Mark Wilkinson began DJing in 1990 at the infamous Shave Yer Tongue events in Bracknell
and at Passion in Maidenhead. Later that year he started working at Kensington’s Flying Records
where he was quickly promoted to assistant manager and where he met his studio and
DJing partner Rocky. The duo would go on to form the Problem Kids.
Mark’s sets across the country at Back 2 Basics in Leeds and Wobble in Birmingham led to
regular appearances at London’s Ministry of Sound and to a Problem Kids residency at the
Ministry in 1996. The Problem Kids’ singles followed on Junior Boys Own and Jus Trax before
a single on the critically acclaimed Paper Recordings led to their smash first album – ‘Pump
The Dirty Groove’ – in 1999. Mark’s reputation for quality house music spread and he and
Rocky found themselves DJing all over the country as well as abroad.
Additional singles for Paper Recordings followed plus remixes for the Black Science Orchestra,
The Absolute and The Aloof as well as original mixes of Afro Medusa’s Latin carnival chart
hit ‘Pasilda’.
2001 saw Mark launch a new production team, Kidstuff, with Paul Jackson and Kevin Brooks.
Their first release, ‘Alright’, premiered at WMC 2001 and was picked up by Danny Tenaglia
who played the track at his infamous WMC party at Space. ‘Alright’ went on to huge success
on Defected’s sister label Fluential with support from Radio 1’s Pete Tong, Seb Fontaine and
Roger Sanchez. The trio followed up with the ‘Jetfunk EP’ and, the next year, with ‘Do What
You Wanna’ on Loaded. Mark, now working under the Problem Kid guise in his own studio
named Care (where all Problem Kids end up) which he set up in Hammersmith, remixed
Xpress-2’s ‘Lazy’ and West London Deep’s ‘You’re Taking Me Over’, two of Pete Tong’s Essential
New Tunes in 2002.
Mark established his own label, Kidology Records, in 2002, and went on to release 12” cuts
by Liquid People, Mark Knight and Tweek Freekz. Mark’s music has received support from
Sasha, Lee Burridge, CJ Mackintosh, Norman Jay, Pete Tong, Seb Fontaine, Roger Sanchez,
Sandy Rivera, Danny Tenaglia and X-Press 2.
In 2004 Mark formed the Dab Hands Workshop with Richard Searle and Leo Elstob; they are
also known as The Mud Men and their first single, ‘Mud Chant’ was released on Renaissance
in late 2004. The same year Mark remixed Bucci Bag’s ‘More Lemonade’ on Italy’s Rise imprint.
Last year Mark remixed Solitaire’s ‘You Got The Love’ on SUsu, and Conan Liquid’s ‘Breathe’
on MN2S’s sister label, 1Trax. The Dab Hands also released ‘Super Good’ on Ten Records and
remixed Juliet’s ‘Ride The Pain’ and X-Press 2’s ‘Give It’. 2006 will see Mark embark on extensive
gigs around the globe as well as pouring more love into his Kidology imprint.
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