The "Cecil B De Mille" of the pop scene. That's what people in the music biz were calling Mark Wirtz in late '67 after the out-of-nowhere success of "Excerpt From A Teenage Opera", the hit single he created in partnership with Keith West. As we all know, they couldn't follow it up commercially, although they did surpass it artistically, and the 'Opera' was never completed as it had been intended. Never mind, all these years later we've had CD compilations of material from the TO era, private compilations of some of the hundreds of Wirtzian demos and productions, a CD re-issue of the corking "Philwit and Pegasus" concept album and even a comeback album for the 21st Century ("Love Is Egg-Shaped"). He's the greatest German/French/British/American Producer/Songwriter/Musician/Singer/Author/'Mad' Comedian ever! He's won Ivor Novello awards in the past but now, even more importantly, he's a member of the HOPS. We love him. He's our dear old Mark Wirtz.

Mark's official web-site:

http://www.craftweb.org/web/mark/

and Mark's myspace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=134995048