Out of the rain and into the storm

Mike Norris is a little-known singer-songwriter in South Manchester with big plans…. to give up his day job. A full time primary school teacher, Mike’s dream job would in fact be a job-share.

“I’ve been doing low-key gigs around South Manchester for a few years, but as soon as this demo comes out, I’m planning an all-out assault. An ideal for me would be three days teaching a week and three gigs a week”. Rock and Roll.

If his EP, entitled “After the Rain” and due out in the summer, goes Platinum, he may have to re-think his plans. His sarcastic joke, not mine.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to record something myself, flog it at my gigs and get as many people to listen to it as I can. This EP is a diary of my life. Everybody’s got a story to tell, and everyone’s got a story worth listening to”.

His story certainly is. Mike’s own songs- recorded on a tiny Boss digital 8-track in his apartment- deal with all sorts of life’s issues, including politics, divorce, pain, joy, death, faith and family. Those are just the four tracks on the EP. He makes no bones of the fact that he is a committed Christian, dismayed by the Labour Party and not afraid to stick his personal and private feelings on the line, whatever the cost.
“For me, song writing and performing, especially when doing it on my own, is a release. It’s a chance to get out all my feelings and frustrations out into the open and let it all hang out. It’s like smacking the crap out of a punch bag for a few hours; it hurts a bit, but you feel a lot better afterwards.”

So why the politics? Shouldn’t Christians stick to Theology?

“No. I don’t subscribe to that. Jesus had plenty of stuff to say on how we should treat each other, how we should treat the poor. “Regime Change” is about everybody, Christians or otherwise, saying that we have had enough of the way the world is run by the WTO, the IMF and big business, and saying that we need to take a stand. There is a brilliant line on the sleeve of The Dixie Chicks’ CD ‘Home’. It simply says ‘WE ARE CHANGING THE WAY WE DO BUSINESS’. We need to change the way the world is being run. ‘Regime Change’ is about turning the direction of the world to favour the poor for once, and about us in the West making the sacrifices to enable that to happen.”

Mike has quietly built up quite a following in the South Manchester bar and pub circuit, along with ‘Mercy Street’, his full band. Mike juggles solo gigs with Mercy Street concerts, and is happy to do both.

So what about the future? Being a Manchester City fan, Mike is ever the optimist.

“I’m just happy to be writing and performing again. I was in bands all through my teens, and after that I basically stopped writing for twelve years. But the stuff that life’s thrown at me over the last few years has given me a lot to write about. I’m deliriously happy to be writing songs, because I know they’re the best ones I’ve ever written. The sound we make as a band when we’re focused is awesome. Long may it continue.”

Amen to that.