Marco James Otherwurlde
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Sassafras’ Marco James and his long term music collaborator Paul Davies have teamed up once again to record an Otherwurlde album. The album entitled “Waterfall” was written in dedication to Marco’s late partner, Lindsey and contains eight tracks penned by Marco and Paul, and one by Joni Mitchell.
Stunning vocal performances by Richie Galloni make this album a must for any Sass fans. The album contains the prevalent Otherwurlde trademarks of dreamy guitars and string arrangements, hard, rocking riffs and melodic anthems. Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, has also been given the Otherwurlde treatment. Beautifully sung by Louise Fletcher, it provides a truly emotive arrangement, which prepares the listener for the grand finale “Thanks for the Ride”.
The album has been released on the Iberico label and is now available on mail order from the Sass website. All proceeds from the first pressing will be donated to the British Heart Foundation.
Born in Cardigan Bay into the Italian Welsh community, Marco started piano lessons at the age of four and took up the violin at the age of eight; he later entered the school and church choirs as a boy soprano.Marco was greatly influenced by his eldest brother who turned him on to 'YES', who still remains a dominant influence in his life.
His first band called 'Dutch Courage' was formed in 1975 with friends from school, they played covers such as 'Smoke on the Water', and whilst the majority of the band eventually went off to University, Marco got together with guitarist Howard Evans and the Lovatte brothers to form 'Orion' which became the first band to play on HTV's music magazine programme 'Ser'.
'Orion' had many line-up changes but the most successful combination featured Marco, Howard Evans, bassist Mansel Davies and Richard Eldridge on drums. This band had a cult following in the Mid Wales area featuring their own material as well as progressive rock covers penned by 'Focus', 'Emerson, Lake and Palmer' and 'Pink Floyd'. After several TV appearances and a demo record produced by Cameron Shaw, the band found that punk rock had taken a serious grip on the country, leaving little room for them.
In 1980 Marco was approached to play with legendary Mid Wales rockers 'Smokestack' and it was here that he first met Ray Jones. These were Marco's happiest musical days, and everything went well for 'Smokestack' until their record company went bust, taking the 'Smokestack' assets with it. As a consequence of this, Ray returned to Aberystwyth and formed 'The Ray Jones Band' with Marco, and they went on the road, on radio and on TV to promote Ray's Welsh hit single on which Dai Shell from 'Sassafras' played guitar.Marco's collaboration with Ray continued with the forming of the band 'The Small Italians' which boasted 'Budgie's' Steve Williams on drums and Remo Lusardi on guitar. This, however was a short lived venture and Marco moved on to team up with South Wales hard driving rock music outfit 'Candyman'. This band had rave reviews in the music press and featured old 'Orion' stalwarts Mansel Davies and Richard Eldridge. Fronting the band was singer/songwriter Dave Reed now with 'Southlands', and completing the line-up was a talented young guitarist called Paul Davies.
Marco returned to the small screen with 'The Band of Hope' who later changed their name to 'Otherworld'. This was essentially a heady sounding band and a vehicle for Marco and Paul Davies' original material. They released two tracks on the '25 Records label' before having some success on the Internet. Greg Haver joined them initially on drums and bassist John Pulman who were replaced eventually by 'Man' drummer Bob Richards and 'Beefy's Bag o Boogie' bassist Ollie. 'Otherworld' was mainly a studio band but Marco continued to play live in Mid Wales with 'The Mescalligators' comprising of old 'Smokestackers' Clive Evans, Paul "Tubs" Davies and Dick Jones (when available), Ritchie Jones and Dave Cox completed the line-up.
In 1998 Marco teamed up with Ray Jones again but this time to compose TV themes and anthems. This lead to Marco being invited through Ray to join 'The Benefits' with Gary Davies, Ray, Dai Shell, Terry Bennett and the 'Bedwas brass' (Carl, Big Steve and little Steve). It was shortly after this, in the summer of 2000, that Dai Shell reformed Sassafras, together with original band members Ralph Evans and Terry Bennett.Since joining Sassafras in 2000 the large one has not been idle or negligent of his own music.Along with his long standing music collaborator Paul Davies the pair of them have developed exceptional skills as songwriters utilising the latest trends in music technology. Both Marco and Paul are whiz kids with Steinberg cubase.They have recorded lots more music.
A new album they have been working on is just about finished we will keep you posted on that.
Facts File
Marco plays:Keyboards Kurzweil, Alesis, Korg and Yamaha
Guitars Fender Stratocaster, Takamine 600 series, BC Rich Warlock
Violin Yamaha Candy apple electric
Mandolin Samick electric
Harmonicas Hohner pro harps, blues harps and marine band
Kazoo