Mark Anthony Patrick Owen was born in Oldham (England) on January 27th 1972. Son of Marie and Keith Owen, he has a brother called Daniel and a sister called Tracy.
His first ambition was to be a pilot, but once at Lyndhurst Primary School, football started to take over as the big passion in Mark's life. He went up to St. Augustine of Canterbury School and still it was football that consumed his every hour. He had trials with Huddersfield Town, Rochdale and the mighty Manchester United followed, but though lowly Rochdale asked him back he decided the life of a professional sportsman was 'too much like hard work'.
He had several jobs after leaving school, being the first in a boutique called Zuttis, he even worked on Barclays Bank but the one that changed his life was a part-time job at the Strawberry Studios.
That's where he met Gary Barlow, who was by then recording a demo tape and invited Mark to make backing-vocals on it. They started working together as Cutest Rush and when they approached local manager Nigel Martin-Smith to take over their affairs he put them together with two young breakdancers called Howard Donald and Jason Orange. After an audition Robbie Williams was added to the band and Take That were born!
Take That worked really hard and in the following five years they managed to get 14 singles into the UK Top 20. Mark had his first vocal spotlight on a duet with Gary in a song called "How Can It Be" (a B-side of the single "A Million Love Songs"). The song "Babe" sang by Mark got to No. 1 on Christmas 1994. He was also lead vocalist on Nobody Else's "The Day After Tomorrow".
Robbie left on July 17th 1995 and after an overwhelming tour, a new album and single, Take That splitted up on April 5th 1996, leaving behind them four albums, eight No.1 singles and millions of heart-broken fans all over the world.
But whoever could have thought Mark's career was over was really wrong. Mark didn't had time for holidays and he promptly started working on his solo album.
His first solo single was "Child" released on November 18th 1996. It was followed by the album named "Green Man" and the singles "Clementine" and "I Am What I Am". He made a successful european tour in 1997 and then disappeared from the public eye.
In 2002, Mark was launched back into the spotlight with a stint on UK TV show "Big Brother" which he went on to win, scooping 75% of the votes! This injected a buzz about Mark into the music industry once more, with major record label all eager to sign him up. This resulted in Mark's 2nd solo album "In Your Own Time" to finally be released. The first single from the album was the infectious "Four Minute Warning" which reached #4 in the UK charts. Following this was "Alone Without You" and furthur touring of Europe.
Despite this success, he parted ways with Universal music and set up his own label "Sedna" from which he now releases his music. In 2004 Mark released "Makin' Out" - an upbeat song with a Charlie Chaplin inspired video. The rest of the year was spent performing at many a summer festival, roadshow, and any else he could fit in!
"How The Mighty Fall" is Mark 3rd solo album, released in early 2005. Mark feels that this is more "his" album than the last couple because he has had full control over every aspect of the record and it is a true representation of where he is at in his life right now.
After touring the UK in Spring, Mark headed off to Europe to tour with Blue, his album is doing especially well in Germany at the moment, and he is gearing himself up for the release of his new single "Believe in the Boogie" in the UK on 15 Aug 2005!
