Former Kiss guitarist Mark St. John has died
fanch75
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From http://www.sleazeroxx.com/news07/0405kis.shtml
FORMER KISS GUITARIST MARK ST. JOHN DIES AT 51:
April 5, 2007
Former KISS guitarist MARK ST JOHN passed away this morning of a brain hemorrhage. He was 51. Mark replaced KISS guitarist VINNIE VINCENT in 1984, only to shortly thereafter develop Reiters Syndrome, a form or arthritis, which left his hand too swollen at times to play guitar. Mark played on all but one of the tracks of the 1984 Animalize album. On the subsequent tour his condition had deteriorated and was only able to play 1 full and 3 partial shows. BRUCE KULICK was called in as a temporary guitarist to play the remainder of the partial sets as well as the rest of the tour. Mark's condition was not improving and sadly had to soon step down to have Kulick take his place permanently on December 8,1985.
His musical career not over, Mark later formed the band White Tiger in 1986 and then interestingly enough teamed up with former KISS drummer PETER CRISS to record a demo in 1990. A self-produced CD entitled the MARK ST JOHN Project was released in 1999.
Born Mark Norton in Anaheim California on January 7, 1956. He is survived by a younger brother and sister.
Mark truly was an incredible guitarist with amazing talent. Check out this video of him playing an acoustic guitar solo backstage at a Torpedo Girls gig. He will be greatly missed by his fans and is a great loss to the music world in general.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL-mVI7Je4E
Courtesy of kissasylum.com
FORMER KISS GUITARIST MARK ST. JOHN DIES AT 51:
April 5, 2007
Former KISS guitarist MARK ST JOHN passed away this morning of a brain hemorrhage. He was 51. Mark replaced KISS guitarist VINNIE VINCENT in 1984, only to shortly thereafter develop Reiters Syndrome, a form or arthritis, which left his hand too swollen at times to play guitar. Mark played on all but one of the tracks of the 1984 Animalize album. On the subsequent tour his condition had deteriorated and was only able to play 1 full and 3 partial shows. BRUCE KULICK was called in as a temporary guitarist to play the remainder of the partial sets as well as the rest of the tour. Mark's condition was not improving and sadly had to soon step down to have Kulick take his place permanently on December 8,1985.
His musical career not over, Mark later formed the band White Tiger in 1986 and then interestingly enough teamed up with former KISS drummer PETER CRISS to record a demo in 1990. A self-produced CD entitled the MARK ST JOHN Project was released in 1999.
Born Mark Norton in Anaheim California on January 7, 1956. He is survived by a younger brother and sister.
Mark truly was an incredible guitarist with amazing talent. Check out this video of him playing an acoustic guitar solo backstage at a Torpedo Girls gig. He will be greatly missed by his fans and is a great loss to the music world in general.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL-mVI7Je4E
Courtesy of kissasylum.com
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Sorry to hear about his passing.
Thanks for the heads-up Fanch.
PBM
Wishlist Foundation: http://wishlistfoundation.org
Mark St. John was born Mark Norton, in Hollywood, California, on February 7, 1956 and serves with noteriety as KISS' shortest lived guitarist. During a hectic and disruptive period of two years KISS would change from Ace Frehley to Vinnie Vincent to Mark St. John and then finally to Bruce Kulick, on guitar, with St. John lasting less than eight months. His parents moved to Garden Grove, CA in the early 1960's where Mark was initially more interested in sports than music. In an interview with KISS Strike, Mark recalled, "I played all sports, in fact I played sports before I got into music. Especially basketball, I mean I tried all sports but basketball is what I excelled in. And when I got into High School we started playing CIF with other teams from L.A. and they were all black and I felt that I wasn't a very good basketball player. I mean they just slip and slide all over you, they jump higher and they run faster and you felt belittled after the first five minutes and I gave it up after that" (KISS Strike 46). Growing up in Southern California Mark didn't start playing guitar until he was a sophomore in highschool in 1972 when he also started to grow his hair longer, undoubtedly part of that age-group's rebellion from their parents and society. Initially guitar playing started as a hobby but within a year Mark had become quite serious about it. The techniques and the styles. As to why he started plaing guitar, Mark recalled, "I guess because the guitar was the new thing happening - it was the sound. I'm from a generation that went through a whole different thing in music, like a culture-type thing. It was the voice of the people. It was a source of rebellion and the guitar was one of the biggest things. I remember watching television and seeing the Beatles and the Rolling Stones on the Ed Sullivan show. They didn't have tubas, they had guitars and everyone was going crazy and that put a spark in my mind... The guitar is rock 'n roll. That's what it's all about. From the 50's on, the emphasis was on the guitar sound. Everyone was trying to make the guitar sound like other instruments, but it's not so easy to make other instruments sound like the guitar. The guitar is what's happening" (KISS Force via Otaku). Mark has a brother, Michael (born 1964), who plays bass. The two would be in bands together following Mark's tenure in KISS. They also have one sister (born 1960).
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