Mark Rae

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Mark Rae was the head of independent record label Grand Central Records and one half of DJ and production duo Rae & Christian.

He was born in Ashington, Northumberland, UK. In 1987, he moved to Manchester and became manager / co-owner of Fat City Records store, before releasing an E.P. for Tony D on the short-lived Gone Clear label. Gone Clear was replaced by Grand Central, which quickly became home to a number of respected DJ's and talented musicians. As of May 2006, Grand Central Records was forced into liquidation due to an alleged investigation by the MCPS with regard to unpaid royalties.

After two studio albums with Steve Christian as Rae & Christian, plus producing, remixing and DJing duties and the occasional release with Mr. Scruff, Rae recorded his first proper solo record in 2002. The advent of the DJ album Ode To A Dying DJ (part of the Trustthedj series) saw the first music released in Rae's new partnership with Rhys Adams, under the band name ARP (Adams.Rae.Productions). Rae and Adams recently teamed up for another project - the record label, Yes King Recordings, and the band Yes King. Yes King's music is a blend of hip hop, dancehall, ragga and skank/ska. Guest vocalists on their forthcoming album include Dawn Penn, Prezident Brown, Veba, Pete Simpson, Sweetie Irie, Kenny Knotts and Mystro.

In early 2007, Rae stated on his MySpace page, that new recordings were forthcoming both from himself as a solo artist and once again in partnership with Steve Christian within the next 18 months. In addition, Rae and Adams are currently in the process of re-editing the Rae & Christian back catalogue for a double CD of remixes.