NETWORK RAIL WORKER ON TRACK TO ROCK STARDOM

Friday 2 Jun 2006

NETWORK RAIL WORKER ON TRACK TO ROCK STARDOM

Region & Route:

A Network Rail quantity surveyor is performing in front of 55,000 fans at Manchester City Stadium on Sunday. Mark Rawlinson, lead singer with the band ‘The Gekko’, will be an opening act for Bon Jovi after winning a battle of the bands radio competition. 24 year-old Mark Rawlinson said: “This is unbelievable! It’s like playing the lottery and winning. I’ve always been into Bon Jovi and getting to meet them is a dream come true. “There will be 150 people there we know, including friends and family, so it’ll be nice to see some familiar faces in the crowd. We don’t know what to expect. We’re going to go out there and enjoy it. It’s a great experience for us. We’re really lucky and we’re going to give it our best.” Mark has worked for the railway for six years and currently works in a maintenance depot in Preston. The band was formed in 1998 at Winstanley College, Orrell, Greater Manchester. The five-piece who normally play venues in Manchester, Preston, Chorley and Wigan beat hundreds of bands to rock the massive crowd.

Notes to editors

1. Photographs are available of Mark Rawlinson and the rest of the band 2. Last Tuesday, ‘The Gekko’ won a competition sponsored by Key103 radio station and Dawson’s music

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - North West & Central Region
0330 854 0100
NWCmediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Media centre