Mixing his rural roots with a deep melancholy, Mark Linkous aka Sparklehorse,
battled drug addiction, depression and solitude on his way to becoming a revered
singer-songwriter. The first of his family not to become a coal miner, he came
to prominence in the UK in the mid-1990s when Radiohead heard his self-recorded
debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (1995) and took him with them on tour
across Europe. He nearly died in London from a mix of drink and drugs and his
personal trauma featured heavily on second album Good Morning Spider (1998),
with the song St Mary dedicated to...