Mark Whiteside seems to have the midas touch in that everything he does musically is utterly fantastic. The man who gave us the wondrous One Sided Horse project, Desks and the incredibly sublime The Opening Song (and who also drums for Evil Blizzard!) returns again, with some pretty impressive guests, to give us his new project Sunday At Six.
The first fruit of this new project is the single It’s Funny How The Time Flies By and joining this prolific musician is Mickey Dale of Embrace fame who, as well as producing and mastering, plays keyboards, Phillip Vietch from Ship’s Cat supplies soundscape guitars and the legendary Peter Coyle of The Lotus Eaters provides the glorious vocals. Mark humbly tells me that all he does is write the song and play acoustic guitar…
Music, to me, must mean something, there has to be a reason any song is created and not just to get additional plays on Spotify or just to be the most popular song that listeners want to hear on the radio (do people actually listen to the radio any more?). I love music that moves me, takes me to another place and leaves an indelible mark on me and all the music that Mark writes has that effect.
The ethereal keys and spacial guitars just add a beatific air to the music on It’s Funny How The Time Flies By, it’s music that feeds the soul with its lush soundscapes and Peter Coyle’s vocals are just dreamlike in their delivery and intangible beauty. Mickey Dale’s ability to deliver the perfect sound from the keyboards is uncanny and Phil’s guitars are spine-tingling in their rarefied grace, making the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Mark is like the conductor here, his acoustic guitar elegantly directing proceedings but it is how this all comes together as an exquisite whole that makes it so wonderful.
The song is set for digital release soon and there will be more news about his exciting project in the coming months but, to my ears, this could well be the best thing that Mark has created and, with his monumental back catalogue, that is really saying something!
You can catch Mark playing live as One Side Horse on Saturday, 6th March at The Vault in Hexham, ticket details here:
One Sided Horse – The Vault (thevaulthexham.com)
Peter Coyle is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the The Lotus Eaters‘ album ‘No Sense Of Sin’ and you can see it performed live, in its entirety, at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, ticket link here:
See Tickets – Peter Coyle ‘No Sense Of Sin’ Tickets | Wednesday, 31 Jan 2024 at 7:00 PM