Mark Ronson

[Bryan]

Anyone heard of him, he's a UK DJ, with rich links in the music industry who did the music for Tom Cruis and Katie Holmes wedding. All the radio stations are going crazy for his debut Albumn Versions, he collaborates with some of the UK's best known names, reworking versions of some modern classics.

here's his myspace: http://www.myspace.com/markronson

[Bryan]

An article from todays Sun:

IF there’s one man whose name is on everyone’s lips at the moment, it’s DJ-turned-producer Mark Ronson.

After making a name for himself by discovering Lily Allen, making Amy Winehouse a star, and even being asked to DJ at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ wedding, now it’s time for the Anglo-American to steal some of the limelight for himself with the release of his album, Version.

The album features a collection of some of his favourite tracks in recent years, reworked and reinvented into dancefloor, horn-infused modern soul with the help of some of his friends.

Brit winner Amy, Lily, Robbie Williams, Maximo Park’s Paul Smith and Aussie newcomer Daniel Merriweather all provide guest vocals on covers of hits including Radiohead’s Just; Kaiser Chiefs’ Oh My God; Britney Spears’ Toxic; The Zutons’ Valerie and The Charlatans’ The Only One I Know.

Stop Me, a mix of The Smiths’ Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before with The Supremes’ You Keep Me Hangin’ On, has already given Mark a Top Ten chart hit and iTunes No1. He told SFTW: “It’s funny how Stop Me has got so big because when I made it I thought no one will hear this — just my crowd.

“My friend wrote Avril Lavigne’s song, Girlfriend. I called him to give him ******* because he has been No1 for ever.

“I said, ‘Man your dumb-ass song is keeping me out of the No1 slot’ and then I saw we were No1 on iTunes. I guess I’d sent him enough bad karma to take his spot.”

However, there have been some die-hard Smiths fans giving Mark earache over the cover.

“I have been getting a few emails and MySpace messages from some angry Smiths fans, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to apologise. I have no need to as I’ve got approval from both Morrissey and Johnny Marr.

“I usually ignore the few remarks I get saying ‘Hey w****r’ and anything vitriolic. But then the other day I ended up writing this giant reply back to one guy and I think it has silenced them all now. I told him how Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before is my favourite song of all time. I heard it when I was 15 and it changed my life. Skip ahead ten years and I am playing hip hop in clubs and trying to broaden people’s horizons to other styles of music out there.



New album ... Version


“So the very first version of Stop Me that I recorded with Daniel Merriweather was sent to Morrissey and Johnny Marr.

“If they weren’t cool with it then I wouldn’t have gone any further as I have too much respect for them.

“Johnny Marr approved it and Morrissey came back and said, ‘I really like this and I really like this kid singing, he’s got a lovely voice’.

As for the disapproval from Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner, Mark laughs: “Oh dear! I don’t have a problem with the Arctic Monkeys and I like them as a band. To use the R&B tag to slag the song off is silly as most of contemporary music comes from R&B — whether you like it or not!

"The first time Johnny Marr and Morrissey ever got together they played The Marvelettes — that’s R&B. And when they were making the album Strangeways, Here We Come, every night they would listen to Northern Soul.”

It was finding a track for mate Robbie Williams that took the longest for Mark. They finally settled on The Charlatans’ anthem The Only One I Know.

“We went through so many tracks as Robbie is such a muso which people don’t realise. We both have very similar tastes in music from Houston rappers like Scarface to Ryan Adams and stuff like that. We both finally agreed on The Charlatans song and it really suits his style of singing.”

Being London-born but raised in New York, Mark’s accent is a strange transatlantic mixture.

The son of American writer Ann Dexter-Jones and band manager Laurence Ronson (and not Mick Ronson, legendary guitarist with David Bowie) Mark moved to the Big Apple with his mother when he was eight.

His mother remarried Mick Jones, the guitarist in Foreigner, and his best mate was Sean Lennon. Good looking, cool and a face on the music scene, he started DJing at 15 after falling in love with Hip-Hop and soon became the big name on the New York club scene.





But Mark reckons his connections have been exaggerated.

“I’ve read stuff about me that makes me nauseous. I don’t even like me. For one it’s been said my dad was a real estate tycoon — he managed bands. Then I’ve heard that I used to hang out with Paul and Linda McCartney as a kid. That’s so not true.”

Mark might downplay his celebrity links but there is no denying he is one of the most in-demand DJs and hottest producers now.

He says: “I think it’s funny now being called ‘famous’, as just a year ago, when I was working with Lily, I didn’t have a record deal or any money.

“My dad reads The Sun before he goes to work and laughs when he sees my name in it. I’ve been out with Amy on nights out where she has had 18 photographers chasing after her. I crashed at hers after The Brits and the next day we were chased down the street like the T100 in the film Terminator.”

With his success there are new and established acts queuing up to work with him, but Mark says he is taking extra care about who he says yes to.

“I have no desire to become a celebrity so I am taking my time over future work projects.

“I could never work with someone like Madonna as I hate confrontation. I like to work with singers who are still quite new so we grow and find a sound organically together.”

[Siobhan]

Stop Me, a mix of The Smiths’ Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before with The Supremes’ You Keep Me Hangin’ On, has already given Mark a Top Ten chart hit and iTunes No1. He told SFTW: “It’s funny how Stop Me has got so big because when I made it I thought no one will hear this — just my crowd.



I heard this and I cried.. I love both song (on their own) but they are so bad together.. mind you I am not a big fan of DJ who make it to the charts.. I dont' think there is any I have ever like at all

[Abi]

I'm the same, Siobhan. I prefer DJs before they release albumns, and they're just on the club scene, rather than in the charts. I dont mind a few people, but generally they just get too commericialised, and ruin themselves. They should just stick to the gigs and letting us download them from their sites.

[Bad Wolf]

i love this song!!!!!!

i think he has done something really good with it, its different to most of teh other stuff thats in the chart