Mark Wirtz

Born 3 September 1943 in Strasbourg, Alsace (France); died 7 August 2020. Wirtz will always be remembered as the creator of the infamous Teenage Opera which catapulted Keith West into momentary fame. Prior to this, he was a successful producer at EMI principally for his work on the stereo-only Studio 2 series. Wirtz was already producing the (pre Tomorrow (2)) In Crowd, had used Steve Howe as a session guitarist on various projects, and subsequently asked Keith West to assist him on the “Teenage Opera”. Although the relative failure of Sam, the second single, doomed its progress, he used Abbey Road down-time to assemble more “Opera” material, notably the highly complex (He’s Our) Dear Old Weatherman. It bore all of the producer’s distinctive trademarks—swirling strings, child singers and a sumptuous melody—and the result was an artistic masterpiece. Sadly, it was not a commercial success and all remaining Opera music was shelved. Wirtz remained very active in the music world, recording a variety of albums and singles during the seventies.