His first thought about the guitar was when he saw Hank Marvin from The Shadows, Hank had the very first Fender Strat in the UK, and i guess it was love at first sight for Mark, although it was a number of years later before he could own his own genuine Strat.
As to what he likes about making music, i guess it's just what he was born to do, he can't help but do what he does. even though he did have other jobs before hitting the big time, he was 27 when the first DS album came out, so, that gave him lots of time to write and learn new experiences for songs, and that is something he keeps going back to, with One More Matinee writen about being a junior writer for the Leeds newspaper, that took untill 2002 to complete, and even on the new album with Secondary Walz, he is talking about what went on at his school.
Nothing in the world prepared me for your heart, your golden heart.