Mark St John PASSES

 

The Magic Bullet Theory and the White Tiger CD I think can still be had if you search for them.

 

I posted this at Blabbermouth.net

 

My name is Brian Pate and I lived down the street from the Norton's on Easy Way in Garden Grove. Mark and I attended GG high school together and I remember when the guy started playing guitar. To the guy that called Mark an a-hole all I can say is you never met him. Mark did have a certain amount of cockiness to him but he wanted to be the best. It was important to him. The guy had hundreds of records which he referred to as his "books". We lived through a very exciting time in music and Mark had his ear tuned to all of it whether it was Rock, Jazz or Classical. He soaked in everything and what came out was pretty brilliant.
I think it was listening to Al Dimeola and John McLaughlin that Mark started to become a competent all around guitarist rather than just a rock guitarist. I remember Mark had a band called Jabberwocky circa 1974-7. They would have been labeled a progressive rock band by today's standards and with a few other prog bands in the OC area such as Gazelle, Aircastle and Handle played concerts. Mind you none of these guys had recording deals but were still able to sell 5000 tickets to a show at the old OC raceway in Irvine doing nothing but originals in 1975. I remember that concert very well because Mark took some lyrics of mine and put them to a song called "The Shepard" and that was the first time they performed it. But see that was Mark.

If anything Mark was a teacher and broker. He would sit down and teach you something because he wanted you to be able to play with him. If you were good enough you would be in his band. He taught me First Impression Part One of Karn Evil 9 by ELP which Mark had learned the entire organ parts of Keith Emerson and taught me both left and right hand parts on Piano. Check it out sometime you will be impressed. he had the most accurate ear of anyone I have met in my life.

He always had a vision of what he wanted something to sound like so yes he was a bit dictatorial in his bands and people with equal skills usually did not see eye to eye with him but that doesn't make him an asshole. There were many times just kicking back and talking with Mark and his brother Mike with other friends like Gordon Davis that his real side came through. He rented a studio (really just a big garage or shed ) in Cerritos California on some dairy land. I remember helping him one night "procure" some lumber to make a stage. He couldn't afford it for very long and another band, Gazelle, ended up with the place. There were many nights sitting in there drinking Lucky beer (the cheapest God awful stuff you can imagine because we could afford nothing else)
I remember another band he was in in the early 80's called Front Page and saw them several times at different clubs around OC. I still remember them playing Abacab by Genesis which the long instrumental part at the end was Marks spotlight and how incredible his playing had become. I remeber the guy next to me commetning "That is the best guistrist I have ever seen". 

I lost touch with Mark after he joined Kiss although I did see one White Tiger show in Hollywood about 1987-8.  We went with a few friends including a rival guitarist back in the prog days, Bruce Warner of Aircastle, who Mark always admired. He was so happy to see all of us there and he played his ass off that night. That was the last time I ever saw him and I regret not making the time to make contact which I will never be able to do now.

To his family if you read this I am truly sorry. To the world we lost a great musician and I feel a little older today.

RIP Mark