Mick started investigating music at an early age starting with drums and eventually working through guitar, bass and keyboards.

His early bands and musical Endeavour's were many both, in the musical genera's and the venue's and types of audiences performed too.

Mick's first attempts at a band had him playing drums with school friends and because of the 1974 cyclone this was to be short lived.

Cyclone Tracy in 1974, caused Mick to move from Darwin to sunny Queensland where he started learning to play guitar on his older sisters guitar.

ACID QUEEN

Darwin Australia 1976

The earliest from my recollection was a three piece band called "Acid Queen" that got its name from a character called the Acid Queen from "The Who's" rock opera "Tommy"

Mick was playing bass in Darwin with the band Acid Queen in 1976. The Band secured regular paid Wednesday and Friday gigs at the old Essington House remand centre Building that was turned into a Government run live music venue for the cyclone ravaged Darwin youth.

This also saw Mick and the band play to 5000 people at the Darwin Amputheatre with five other bands.

The band split up for some reason.

PURPLE HAZE

The band reformed with the old band mates from "Acid Queen" and a drummer friend and called the band called "Purple Haze".

The band also got a singer and started doing more gigs to fill gaps that the guitarist's (Peter Mobus) fathers band couldn't fill with his very popular band.

So here we were still going to high School and getting on average three paid gigs a week.

We also secured a place on Darwin Television playing live for a spot on the mid morning program for "Phitzners" music house which we got the day off school to go and do which we thought was just great.

Because of some reason that footage has been lost.

I tried to get a copy.

We also got to play at the Darwin musicians ball where the admission was $150 each, all monies went to charity.

We had a great night and had way too much fun of course, we had to have the next day off school.

We also got to play at the Darwin Mayoral ball which we were very nervous about as it was an open air gig and our gear wasn't really big enough, but it went down well.

After finishing year ten schooling in Darwin Mick decided that it was time to move to Queensland to live for a bit with his father on a farm in the

The South Burnett district.

SWEET LEAF

It wasn't long before he was answering a newspaper ad for a guitar player wanted ad.

Where he met up and played with a very talented band "Sweet Leaf"

The line up was Peter Greenwood Bass, Mick lead and rhythm guitar, Dick Smeedes Drums, Anthony Grey Vocals

which came second in the Toowomba battle of the bands where Mick was voted best guitarist, they played Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Joe Walsh and Bad Company covers.

The headline act after the band comp was "Ray Burgess" from Countdown fame, his band rocked.

We went on to do a fair bit of gigging in the local community around the south Burnett.

The bass player got a transfer away from the area and put a stop to the band.

The singer and I got itchy feet and followed the bass player to Brisbane.

Mick was working in a day job and rehearsing with a band at night formed at the old channel 9 film editing suite at Milton doing Steely Dan, Van Morrison, Santana etc.

The band split up after a bit.

Mick jammed with A "Zepelin" wannabe band that did a few of the jam sessions at the George Hotel , another band I can't quite remember did a few gigs at a skating rink somewhere in Brisbane. Mick Medew who went on to form the "Screaming Tribesman" would sometimes jam with us at the house we rented in Clayfield, our house was the local Jam house in the northern suburbs of Brisbane.

They were some pretty crazy times.

Mick went back up to the South Burnett and worked another day job until getting an apprenticeship with a local engineering firm, formed a new band did some gigs had a lot of fun.

Had some experimental bands going at that time that were mainly for jamming eg Mack-Dick-Mick.

TWISTED RIBBON 1983

Another band was rehearsed playing Rolling Stones covers, the line up Was,

Tim Lacy, Rhythm guitar, Barry Lincoln Lead guitar, Micki G Bass, Garry Duro, drums, Raynor Jepesson Vocals.

Mainly played parties in this band.

It rocked we had a lot of fun , maybe too much fun.

THE QUAY

Some of the band members from Twisted Ribbon got itchy feet and left Twisted Ribbon .We mainly played parties and rehearsed which turned into another band with Debbie on keyboards, Raynor Jeppeson on Vocals, Dave Nugent on drums, Mick on Bass and a very talented Barry Lincoln on lead guitar which managed to do local pub gigs and a very irreverent version of Elvis Presleys "love Me Tender".

It was done punk style, went down well.

A few of Micks originals also made the songlist.

I ended up going through about 5 bands at that time playing lead guitar and singing, to playing bass.

It was hard to get players that were keen and stayed on.

THE VERSIONS

I don't believe MP3

Peter Rodgers MP3

All The Versions Music, Lyrics, Copyright 1981 (N Mengel C Bourke) all rights reserved

photos to come

A band was proposed in the pub one night by a bunch of guys Mick chirped in and said he would play bass.

"The Versions" were (Noel Mengel) on guitar and Vocal, (Glen Dale) on drums,(Col Bourke) on guitar and vocal, Micki G on Bass.

We rehearsed and recorded and eventually got gigs in Kingaroy and Toowoomba .

We supported the American band the "Romantics" and also supported the "Riptides" the predecessors to "Gangajang" at the Toowoomba DDIAE (DDIAE = Darling Downs institute for Advanced Education).

We also set up our own gigs in old halls out of town.

We were amazed at the roll ups when we did one of the gigs we organized ourselves.

As all bands do this one split up.

GENTRY

I Started playing again around the South Burnett area of Queensland with a drummer I had played with previously Dick Smeedes and a Talented singer guitarist named Jon Gibson, we did dinner dances and played a mix of 60%old time dance tunes and 40% rock and pop we were popular and got work immediately under the band name "GENTRY".

JUDY KAYE

Mick was still working in the engineering works and was asked to play bass on an album for "Judy Kaye" a country artist who had already recorded one Album in Tamworth on the "Hadley Records" label.

We rehearsed for a couple of weeks, recorded the first side of the album in about a week

then went back and rehearsed the second side for a couple of weeks then went in and recorded the second side.

We recorded with Ashley Keating at the old Analog 16 track "Basement Studio" In Little Roma St in Brisbane.

The studio engineer (Ashley) got a young Keith Urban to play lead guitar on the Album.

The Album Called "Pretty is as Pretty does" sold all the units that were pressed and it went into a second pressing.

This was just before CD's got popular, In the days when you made a record it was a 12 " LP not a CD as today.

I had finished my Apprenticeship and moved to the Gold Coast to seek out more bands to play in.

Vital Force

mp3 Demo Tape

I auditioned for a few bands and ended up getting into a band called Vital Force.

We rehearsed for two weeks and got a gig at the Old Broadbeach Tavern beach bar or whatever they called it,

basically the Broadie Beergarden I think.

It went down well and we got a few more gigs but while we were getting on musically we weren't getting on personally so it split after a bit.

the line up was James Vocals guitar John Pragnall drums Mick bass.



TERRY WILSON AND THE ROLLING THUNDER BAND 1986

My first known band on the coast was with Terry Wilson from the band "Tully" it was called Terry Wilson and The Rolling Thunder band which did a few gigs then parted ways.

The Rolling Thunder band was a ragtag mix of musicians and styles it had Terry Wilson on vocals harmonica and acoustic guitar, Chris Manderson on electric guitar and keyboards, John Pragnall on drums Ivan Kardos on lead guitar and Mick on Bass.

we played all sorts of styles and the wierdest line up of gigs I think I have ever done.

It was fun while it lasted.

RED RAIN

I auditioned for a bass position with a band that consisted of

Mick Woolney drums, John Roberts guitar Eric Tricklebank on Keyboards and vocals and a lead guitarist Shaun.

I got the gig however the original guitarist who was a yank or a Canadian admitted himself into a mental hospital after our first few rehearsals so we ended up going with just one guitarist.

We did I dunno how many gigs the band did however it was going good for a while then the split happened.

ROAR EDGE


We tried to keep the rest of the red rain band going but finding a singer to replace Eric was hard we finally found a chick who could sing and she was Leah Forrest however the drummer didn't get on so we ended up getting John Pragnall to pay drums and ended up getting the singers boyfriend on guitar that was good we got all rehearsed up did our first gig then the next rehearsal the drummer splits.

so the line up was Leah Forest vocals Geoff Mecoles on guitar Mick on Bass and Johnny Pragnall on drums.

we tried drummers for ages seemed no one could cut it doing the material we were doing which consisted of Judas Priest, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath covers.

GRAHAM CAIN COMPANY

I answered an ad in the local paper and met Graham Cain, he was a local singer entertainer who was getting heaps of work locally.

When I started with him I basically new most of the songs so we had no rehearsal we just started doing gigs, which made life very interesting for me, especially the nights when he pulled one out of the bag on me.

We started off as a three piece and did duo gigs to get work and slowly but surely we were a band.

We got Kit Randall a very well respected left handed guitarist to play lead guitar, I met the drummer Russel Jones at the gig one night.

From that moment Graham who did all the booking etc booked us a pretty intense gigging schedule.

We had nights were Kit couldn't make it because of prior gig engagements and we would get either Richard Waterson or Stretch from Jon English band to fill in for us.

We worked our asses of from the Lone Star Tavern on Friday nights to the Old Rose and Crown mid week to The then New Burleigh Town Tavern to The Coolangatta Sands just after It had been called the Port of Call to The Old Grand Hotel in Labrador to the Noosa Hotel and all in between we had some great times.

Graham used to do this number called Marijuana Australiana, least that's what he called it.

It always went so well, we all ways got return bookings, we rocked hard, "Kit Randall" "Richard Waterson" "Andrew Hobbler" and "Stretch" were among the finest Blues rock Guitar players that I had been lucky enough to work with.

I look back at those times as being very good memories.

I was with Graham for about a year when he decided to go to Spain to work so that was that.

Mick then teamed up with John Pragnall and Chris Manderson and Frank ... to form a new band called "Subjects" which got a bit over rehearsed and went nowhere.

I was doing a fair bit of writing new material but no band to perform it so I just recorded on my own on the four track.

New Chemicals 1990

CLICK FOR PHOTO

I was hanging around the music shops and Redline rehearsal studios waiting for a band to happen and thru a little Jam one night with "Paul Dougherty" "Mick Stills, Murray Nash and Mick something happened.

I met another guitarist and another singer.

There was a band formed with myself and the singer.

We had no drummer and after hellish auditions we found a 19 year old Jason Atkins who suited us fine he could hit em hard and played great.

So the band New Chemicals was born.

It comprised of Murray Nash on lead Vocal and Rhythm guitar, Parish Hinsley on lead guitar, Jason Atkins on Drums and Mick on bass.

We rehearsed we put toghter a bitsa PA pretty much scrounged it up and made our own leads etc and we went straight to the biggest agents on the coast and worked our asses off from that moment on sometimes 7 a week.

we pretty much worked every gig from the Empire Night club in Caloundra , Maloolooba, Peppers nightclub in ipswich, the Patch and Dolphins Hotels at Coolangatta and the Casino RSM we played everywhere we supported big bands we kicked ass and basically worked ourselves to the end.

We had a hectic start to New Years eve we did a support show up at the Beenleigh Tavern support to the Kiss cover band and then had to headline at the big Fishermans wharf show on the Gold Coast .

A great night was had by all.

New Chemicals lasted a year and I don't have accurate gig stats but we did a lot of gigs that year.



MOONDANCE

I was lucky enough to be asked by Kit Randall to play bass in a band he was putting together to play jazz style music with his then girlfriend Wendy Lockyear on Vocal and Bazza Rhoades on drums we did a few gigs had a residency at Tallebudgera surf club on a sunday arvo and then Mick decided it wasn't his bag.



COLIN GREATORIX AND THE PRIMITIVES


Hopefully someone has a copy of one of our live recordings.

Mick auditioned and got the job playing bass with legendary guitarist "Mark Bergman" and living Legend "Colin Greatorix".

we started off working a couple of nights a week and then bang we were in the thick of it gigging all the time.

Another band using the combination of Jason Atkins and Mick in the rhythm section to pump it up.

Mark Bergman was a absolutely without doubt the best guitarist that I knew existed on the Gold Coast at that time.

His guitar playing and Colin's antics and stage patter really proved to work well as a band we packed out pubs clubs and never had a problem getting work , eventually scoring the New Years eve headline at the Fisherman's wharf.

It was the second year in a row for Jason And Mick to play

in front of approximately 14000 people that had a fair bit to drink, we rocked the house.

The Primitives were together for about 18 months, we did our fair share of gigs.

Jason's day gig was as a plasterer and he slipped with a Stanley knife one day cutting a sheet of plasterboard

and cut his finger to the bone with about 60 stitches he couldn't play drums for a bit so we decided to call it quits.



CHALLIS

Gold Coast Australia band 1992

Party On mp3 Rough studio demo

Copyright A Malle, G Grigg, S Jackson, M Gentry All rights reserved

I answered and add in the paper for a bass player for an original band.

I went down and jammed on some original tunes with this band of guys a bit younger than me.

I thought they had something. So I agreed to play bass for them.

I worked them hard for a while in the rehearsal room to get them up to speed for live gigs.

So we went and did the audition night at the playroom.

It went better than expected the Playroom offering us a gig every month for better money so we jumped at the chance.

we played the playroom for what seemed like ages until we split.

The lineup was Andy Malle Vocals / guitar, Guy Grigg lead and rhythm guitar, Stewart Jackson on drums, Mick on Bass.

We recorded a studio demo and some live performances. click on the mp3 above to listen.

JAKKAL

Gold Coast Australia Band in 1994

Brutal Religion mp3 Live recording. 27-3-1994

Brual Religion copyright Heath Sheilds All rights reserved

This band was one of things that just seemed to happen I was roped in by a guitarist friend to play bass for a cover band his sister was going to do lead vocal in..

However after the first rehearsal she didn't front up for the second.

So we ended up playing the Guitarists original tunes and ended up giging under the name Jakkal.

It was very intense speed metal and very original.

Mick had a bit of a problem keeping up with these young guys.

This was very fast intense metal and required absolute concentration.

So I left they got someone else to play bass in the band and they turned into a band called "

"Playdoh" they recorded one album played a string of live shows and then disbanded.

I had started my own Guitar Repair business.



MY DEAD FLOWERS

I got a call from Jason Byrne and he asked if I would play bass to help them get a demo recording done.

So we rehearsed it recorded it, then they asked me to play live.

I said no.

The line up consisted of Billy Hartnett lead singer, guitar, Jason Byrne guitar vocals, Mick bass, Lavent Drums

We recorded and burnt to cd, a 5 song demo in one day at a Southport recording studio.

Sent it to Sony for consideration and got the old development band line.

The singer and guitarist, last I heard had left for the USA to tour the new band. Lavent is busy playing drums with heaps of bands all over the coast.

After doing the recording with "My Dead Flowers" Mick has been busy writing and recording his own original music.