Louisa Mark - Moving Target

• published: 21 Dec 2014
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Louisa Mark, who has died suddenly aged 49, was one of the most important vocalists of lovers' rock, a uniquely black British style of romantic reggae that she helped to pioneer during the mid-1970s. Although Mark's output was not prolific, several of her recordings were immensely popular with local audiences seeking an alternative to the predominant political protest form of Jamaican roots reggae. Her early triumphs paved the way for the success of like-minded peers such as Carroll Thompson, Janet Kay and Deborahe Glasgow. Her hit singles of the 1970s and 80s are rightly regarded as classics of the genre and have never gone out of fashion, being aired continually on community radio stations and at nightclubs decades after their original release. Mark was the second daughter of Grenadian immigrant parents who had settled in Ladbroke Grove, west London. Her father worked as a builder while her mother undertook factory work before becoming a care assistant to elderly people. While attending Hammersmith county secondary school, Louisa received her introduction to the music scene. In 1973, she was a guest vocalist on Dennis Bovell's Sufferer sound system, then resident at the Metro club in Westbourne Park. For one so short and so young, she possessed a surprisingly strong and n 1974, the rival sound system owner Lloydie Coxsone invited Mark to enter Star Search, a weekly talent contest held at the Four Aces nightclub in Dalston, east London, where she won first prize 10 weeks in a row. That November, Coxsone brought her into Gooseberry studios with Bovell's band, Matumbi, to record a reggae rendition of Caught You in a Lie, an old R&B; hit. Mark's quavering soprano, placed to dramatic effect over Bovell's exceptional arrangement, brought instant favour, with the single reportedly selling 10,000 copies in a fortnight. An adaptation of the Beatles' All My Loving followed swiftly, but after a bitter dispute with Coxsone, she retreated from singing for a year and half, during which time she completed secondary school. Advertisement In 1977 she joined the revamped Trojan label, working closely with the producer Clem Bushay and the songwriter and arranger Joseph "Tunga" Charles of the band Zabandis, this collaboration yielding Keep It Like It Is. Mark later left the company to work for the newly formed Bushay label, issuing a version of Michael Jackson's Even Though You're Gone and another broken-hearted Charles original, Six Sixth Street, which topped the reggae charts, helping her to win Artist of the Year at the 1978 reggae awards. After the release of People in Love the next year, Mark retreated from the music scene for another extended period. She collaborated with Bushay and Charles again in the early 1980s, but was disappointed by the shape of her debut album, Breakout, which she felt was released before it had been properly completed. She recorded only sporadically from the mid-1980s, as she was wary of the music industry and because her legendary temper made producers reluctant to work with her. About six years ago, she settled in the Gambia, where she became involved in charity work. A postmortem will be held into the cause of her death, and her body is expected to be flown back to the UK. She is survived by her mother, her sister, a daughter and a son. • Louisa Lynthia Mark, singer, born 11 January 1960; died 17 October 2009