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, England. 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 closed after 10 years at the top of the UK independent music scene. 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 Rae's DJ album Ode To A Dying DJ (part of the Trustthedj series) saw the first music released by Rae's new partnership with Rhys Adams, under the band name ARP (Adams.Rae.Productions).

Since the closure of Grand Central Records, Rae moved to Los Angeles. Rae and Adams have teamed up again for a new project - the record label, Yes King Recordings, and the band Yes King, and are due to release their first album, Rock This World in 2008. Yes King's music is a blend of hip hop, dancehall, ragga and skank/ska. Guest vocalists on the forthcoming album include Dawn Penn, Prezident Brown, Veba, Pete Simpson, Sweetie Irie, Kenny Knotts, Ayak, Babychan and Mystro.

In early 2007, Rae stated on his MySpace page that new recordings were forthcoming both from himself as a solo artist, in partnership with Mophonics in Venice California, 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.