National Velvet (band)

National Velvet are a Canadian goth rock band, popular in the 1980s and 1990s.

The band members have included vocalist Maria Del Mar, guitarist Mark Crossley, guitarist Tim Welch, bassist Mark Storm (real name Mark Erickson) and drummer Garry Flint. They came together after a chance meeting between Del Mar and Storm in an alley during a party in Toronto, Ontario. Six months later, they released an independent, self-titled EP with original drummer Ken Sinclair and saxophonist Chris Reis. Storm, Del Mar and Sinclair lived together and ran a rehearsal space at 50 Carroll Street called the 'Jam Factory' used by many Canadian and International acts, such as Jeff Healey, Lisa Del Belo, Paris, A Neon Rome, Honeymoon Suite, And Mott the Hoople with Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson. British guitarist Mark Thwaite (later to be guitarist for British goth rockers The Mission and Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy) also joined National Velvet briefly in the fall of 1985 and recorded demos of 'Behind the Door' and 'Victim of Fashion' at the band's Carroll Street rehearsal space. Thwaite relocated back to the United Kingdom in early 1986.