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’.
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.