Micky D

Idyllic childhood and angst-ridden adolescence spent in Essex during the 60s and 70s. The 60s was all peace and love then the 70s was all football hooligans and power cuts. The food was rather bland back then but at least you didn't have to put up with those f***ing awful M&S adverts! Grrr. Anyway there was lots of great music around which is all I was into (besides girls). I grew up amidst Motown, Bacharach, Dylan, The Beatles and The Stones, Bowie, The Clash, The Pistols, Joy Division, Kraftwerk etc. After drumming in a few local bands I was asked to join Sham 69 when I was 17 (but didn't think the name was punk enough for them to be a real band so I blanked it). When I was 19 I got signed to Island Records along with a lanky, androgenous singer/lyricist called James Vane. We released 2 singles, the first produced by the then god-like Mike Oldfield, before the label realised that Jim's pretentious lyrics were almost as lame as my dreadful music and we got dropped from the roster (while U2 were kept). Got press-ganged into disco-paddy-punk band The Bollocks Brothers/4be2s and after witnessing much violence and headline grabbing debauchery with John Lydon I escaped and went into hiding back in Essex. Found God, said goodbye to music and got a job in a menswear shop which was very suit you sir. After various other disparate and boring jobs I did 2 years of a Law Degree in London before getting sucked back into the music biz managing a mad Yorkshireman called Foster Pilkington at BMG Arista. Hung out with Ricky Gervais a fair bit at this time. I eventually found myself engineering and producing at Soho Studios with the awesome Steve Dub then I took in a homeless old drunk and having met his neice at his homeless old drunk brother's funeral in C to the O to the V, we got married (me and the neice not me and the tramp)and I moved up to C to the O etc and eventulally blagged a part time job teaching music production at Tile Hill, did my Masters Degree part-time at Westminster and now I'm Head of School at City College. The fools! Its so ironic as I got kicked out of boarding school then grammar school then FE college and never even completed my first degree. I always disliked school and still hate authority as wielded by self-righteous assholes. Like me probably (but hopefully not). My midlife crisis comprises of some wonderfully cliched elements such as the amicable divorce, 2 kids who are 'more like mates' the impulsive purchase of a sportscar, the aquisition of a ridiculously young, pretty, blonde girlfriend and drumming in 2 bands as well as working out (a la American Beauty). I don't see enough of Brendan Casey but then how could you?..