Mark Gallagher Tribute

Mark Gallagher, a prime mover in the 1980s punk/hardcore scene that revolved around the Hippie House and Vic & Bill’s, died Sunday from injuries incurred while jumping off a bluff into Fort Loudon Lake. Gallagher was 51.

Nicknamed “Biker” Mark for his love of motorcycles, Gallagher was as enthusiastic about extreme sports and bodybuilding as punk rock. He played a key role in the careers of the STD’s and Teenage Love by driving his van, the “Urban Assault Vehicle,” on several tours for each band. A surveyor by trade, and perhaps the most avid Ramones fan on the planet, “Biker” Mark was an unstoppable force, the kind of guy who would party hard all night long and then wake up and eat a hearty breakfast, seemingly no worse for wear.

“He was a very hardworking man who applied his trade with talent and pride,” said Todd “Bonehead” Townsend, frontman of Knoxville’s legendary speed-metal act Bone and one of Mark’s best friends. “And he played just as hard, with a lust for life that was fearless. He was a cretin hopper of the first order, and I lost a brother.”