years and several line-up changes the band adopted a new direction becoming a 3 piece original act, changing it's name to Riff-X and relocating to the Northern Rivers area of NSW. Riff-X built a strong regional following headling in major local venues and supporting many major Australian artists.

In 1984 Mark played bass for the reformation tour of 'Blackfeather' (featuring original vocalist Neil Johns) before heading to Melbourne with a collection of newly recorded songs to further his original music ambitions. There he joined the bands 'The Ones' and later 'Liquid Engineers' who were signed to EMI/Castle Music. Liquid Engineers released the single 'Help Me' and toured the major capital cities and regional country areas of Australia. While the time spent based from Melbourne was musically rewarding, financially it was challenging and the descision was made to return to Queensland to work joining one of Queenslands most popular cover bands, 'Le Rox' and later ACDC tribute 'High Voltage'. He also had the opportunity to release one of his songs 'Never Say Die' as a solo performer on the S.C.O.A.P. Records album project.

1990 saw the beginning of Mark's work in corporate sponsored bands touring as a keyboard / guitar player for the Phillip Morris projects 'Best Of The USA' and '30 Years Of Oz Rock'. Between tours he taught at the Sunshine Coasts Musicians Institute and played bass for the original world music act 'The Experience', which featured percussion master Keith Casey formerly of 'Santana' & 'Osibissa'. This was followed by tours for 'The Big Picture' and work with Mark's own original project 'Face The Sun'.

In the period of 1992-1993 Mark was invited to play for two corporate sponsored acts, the Castlemaine Perkins Breweries sponsored promotional band 'The Xotix' and the Phillip Morris sponsored band 'Longbeach Summer Rock' playing on back to back tours. The XotiX promotion featured a custom built 40 foot moblie stage that took the form of a huge ghetto blaster and along with the musicians, featured in the breweries national cinema advertising campain. On both projects Mark filled the role of bassist and midi programmer.

The mid 90's saw Mark make a shift to working internationally when he was contracted to play at the Portmans Shangri-la Hotel in Shanghai, China. This was a 7 month, 6 night per week residency on guitar, keyboards and voacals in the act 'Fly By Night'. This gig was a turning point for Mark as it opened the door to exploring and gaining an insight into other countries and cultures. On his return to Australia in 1995 Mark played for several local projects including 'Alchemy'.

In 1998 Mark joined the Rob Tognoni Band and played bass on his Australian shows and European tour. The European tour was comprised of club and Festival dates in Germany, Belguim, Denmark and the Netherlands which included the Leverkusener Jazz and Blues festival. This show was broadcast live nationally on German television. During this tour the Rob Tognoni Band also recorded the album 'Live at the Twilight' in Belguim, which was later mixed and mastered at Mark's studio. On his return to Australian Mark engineered several local albums and mastered the album 'I Put A Spell On You' for the Big Easy (which won best blues / jazz composition in the Australian Songwriters Association awards). The decade ended with a hectic schedule which included the 1999 European tour for the Rob Tognoni Band, freelancing and performing live with several local acts and work as an audio engineer and session bass player.

The new millenium saw continued growth in Mark's recording ventures. After relocating to bigger premises he engineered six back to back albums projects for the year 2000 in addition to live shows with the Rob Tognoni Band, Alchemy, the Groove Merchants and Dexter Moore before finishing the year palying bass on the RTB album 'Revenge Of The Monkey Grinder'.

2001 saw Mark complete a six track EP for his new project 'Soul Temptation' before heading to Europe once more to tour for the Rob Tognoni Band in support of the new album on Provogue/Mascott Records. This tour was the first in the new 3 piece format but also featured guest appearances from U.S guitarist 'Lance Keltner', and England based Australian guitarist Glynne Ashton, and healined at the Roth Blues Festival in Germany. On completion of this tour Mark then went to Japan and performed with Soul Temptation at the Hilton Hotel in Tokyo, completing a 6 month residency where he worked as a guitarist, bass and keyboard player.

In recent years Mark has continued this mode of work incorporating international shows with local projects, corporate gigs, festivals and recording sessions. Recent work has included corporate shows in Hong Kong and Australia for multinational companies, festivals for country artists such as James Blundell, Travis Collins and Luella & the Heelers plus constant work for several local Queensland artists. In recent years Mark has been further developing his song composition, arrangement and programming skills and works from his project recording studio and also works in partnership with other songwriters and producers.

Major Local Acts Supported:

INXS . Midnight Oil . Men At Work . Rick Price . The Church . Split Enz . Hunters & Collectors . The Eurogliders . Mondo Rock . Richard Clapton . Mental As Anything . Spy Vs Spy . The Radiators . Matt Finish . Australian Crawl . Mi-Sex . The Sherbs . Sherbert . The Chior Boys. Uncanny X-Men . Little Heroes . Moving Pictures . Real Life . Psudeo Echo . The Venetians . Redgum . Machinations . The Bushwackers . The Reels . Dragon . Sharon O'Niel . Alnighters . Kevin Borich . Phil Emanuel . Dear Enemy . The Cockroaches . Kids In The Kitchen . The Party Boys . The Party Girls . The Riptides . Screaming Tribesmen . Boom Crash Opera . James Reyne . Phil Manning . The Angels . Hoodoo Gurus . Renee Gayer . Wendy & The Rockets . Austen Tayshus . Elliot Goblett . The Ten Tenors . Grace Knight . Molly Meldrum . Ross Wilson

International Acts Supported:

Toni Childs (US)
Sonia DaDa (US).
Wang Chung (UK) .
Peter Green & The Splinter Group (UK).
Brian Auger & The New Oblivion Express (US) .
Julian Saas Band (NL).