Mark Opitz
Encyclopedia
Mark Opitz, started his career with ABC TV in Sydney in the 1970’s and has since gone on to work with many of the great Australian musicians that have graced both the Australian and international music charts for the past 25 years.
When Australia's pre-eminent production team, Vanda and Young, offered Opitz, fresh from his job as at EMI Music (Capitol & Local Artists Label Manager), a position as their apprentice producer and he accepted immediately and started working with them on their staple artists AC/DC (Powerage), Rose Tattoo and John Paul Young (Love Is In The Air) and Flash In The Pan etc learning as he went along. It was during this period Opitz was given the job of producing Alberts artists the Angels (Face To Face & No Exit albums) here he finally stumbled upon gold in the form of a signature, thick guitar sound that ruled Australia's '80s/90s airwaves. Around this time Warner Music offered Opitz the position as Head of A&R while he was producing the East album for Cold Chisel. He accepted and went on to sign Billy Field (Bad Habits) and sign & produce the Divinyls (Desperate-Boys In Town, Science Fiction etc.) among others he also produced further albums for Cold Chisel ( Circus Animals, Swingshift etc.), Richard Clapton (Great Escape) Swanee and the Hitmen. Leaving corporate A&R , Opitz as well entering into a partnership in the legendary Rhinoceros Studio’s, set up his own production company and went on to produce albums for Jimmy Barnes, INXS' first classic album, Shabooh Shoobah, Models/Out Of Mind Out Of Sight, Hoodoo Gurus/What’s My Scene, Australian Crawl/Reckless, Noiseworks and The Reels as well as many others This decade, the 80’s, also saw Opitz win the industry voted Australia’s Best Producer Award 7 times. (2x Aria’s and 5 ABC TV Countdown)
In the '90s, Opitz was based primarily overseas working with International artists. During that time he also produced several more INXS albums, including Welcome to Wherever You Are and Full Moon, Dirty Hearts. He also produced “Live Baby Live” for the band while accompanying them on their yearlong international tour while acting as their music production advisor. This climaxed with the legendary Wembley Stadium show that was released in DVD format in 2003. Marks career also has a solid international profile; he is included in Billboards All Time Top “Producer Encyclopaedia”, which covers all genres of music. He has more recently worked with likes of Bob Dylan on his Academy Award ceremony performance of “Things Have Changed” from the movie The Wonder Boys as well as the more recent US double platinum award winning KISS / Melbourne Symphony Orchestra TV/ DVD/CD Kiss Symphony/Alive 4. Other international artists Opitz has worked with during his career include Lenny Kravitz, Ray Charles, The Beach Boys and many other European and Asian artists.
In the late 90’s Michael Gudinski (Mushroom) invited Opitz to join his executive team and to help oversee his Australian music recording projects in readiness for the sale to News Limited. This period saw Mark working in all facets of the business culminating in the production of the highly successful “Mushroom 25th Anniversary” series of concerts, albums and TV/DVD specials etc.
, Mark’s company “The Best Seat In The House” produced the INXS DVD/TV special “I’m Only Looking” for international release through Warner Music in the USA and Universal Music for the rest of the world. This project included many interviews, mini- documentaries as well as all the music videos and lives performance footage.
As well as the Kiss & The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra project “Alive 4” Opitz also produced the music for the Kiss high definition US TV special/DVD release “Rock The Nation” in 06 and Paul Stanley’s solo project in 07. Since then he has produced albums for Rose Tattoo, Jeff Lang, and Monique Brumby among other projects.
Currently Mark is a full voting member in all categories of both The Aria Awards in Australia and The Grammy Awards in the USA.
Career Timeline
• ABC-TV, Studio Trainee 1971-1973
• EMI Australia, Capitol Records & Local Artists Label Manager, Producer 1974-77
• Albert Productions, Producer 1977-1980
• Warner Music, Head of A&R 1980-1982
• Pacific Deluxe Productions, CEO & Producer 1982-1997
• Mushroom Group, Head of A&R 1997-2001
• Consultant SMA (Solomans & Don Hagens re: SMASH Music business model (2001-2002)
• The Best Seat In The House, CEO 2002-2008
• One Music.Asia, Director 2008-
When Australia's pre-eminent production team, Vanda and Young, offered Opitz, fresh from his job as at EMI Music (Capitol & Local Artists Label Manager), a position as their apprentice producer and he accepted immediately and started working with them on their staple artists AC/DC (Powerage), Rose Tattoo and John Paul Young (Love Is In The Air) and Flash In The Pan etc learning as he went along. It was during this period Opitz was given the job of producing Alberts artists the Angels (Face To Face & No Exit albums) here he finally stumbled upon gold in the form of a signature, thick guitar sound that ruled Australia's '80s/90s airwaves. Around this time Warner Music offered Opitz the position as Head of A&R while he was producing the East album for Cold Chisel. He accepted and went on to sign Billy Field (Bad Habits) and sign & produce the Divinyls (Desperate-Boys In Town, Science Fiction etc.) among others he also produced further albums for Cold Chisel ( Circus Animals, Swingshift etc.), Richard Clapton (Great Escape) Swanee and the Hitmen. Leaving corporate A&R , Opitz as well entering into a partnership in the legendary Rhinoceros Studio’s, set up his own production company and went on to produce albums for Jimmy Barnes, INXS' first classic album, Shabooh Shoobah, Models/Out Of Mind Out Of Sight, Hoodoo Gurus/What’s My Scene, Australian Crawl/Reckless, Noiseworks and The Reels as well as many others This decade, the 80’s, also saw Opitz win the industry voted Australia’s Best Producer Award 7 times. (2x Aria’s and 5 ABC TV Countdown)
In the '90s, Opitz was based primarily overseas working with International artists. During that time he also produced several more INXS albums, including Welcome to Wherever You Are and Full Moon, Dirty Hearts. He also produced “Live Baby Live” for the band while accompanying them on their yearlong international tour while acting as their music production advisor. This climaxed with the legendary Wembley Stadium show that was released in DVD format in 2003. Marks career also has a solid international profile; he is included in Billboards All Time Top “Producer Encyclopaedia”, which covers all genres of music. He has more recently worked with likes of Bob Dylan on his Academy Award ceremony performance of “Things Have Changed” from the movie The Wonder Boys as well as the more recent US double platinum award winning KISS / Melbourne Symphony Orchestra TV/ DVD/CD Kiss Symphony/Alive 4. Other international artists Opitz has worked with during his career include Lenny Kravitz, Ray Charles, The Beach Boys and many other European and Asian artists.
In the late 90’s Michael Gudinski (Mushroom) invited Opitz to join his executive team and to help oversee his Australian music recording projects in readiness for the sale to News Limited. This period saw Mark working in all facets of the business culminating in the production of the highly successful “Mushroom 25th Anniversary” series of concerts, albums and TV/DVD specials etc.
, Mark’s company “The Best Seat In The House” produced the INXS DVD/TV special “I’m Only Looking” for international release through Warner Music in the USA and Universal Music for the rest of the world. This project included many interviews, mini- documentaries as well as all the music videos and lives performance footage.
As well as the Kiss & The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra project “Alive 4” Opitz also produced the music for the Kiss high definition US TV special/DVD release “Rock The Nation” in 06 and Paul Stanley’s solo project in 07. Since then he has produced albums for Rose Tattoo, Jeff Lang, and Monique Brumby among other projects.
Currently Mark is a full voting member in all categories of both The Aria Awards in Australia and The Grammy Awards in the USA.
Career Timeline
• ABC-TV, Studio Trainee 1971-1973
• EMI Australia, Capitol Records & Local Artists Label Manager, Producer 1974-77
• Albert Productions, Producer 1977-1980
• Warner Music, Head of A&R 1980-1982
• Pacific Deluxe Productions, CEO & Producer 1982-1997
• Mushroom Group, Head of A&R 1997-2001
• Consultant SMA (Solomans & Don Hagens re: SMASH Music business model (2001-2002)
• The Best Seat In The House, CEO 2002-2008
• One Music.Asia, Director 2008-
Biography
Opitz started his career as a production engineer in television. In 1975, he started work at EMI Studio 301 and worked his way up to becoming EMI's Australian house producer..1978
- The AngelsThe Angels (Australian band)The Angels are a hard rock band that formed in Adelaide, Australia in 1970. The band later relocated from Adelaide to Sydney and enjoyed huge local success until well into the 1990s. For the purposes of international release, their records were released under the names Angel City and later The...
: Face to Face, After the Rain - The Tour EP - AC/DCAC/DCAC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
: PoweragePoweragePowerage is the fifth studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released in May 1978. It is also AC/DC's fourth international studio album. All songs were written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott....
1979
- The AngelsThe Angels (Australian band)The Angels are a hard rock band that formed in Adelaide, Australia in 1970. The band later relocated from Adelaide to Sydney and enjoyed huge local success until well into the 1990s. For the purposes of international release, their records were released under the names Angel City and later The...
: No Exit, Out of the Blue (mini-LP) - The ReelsThe ReelsThe Reels is an Australian rock/indie pop group which formed in Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976 and initially disbanded in 1991, they eventually reformed in 2007. Their 1981 song, "Quasimodo's Dream", was voted one of the Top 10 Australian songs of all time by a 100-member panel from Australasian...
: The Reels
1980
- Cold ChiselCold ChiselCold Chisel is a rock band that originated in Adelaide, Australia. It is one of the most acclaimed Australian rock bands of all time, with a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s and huge sales that continue to this day, although its success and acclaim was almost completely restricted to...
: East - The AngelsThe Angels (Australian band)The Angels are a hard rock band that formed in Adelaide, Australia in 1970. The band later relocated from Adelaide to Sydney and enjoyed huge local success until well into the 1990s. For the purposes of international release, their records were released under the names Angel City and later The...
: Face to Face (international version) - SwaneeSwaneeSwanee may refer to:* "Swanee", a song by George Gershwin and Irving Caesar; made popular by Al Jolson* Suwanee River, misspelled by Stephen Foster in writing "Old Folks at Home".* Swanee , an Australian rock singer...
: Into the Night
1983
- Australian CrawlAustralian CrawlAustralian Crawl were an Australian rock band founded by James Reyne , Brad Robinson , Paul Williams , Simon Binks and David Reyne in 1978. David Reyne soon left and was replaced by Bill McDonough...
: SemanticsSemantics (album)Semantics was a 1983 EP by iconic Australian surf rock band Australian Crawl. The album marked a change in the line-up of the band as Bill McDonough was replaced first by Graham Bidstrup to record the EP... - Cold ChiselCold ChiselCold Chisel is a rock band that originated in Adelaide, Australia. It is one of the most acclaimed Australian rock bands of all time, with a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s and huge sales that continue to this day, although its success and acclaim was almost completely restricted to...
: Twentieth Century - DivinylsDivinylsDivinyls were an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980 and featuring vocalist Christina Amphlett and guitarist Mark McEntee. As the focal point, Amphlett performed on stage wearing a school uniform and fishnet stockings, often using an illuminated neon tube as a prop and displaying...
: DesperateDesperate (Divinyls album)Desperate is the debut studio album and second overall album by Australian rock band Divinyls, released in 1983 by Chrysalis Records. The album contains the hits "Boys in Town", "Science Fiction" and "Siren ".-Background:...