Mark Wilden
Mark Wilden founded the Evenings in Oxford in 2001. In live performance he takes the role of drummer and often attempts to sing at the same time. When for a brief period in 2004-5 The Evenings had two drummers, he used to jump around the stage "conducting", and still does on occasion. In the studio Wilden takes a producing role and plays instruments including piano, accordion, guitar, percussion, keyboards and samples.
He began performing live music when the Radio 1 Sound City festival came to Oxford in 1997, where he played keyboards in a chirpy indie band with no gigging experience. He then spent a few years learning to sing and drum at the same time as half of the acoustic duo The Fiji Uncles and one third of Oliver Shaw's The Long Hosts, before a two year sabbatical to Edinburgh where he spent all his money on records and learned to be a small-time promoter and amateur DJ (under the name DJ Friendly). On returning to Oxford he rejoined Oliver Shaw's band, which at the time also featured Phil Oakley of Sexy Breakfast, soon to become The Evenings' long-term bass guitarist.
Gradually The Evenings became a live concern and for a fertile few years Wilden performed regularly with bands including eeebleee, Los Diablos, Lum Col Con Pix and Sirus, whose members have gone on to bands including Witches, The Thumb Quintet, Space Heroes of The People, Lind Optical, The Walk Off, Holiday Stabbings, Mai Mayo Mai and Little Cosmonaut, among others. However, in February 2006 Wilden realised he was going mad and thought it would be sensible to stick to one band and one day job in order to allow time to eat, sleep and woo women. Since then he has learned to enjoy music again.
