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Mark Laff | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mark Red Laffoley |
| Born | (1958-05-19)19 May 1958 (age 66) Chipping Barnet, England |
| Origin | Finchley, London, England |
| Genres | Punk rock,post-punk,rockabilly |
| Occupation | Drummer |
| Years active | 1976–2004, 2007, 2019 |
Mark Laff (bornMark Red Laffoley; 19 May 1958) is an English retired[1] drummer who was a member of several rock bands, includingGeneration X.[2]
Mark Red Laffoley was born on 19 May 1958 atBarnet General Hospital, atChipping Barnet in the County ofHertfordshire.[3][2] He received his formal education atChrist Church (Church of England) Secondary School inNorth Finchley.
He began playing drums as a teenager, being influenced by England's 1960sMod fashion and music movement and the work ofKeith Moon.[4] After a failed audition forThe Clash (he was one of two drummers to get a call back),[5] his first drumming role was withSubway Sect, sharing the bill with theSex Pistols, The Clash, andSiouxsie and the Banshees for theAnarchy and White Riot tours,[6] however he left the band shortly afterwards.
In April 1977, the 18-year-old Laff was recruited as a replacement drummer for thepunk rock bandGeneration X, a few months before it signed toChrysalis Records and released its first single,Your Generation.[7] He was Generation X's drummer through its two long-players, the self-titledGeneration X (1978), followed byValley of the Dolls (1979);[7] which saw the band amidst a heavy performance schedule across Great Britain gaining momentum, drawing recognition and impacting the British pop music charts with its releases. However, after the relative commercial failure of theValley of the Dolls long-player, internal disagreements about the band's musical direction and personality clashes within it came to a head in late 1979 during the recording of its abortive third long-player (which would be released retrospectively 20 years later under the titleK.M.D. - Sweet Revenge). Lead guitaristBob "Derwood" Andrews quit the band in December 1979,[8] followed by Laff in January 1980, when he was asked to leave after a disagreement with the act's frontman/singerBilly Idol and bass playerTony James over song-writing credits for the band's recorded work.[9] With Laff and Andrews' departure, Generation X essentially came to an end; a re-branded act, Gen X, with a replacement guitarist and drummer subsequently launched by Idol and James went on to fail commercially, and was gone by early 1981.
After leaving Generation X Laff and Andrews played together assession musicians onJimmy Pursey's solo long-player,Imagination Camouflage.[citation needed] In mid-1980 they set up a new band entitledEmpire, recruiting bassist Simon Bernal to complete the line-up. A single entitledHot Seat[10] was released, followed by a musically influential but commercially unsuccessful album entitledExpensive Sound. The trio undertook four gigs before Bernal left. After a number of line-up changes of personnel and more concerts, but little commercial success, Laff left Empire's line-up in February 1983, and band was ended by Andrews in 1984.
In 1985 Laff founded a new retrorock & roll/rockabilly band calledTwenty Flight Rockers with the singer/frontmanGary Twinn. The band released via ABC Records the single 'Tower Block Rock' (1985) (ranked #31 for Best Single of that year byRockerilla Magazine, but making no impact on the UK Singles' Chart),[11] and another single entitled 'Johnny 7' viaWEA Records in 1986, which was also a commercial failure. In March 1986 the band released the song 'Searching for a Hero' in cassette format on a compilation L.P. advertising new bands entitledSpools Gold, given away free with theRecord Mirror.Bernie Rhodes, who Laff knew back from his early days withSubway Sect was hired to manage them,[12] and arranged the signing of the band withEpic Records.
The band recorded a series of sessions, and a self-produced studio album entitledRide,[13] which was scheduled for commercial release in 1988, however Epic Records in the meantime was bought out bySony, which subsequently opted to drop the band from the label, leading to Twenty Flight Rockers breaking up.[14][15]
TheRide L.P. would not see the light of day until 2001 when it was put out byRevel Yell Music as a retrospective release under the titleTwenty Flight Rockers.[16] In 2004 'Revel Yell' released a second retrospective L.P. from the band entitledTwenty Flight Rockers – The New York Sessions 1988.
On 20 September 1993, duringBilly Idol'sNoReligion tour, Laff played with a re-formed Generation X in a reunion concert at theAstoria Theatre in London's West End.
In 2006 Laff re-recorded the song 'Hot Seat' with Derwood Andrews to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of Empire'sExpensive Sound L.P., which was re-released on theExpansive Sound Volume II compilation L.P.
Laff briefly reunited withVic Godard in 2007 to re-recordSubway Sect's previously unreleased debut album under the title1978 Now.[17]
In 2019, he joined the touring line-up of LAMF, a band fronted byWalter Lure ofThe Heartbreakers which also featured Mick Rossi, former guitarist ofSlaughter & The Dogs. This band played several gigs, including an appearance at theRebellion Festival inBlackpool.
Laff semi-retired from professional music in 2004, and went into business as the director of aholistic lifestyle therapy company inBrighton inEast Sussex.[18]