Mark Stanway (born 27 July 1954) is an English musician. He was the keyboard player for the

prog rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initi ...

band Magnum from 1980 until the end of 2016.

Career

Stanway first appeared with Magnum on the 1980 recording of '' Chase the Dragon'' (released in 1982) Stanway provided keyboards on every studio album release from 1980 until his departure in 2016 (19 studio albums) In 1984, Stanway formed Grand Slam with

Phil Lynott Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish singer, bassist, and songwriter. His most commercially successful group was Thin Lizzy, of which he was a founding member, the principal songwriter, lead vocalist and ba ...

after a Lynott solo tour in Sweden in mid 1983, this band was with Lynott on bass, Stanway on keyboards, John Sykes on guitar, Brian Downey on drums and Doish Nagle on rhythm guitar, which later evolved into Grand Slam. Sykes later left to join

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

and was replaced by Laurence Archer upon Stanway's recommendation. In 2016, Stanway reformed Grand Slam for a Sweden Rock Festival performance with Micky Barker (ex Magnum) on drums, Neil Murray on bass, Laurence Archer on guitar and Stefan Berggren on vocals. During this career, Stanway has performed and or recorded with many notable artists over the years including Robert Plant, Roy Wood, M3 Classic Whitesnake, featuring original Whitesnake members

Micky Moody Michael Joseph "Micky" Moody (born 30 August 1950) is an English guitarist, and a former member of the rock bands Juicy Lucy and Whitesnake. He was also a founder-member of Snafu. Together with his former Whitesnake colleague Bernie Marsden ...

Bernie Marsden Bernard John Marsden (born 7 May 1951) is an English rock and blues guitarist. He is primarily known for his work with Whitesnake, having written or co-written with David Coverdale many of the group's hit songs, such as "Fool for Your Loving" ...

and Neil Murray, Swiss Star Bastian Baker, Jimmy Copley, Manfred Mann's Earthband, The Quireboys, The Dogs D'amour, Mississippi blues singer Lisa Mills, Karl Wayne, Junior Giscombe, Spike Gray, Simon Kirke, Luke Morley, and The Sweden Rock Symphony Orchestra. Stanway played keyboards on Magnum's successful '' On a Storyteller's Night'' album. Their success continued the following year with the Roger Taylor produced ''

Vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

'' in 1986, the top 5 album '' Wings of Heaven'' in 1988, and the

Keith Olsen Keith Alan Olsen (May 12, 1945 – March 9, 2020) was an American record producer and sound engineer, who worked with Magnum, Rick Springfield, Fleetwood Mac, Ozzy Osbourne, the Grateful Dead, Whitesnake, Pat Benatar, Heart, Santana, Saga, ...

produced '' Goodnight L.A.'' which reached No. 9 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

in 1990. On 9 December 2016, Stanway announced that he has left Magnum, mid-way through their five date Divine Lies Winter Tour. He cited "irrevocable circumstances". . Since his departure from Magnum, he has performed with the Sweden Rock Symphony Orchestra in 2017 and embarked on a series of 'An Intimate Evening With' shows and, in 2018, Stanway formed a new band, Kingdom of Madness, to perform Magnum songs from 1976 to 1994. This seven piece band features Stanway, former Magnum drummer Micky Barker (1985–95), former Magnum keyboard and flautist Richard Bailey (1973–74, 1976–80), vocalist and percussionist Mo Birch (UB40, Culture Club and Magnum), guitarist Laurence Archer (Stampede, Grandslam & UFO and Magnum in 1984), bassist Neil Murray (Whitesnake, Black Sabbath amongst many more) and vocalist Chris Ousey (Heartland & Snakecharmer). In July 2019, Murray was amicably replaced by Brian Badhams (ex Rainmaker, Steve Gibbons Band, Alaska, and continues to perform with Ellie Brooks).

Discography

Magnum

References

External links

*
Kingdom of Madness website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanway, Mark 1954 births Living people English rock keyboardists People from Sutton Coldfield Magnum (band) members Grand Slam (band) members The Company of Snakes members