Mike grew up in Christchurch: one of the many prominent musicians to come out of that city in the mid-sixties. He went to Ilam Art School. By his 2nd year there his interest in study had waned but he used to take a record player so he could play records to his fellow students, making Ilam a breeding ground for another rock’n’roll musician just as art schools were in countries like the UK.

He was in a band that were to become the Chants (later the Chants R&B); a bunch of wild musicians. They had a staunch following at the Stage Door in the centre of Christchurch where they had what would now be called a residency long before the word was invented. Their best known songs were ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ & ‘I’m Your Witchdoctor’.

Late in 1966 the Chants R&B moved to Melbourne directly without the usual stint in Auckland first. The band folded quite quickly but Mike moved on to join Ross Wilson in Party Machine. (NZ-based fans would best remember Ross as the main man in Daddy Cool.) Party Machine became a band with a repertoire of almost exclusively original material which was unusual in the late 60s. Not long after Ross departed in 1969 & the band folded, Mike formed Spectrum, the band he is best known for. And following the Party Machine style he began writing original material.

Live, Spectrum played a few covers but did lots of original material. The first song Mike wrote was ‘I’ll Be Gone’ which they played at shows. It was recorded when they had some remaining time in a studio where they had been working on a jingle. The song went to No.1 & stayed in that spot for weeks. That year (1971) it was No.5 on the Top 20 Australian Hits for the year; the year ‘Eagle Rock’ by Daddy Cool was the No.1 song on that Top 20 Australian Hits list.

Today (Nov 3, 2016) Mike was at Basement Discs to help launch a new record by Melbourne band Lost Ragas who have covered ‘I’ll Be Gone’. He played harmonica on the track at the launch, before leading the band into a fun rendition of the irreverent ‘Esmeralda’. (See photo above.) Afterwards he said it felt good to have a younger band cover his still extremely popular & best known song.