1. Marcus Johnson Bio
Marcus Johnson is a music producer/songwriter.
Having starting out singing with world-renowned gospel choir LCGC in 1984, Marcus
moved on to working in bands and songwriting with friends Bryan Powell and Mark
Beswick and ended up picking up a couple of gospel songwriter awards. Alongside Steve
Campbell, Bryan and Mark, Marcus also worked with the young Fay Simpson, Robert
Anderson and Andrew Smith and they started doing shows supporting the likes of USA’s
great Richard Smallwood and Bebe & Cece Winans. They also performed on the main
stage at the Greenbelt Gospel Festival with ‘Sounds of Blackness’ where he also met
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who have been a big influence on his career.
In the late 80s Marcus tagged along with Bryan Powell to LA who at this stage was
signed to BMG music publishing, here they learnt a lot by spending time with artists such
as gospel legend Daryl Coley, Earth Wind and Fire and the great songwriter Jon Lind. As
a result, Marcus started growing in strength and belief.
In the early 90's Marcus returned back to the UK and with Steve Campbell formed a
production partnership called the ‘Ethnic Boyz’. They immediately started working on
some demos with UK gospel artists ‘The Escoffery's' who were eventually signed to
Atlantic records. Alongside Sandra Escoffery, Marcus co-wrote the majority of their
album. which was a success on both sides of the Atlantic. The album spawned the first
UK Gospel hit in the Top 20 US Billboard-RnB Charts. The success lead to most of the
major labels in the UK, knocking at the door of the ‘Ethnic Boyz’.
A meeting held with Marcus and A&R Colin Barlow lead to the UK group ‘Nu Colours’
being signed. Meanwhile, Marcus had been working on demos with a young RnB group
called ‘Rhythm N Bass’, which consisted of the young Wayne Hector and Ali Tenant.
Through this process, Marcus wrote the song along with his good friend Bryan Powell
called ‘Rose’ and another song called “Blame it on the rain” along with Michelle
Escoffery. This got the attention of Peter Thomas of Real Housewives of Atlanta, who
then put the ‘Ethnic Boyz’ into the studio to take tracks to another level. Consequently,
the boys ended up getting signed to Sony UK and had some success in the UK charts.
Calls were coming fast and thick and next Dome Records were in contact about working
with an up and coming artist from the Midlands called Beverly Knight. Marcus and
Steve produced Knights Top Forty UK hit “Moving on Up” at the same time as working
with Nu Colours. In 1994 the pair got a call from UK Legend, Jazzie B to remix Soul II
Soul club classic ‘Fair play’ for a Greatest Hits album.
Around this time Jazz Summers of Big Life Records contacted them to work with a
young boy band they had called ‘Damage’. The pair ended up doing work on their first
album including Marcus co-writing the UK Top 5 smash ‘Forever’. Throughout the 90s
the pair worked on countless recordings and remixes and helped bring through other up
and coming producers.
Always with a good eye for talent Marcus partnered with Big Life A&R Steve Marshall
to sign 'Truce', a trio put together by Marcus his brother Lawrence. In 1999 a
conversation with A&R Colin Barlow lead to Marcus and music partner forming a band
with Jay Henry (a backing vocalist for George Michael) called ‘7TH
Son’. The band
signed a three-album deal with Warner Brothers, it was an album that was recorded in the

2. UK and mixed in the USA. However this album unfortunately did not see the light of day
because of internal changes within the label.
Marcus's prolific career and catalogue secured him a publishing deal with Universal
Music - Lots of Hits.
Today the story is still unfolding and Marcus is involved in mentoring a few up and
coming artists as well as continuing to write and produce for independent artists.