Mikey Guitar is a musician that I have known for over a Decade when me and the other two lads went to watch Bauer for the first time. Mikey, Greg and the rest of the band were great and always had time for a chat with us after the gigs.
Mikey has also been in other bands and his solo project.
So how did you get into the music industry?
Well, I started secondary school in the 90’s when it was massive time for Manchester music. Madchester had just ended but Britpop was in full swing, so there were loads of exciting bands at the time putting out great stuff – Oasis, Suede, Manic Street Preachers, The Stone Roses, Blur….the list could go on! I never really went onto making music like any of those bands, but that’s what initially got in interested in picking up the guitar. Every lad at the time seemed to be endlessly strumming “Wonderwall” in the school music room! From there i carried on into college studying music and then did my degree in music at Salford University. I started gigging heavily with Bauer in my late college/uni days.
How did you get the name Mikey Guitar?
It was just sort of a joke at the time that’s stuck. I find it a little embarrassing now to be honest, but I guess it is my brand! I often thing how does somebody like Bez feel about still having a silly nickname like that well into his 50’s? Although maybe he’s taken too many drugs to care by this point!
Didn’t Bauer get some overseas fans? I’m sure I remember Denmark?
Well, I was born in Denmark and yeah it’s true – one of our tracks got picked up by Danish national radio and we went over there and played a pretty good show somewhere in Copenhagen. At the time I was getting family members telling me that they were hearing our tracks in supermarkets and shopping centres!
Your have also been a few other bands, The Mutineers and the Red Sided Garter Snakes. What are your best memories from them?
Mutineers was fairly short lived I guess but I’d say in all it was a good experience. If you listen to that first album and the way we dressed you can pretty much see where most of the current Manchester indie bands got it from. Our legacy is that we were probably the proto band for all that and were a bit ahead of our time. Everybody from that band has gone onto being fairly successful in their various projects. It would be nice to play a show one day again but i think maybe that ship has sailed. Red Sided Garter Snakes was more of a collective that a band really. It was all based around John Lever from The Chameleons and he roped in a load of great musicians. The likes of Jimmy from Puressence, Greg Matthews, Andy Whitaker (who is now on the telly playing a policeman on Emmerdale!), Steven Wilson and a few more! I’m pretty proud of my contribution. I probably came up with nearly half of the backing tracks for the second album. You should check it out. The Blue Lake. I really miss John Lever too but he’s left a great musical legacy behind.
You own SK Events which puts on live shows and club nights.
What’s been your best shows?
It’s such a tough industry to make a living JUST playing the guitar nowadays so inevitably at a certain age i had to branch out. All I know is music so it just seemed natural to get into events – I learned the hard way through the necessity of needing to pack out my own gigs with Bauer & Mutineers . Through the past 6/7 years I’ve had some amazing nights. I Dj’d the last ever event at Sound Control to about 450 people! Felt quite exposed up there on the stage on my own! Other highlights include working with Shed Seven after their Leeds Arena show, putting on a Trainspotting movie launch night with a live band, Depeche Mode after shows, Stone Roses after shows…..i could go on all day!
What are you top ten tracks from your music library? .
That’s a tough one but I’ll give you some tracks that I’ve been listening to recently.
Nick Drake – Pink Moon/ Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush – Don’t Give Up / The Beach Boys – I Just wasn’t made for these times / Richard
Ashcroft – Break the night with colour / The Chameleons – PS, Goodbye / The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio / New Order – Be A Rebel / Electronic – Getting away with it / Bauer – It’s Got To Get Better (Because we’ve been mixing it!) …and that awful recent Ian Brown track just for the fun of how drastically bad it really is!
What would you change about the music industry?
At the moment i’d like the government to backtrack on saying that we aren’t a viable industry. Music in the UK has absolutely covered this place in glory for nigh on half a century. It’s an utter disgrace. Other than that, it’d be nice for the industry to sign some real band with guitars that you can hear. A lot of the ones that make it through wear them guitars very well – as a fashion accessory – but you don’t actually hear them playing it well.
If you could go back in time to any gig what would it be?
The whole of Glastonbury 2004 was absolutely glorious. I’d go back to then and make a few different decisions about my life afterwards

What would be your top 3 albums of all time?
Another really tough one! That’s impossible but my most listened too ones are probably Automatic for the people by REM, Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys and probably Dark Side Of The Moon (used to listen obsessively in my college days).
There is so much independent talent out there at the moment. What have you been Listening too?
I find it pretty tough to sort the good from the bad! Maybe I should read your blog a bit more thoroughly!
What’s next for Mikey Guitar?
It’s a tough one to call. Who knows that the future holds in these tough times but I can say there’s NOT A FUCKING CHANCE i’ll be retraining. Music is viable and I’ve made a living out of it for most of my adult life. I’m a lifer so i can see myself probably making music til the day I die and it’s likely to mainly be with Greg Matthews in our various guises because we have that musical connection that you just can’t magic up with anybody.
Steve davis on October 18, 2020
The comments about “Fugitives” are spot on. Bring on Robert Plant you are missing out and cheers for the name drop yon mon