Mark Stanway (born 27 July 1954) is an English musician. He was the keyboard player for the

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band Magnum from 1980 until the end of 2016.

Career

Stanway first appeared with Magnum on the 1980 recording of ''

Chase the Dragon ''Chase the Dragon'' is the third studio album by English rock band Magnum. It was released in 1982 on Jet Records. Overseen by the Kansas producer Jeff Glixman, ''Chase the Dragon'' was the first recorded appearance by the new keyboard player ...

'' (released in 1982) Stanway provided keyboards on every studio album release from 1980 until his departure in 2016 (19 studio albums) After a short stint with Stampede, Stanway formed Grand Slam with

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after a Lynott solo tour in Sweden in mid 1983, this band was with Lynott on bass, Stanway on keyboards, John Sykes on guitar, Brian Downey on drums and Doish Nagle on rhythm guitar, which evolved into Grand Slam in 1984. Sykes later left to join

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

and was replaced by Laurence Archer upon Stanway's recommendation. In 2016, Stanway reformed Grand Slam for a Sweden Rock Festival performance with Micky Barker (ex Magnum) on drums, Neil Murray on bass, Laurence Archer on guitar and Stefan Berggren on vocals. During this career, Stanway has performed and or recorded with many notable artists over the years including Robert Plant, Roy Wood, M3 Classic Whitesnake, featuring original Whitesnake members

Micky Moody Michael Joseph "Micky" Moody (born 30 August 1950) is an English guitarist, and a former member of the rock bands Juicy Lucy and Whitesnake. He was also a founder-member of Snafu. Together with his former Whitesnake colleague Bernie Marsden h ...

Bernie Marsden Bernard John Marsden (born 7 May 1951) is an English rock and blues guitarist. He is primarily known for his work with Whitesnake, having written or co-written with David Coverdale many of the group's hit songs, such as "Fool for Your Loving", ...

and Neil Murray, Swiss Star Bastian Baker, Jimmy Copley, Manfred Mann's Earthband, The Quireboys, The Dogs D'amour, Mississippi blues singer Lisa Mills, Karl Wayne, Junior Giscombe, Spike Gray, Simon Kirke, Luke Morley, and The Sweden Rock Symphony Orchestra. Stanway played keyboards on Magnum's successful '' On a Storyteller's Night'' album. Their success continued the following year with the

Roger Taylor Roger Taylor may refer to: *Roger Taylor (Queen drummer) (born 1949), drummer for Queen *Roger Taylor (Duran Duran drummer) (born 1960), drummer for Duran Duran *Roger Taylor (author), author of epic fantasy Hawklan series *Roger Taylor (college pr ...

produced ''

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'' in 1986, the top 5 album '' Wings of Heaven'' in 1988, and the Keith Olsen produced '' Goodnight L.A.'' which reached No. 9 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

in 1990. On 9 December 2016, Stanway announced that he has left Magnum, mid-way through their five date Divine Lies Winter Tour. He cited "irrevocable circumstances". Since his departure from Magnum, he has performed with the Sweden Rock Symphony Orchestra in 2017 and embarked on a series of 'An Intimate Evening With' shows and, in 2018, Stanway formed a new band, Kingdom of Madness, to perform Magnum songs from 1976 to 1994. This seven piece band features Stanway, former Magnum drummer Micky Barker (1985–95), former Magnum keyboard and flautist Richard Bailey (1973–74, 1976–80), vocalist and percussionist Mo Birch (UB40, Culture Club and Magnum), guitarist Laurence Archer (Stampede, Grandslam & UFO and Magnum in 1984), bassist Neil Murray (Whitesnake, Black Sabbath amongst many more) and vocalist Chris Ousey (Heartland & Snakecharmer). In July 2019, Murray was amicably replaced by Brian Badhams (ex Rainmaker, Steve Gibbons Band, Alaska, and continues to perform with Ellie Brooks).

Discography

Magnum

Stampede

* 1983 - ''Hurricane Town''

Grand Slam

* 2002 - '' Studio Sessions'' * 2003 - '' Grand Slam: Live 1984''

References

External links

*
Kingdom of Madness website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanway, Mark 1954 births Living people English rock keyboardists People from Sutton Coldfield Magnum (band) members Grand Slam (band) members The Company of Snakes members