Michael Marra

A singer, songwriter, actor, and all-around performer, Michael Marra was born in the Lochee district of Dundee in 1952. The Scot embarked on the path of music in 1971 when he formed the band Hen's Teeth. He would eventually graduate to the professional ranks, joining the Dundee band Skeets Boliver, with whom he would tour, release a handful of (not quite hit) singles, and relocate to that hub of entertainment on the British Isles, London. When the band split, Marra decided to give a solo career a go, became a professional songwriter, and released a solo album — The Midas Touch — in 1980. The pressure to be a commercially viable artist and the misguided decisions (rejecting his work on a second solo album, for instance) of both manager and label led to a falling out, and Marra left London to return to Scotland and free himself of the corporate music culture yoke. Marra started his own independent label, Mink, and released his next album, Gaels Blue, on it in 1985. While he would only go on to release a few more albums after Gaels Blue, Marra was far from relaxed as a professional performer and musician. Marra started composing music for theater and soundtracks, and kept touring as a solo artist. He would go on to tour Europe with Deacon Blue, and play shows in the United States. In 2007, Marra released the album Quintet and a five-song EP, and made an appearance in the musical The Demon Barber.