In depth and excusive talk from the legendary Howard Marks
Howard Marks at Festibelly. Who’da thunk it. We’re rather excited at the prospect of having a sit down and a good old chinwag with the legendary Mr Marks. Suffice it to say that the man’s got a fairly colourful past, his history of institutional stints ranging from Oxford University to Terre Haute Penitentiary.
Howard will be joining us to give a personal account of his rather extraordinary life so far. You can rest assured that that this man has a fair few interesting tales, so this one is not to be missed. Read more about him below.
Born in 1945 in Kenfig Hill, a small Welsh coal-mining village near Bridgend, Howard Marks attended Oxford University where he earned a degree in nuclear physics and post graduate qualifications in philosophy.
Described by the Daily Mail (UK Tabloid) as ‘the most sophisticated drugs baron of all time’, Howard Marks has worked with the British Secret Service and has been connected with the Mafia, the IRA, MI6 and the CIA.
Busted in 1988 by the American Drug Enforcement Agency and sentenced to twenty-five years at America’s toughest federal penitentiary; Terre Haute, Indiana. He was released on parole in 1995 after serving seven years.
In 1996 he released his autobiography, Mr. Nice, which remains an international best seller in several languages and was the best selling non-fiction book of 1997. On the subject of his book, he says:
“Through a plethora of media interviews and several public book readings, it became clear that the predominant reason why so many adolescents and university students read and enjoyed Mr Nice was their frustration with the law prohibiting cannabis consumption and trade. Until then, I had no idea of the extraordinary extent of cannabis use by young people today.”
During 1997, he performed his first live shows, which discussed his life as a marijuana smuggler and his views on drug use and legalisation. The shows received excellent reviews throughout the national press, and his now legendary one-man comedy show, An Audience with Mr Nice, continues to sell-out at venues throughout Britain and Europe covering an ever-widening range of topics.
Howard’s musical career, which was kick-started in 1996 by the Super Furry Animals’ track ‘Hanging With Howard Marks’, has flourished. He is a regular on the DJ circuit currently favouring the Dub Step sound but describing his own style as ‘stoned eclectic’. He launched a label ‘Bothered’ in the late 90s that featured material from Shaun Ryder, Stereophonics and a plethora of new bands. He still has several boxes of unsold CDs in his garage. He has played at Manumission, remixed tracks for Super Furry Animals, performed a spoken word track with Freebass, collaborated with Mick Jones and Tony James’ latest project Carbon/Silicon and compiled ‘Mr Nice – A Musical Trip With Howard Marks ’ an album of his favourite music. He has also taken part in spoken word tours with erstwhile New Order bassist Peter Hook and Kav Sandhu from the Happy Mondays.
Since his release from prison Howard has been politically active, standing for parliament in four separate constituencies (Norwich South, Norwich North, Neath and Southampton Test) in the 1997 general election on the single issue of the legalisation of Cannabis, catalysing the formation of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance. He applied for the position of Drugs Tsar, created by the Labour government in the late 90s but Keith Halliwell ‘pipped me at the post’. He continues to campaign vigorously for the legalisation of recreational drugs.