It is a dreadful thing for anyone to lose a friend but when they are as young, popular and full of life as Mark Tindle, it’s almost impossible to express the numbing grief felt by all who hear this awful news.

 Mark Tindle passed away suddenly on the 11^th September '04 whilst playing onstage at a Ceilidh in Beeston, Nottingham. Steve Bailey, Mark's close friend and band member writes, "Mark was on good form and was happily playing guitar... ...when he collapsed without any warning whatsoever. Medical staff who happened to be present did everything they could, as did the ambulance team who arrived very quickly, but Mark didn't regain breathing or consciousness."
"Mark was fifty."

Most bluegrass fans in the UK will know, or know of Mark, as an avid bluegrass musician as well as a leading light in the quarter-century ceilidh band, "Five Go Off."  It was this band he was playing with when the terrible event occurred.

 Mark currently  played in a Nottingham Bluegrass band called "The Leen Valley Boys"  who were already reeling  from the tragic death of  Thadius Kaye recently.  Thadius' wife Angela plays bass with this band and they all had played a most successful gig on the previous Friday at The Lion in Nottingham. Please click the thumbnail below to see Thad's picture.

The band also recently lost their previous bass player Pete Christian who moved back to his birthplace, the Isle of Man, following the effects of the onset of legionnaire’s disease and cancer.  Has any band had such a terrible time in so short a space?  I know that they all loved the man and I feel for them now.

 Mark was always a strong influence on the Nottingham folk scene and ran the Narrowboat folk club for some years.  His strong love of old timey and bluegrass music inspired him to bring many good American bands to his club in those days.  It was the main place to see such heady stuff.

 Then, and currently until the 11^th,  this man was a real devotee to his music and it would be a very rare festival or bluegrass show that would not see Mark in attendance.  He never stopped pursuing any source of good tuition for himself and, in turn taught a number of pupils of his own. Only months ago Mark produced a fine CD the cover of which is shown at the top of this page.  He had booked to go to the Beanblossom Bluegrass Festival in Indiana only a fortnight after his death.

It was Mark’s comment six years ago which prompted the start of the Nottingham Bluegrass Concerts which my wife Pat and I promote.  I recall that he said at one of our own gigs, “Special Consensus are over soon – I sure would have liked to have had them on here.”  Pat was nearby and readily agreed that we could underwrite and put on a concert and the rest is history. Mark only missed a single one of them out of the seventeen to that date, when his own band was playing and he would always pilot the bands back to their hotel which was in his area.  In the early days Mark and Suzanne would even put up the bands at their home in the early days and I know that he got a great buzz out of that.

 Mark was a well-known and very well thought of guy and his most premature passing will leave a very big hole in many lives - not to mention the Nottingham music scene.

 When Pat called Suzanne she was very calm and said that Mark had gone quickly, not suffered and had died doing the thing that he loved.  I know that this may be an enviable way to leave but we are all finding it very hard indeed to accept that Mark should be so prematurely taken from us, a life that he loved and lived to the full. 

Suzanne can be contacted on 0115 974 3552 and 0115 9235-914 and has accepted the many calls of sympathy and condolence with great understanding.  Hopefully she still gains some comfort from them.  Mark also left two young daughters, Hannah 14 and Jessica 12 at that time. Our hearts go out to them.

 God bless’ Mark.     Geoff and Pat.

Click here to see the many fine tributes and photo's of Mark on special pages.