Mark Abrahams Biography
MARK
Abrahams
Mark Abrahams is a British blues rock guitarist from Yorkshire who is best known for his current work with the British twin lead guitar band ‘Wishbone Ash’ and as a Remote Session Guitarist.
Mark was born in Leeds on September 30th, 1978 and even though he is from a non-musical family, it was obvious he was a guitarist in the making from a very early age, rarely was he parted from his out of tune toy acoustic guitar and often with his face glued to the television anytime there was a guitarist playing.
At the age of 8 Mark was given his first acoustic guitar by a family friend and started taking lessons at school. Around a year later it was the same family friend who first introduced Mark to Wishbone Ash when he showed him how to play the intro guitar part to the song ‘Blowin Free’.. That was it, from then on it was all about Electric Guitars!
During high school Marks first school band ‘Forenzic Evidence’ was formed with some fellow school mates and with Mark now clutching a candy apple red Fender Stratocaster just like his hero Mark Knopfler, the band played a few concerts at school playing cover versions of songs by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Dire Straits.
Marks first ‘real’ band was Chosen Rejects, formed in 1996 with other friends at Brigshaw High School in Leeds, they played paid gigs on weekends around the local and the Yorkshire pub circuit as well as many of the top venues for original bands in Leeds, including the famous Duchess of York and The Cockpit. This band was eventually re-named ‘Scooby’ and until quite recently was still a favourite band on the scene, although none of the original 5 band members we still present.
Coyote were the next band Mark would play with, a more established rock band playing much larger clubs around the North of England, usually playing over 120 dates per year. The high point of playing with Coyote was a UK tour playing alongside good friends Oliver Dawson Saxon and the ‘Chinese Democracy’ Era Guns n Roses Guitarist, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal.



Wishbone Ash
In May 2017 Mark was approached by his long-time friend, Wishbone Ash’s guitarist and original member, Andy Powell about taking up the position of his co guitar player after the departure of Muddy Manninen. As a huge, lifelong fan of Wishbone Ash Mark Was delighted to accept and got to work straight away with only a few weeks until his debut gig.
The new Wishbone Ash line up featuring Mark Abrahams on guitar played their first show at Sweden Rock Festival on June 9th 2017 followed by more festivals in Europe the same summer before undertaking a 4 week tour of the United states straight into another 5 week tour of the UK.
After trying hard to fit in as many Coyote shows between Wishbone Ash commitments as possible which was proving to be a strain, Mark finally left Coyote in December 2017 to fully concentrate on Wishbone Ash.
As well as playing over 300 live shows with Wishbone Ash to date in over 20 countries, Mark also has had a 20 year long career in musical instrument retail, working in various music stores around Yorkshire selling guitars and drums before opening his own guitar shop ‘Vision Guitars’ in 2009. Vision Guitars, a Castleford based store remained open until September 2017 when touring and being away from home for weeks at a time made it impossible to continue.
As of 2023 Mark has appeared on 5 albums with Wishbone Ash.
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Roadworks 5 - Live in Sacramento,
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Roadworks 6 - Live in Japan
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Coat of Arms
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California to Kawasaki
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Live Dates Live
Influences and Gear
Mark cites mainly blues guitar players as his influences, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Moore, Robert Cray, Peter Green and Eric Clapton to name a few, as well as Paul Kossoff, Mark Knopfler and of course, Wishbone Ash.
You can hire Mark Abrahams as an Online Session Guitarist to record and supply guitar tracks for your music.
Mark Abrahams uses and endorses products by:
Gibson, Tokai, Fender, PRS, Yamaha, Taylor and Elvidge Custom Guitars.
Kemper, Orange, Fender and Engl Amplifiers.
Nemphasis, Analog Man, Friedman, Ibanez, Carl Martin, Xotic, Boss, Ernie Ball, TC Electronic and Custom Audio Electronics effects pedals.
