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BANDS AND OTHER PROJECTS
LANDMARQ
Landmarq was formed in 1990 with Steve Leigh on keyboards, Uwe D'Rose on guitar and session bassist Steve Gee.
Steve Leigh and Uwe had been writing material together for some time and they liked the idea of performing their material live. Steve and Uwe had previously played in the group 'Quasar'and another member of this band, Dave Wagstaffe, decided to join them and Landmarq took off.
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Landmarq circa 1990 © Landmarq
In 1991 they recorded some demos for the Dutch SI label and the band were asked to contribute one track for the SI 10th Anniversary compilation album. The band were later approached by SI records to record their own album, but at this time they had no vocalist. Karl Groom who was to engineer the album recommended Damian Wilson who he had worked with before on another project. Damian was approached and immediately agreed to join the band. Previous to this Damian had been working as a solo artist, duetting with his brother Paul and was a member of a group called 'Orphic Soup'.
The first album 'Solitary Witness' was released in 1992 and was quickly followed by a European tour. After this tour, Damian joined Threshold for a while to record their first album which lead to him being voted 'Male Vocalist of the Year' by the Classic Rock Society.
'Infinity Parade'was the second album to be released on the SI label by Landmarq and again this was followed by a promotion tour. Shortly afterwards, Damian was offered the change to join a Luxemburg based band called 'La Salle' who were already very well established. While the other members of Landmarq could see that this was an excellent offer for Damian, they knew it would be difficult to find a replacement for him. Eventually, they found Ian 'Moon' Gould and he joined them for several big events in Holland and England. He was also named 'Vocalist of the Year' by the Classic Rock Society. Musical differences occurred between the group and Ian and it wasn't long before they found themselves without a vocalist again.
Landmarq with Damian Wilson © Landmarq
'Vision Pit' the third album was released in 1995 and again featured Damian as vocalist. Things had not gone smoothly with La Salle and Damian was quite happy to be going back to Landmarq. While the band were in Europe promoting the latest CD rumours that all was not well with SI records proved to be true and within a short space of time the band found themselves without a record company or any means of distribution.
During this period, Damian took the time to finish his own album which he had been working on for some time and 'Cosmas' was released in 1997. Steve Leigh had become involved in writing film music and Steve Gee and Uwe D'Rose continued to write new material for a fourth album.
In 1998, Tracy Hitchings was asked to join the group as vocalist as Damian wanted to concentrate on his solo career. The fourth album 'Science of Coincidence' was released on the bands own label Synergy. The band has also released their first live album which is a collection of old and new material taken from concerts. A second live album is due to be released in 2000.
THRESHOLD
Threshold are an English progressive rock band who were formed in 1988. The original members of the band were Karl Groom, Nick Midson, Jon Jeary, Tony Grinham and Ian Bennett. Karl was formerly playing with another group, Believer, but had started writing music with Nick who he had met a couple of years before. Jon thought up the name Threshold and was the first vocalist with the band. Although he lived over a 100 miles away from the other members of the band he was there for their numerous live shows.
In 1992, Jon took over the role of bass player and the band landed a deal with GEP records. Damian Wilson was brought in as the new vocalist.
Threshold 1993
In 1993, their first CD 'Wounded Land' was released to very good reviews. It was particularly popular in countries like Germany and Holland. The album explores the theme of the human race's struggle to improve it's future on earth. The band toured Europe but with singer Glynn Morgan as Damian had left to pursue other projects.
Threshold 1995
The band's second CD was called 'Psychedelicatesen'. There were quite a few changes in the line up of the band at this time. They toured extensively in 1994 and 1995 and included shows with Whitesnake, Magnum, Paradise Lost and Dream Theater. After being on the road for such a long period, the band decided to take a break and at this point they were joined by a new drummer, Mark Heaney and Damian also returned.
Threshold 1995
In 1997, the band recorded their third studio album, 'Extinct Instinct'. Another successful European tour followed, but Damian left the group in 1998 to join the touring cast of Les Miserables in the UK.
THE AYREON PROJECTS
Damian has been involved in three Ayreon albums. This is a project by Arjen Lucassen and the album 'Into the Electric Castle' was the third album, released in 1998.
Arjen was aware of Damian through his work with Landmarq and heard him live at a Threshold concert. He was impressed by Damian and went backstage to meet him and ask him to become involved with 'Into the Electric Castle'. Damian liked the idea and agreed to do it almost immediately. He recorded his parts of the album in one day. He takes the role of the Knight in a story which tells how the souls of 8 characters out of different ages find themselves in a new dimension where they have to cope with their fears, their hopes and their inner self in order to get free again.
The next two albums that Damian was involved in are 'Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer' and 'Universal Migrator Part ll: Flight of the Migrator'
In an earlier Ayreon album, 'The final Experiment, the story tells of a final devastating war which takes place in 2084. It destroys all life on earth. It is no longer habitable. There are survivors of this war, colonists who were on the planet Mars and these colonists watched as their planet was destroyed. The new CD's tell of the descendents of these colonists and how they have constructed a fantastic machine called The Dream Sequencer. Somehow this machine allows the colonists to be hypnotised into believing they have returned to their childhood and even as far as former lives. It is now the 22nd Century and the two albums tell of one Mars colonist and what he experiences as pilot of The Dream Sequencer.
On the first of these two albums, Damian sings
'And the Druids Turn to Stone'. The time is 2800 BC
and the
traveller witnesses the secret
behind Stone Henge. On 'Flight of the Migrator, Damian sings backing vocals on the song 'Dawn of a Million Souls'.
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[Album Reviews] [Album Review Archive] [Photos] [Concert Review Archives]
[Les Miserables] [Links] [damian wilson.com] [Recordings] [Message Board]