| Origin | United Kingdom |
| Activity | 1991- |
| Status | Active |
| Genres | Synthpop |
           |
Mesh is an electronic alternative band from Bristol consisting of Mark Hockings and Richard Silverthorn. Influenced by electronic pop music, alternative and industrial, personally they prefer the term ‘electro rock’.
In 1991, Mark Hockings and Richard Silverthorn met at a gig where Silverthorn’s band was playing. They were soon joined by Neil Taylor (keyboards, programming), a former band-mate of Silverthorn, and continued as Mesh with this line up until 2006.
On 13 September 2006, Taylor announced that he was leaving the band to pursue other interests, saying “15 years is a long time and for me the time has come to move on and I need to give some headspace to other things in life”. Hockings and Silverthorn have stated their desire to continue making music as Mesh.
Mesh were discovered largely as a result of Future Music releasing their first three demo songs on a compilation. Holding a large amount of distaste for major label business, the trio chose to form their own label titled Tolerance Records, which released their first EP “Fragile” in 1993. Soon after circulation, the band signed to Memento Materia and re-released the EP. Mesh followed “Fragile” with the album “In This Place Forever”, which included the popular single “You Didn’t Want Me.”
1999 saw the release of “The Point At Which It Falls Apart”, which the official bio cites as “certainly the best work that the band had produced to date. It is a rich and emotional album, and shows the threesome taking their music to a new level.”
In 2000, Mesh signed distribution agreements with Metropolis Records in order to pursue US appeal, an arrangement which ultimately fizzled out. In 2002 the band switched labels yet again to release “Who Watches Over Me?” on Columbia (a Sony subsidiary).
In 2006 Mesh signed to the German label Königskinder after leaving Columbia. To date neither “Who Watches Over Me?” or “We Collide” have been released on an American label.
In April 2006, the album “We Collide” was released in Europe to generally positive reviews and good chart positions in Germany. In 2007 the band released the DVD “The World’s a Big Place”, with live performances and interviews from their “We Collide” Tour.
November 3 2009 saw the release of their tenth album “A Perfect Solution” which featured a more synth gritty rock sound rather than previous ones, it spawned 2 singles, first single “Only Better” (which a promotional video was made for) followed by second single “How Long”.
Two years later, the band released “An Alternative Solution” which contains all tracks remixes of their latest album by bands like Zeromancer, Assemblage 23 among others.
September 29, 2012 the band announces their album ‘Automation Baby’ that was released in february 2013.
Members
Mark Hockings
Richard Silverthorn
Sean Sulemann (live drums)
Vaughn George (live keyboards)
Past members
Richard John Broadhead (live keyboards)
Neil Taylor (1991-2006)
Geoff Pinckney (live keyboards)
Related bands / Parallel projects
Blackcarburning, Lifeline International.
Discography
Fragile (1994)
Fragile (1995) (Reissue)
In This Place Forever (1996)
Fragmente (1998)
The Point At Which It Falls Apart (1999)
On This Tour Forever (2001)
Original 91-93 (2001)
Fragmente 2 (2002)
Who Watches Over Me? (2002)
We Collide (2006)
A Perfect Solution (2009)
Automation Baby (2013)
Looking Skyward (2016)
Live at Neues Gewandhaus Leipzig (2017)