Marky Dawson was born and raised in Broadstone, Dorset. Growing up surrounded by his dad’s impressive record collection it was almost inevitable that he would develop a love for music. And so he grew up with influences such as Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Billy Joel, Queen and Elton John, to name but a few. He started playing piano at age 14 and pretty soon started writing his own songs. He moved to London to get ‘spotted’ and he did get spotted, by his manager and publisher Adrian Rox. (Adrian also discovered Michael McIntyre during his days in the comedy business).

Playing over 100 gigs a year, Marky has been serving his ‘apprenticeship’ doing solo gigs mainly in London and on the South Coast, but even as far afield as Austria

Over the last year Marky has guested with Ben Waters, Daniel Smith, John O’Leary/Alan Glen and supported Never The Bride on many occasions and also Ben Montague. Nikki Lambourn (NTB’s vocalist, photo left) is now also Marky’s vocal coach (she coaches the likes of Beverley Knight, Newton Faulkner).

In May he sold out his debut night at the Bull’s Head in Barnes with his band The German Coastguard. It was the perfect platform to show off Marky’s diversity as he and the band swooped effortlessly from blues to jazz to reggae to pop to rock’n’roll.

He has been working with the new backing band from Dusseldorf since January. Guitar, bass and drums is the long term line-up, and full band is the artistic direction, although Marky will always want to do both solo and band gigs. The band will be doing two mini-tours during the second half of 2016. This includes a debut Friday in September at the Red Rooms in Ealing, the place where blues was first played in Britain back in 1965. The Rolling Stones met there and it’s a landmark venue. The same weekend they’ll be headlining at Mr Kyps in Poole, building on the support slots over the last couple of years. December sees the band return to the Bull’s Head for a Friday night. At just 24 years of age, Marky Dawson is a very exciting artist with everything to play for. A showman and performer as well as a great songwriter, he grabs audiences and won’t let go. Adrian says the same of Marky as he said in the early days of Michael McIntyre (who Adrian also discovered): “catch him while you can, he won’t be hanging around long…”

Rox Management Ltd

Marky Dawson and the German Coastguard

Rox Management Ltd for all enquiries - +44 (0) 7341 273958 roxmgmt@gmail.com