Mark Lightcap - Uther Pendragon (Part One)
When and where were you born? Are you originally from the Bay Area? What was growing up like for you? When did you first begin playing music? Was this something that was relevant in your household growing up?
I was born December 4, 1948, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Palo Alto, at the Old Stanford Hospital (no longer a hospital). My family moved to a home they bought in the hills of San Carlos (SF Bay Area) when I was 5. Those hills became my playground as I spent my younger years building forts, hiking in the hills, and playing with the frogs and polliwogs. Around the age of 9 my parents divorced. Without going into the bitter details, it was a nasty divorce. My sister and I were used as their weaponized pawns to cause as much mental destruction on each parent as possible. As an example, when my father came by to pick us up for the weekend my mom would remind me to tell him that he’s behind on his child support. After picking us up my father would ask me if my mother was spending the money he sent her on us like she was supposed to. It left me depressed and suicidal. To be fair, I have no doubt that my Mother and Father loved my sister and me. I’m pretty sure they had no idea the negative impact their hatred toward each other would have on us. My mother had me take violin and piano lessons at an early age, perhaps because she played both of those instruments. It was forced on me against my very strong protests. I did not enjoy it; one might even say I dreaded it.
Mark on his wedding day.
I remember her forcing me to play a piano recital and me wishing the car would run off the road so I wouldn’t have to play in front of all these strangers. I was about as much of an introvert as you would find. So obviously, later on I joined a band my senior year of high school and ended up playing in front of thousands of “strangers" throughout the 11 years we were together. Ain’t life peculiar, unpredictable, and downright strange. My first introduction to rock and roll came in junior high school. I still think of my first dance whenever I hear the song “Bristol Stomp”. It was then that I fell in love with music. I got a transistor radio for Christmas when I was about 12. Although I wasn’t allowed to listen to rock music at the time, I would stealthily tune it to the local rock radio stations (KYA or KFRC), hide the radio under my pillow, and absorb all this wonderful music as I fell asleep at night. Later in my freshman through junior years in high school I would hear “songs in my head” that I made up, complete with all the music. I would hum melodies that I made up before I even thought of myself as a songwriter. At that time I had no idea I was destined to spend 11 years of my life living with a group of musicians that would form a band, write, record, and play some amazing music, and become my closest lifelong friends.
The Blue Fever
Who were some of your influences early on? Where would you go to see shows in your community and what groups/performances stood out to you the most during that time? What would you and your friends do for fun back in the day?
That old transistor radio would pump out such tunes as Midnight Hour, Rock Around the Clock, Bristol Stomp, Oh Carol, Splish Splash, Rockin’ Robin, At the Hop, Great Balls of Fire, to name just a few. I loved them all and couldn’t hear enough of them. Around 1963 when I started hearing songs by a band called “The Beatles” I knew I must have died and gone to heaven. Their harmonies knocked me flat on my skinny little butt. By then I had ditched the transistor radio for a stereo console my mother bought to listen to her classical music. (I grew to love classical music later as I got older.) It was on that console that I started listening to songs by such bands as The Rolling Stones, Janice Joplin (Big Brother and the Holding Company), The Doors, Blues Magoos, The Animals, The Byrds, The Band, Credence CR and Cream. I knew I was officially in love with Rock & Roll. When I heard songs by Crosby Stills & Nash (and later Young) with their lush harmonies I knew I was listening to what music must sound like in heaven.
The Blue Fever.
I remember around 1965 hearing a popular local band called The Nightriders play at a Teen Center in San Carlos. Although my friends and I didn’t go inside, hearing the sound of a live band through the walls of the building, jamming away with their electric guitars and drums gave me goose bumps. Up until my senior year in High School most of my fun consisted of playing sports, baseball being my favorite. I pitched a perfect game my Junior Year in High School. For some unknown reason, my arm was never the same after that and I turned my interests to music. This tall guy Bruce, (lead guitar/vocals) sat in front of me in our Spanish class. I was a Junior and Bruce was a Senior. One day he turned around in class and said he was in a band. (To this day I don’t know why he told me that.) He also bragged that he could get all the girls he wanted because of that. He said when his band played, they had “Go Go Girls” dancing on the speakers. Because my passion for music was only matched by my passion for girls, I asked him how I could join the band.
The Blue Fever.
He said you have to play an instrument. Long story short, that summer he taught me how to play the guitar. I practiced like a madman on my sisters acoustic guitar that had strings about a foot off the fret board, and bought my first electric guitar and amp during my senior year in high school. I auditioned for Bruce’s band (The Blue Fever) at Doug Williams’ (keyboard player) parents’ house in their one car garage. There was not a “Go Go Girl” or any other type of girl in sight. After playing some cover tunes like House of the Rising Sun, and Barbara Ann the band retired to the ktichen to decide my fate. Although it seemed like an eternity, they came out about 15 minutes later and told me I passed the audition and was now a member of the band. I was walking on air! From that point on, my life was all about music . . . with a “little” break in between to marry Darlene the love of my life, one of the ladies who lived in the Menlo Park Band House, raise three children, and spend 29 years at The California Water Service Company working for a living. After the children were grown, Bruce and I got back together and formed the band, Bad Daddy. We released two albums during that time and are working on a third.
The Blue Fever.
Tell me about Blue Fever, what eventually became Uther Pendragon. When did you first meet your band mates and what led to the decision to form the band in ‘66? When and where did you guys first get together to rehearse and what was that experience like? When did you make your first live debut playing music in front of an audience? How did the name for the group come about?
Since the band Blue Fever was already a thing when I joined, I’m not sure what led to the decision to form. I do know that Bruce Marelich (lead guitar/vocals) Derek French (drummer at the time), Doug Williams (keyboard/vocals at the time) and Martin Espinosa (bass guitar/vocals) and I practiced and jammed in one of the bedrooms at Martin’s mom’s house. His mom was known affectionately as Mrs. E and was like a surrogate mother to us. It was there that we developed our love of jamming, i.e. making stuff up as we went. Some of these jams would last a good hour. We learned to listen to each other and play off each other’s ideas and inspirations.
Mandala.
The Blue Fever.
This was a precursor to and helped to develop our original psychedelic 60’s sound. Not long after I passed the audition for Blue Fever and officially joined the band, I graduated from San Carlos High School, moved out of my Mother’s San Carlos home and into what was the first of three Band Houses. Located in the Belmont hills, I lived with a group of guys that would become the family I had always longed for. Bruce Marelich, Martin Espinosa, Mike Beers (who joined the band when we were living in our third Band House in Menlo Park and were known as Uther Pendragon), and our manager Craig Pedersen who has since passed, became lifelong friends. We shared all the ups and downs that came with trying to “make it” as a band and live like a family. We supported each other emotionally as we all pursued what turned out to be an elusive dream.
TIMNE.
The Blue Fever.
Tell me about writing and recording the songs that would have been the band’s LP “San Fran Earthquake”. When and where did recording begin and what was that process creating those songs like for you? What did you guys want to achieve and/or express with this material?
The songs that ended up on the LP “San Francisco Earthquake”, came about over the life of the band. Most of them were recorded on a 4 track Sony. One of our first recordings, “Kristina”, was recorded around 1966 at a church in Belmont called The Immaculate Heart of Mary. Only six of the tunes were recorded at a professional recording studio. Four were recorded at Pacific Recording Studio in San Mateo. When the sound engineer was mixing our 4-song demo, he played some tracks from another band he was recording. We were amazed to hear the bass and percussion tracks on what would become Santana’s Abraxas album. The writing process was a group effort. One of the band members would work on an idea for a song, bring it to a band rehearsal, and the band would work out different parts, arrangements, breaks, dynamics, harmonies, etc. As an example, I remember Bruce (lead guitar/vocals) played us a song idea he had called “I’m a Human Now”.
UP performing at Sierra Nevada College.
The first time I heard it was at San Gregorio Beach around 1967. We travelled to the coast to have some fun and while we were sitting around a campfire, he played it on an acoustic guitar. We all flipped! At subsequent band rehearsals we worked out the different parts, incorporating ideas from all band members. The result was what turned out to be one of my favorite Uther Pendragon songs, one I love to play live to this very day. Another song I’ve always enjoyed was “Magical Door”, written around 1969. Our manager was exploring the occult when we were living in the Belmont Band House. I’m sure I was influenced by that when I came up with the idea for the song. Just like all the other songs, we took “Magical Door” to our rehearsals and worked out all the parts. I’m particularly fond of the different breaks and dynamics in the song. They mostly came out of the imaginations of all the band members, making the song that much more powerful. What we were trying to accomplish as a band could be summed up in our mantra, “We’re going to be bigger than The Beatles.” Although we never got there, the 11 years we spent living as a family, writing and recording music, and playing live was in and of itself, a type of success.
Uther Pendragon.
We played on the same bill as several famous bands such as Country Joe and the Fish and The Tubes. The bonds we established when we were sharing the dream helped to solidify our lifelong love for each other. The triple vinyl album, San Francisco Earthquake that Guerssen released in 2016, was a sort of validation of those 11 years we spent together making music. The band and its cosmic identity was around from ‘66 to ‘78, but never released any physical material till 2016. First, tell me about the group’s many different phases it went through with names such as: Timne, Hodological Mandala, Mandala, Kodiac, Justus and Pendragon as well as the multiple different line-up changes that came with it. I’m not sure why we kept changing our name. In some respects the different names changed as our style of music changed, and our style of music changed as the music on the radio and in the music venues changed. In the beginning our music was much less “psychedelic” and morphed to a more psychedelic sound as the San Francisco music scene evolved. Although we had different band members throughout the band’s existence, the core of Bruce, Martin, later Mike (drums/vocals), and I stayed the same.
Can you tell me why the band never released any material during its existence? I understand Guerssen released what would eventually become the “San Fran Earthquake” LP in 2016. Can you tell me how that all came about and what it was like to finally release this unheard material?
Although we never released any material it wasn’t from lack of trying. Martin and Craig made a few trips to LA to shop our tapes. We had interest from Playboy Records and Dell Records, but nothing ever came to fruition. We were told most of our songs were too long, reducing their commercial viability. The release of San Francisco Earthquake by Guerssen in 2016 was quite a pleasant shock. Guerssen heard our music on a website that Craig (band manager) developed. It included some of our music, the history of the band, and historical band photos. They originally tried to contact Craig but got no response, so they reached out to me. I became the go-between and coordinated their request for material with the rest of the band. Prior to their contacting us, Bruce and Craig spent many hours listening to and cataloging the many tape recordings we had saved over the years. When Guerssen asked for WAV files of the songs they wanted to include on the album, I took the tape recordings and converted them to digital recordings in my recording studio and sent the WAV files to Guerssen.
Article written by DOP and the band’s manager Craig Pedersen.
When the album was released, we had a record release party at my house. (32 acres in Butte Creek Canyon, just outside of Chico, CA) Several hundred people attended, bought Uther Pendragon tee shirts that Craig designed, SF Earthquake albums and cds, and listened to us resurrect those psychedelic tunes that were written so many years before. It was a blast to say the least. As an interesting sidenote, about my third year with Cal Water, probably around 1979, I confided in a co-worker the story behind Uther Pendragon and my frustration with never having accomplished our goals. She invited me to meet with a person she knew in San Francisco who read auras and could bring me some closure. I wasn’t a huge believer or disbeliever, and figuring it couldn’t hurt, I agreed to accompany her and meet with this person. It was a beautiful sunny weekend day, and his apartment had an incredible view of the ocean.
Uther Pendragon. (UPCO MUSIC - Promo)
He was so calm and gentle, had me sit in a chair, and proceeded to read my aura. He tape recorded our session and provided me with a cassette tape when finished. At the very end of this tape he asks me if I have any questions. I say, “Yes, only one. You never mentioned if Uther Pendragon would ever make it and get the recognition it deserves.” (I’m stubborn and driven and still hadn’t given up.) He replied, “Yes, they will, but not for many years.” As a favor to my co-worker, he never charged me a dime. The cassette tape with that incredibly accurate prediction, vision, or whatever one wants to call it did in fact bring me closure. My frustration just melted away. I kept that tape with me when we moved from the Bay Area up to Chico, CA. I would listen to it every few years or so. Unfortunately it burned in the 2018 fire along with our house.
Uther Pendragon.
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Uther Pendragon started having an annual band reunion starting in 2004. Back in the day, the 3 band houses we lived in throughout our existence were always full of friends of the band who loved to just hang out with us. When we announced our first reunion and invited as many of our old friends as we could find, the excitement was palpable. The reunions have been a lot of fun. It was great to see all these people we had lost touch with over the years. We would dust off the old UP tunes and rock out until the wee hours. The reunions have been on hold because of the “Pandammit” and because this writer lost his house in the Camp Fire in 2018. It has since been rebuilt, my wife and I are back home, and I am hoping to hold another reunion in the near future. Long Live Uther Pendragon!
On behalf of UTHER PENDRAGON: Bruce Marelich (lead guitar/vocals), Martin Espinosa (bass guitar/vocals), Mike Beers (Drums, vocals), and myself (rhythm guitar/vocals) I would like to thank Primitive Man Soundz for the opportunity to share our story with his readers. It is greatly appreciated.
