Reeder, Mark 1958

Mark Reeder was born in Manchester in 1958. While at school, he took a part time job in the Manchester branch of the Virgin Record Store. He studied graphic design and worked briefly for an advertising agency, before taking a full time position at the Virgin Record Store.

While working at Virgin, he promoted local punk bands The Buzzcocks, The Drones, and Slaughter and the Dogs to customers shopping in the store. He was also friends with the members of the post-punk band Joy Division.

Around the same time, Reeder co-founded new-wave punk band The Frantic Elevators with Neil Moss and Mick Hucknall. Prior to The Frantic Elevators, Reeder had been a member of a progressive rock band, Joe Stalin’s Red Star Radio Band.

Reeder’s passion for the German music genre Krautrock took him to Berlin in 1978. His intention was to buy Krautrock records, but he ended up making Berlin his home. He helped to promote Joy Division in Berlin, and set up their gig at the Kant Kino venue in January 1980. Through his friendship with Joy Division, Reeder became an unofficial representative of Factory Records in Berlin.

Reeder formed his own band in 1981, the dark wave synth band Die Unbekannten (The Unknown). Die Unbekannten was the first band to make a record using the prototype Roland 606 drum machine. Reeder also managed a couple of bands and worked as a sound engineer during this time.

Reeder regularly visited East Berlin, often smuggling cassette recordings of western music as well as taking West German musicians to visit the East German scene. In 1983, he co-organised the first secret underground punk concert in East Germany.

In 1984, Reeder changed the name of his band from Die Unbekannten to Shark Vegas and changed musical direction towards Hi-NRG disco. Shark Vegas toured Europe with New Order in 1984.

In 1987, Reeder began an electronic music project known as Alien Nation, which explored the emerging Acid House scene.

In 1990, Reeder set up his own electronic music label, Masterminded For Success (MFS), launching the careers of early techno and trance artists, including the DJ Paul van Dyk. The label was dormant between 1998 and 2018, when Reeder reactivated it to release music by the Chinese band STOLEN.

Reeder also composes music for film scores and television adverts, and has produced remixes for New Order, Depeche Mode, The Pet Shop Boys, and Yello. He regularly speaks publicly about his experiences in the East and West German music scene in the 1980s and 1990s, and about his experiences as a record producer and label manager.