Mark Laidler
10 Bands
Mark Laidler was born on the 21st of October 1957
A short history on Mark Laidler and little BIG Rigs PA & Lighting Hire
After leaving The Undecided? in late 1984 where he had already built his first PA that the band was using, a friend asked if he still had the PA and would he hire it to his band.
Mark’s first gig was on the 12th January 1985 hiring his rig out to his friend Mark Mulligan's band Finger Guns. Mark enjoyed that experience (and got paid - unlike the band members), so he decided this might be a venture worth pursuing ... PA Hire!!
At first it was known as Mark's PA Hire which he advertised in On The Street magazine, now known as The Drum. Mark started to get some bookings and he was on his way. After a couple of years of ads, bookings also came through word of mouth and sharing the phone numbers of a community of PA owner operators like himself. Like many PA owner operators, Mark mainly worked weekends (Friday to Sunday nights), rarely weeknights because of the work commitments of a full time job as well.
Over time the rig was upgraded and named little BIG Rigs PA Hire. Much later Mark learned that Little BIG Rig was a name also used by an owner operator in Tamworth. But it didn’t seem to cause problems for either business.
little BIG Rigs PA Hire continued as a one man activity until 1993 when Mark decided to add a light show to the rig instead of static lights. This meant he needed a lighting operator to run the light show; enter Greg Morris. For the next 7 years little BIG Rigs PA & Lighting Hire was booked regularly with over 600 gigs during this period. Mark and Greg have known each other since before they were born! Their mothers were friends and pregnant at the same time, the boys attended the same school and became close friends. So they worked very well together as a team and had lots of laughs on the way.
In mid 2000 Greg decided he missed being in a band and wanted to get back into playing again. Instead of getting another lighting operator Mark went it alone again.
After over 2500 gigs including about 500 at a Sunday residency at Clovelly Hotel for over 11 years, Mark decided to hang up his headphones. Although he had started to sell the rig in February 2009, his last gig was on the 5th June 2009, working once again for a friend’s band at St George Leagues Club. Not long after that gig Mark developed a herniated disc, which has since mostly recovered. Perhaps all those years of lugging heavy equipment finally took its toll.
During his 24 years he worked with several hundred bands at a few hundred venues. From garage bands to regularly working covers bands, most of the bands were people who played for the love of it and Mark enjoyed that very much. Every now and then Mark worked with artists and ex-members of bands that were well known in Australia including Eurogliders, The Cockroaches, Jimmy and the Boys, 1927, Mondo Rock, Chain, Moving Pictures and some very talented Australian country artists like Darren Coggan and Felicity Urquhart.
But Mark did form good relationships with some hardworking Sydney bands like Rockfish/Superfish, Jellybean Jam, Shooga Katz, Tongue’n’Groove, Baby Loves To Cha Cha and Broken Watch Band doing hundreds of gigs with most of those bands. Here are a few more bands he spent time with over the years:
80s Flashback
Absolutely
Animation
Ant Hill Mob
Az One
Baby Loves To Cha Cha
Band to the Bone
Big Big Band
Big Radio Dynamite
Big Toy
Bittasweet
Brass Razoo
Bringing Home The Bacon
Broken Watch Band
Brother Slam
Buddy's Back Show
Busta Groove
Chartbusters
Cheezy Beats
Clearance Creedwater Revival
Cocker Down Under
Cool Runnings
Countdown Explosion
Dance Hikers
Dave’s Band
Enormous Horns
Fargone Beauties
Feral Swing Katz
Frankie Valentyne Allstars
Fun Factory
Get it, Got it, Good
Goodfellas
Groove Jet
Heavy Petals
Hippos
Hyjinx
J O’K Show
Jamie Wilson Band
Jellybean Jam
John Field Band
JOK Show
Jump
Kalabash
Kiss Me Pink
K-Tels
Lucy Means Business
Mango Tango
Masterpiece
Mighty Heroes
Mustard Club
New Kids in Town
Nightmare in Vegas
Party Central
Party Pigs
Peppermint Jam
Phil Hollywood Rock Review
Picture Red
Rebecca Johnson Band
Redshift
Reviva
Santana Show
Sassy
Sax Appeal
Secret Lives
Seven Day Weekend
Shire Straits
Shy Guys
Sisters in the Dark
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Superfish
Syd Harbour and the Ferries
Talk It Up
Tezza & the Twistops
The Creepers
The Flames
The Flood
The King in Concert
The Persuaders
The Police Show
The Pump
The Reasons Why
The Shadz
The Zeroes
Tongue’n’Groove
Two Tribe
UB42
Ugly Little Combo
Vicious But Fair
Wicked
Wonderbras
Yesterday's Heroes
Mark Laidler is known to have been a member of 10 bands
Roadhouse
Lead Vocals/Guitar/Keyboards 1973 - 1973
The Fringe
Lead Vocals/Guitar 1980 - 1982
The Undecided?
Lead Vocals/Guitar 1983 - 1984
Original Crossing
Guitar/Vocals 1984 - 1984
The Funkees
Lead Vocals/Guitar 1987 - 1989
Finger Guns
Guitar/Vocals 1987 - 1989
Big Palooka
Lead Vocals/Guitar 1995 - 1996
Average Wedding Band
Lead Vocals/Guitar 1999 - 2001
3SUM
Lead Vocals/Guitar 2006 - 2006
2's Plenty!!
Lead Vocals/Guitar/Keyboards/Bass 2010 -