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Myspace BackgroundsBefore I start (as I do get asked) PLEASE DON'T CONFUSE ME WITH THE OTHER Mike Stone who produced the likes of QUEEN and JOURNEY and sadly passed away sometime ago. Here's my story IN BRIEF: you could say I’ve been around for a while, some of the first GROUPS I went to see were THE WHO, ST LOUIS UNION, THE SMALL FACES in LEEDS, PINK FLOYD at the MIDDLE EARTH in LONDON, GARRY FARR and THE T BONES, THE NICE at The Marquee, LONDON mid 60's, went to plenty more but too many to list. I personally started getting involved in the music business during the early 70's in LONDON as a part time MOBILE DISCO DJ doing weddings, parties etc also worked at THE CLARENCE PUB in DOVER STREET, MAYFAIR,LONDON (with GO GO DANCERS), and at THE CHELSEA DRUG STORE, KINGS ROAD, CHELSEA, LONDON, so I got to know a little about the MUSIC SCENE, from there I got a job (blagged) with BEGGARS BANQUET who at the time had a RECORD SHOP in EARLS COURT, later one opened in NORTH END ROAD, FULHAM, at the FULHAM SHOP I became manager we also had a rehearsal room in the basement where such groups as GENERATION X, ULTRAVOX with JOHN FOXX, GRAHAM PARKER and THE RUMOUR, DAVE EDMUNDS, NICK LOWE plus many more rehearsed. This was around the period a few small independent labels such as STIFF RECORDS, CHISWICK and others started, so in my wisdom I suggested to NICK AUSTIN and MARTIN MILLS the then joint owners of BEGGARS BANQUET why not start a RECORD LABEL? this by the way was after seeing a certain band called THE LURKERS in our rehearsal room (who I ended up Managing for a while), what a racket but they had something unique, energy, spirit, all that and more, so BEGGARS BANQUET signed the LURKERS and THE FREE ADMISSION 7†SINGLE BEG 1 was released. I became head of A&R and was also responsible for signing THE MERTON PARKAS (Mick Talbot who went on to join PAUL WELLER in the STYLE COUNCIL) and THE CARPETTES, I left BEGGARS in 1979 and moved to STOKE ON TRENT to open my own RECORD SHOP selling SECOND HAND and NEW VINYL but always in my mind I wanted to start my own RECORD LABEL, this was the period of the second wave of PUNK shortly after the SEX PISTOLS had broke up, STOKE had a few PUNK BANDS at the time and I was invited by TANYA RICH the the then Manager of DISCHARGE to go and see them at NORTHWOOD HALL in STOKE ON TRENT, well what can I say FAST, LOUD and completely different to anything I’d ever heard or seen, so I signed THEM!!! AND WE MADE A RECORD IN 4 hours!!!. I GOT IT PRESSED, put the stock in the boot of my car and went round to all the independent wholesalers and distributors at that time (1980). WELL, I got laughed at by most of them, I could tell they thought it was CRAP, but then something magic happened JOHN PEEL played it on his RADIO 1 night show and it went ballistic, suddenly all the DISTRIBUTORS and BUYERS wanted to know, funny old world isn’t it? Other bands I signed were PLASTIC IDOLS, GBH, ABRASIVE WHEELS, ENGLISH DOGS, THE LURKERS, THE VIEL, ZANTI MISFITZ, SEX GANG CHILDREN, PLAY DEAD, THE KILLJOYS(STOKE) ELIXER (ROCK), GRACE(ROCK), WHITE DOOR, CLIMAX BLUES BAND and DEMON(ROCK) the latter I now Manage and have been involved with for over 25 years. The sad thing about CLAY RECORDS was in 1984 my Distributor PINNACLE went BUST owing me a considerable amount of MONEY which I had already spent on future recordings so this left me in a bit of a state, I tried to pay off my DEBTS but found it very difficult to continue, along came TROJAN RECORDS who bought the entire BACK CATALOGUE except for DEMON, so I managed to pay off more DEBTS. One of the only things from the CLAY days I have left is the SIGN (from outside the shop) I'm holding in the photo. Well that’s a brief summary of my past of which I’ve probably missed out a few things and so here I am still working and Managing with what I reckon is one of the best UK rock bands around DEMON!!! You can read more about DEMON at www.the-demon.com or www.myspace.com-demonband
