The Vinnie Vincent Forum - Where Freedom Rocks!

Anyone know if marks kiss costumes and guitar were ever auctioned off?

a bit of the costumes i believe just one vest or top was on the 2000 auction book
No guitar

There's a thread here about Mark's yellow "Jackson" Charvel that is owned by a guy on the JCF (Jackson) forum As well, Mark's family put a 1992 Ibanez RG1200 on eBay In 2011. It sold for $US1000! Which, if the guitar wasn't too beat up, is a bargin!!!

In Peter Criss book he said that Marks ailment was due to overplaying and not a rare condition. Heres the quote:
In 1989 I hooked up with a guitar player named Mark
St. John. Mark had a short tenure in KISS, but they had crippled him to the point where he
couldn’t play anymore. He had played on Animalize, and by then Gene and Paul weren’t talking
to each other. So Gene had booked studio time in one studio and Paul was recording his songs
at another place. Paul would call Mark to come by to record and he’d get there and Paul would
be there with the producer and the engineer. Paul would tell him what to play and Mark would go
into his Eddie Van Halen shit because that’s how Mark played, much too busy. He’d work with
Paul for six hours. Then Gene would call and have him come to his studio, where he’d work him
for another six hours. Mark told me that he would have to go home and put his hands in ice
because he couldn’t move his fingers. When they went on tour, his hands failed him during the
first show and they fired him. He went to a doctor and the doctor said that he had worn out his
cartilage.
Heres a direct quote from Mark:
"I woke up one morning in California with the inflammation in my hand. It started all there. I don't know what it was. I think it was the stress, I really do. I never had arthritis in anywhere in my family. I was playing violin concertos on the guitar before KISS, you know? I think it was just the stress of the whole thing. And people only see the tip of the iceberg. "Oh he's in the band, he's the fourth member. They all get the same, everything is equal." There was nothing equal about it at all. I was a hired hand. Period. Think everybody got a piece of the pie? I got maybe some crumbs off a piece! That's all bull. My work is all over that album, but I don't get credit or paid for it. No type of royalties at all."

Lets just say its a rare condition all right, caused by overworking ones hands to the point of pain every day. Not something he would have gotten anyways..

again Peter saying Eddie Van Halen shit, shows me Peter is not thinking. Mark is like a classical violinist like Vinnie. To say playing fast is 'shit' and playing sloppy like Jimmy Page is 'good' is really annoying. Mark and Vinnie could hold their own on stage at the Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House , La Scala etc, to critisise them is really not well thought out.

Mark... Not so sure

Vinnie and Jimmy Page... ABSOLUTELY

doublev2 wrote:...Mark and Vinnie could hold their own on stage at the Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House , La Scala etc, ...

what i am trying to say is mark and vv could play seriously difficult classical stuff

doublev2 wrote:what i am trying to say is mark and vv could play seriously difficult classical stuff

I understand that. Mark just seemed like a shredder with no substance to me.

yes but i think he could play anything but i am guessing so rick you may be correct.

doublev2 wrote:yes but i think he could play anything but i am guessing so rick you may be correct.

Just my opinion. He had a few cool leads in Kiss but I never heard him play anything that grabbed me.

C'mon Rick....this is pretty awesome [youtube][/youtube]
Not VV awesomeness, but pretty Killer in it's own right.

I agree . Very cool solo. One of his best. Even in this solo , it sounds like he is struggling to remember a pattern instead of letting it fly like Vinnie.

poserboy71 wrote:I agree . Very cool solo. One of his best. Even in this solo , it sounds like he is struggling to remember a pattern instead of letting it fly like Vinnie.

Yer man, I understand. The the deal breaker is VV can WRITE AWESOME SONGS.
Not to many 'Great' Leader guitarist can write a Good Song.
They are either Good at Shredding or (not, and) writing Song.
VV was a blessed man.

what i am saying is most of the great concert violinists don't write at all which is why i mentioned mark in same way but actually i don't know enough about mark to say for sure. my mistake

mark was more or less told what to play and how, on the kiss record.It would have been nice to hear him play the music he loved, i think even his solo cd's were filled with what he thought people expected him to play.He grew up playng progressive rock and fusion and also paganini concert pieces.Plus he played on the top of the beat and that already is unsettling for group like kiss.Judging from what his friends and peers said he was an excellent player with a great ear.It woluld be a good idea to ask to Holdsworth or Grover jackson;).

Rick,c'mon, Hall&Oates?

yes Holdsworth would be a good interview regarding Mark and Grover. I think Mark was very good. Rik Fox said he was the best kiss guitarist but Rik of course doesn't care for Vinnie

doublev2 wrote:yes Holdsworth would be a good interview regarding Mark and Grover. I think Mark was very good. Rik Fox said he was the best kiss guitarist but Rik of course doesn't care for Vinnie

Rik Fox can barely ride a note. He's from the Nikki Sixx school of (not) playing.

Cool Photo !!!!

Mark almost had the Marty Friedman "from underneath picking" style!