White Tiger
was a
short-lived
glam metal band
from United States,
founded by
former
Kiss band member
Mark St. John,
which split up in 1988.
The group also included
former
Black Sabbath
member
David Donato,
as well as bassist
Michael Norton
and drummer
Brian James Fox.
They recorded only
one album,
and demos for
a second album.
Mark died on
April 5, 2007,
the age of 51.
Donato died in
February 2021.
Mark's brother
and the
bassist
for the band,
Michael Norton,
died in
2023.
Biography
Beginning
St. John
(Mark Norton),
practiced as a guitar teacher
before being contacted by
Kiss in 1984,
after being recommended by
well-known guitar maker
Grover Jackson,
to replace
Vinnie Vincent,
who had just been fired
from the band.
From this period,
Norton became known
to the public under
the name on
Mark St. John.
With Kiss,
St. John participated in
the recordings of the album
Animalize
(Kiss's best-selling album of the 80s),
but in December
of the same year,
after having participated
in three dates
of the world tour,
he was replaced by
Bruce Kulick
for health reasons
as he had contracted
a rare form of arthritis.
Donato joined
Black Sabbath in 1984
to replace Ian Gillan,
and was fired in 1985
after recording some demos
with the band,
after just six months,
for reasons that are not
fully understood.
Prior to this experience
Donato,
who had previously worked
as a model,
had been a member of
the British Armageddon
(but based in Los Angeles)
in the mid-1970s,
with which he recorded
a self-titled debut in 1975,
before the death
of its founder
Keith Relf
(former lead singer of The Yardbirds).
After these,
he joined the band
Hero
founded by
Neil Citron
who was briefly
guitarist for
Quiet Riot.
White Tiger
Creation of White Tiger
White Tiger
was formed in
early 1986
by St. John,
his brother
Michael Norton,
Donato,
and drummer
Brian James Fox.
The bandbore some similarity
in appearance
and sound to the
eighties-era
hair metal Kiss.
A few months later,
after signing with
ECM Records,
they released the
self-titled debut
White Tiger,
which while receiving praise
related to songwriting,
was nevertheless criticized
for its poor production.
In any case,
it was not a
significant success
and went unnoticed,
also because it was
produced by
a small label.
The label,
which saw no promising future
for the quartet,
rejected the band
for lack of success.
Demonstrations were recorded
for a possible second album,
which should have been titled
On The Prowl,
but was never released
due to a lost record deal.
The End
The project,
seeing no future,
was interrupted in 1989.
St. John founded the band
Keep
composed of
St. John,
singer
Michael McDonald
(under the pseudonym Michael Donato),
guitarist
Kevin Russell,
bassist
Joey Mudarri
and original
Kiss drummer
Peter Criss.
After briefly
switching bass
with
Jim Barnes,
St. John reintroduced
his brother Michael
in January 1990.
This incarnation of Keep,
which included almost
all the members of
White Tiger,
recorded some demos
and attended some concerts
in California.
However,
the label began to
distance itself from the band
due to the rise of
the grunge movement
that radically changed
the musical trends of the time.
Subsequently,
the band disbanded in 1991
when Peter Criss
founded his
project titled
"Criss".
Later years
Brief Reunion
and
Mark St. John Project
St. John later worked with
Stevie Wonder
and
David Hasselhoff.
Brother
Michael Norton
joined the Laidlaw band
releasing the albums
Sample This (1998)
and
First Big Picnic (1999).
Later, Fox
joined Silent Rage,
ironically signing with
the label owned by
Gene Simmons,
known as
Kiss bassist
and founding member.
With them,
the drummer released
the album
Still Alive
in 2002.
In 1998,
St. John reformed
White Tiger.
After playing for a few dates
in Los Angeles,
the band finally
broke up.
In the same 1999
the debut of
White Tiger
was reissued
with the addition
of a
bonus track.
St. John will then
undertake his
solo project called
"Mark St. John Project"
first recording the
eponymous EP
Mark St. John Project
in 1999
in which he
participated in
the composition of some
Peter Criss songs,
and then in 2003
the second
Magic Bullet Theory.
St. John
was reported to have died on
April 5, 2007,
of a brain hemorrhage.
He was 51 years old.
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