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A household name in Britain for twenty-five
years, Mike has been voted National Broadcaster of the Year
ten times and has made history by being the only person to
have presented the breakfast show on three national radio
stations.
As well as being phenomenally successful on
Radio Luxembourg, Radio One, Classic FM, Jazz FM and Capital
Gold, he has fronted such long-running and top-rated TV programmes
as Pop Quiz, Pop Quest, Disney Time, Saturday Superstore and
Top of the Pops and Goldmaster among others.
Into the new millennium, he has been very involved
in TV shows for the BBC, ITV Channel Four and Sky, including
Paradise Found, Life Laundry, Private Passions, and many of
the popular 'Top Ten' and 'I Love' programmes as well as specials
on Queen, Cliff Richard and Diana, Princess of Wales and the
Open University. He wrote all the questions for the first
series of Barrymore's My Kind of Music and won the TV Theme
of the year award for 'More To Life' the theme to the TV series
'Trainer'.
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2004 saw him in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, after
which he recorded Jungle Rock as The Jungle Boys with Lord
Charlie Brocket and Razor Ruddock, the single becoming a top
thirty hit. The follow-up, In The Summertime also charted,
giving them two hit singes in the last six months.. This year
Mike has also appeared on TV's Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes,
Star Sale, This Morning, Swag and Bo Selecta.
Mike has written several successful stage musicals,
including Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, Oscar, Young
Apollo, Ricky Nelson Teenage Idol and more recently Oh Puck!
, The Prince and the Pauper and 'Cliff.' The latter toured
to much acclaim ending with a good run in the West End at
The Prince of Wales during 2003 with Mike himself starring
in the show. Cliff tours again from February 2004. Many distinguished
actors and actresses have been involved in his musicals including
Nyree Dawn Porter, Anton Rogers, Brian Glover, Darren Day,
Colin Baker, Don Gallagher and Alex Hanson. His producers
include Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bill Kenwright, That'll Be The
Day and Apollo Leisure.
Mike began treading the boards at the age of
eight as Lysander in Midsummer Night's Dream and continued
until going into radio and television. In the spring of 2004
he starred in a new Glenn Miller musical American Patrol and
has just (July 2004) directed a new 80's musical, White Wedding,
following which the press referred to him as 'a skilled and
prolific director.' The show is set for a UK tour from the
end of March 2005. As of October 2004, he will be directing
his own musical Oscar, which opens at the Shaw theatre, London
to coincide with Oscar Wilde's 150th birthday. Mike was recently
commissioned to write a new musical about the Village People.
Entitled YMCA The Musical, it's scheduled to become active
early in 2005
and Mike will also direct.
Mike has written songs that have been recorded
by dozens of different artists, including Cliff Richard, David
Essex, Leo Sayer, Gene Pitney, Paul Young, Justin Hayward,
Alvin Stardust, Steve Harley, Donovan, Colin Blunstone, Kym
Mazelle, Jon Anderson, Marc Almond, Don McLean, Captain Sensible
and Matchbox. He has also had his material recorded by The
Kings College Choir, The Eton College Choir, The Rodolfus
Choir and the London Community Gospel Choir. His Morning March
recorded by HM Band of the Royal Marines was included on two
best-selling albums alongside many legendary classical composers.
His latest concept album 'Songs,' featuring Mike's music and
the words of Sir John Betjeman, was released through Universal
at the end of November 2002. The album features many major
singers. As well having written hit singles for Cliff Richard
and David Essex, he also contributed to and featured on one
of Slade's big hits and in 2004 had one of his songs, I Know
What You Did Last Summer, in the chart on one of the Jungle
Boys hit singles.
As co-author of the Guinness Book of Hit Singles
and subsequent titles, he had a number one best-selling book
whose sales went on to total millions. He has written over
30 books in all, including biographies, music, and poetry.
His currently available tomes include Forever England, a biography
of Rupert Brooke, Hodder's best-selling 100 Favourite Poems
and 100 Favourite Humorous Poems, Major to Minor [The history
of the songwriter in Britain and America over the last 200
years], Inspirations and The South Coast Beat Scene of the
1960's. He has just finished his first novel, Fly Me To The
Moon and the uniquely conceptual New Poems for Old Paintings
and is currently working on a book of British Poets, his autobiography
and The History of the FA Cup Final. His next publication
is Read's Reciter, is published on September 23rd.
During the 90's, Mike was commissioned to write
the music for the Children's Film Unit Film, How's Business,
and with Simon May wrote the title song for Midsummer Films
release Caught In The Act. The film eceived the Jury award
of Excellence at the Laguna Festival in the USA in 1996. He
has also written several film scripts, including Forever England,
about the life and times of Rupert Brooke, a film on pirate
radio, Radio Cool, which is packed with great 60's music,
and a comedy Fly Me To The Moon. Forever England and Radio
Cool are now both on a major film slate.
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