Mark



Mark started playing guitar around age 11 in 1959 so he can honestly say; "I started playing back in the 50's". His first guitar was a $16 Sears & Roebuck Silvertone purchased with lawn mowing money. He learned to play Duane Eddy's "Rebel Rouser" and linked up with Jon Standridge, who eventually became the Relics bass player. Mark and Jon and Chris Michie all lived within a couple of blocks of each other in the Crestwood area of Madison WI. They learned "Mule Skinner Blues" while sitting on the edge of a sandbox in the local park. They all started taking guitar lessons from Archie Hollie at "Patti Music" on State Street.

Mark (on left) and Jon making their very first public appearance backing up the 6th grade choir at Crestwood School in 1959. Chris Michie can be seen standing directly behind and between Mark and Jon.
Budding guitar players Jon Standridge (left), Steve Anderson (middle), and Mark (right) doing their first paying gig at "The Roost" Youth Center in Middleton, Wi in 1962. Greg DuBois on drums.
By 8th grade Mark had graduated to an electric guitar and was playing dances in the school gym with a band called "The Silvertones". By 9th grade, it was "The Nomads". In high school, his band mates were Steve Anderson, bass player and singer, Greg DuBois, drummer, and Mike Snowdon on rhythm guitar. The band was called "Spectre Inc." and played a lot of high school dances and fraternity parties. They even played a gig for Manchesters, a downtown department store where they appeared in the store window for a large crowd of screaming girls.

Mark (second from left) and Spectre, Inc.
Mark and Spectre, Inc had some great times during the early to mid 1960's, opening up for The Lovin' Spoonful at the Dane County Fairgrounds and The Turtles at Turner Hall. They also played a 2-week gig in December 1965 in Vail Colorado when it was a new ski resort.

By the summer of '66, Spectre was playing Wisconsin's 18 year-old beer bar circuit and Eric Goetz and Ron Skalitsky had joined the band. Around this time Mark first heard Jimi Hendrix on a jukebox. Mark also met the Detroit Wheels when they were in Madison and they adopted him as their official Madison tour guide. Their phenomenal lead guitarist, Jim McCarty, taught Mark some cool new licks. Mark also remembers taking a cab with the Detroit Wheels from the Rathskeller to The Factory on Gorham Street to see Jimi Hendrix live. Little did he know that his future soul mate, Lisa, was at the same show. It would be another year before they met.

By 1969, Mark was a junior at UW-Madison and Spectre had morphed from a top 40 British invasion band into a blues band eventually renamed as "Blues Funkshun". Their regular gig was at Marsh Shapiro's Nitty Gritty in Madison. In addition to Mark, this band featured Jerry Alexander on vocals and blues harp (harmonica), Steve Anderson on bass, and Jim Schultz on drums. At various times the band also included guitarists Jimmy Elam, formerly of the Luther Allison Band, Mike Dowling, who later became a renowned session player in Nashville, and vocalist/guitarist Don "Junior" Olson. Junior will be forever missed in the Madison Blues scene.

Blues Funkshun played some major Midwest rock festivals. Poynette WI included Little Richard and his band, who took the stage right after Blues Funkshun, just as the sun was coming up! In Iowa, Blues Funkshun played in front of about 30,000 people and hung out backstage with Johnny Winter, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Albert King and some other great acts. Ironically, Mark played a benefit concert for the inmates at Waupun State Prison and later ended up working for the Department of Corrections for many years. Unfortunately, Mark's good buddy and best man Steve Anderson met an untimely death in a car accident at age 25, thus putting an end to a long musical partnership.

Mark in 1970.
After a stint with the Charlie Brooks Band that included Glenn Sturgis, the future "Westside Andy" and "Mel Ford", and Debbie Hastings (currently with Bo Diddley), Mark took a break from the band scene and spent time playing for his wife Lisa and daughter Erica. In the 80's Mark played in the "Pepper and Bill Band" ,the "Action" band and "The Impostors". Another break occurred in the early '90's.

Pepper & Bill Band about 1981. Left to right - Bill Zabit, Pepper Ripp, Mark Loder, and Bix Olstadt.
Some of Mark's big influences - The Ventures and early Surf bands like Dick Dale and the Deltones, all R&B music, especially Steve Cropper's soulful guitar style, Chet Atkins, Lonnie Mack, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, jazz music, country, country rock, and EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE ELSE.

Current style and equipment - Mark tries to capture the guitar styles and vibe of the fifties and sixties for the Relics. He currently plays a Gretsch Brian Setzer signature model guitar, a Fender Jazzmaster, Fender Telecaster, and Rickenbacker 12-string. He plugs into various Fender amps.