Mark Bowden

Australian drummer and percussionist with the ABC orchestra for nearly 30 years. He married Sylvia Raye in 1973. At the age of 17 he was one of Australia’s leading drummers and he studied tuned percussion at the Roy Knapp School of Percussion in Chicago U.S.A. In 1953 he joined the ABC and during those years he played on dozens of Radio and Television shows including Bandstand. He played on many of the top commercials of the day and worked with international stars such as Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Perry Como, The Carpenters and Dusty Springfield, to name a few. He died from a rare form of lung cancer in 2009.