PAUL MARKS

Paul Marks sailed from the UK to Perth in 1956 with a head full of blues and spirituals he’d heard on radio and in the jazz clubs of London. A few months later he moved to Melbourne, began teaching himself guitar and quickly became friends with local jazz musicians like Frank Traynor, Len Barnard and Mookie Herman, bass player with The Melbourne New Orleans Jazz Band (MNOJB).

He soon formed a skiffle group with the rhythm section of the MNOJB and the Paul Marks Folk Singing Group, as it would become known, began performing in between sets by the larger MNOJB group. Skiffle never really took off in Australia like it did in the UK and soon Marks was introducing more traditional blues and spirituals into the repertoire. A successful Saturday residency at the Esquire Club in Glen Iris in 1958 established the groups popularity and a handful of recordings on the Swaggie record label followed.

In 1960 he began performing solo shows at the Reata restaurant and these quickly became popular with the crowds from the emerging folk music scene. Marks accompanied the MNOJB on a hectic tour to the UK and Europe in 1961-62 and ended up returning before the rest of the group and resuming his solo shows. His 1963 album was recorded at the Little Reata restaurant and captures Marks in full voice and playing his own distinctive brand of Piedmont blues. Not long afterwards the frantic lifestyle of continuous gigging began to catch up with him and he moved to Sydney hoping things would be better. He performed at many Sydney folk clubs and made appearances on music shows like Dave’s Place. In 1965 he supported The New Lost City Ramblers tour of Australia.

By 1967 he and his wife Eleanor moved to Christchurch, New Zealand where Marks played local clubs and festivals, and opened for Tom Paxton, John Renbourne and Fairport Convention. Paul Marks gave many people their first taste of the blues in a live setting. He influenced a wave of artists like Margret Roadknight, Judith Durham, Dutch Tilders and Donald Hirst (of R&B group The Spinning Wheels) who within a few years would all be performing their own brands of blues as the form exploded in popularity into the 1960s. Paul Marks died in 2022 in NZ.

EPs

'Paul Marks' Folk Singing Group' 1959 Swaggie

'Paul Marks' 1960 Swaggie

ALBUMS

'London Bound' [with the Melbourne New Orleans Jazz Band] 1961 W&G

'Paul Marks At The Reata' 1963 Score

References

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/rarecollections/paul-marks-and-the-roots-of-australian-blues/5468286