Marc Storace

Marc Storace (Sto-rah-che) (born October 7, 1951) is a Maltese born rock vocalist. His career in music started in the 1960s. He is most noted for his position as frontman, lead singer and songwriter of Swiss hard rock band Krokus from 1980. Before joining Krokus he sang with the Swiss Prog Rockers TEA. He has since also undertaken a solo project, duets, an acoustical project, and many guest slots. He also had some close encounters with the classical meets rock world and has worked with a few other rock acts as writer and a singer.

Marc Storace
Born (1951-10-07) October 7, 1951
Sliema, Malta
GenresHard Rock, Heavy metal
InstrumentsVocals, percussion, blues harp
Years active1965–present
Associated actsKrokus, TEA
Websitefacebook.com/marcstorace

Marc has a high pitched raunchy voice, making him a very distinct vocalist, and has been compared, according to most music-journalists, to AC/DC's former lead singer Bon Scott or Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant in terms of vocal style. Since he began singing professionally in the 1970s, his style and voice have remained largely the same, with a noticeable increase of character, through maturity and years of live and studio experience.

Marc played a major role in the Swiss-German films Anuk and Handyman, in which he acted, as well as contributed his writing and singing to songs for both the film's soundtracks.

Today, January 2019, Marc is still active in rock projects as well as his "ongoing" semi-acoustic one. Krokus will embark on their "Farewell Tour" this April.

Early life

Born as Mark Anthony Storace Crockford, one of six children to Anthony Storace and Edna Crockford on the Mediterranean island of Malta, Marc taught himself to sing at a fairly young age. His life in bands began at the age of fourteen (1965) when he made his first live performances with two local bands: Stonehenge Union (who covered the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones , the Troggs and the Kinks) and: The Boys (who covered some of the same songs, as well as newer chart material containing more vocally challenging songs e.g. Aquarius from the Musical "HAIR"). Inspired by the gigantic WOODSTOCK Festival in the late 1960s, Marc renamed The Boys to Cinnamon Hades. Whilst retaining the popular Beatles "Abbey Road Medley" the band started to cover Iron Butterfly, Jimi Hendrix, and Hard Rock acts such as The Who, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Wanting to follow his dream of making a career as a rock musician, Marc was forced to leave his beloved island home. He moved to London in 1970.

Further on in his career, after joining Krokus, many people who heard Marc sing thought that he sounded like Bon Scott of AC/DC. He did not take this as a compliment at the time,[1] saying that, with all respect to Bon, he had his own singing identity (proof of this is on ballads and other songs he recorded with TEA & KROKUS) Marc was later approached (by a production company used by both AC/DC and KROKUS at the time) to audition for the frontman job with AC/DC after Bon's tragic death, but Krokus was enjoying a very fast increase in success whilst at that point in time AC/DC was not that huge, so Marc preferred to stay with his new mates.

Early career

At the end of 1971, Marc joined Swiss progressive hard rock band TEA. With them, he toured Europe with big acts such as Queen, Nazareth,or The (Ginger) Baker Gurvitz Army; and released three studio albums: TEA, The Ship and Tax Exiles. All were produced by Dieter Dierks, at that time the man behind the Scorpions. For a while, TEA became Switzerland's international rock Flagship, performing as far as Hamburg, London, Wales, Glasgow, Naples and even Malta.

In 1976, TEA performed their last tour, taking Krokus on-the-road as supporting act. The seed was sown for what followed later on. Meanwhile, Marc returned to London and formed the band Eazy Money. Their song "Telephone Man" was included on a Metal-Music-Compilation album called Metal for Muthas Vol.2. In 1979, he received a call from Krokus founder Chris Von Rohr, who told him they were looking for a new singer and invited Marc for a "weekend jam" in Switzerland. One exciting long weekend session later, Marc decided to join Chris, Tommy, Fern and Freddie in their quest for Hard Rock success!

Krokus

1980-88

In 1980, Marc recorded and released his debut album with Krokus, Metal Rendez-vous. It became Krokus's first big International hit album, the first to make the Gold & Platinum Status(today 4 x Platinum). With Marc on board, Krokus's success increased dramatically, and from then until 1988 they toured extensively, mostly in the United States, Canada and Europe, with tours lasting up to nine months, as well as releasing a further six studio albums (Hardware, One Vice at a Time, Headhunter, The Blitz, Change of Address and Heart Attack) and one live album (Alive and Screamin'). It was an intense long period of constant writing, recording and touring without a break. A physically demanding period spent mostly in rehearsal-rooms, recording-studios, hotel-rooms and tour-buses, and all for the common goal of staying in business rocking their fans. During all this time Marc kept his residence in London. Krokus went their ways in the summer of 1988.

1994-2016

In 1994, Marc and Fernando Von Arb re-formed the band, and a Reunion Tour commenced with a reformed "One Vice At A Time " formation, but with Mané Maurer replacing Chris Von Rohr on bass, since he was busy producing Swiss Rockers Gotthard at that time. The turn-out for their Concerts was satisfying, so in 1995, Krokus released another studio album, To Rock or Not to Be. It went Gold. The year 2002 saw Krokus, with an altered line-up to that of the 1988 hiatus and 1994 return (basically with the DC World -AC/DC Tribute- line-up plus Fernando & Marc) releasing "Rock The Block". This was followed by one of their most extensive Tours of Europe so far, playing Swedenrock Festival and, on the personal invitation of the late great Claude Nobs (the same "funky Claude" in Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water":) the prestigious "Montreux Jazz Festival" too. A limited number of DVD's of that Montreux Gig was included with their following release, a Double-Album "Fire & Gasoline" containing magnificent "LIVE" Recordings from many Gigs off their "Rock The Block" European Tour.

A comeback in the USA happened in September 2005 with Mandy Meyer on board, replacing Fernando Von Arb (the latter having undergone surgery to his hand) on lead guitar. It was a very intense Club-Tour in which the band played 22 Gigs in 30 days. The Tour served to enhance the team-spirit in the new line-up before their coming song-writing phase for the follow-up album "Hellraiser". The Hellraiser formation toured Europe as Guests of the Swedish Metalband - Hammerfall. They played places where Krokus had never visited before including Greece and Malta.

In 2007, 4 members from the old Metal-Rendezvous album line-up: Marc, Fern Chris & Fred, came back together for a mere 3 minute slot on a Swiss TV Show called "Die Grösste Schweizer Hits" or "The Biggest swiss Hits". Their short Medley was received with standing ovations by the TV-audience present. This rekindled the band's early 80's spirit and was followed by a comeback concert of the originals at the "Stade De Suisse" in Bern. Since then a reborn Krokus has given us two more studio-albums: "Hoodoo" and, after a quick line-up change, "Dirty Dynamite". For the latter Marc's vocals were recorded at the legendary "Abbey Road" studios in London. The third "live" album to date called "Longstick Goes Boom", was recorded during 5 consecutive shows at the prestigious venue "Kofmehl" in the band's hometown of Solothurn, Switzerland. (This album represents, more or less, the present "live" sound of Krokus - Jan.2019)

In 2015 Krokus flew to Miami to literally embark on a promo-tour for their new "live" album, playing the "Monsters Of Rock Cruise" in the Caribbean and then continued with several USA dates. They ended their "Longstick Goes Boom" Tour with two shows at the prestigious venue the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles.

In 2016, Marc's name appeared on various "Lists of Singers" considered as best candidates to replace Brian Johnson as lead vocalist of AC/DC. Krokus were working on a new album at the time.

BIG ROCKS, a collection of covers by artists who influenced individual band members since their teens, was released by Krokus in January 2017. It went straight to No.1 in the Swiss Charts.

Marc has been Krokus' vocalist/frontman since October 1979, and has sung on all but 5 of the band's studio recordings.

KROKUS ALBUMS containing Marc Storace's lead vocals:

BIG ROCKS - 2017 ; DIRTY DYNAMITE - 2013 ; HOODOO - 2010 ; HELLRAISER - 2006 ; FIRE & GASOLINE (Live-Double) - 2004 ; ROCK THE BLOCK - 2003 ; TO ROCK OR NOT TO BE - 1995 ; HEART ATTACK - 1988 ; ALIVE and SCREAMIN`- 1987 ; CHANGE OF ADDRESS - 1986 ; THE BLITZ - 1984 ; HEADHUNTER - 1983 ; ONE VICE AT A TIME - 1982 ; HARDWARE - 1981 ; METAL RENDEZ-VOUS 1980 ;

Other projects

Solo project

In spring 1989, after Krokus's split and a refreshing break in Malta, Marc returned to Switzerland and wrote songs for his first solo project together with guitar-player Vic Vergeat, his long time friend from the TEA days (Vic played in TOAD when Marc sang in TEA, and he was mostly famous for his one on one guitar interpretations of Jimi Hendrix), The Blue Album. It contains a rare collection of melodic, soul influenced rock songs, and was released in 1991 by EurostarGermany. BLUE was re-released in 1998 by BMG Records, Switzerland under the new name Vergeat-Storace- When A Man - ! The album was produced by Robert Papst and Vic Vergeat in Münich, Germany. Robert also co-wrote the Swiss-radio-hit "You can`t Stop the Rainfall".

Various guest vocal projects

Shortly after AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott's death in 1980, Marc was indirectly asked to audition for the job but things were going extremely well for Krokus at the time.[1][2] He also claimed that, besides his feelings of loyalty to his mates, he felt happy with the way things were going for Krokus.

In 1993, Marc joined as guest with the Swiss rock band China. A live album of the band's one and only tour with Marc in 1993 was eventually released on the CD called "Alive!" in 2000. (This concert was a "live" Swiss radio broadcast of their gig in Sempach released by Phonag Records).[3]

With China's guitarists Freddie Lawrence and Claudio Matteo, Marc formed Acoustical Mountain that same year. This unplugged trio, performing without drums, played rock 'n' roll classics around Switzerland but never released any albums, making them a "live-only" project. They split and then reformed in 1995, this time with China's bassist Brian Kofmehl replacing Freddie, who moved on to join Swiss melodic-rockers Gotthard. In the meantime Brian was replaced by Charly Preissel on 2nd guitar. Marc and Claudio still perform as a Duo at "Private-Events" as Acoustical Mountain, and sometimes with Charly Preissel.www.acoustical-mountain.com

In 1994, during a break in his Krokus Reunion duties, Marc joined Manfred Ehlert's Amen to release an album in the same year.Glenn Hughes sang on some tracks. Marc's second album with Amen was called Aguilar (1996) with Marc singing all but one track.

In 2003 during another break from Krokus, Marc wrote and recorded with Los Angeles based metal rockers Warrior. This collaboration resulted in the one-off album The Wars of Gods and Men. Released in the USA and Switzerland in 2004, it was Storace's first collaboration with an American band. Working with guitarist and founding member Joe Floyd the album was recorded in Los Angeles.

November 2004 saw German producer Michael Voss invite Marc to collaborate on the new album of the band BISS titled "Face-off" that was released in 2005. It was a melodic rock album and Marc said the songs were "refreshing".[4]

The following year, 2006, saw yet another release by BISS featuring Marc on the album "X-Tension".

As of February 2016, Storace has starred in the rock-opera "TEST" in the role of Luke (premiered on 20 February 2016)[5]

During the same year, Marc recorded the album "Muscle & Blood" with Billy Stokes & friends in Tucson Arizona. The album also features Pat Travers, Les Dudek, Frank Marino and Damon Barnaby on guitars.This was a "Wounded Warrior Project" with thanks to Paralyzed Veterans of America from Billy, who himself is a veteran.

Anuk

In 2006, Marc took part in the Swiss-German film Anuk, playing the role of Geisterzunge, a tribal medicine-man / Shaman. Produced by Luke Gasser (who also plays the lead role), the film tells the story of a Bronze Age tribe trying to save itself from eradication by ruthless marauding horsemen in the panoramic Swiss Alps. Marc co-wrote the soundtrack with Gasser and sings on the song "On My Own" together with Gasser and Doro Pesch. His Shaman chanting can be heard throughout the movie soundtrack.[6]

Discography

Krokus
Title Year
Metal Rendez-vous CH 1980
Hardware UK 1981
One Vice at a Time UK 1982
Headhunter USA 1983
The Blitz USA 1984
Change of Address USA 1986
Alive and Screamin' USA 1986
Heart Attack CH 1988
To Rock or Not to Be CH 1995
Rock the Block CH 2003
Hellraiser D 2006
Hoodoo CH 2010
Dirty Dynamite CH/UK 2013
Long Stick Goes Boom: Live From Da House of Rust CH 2014
Big Rocks CH 2017

Others
Artist Title Year
TEA TEA D 1972
TEA The Ship D 1975
TEA Tax Exile D 1976
Marc Storace The Blue Album D 1991
Amen Amen CH 1994
Amen Aguilar CH 1996
Marc Storace & China Alive CH 2000
DC/World Tribute:Bon & AC / DC CH 2000
Storace/Haslinger One World CH 2000
Warrior Wars of Gods/Men USA 2004
Biss Face-Off D 2005
Biss X-tension D 2006
Billy Stokes "Muscle & Blood" USA 2016
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References
  1. Interview with Marc Storace at classicrockrevisited.com
  2. Interview with Marc Storace at Bravewords.com, February 25th, 2013
  3. Interview with Marc Storace at metal-temple.com Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Marc Storace's online biography Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "CHARACTERS - TEST - THE ROCK OPERA". Testrockopera.com. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  6. Anuk trailer Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
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