Mark Seymour

Mark Jeremy Seymour (born 26 July 1956) is an Australian musician and vocalist. He was the frontman and songwriter of rock band, Hunters & Collectors (1981–1998). Seymour has a solo career, releasing a number of albums, at the ARIA Music Awards of 2001 he won Best Adult Contemporary Album for One Eyed Man.

Mark Jeremy Seymour was born on 26 July 1956 in Benalla to Frank and Paula Seymour. He has two older sisters, Hilary and Helen, and a younger brother, Nick (born 1958) – later bass guitarist for Crowded House. His mother encouraged all four children to learn musical instruments and sing. He initially learned piano but switched to guitar as a teenager. Seymour and his family moved to Melbourne in 1972, he graduated from University of Melbourne in 1978 and was qualified to teach. He later lived in the St Kilda area.

By 1980 Mark Seymour, on lead guitar, was a member of The Jetsonnes, a post-punk pop group formed in Melbourne, with John Archer on bass guitar; Doug Falconer on drums; Margot O'Neill on lead vocals; and Ray Tosti-Gueira on guitar. Clinton Walker described the group as "lighter, bouncier (rather than funkier) and more infectious than other like-minded bands such as Models". They issued a split single, "Newspaper", with the other side, "Miniskirts in Moscow", by fellow pop group, International Exiles. The Jetsonnes, Models, and International Exiles were "the first bands to rise out of Melbourne's hothouse punk, new wave explosion playing an exuberant brand of neo-pop".

In 1981, Seymour formed Hunters & Collectors from the remnants of The Jetsonnes with Archer, Falconer, and Tosti-Gueira. According to musicologist, Ian McFarlane, this was "a far more radical and unremitting concept" and Seymour, with his "blue labourer's singlet, bulging biceps, introspective angst and impassioned vocals" became the "thinking woman's sex symbol".

In 1997, whilst still officially part of Hunters & Collectors he released his debut solo album King Without a Clue, which earned him a nomination in the ARIA Music Awards of 1998 for Best Male Artist, as well as Best Debut Single with "Last Ditch Cabaret" in the previous year. In 1998, Hunters & Collectors officially split up.

Seymour later released a live DVD/CD in 2001 entitled One Eyed Man, which won Best Adult Contemporary Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2001. He followed with Embedded in 2004, and 2005's Daytime & the Dark. His fourth solo studio album, Westgate was released in June 2007.

Seymour continues to tour, focusing on mostly small acoustic performances. In 2008, Thirteen Tonne Theory, a memoir detailing his experiences with Hunters and Collectors, was published by Penguin Books.

He wrote the anthem "Holy Grail", which although not intended to be about sport, became synonymous with the AFL Grand Final and adopted by Network Ten for broadcasts of AFL matches, and also with Queensland's first Sheffield Shield cricket win in 1995. Seymour has performed at several AFL Grand Finals.

Solo

• 1997 – King Without a Clue
• 2001 – One Eyed Man
• 2001 – Ballad of the One Eyed Man – Live at The Basement
• 2004 – Embedded
• 2005 – Daytime and the Dark
• 2007 – Westgate
• 2007 – Titanic
• 2007 – From Bondi To Bedlam – Live at the Gershwin Room

Mark Seymour & the Undertow

• 2011 – Undertow
• 2013 – Seventh Heaven Club
• 2015 – Mayday

Mark Seymour lives with his wife Jo and their two daughters Eva and Hannah in Melbourne.