Mark Smith of The Creatures of the Golden Dawn R.I.P.

[zacharythax]

It huts when you lose someone who you were a big fan of their music. It hurts even more when that person was a good friend and confidant. Creatures gigs at the Funhouse in Bethlehem were a staple of my mid-20's. We'd often go to his house and talk excitedly until the birds started chirping. Once we drove 8 hours to Charleston, WV to see Hasil Adkins. 

Here's what was recently posted on a Lehigh Valley News site:

... Mark Smith passed away due to being in a room with insufficient air conditioning which possibly interfered with medication he was on. Mark Smith for 2 plus decades was the lead singer of the Creatures Of The Golden Dawn. There were many members throughout the years including the pre deceased Mike Smitreski and still alive and thriving John terlesky and Ken Bussiere who were in legendary band The Original Sins. It was through the involvement with Mark Smith's Creatures that set these two on a path of greatness with the Sins. In recent years JT as he prefers to be known started playing again with current Creatures line up. 


The Creatures were huge favorites on Bethlehem's South side and were sadly ignored everywhere else in the Valley. They made a few albums, toured the states and Europe amassing a cult following. The band's music was played on Little Steven's syndicated garage rock show. 

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/lehigh-valley/1295070-mark-smith.htm...

[whatwave dave]

Way too young...really sad news. We put a few of The Creatures songs on cassettes that came with our old zine, What Wave back in the 80's and early 90's. One of those songs was on the LP Thee Cave Comes Alive on Action Records.

Mark used to keep us up to date on the constantly revolving membership of The Creatures via letters and we used to trade audio cassettes back then...he's gonna be missed!!!

 

Here's some pics from around 1987 of Mark in action with The Creatures, dunno who took them but he sent them to us back then.

[kopper]

Wow, very sad news. I have several Creatures of the Golden Dawn albums. Great stuff. He will be missed.

[trashman]

I never saw him play live but simply were glued to listening to the band's albums.  I loved watching them on You Tube for many reasons but one of the main reasons was because of Mark's fronting.  I loved his vocals, loved his style, and always liked that the band were from Bethlehem PA.  I recently read he went back to school to get additional education.  Sad news on Our Brother, The Man. 

[Thanos Economopoulos]

I was a student at Moravian College when I saw for the first time the Creatures and Mark Smith at the Funhouse. Most of the people there remember me as "Thanos", friend of Blythe Evans and Yanni Kakoulas. Mark Smith's music and style was my first experience with garage rock and psychedelic rock in general. His music and persona will remain an influence for the rest of my life as a music composer. Thank you Mark, I will always remember you!

[enzo]

It huts indeed.

enz