In recent years, Mike has been best known as the drummer for the legendary British rock band Wishbone Ash.

During his time with the band, Mike toured around the world, playing in 19 different countries and performed over 400 shows and festivals, including Sweden Rock Festival, The Lorelei Festival in Germany, Night of the Prog Festival also in Germany, Guitar en Scene in France, Ino Rock Festival in Poland and Summerfest in Milwaukee, U.S.A. 

He also had the pleasure of playing on three music cruises aboard Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line ships, those being Cruise to the Edge in 2023 and 2024, and the On the Blue Cruise in 2025.

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Mike's music journey began when he took up drums in primary school at age seven.

In his younger years, he studied under the legendary Leeds-based teacher, Paul Smith, a teacher and friend he remains in touch with to this day. In Star Wars terminology, Paul is Mike's Master Yoda! 

As well as playing drums and percussion, Mike also took up guitar and piano in his teens adding more musical enjoyment and vocabulary to his life and continues to play both to this day, using them as key tools in his song writing and music production. 

Indeed Mike is big advocate for learning more than one instrument and its benefits. 

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After secondary school education Mike went on to study at the Leeds College of Music, graduating with a national diploma in popular music. At the college Mike had the pleasure of meeting many other musicians, some of whom he would go on to play and record with after his college years and many have remained friends to this day.....music is one big family after all!

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It's at this point where Mike's musical journey took a slightly different course. 

Mike chose not to continue with formal education any longer and decided to take the opportunity to work full time in the music shop he did his work experience in whilst at school, John Scheerer & Sons of Leeds.

Here Mike's role was in sales, and so he gained a lot of knowledge about different drums and guitars, the brands, the shapes, the styles, and how they worked, or sometimes why they didn't and so learned how to fix them.

Indeed to this day Mike loves taking drums apart to service them or just give them a good clean.....he swears it's therapeutic! 

 

Working at the shop exposed Mike to an incredible amount of music, both recorded and live and he'd often be told about or invited to shows and because of this he met a lot of musicians, musicians who were out there working at all different levels in the industry.

Some were playing in their local pubs, some were playing on national and international stages, but  they all needed help and advice, and were also more than happy to share their experiences and passion for drums and music.

This led to Mike's knowledge of music and drums to expand greatly, whilst also continuing to study under Paul Smith,

and play live himself, somewhat of a melting pot of music! 

This kind of education didn't come with a formal qualification of course, but was arguably the most important period of Mike's early life and career and music.  

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During Mike's time in instrument retail he was also able to meet a lot of people from companies within the industry, companies such as Fender, Yamaha, Zildjian, Roland, Gibson and many more and this would actually help lead onto Mike's next adventure in music. 

On leaving the retail side of things Mike went on to work for two Japanese instrument companies over an 18 year period,

Pearl Drums and Yamaha Music.

During this time, would gain further knowledge of instruments and their workings, as well as learning key life and business skills that would not only help him during this period but also later as a professional musician as well. 

Whilst working for Pearl and Yamaha Mike also had the pleasure of meeting, working with, and learning from many great drummers and artists including Todd Sucherman (Styx/Brian Wilson), Gary Husband (Level 42/Allan Holdsworth), Ricky Lawson (Michael Jackson/Phil Collins), and Mike Mangini (Dream Theater), to name a few.

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Eventually though, the lure of playing live in a world touring band came along, and so Mike joined Wishbone Ash and hit the road!

And so to the present day and the future! 

Although Mike chose to leave Wishbone Ash at the start of 2026, he will continue to play live, but will very much be focused on working from his new studio, Palm Studio, situated in the heart of  Yorkshire, England.

From here Mike will be offering one-to-one drum tuition, whilst also continuing to write and record his own music, and record for others who would like Mike to play on their tracks/albums. 

It's an exciting time in Mike's long musical adventure of a career, thats for sure!

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"So far my life in music has been one hell of a journey.

I've been able to meet great people, travel the world, and experience many aspects of music and the music industry. 

Most people only get to experience one or two aspects of the music business if they're lucky, so this  puts me in a pretty unique position I guess! 

I'm looking forward to what the future holds, sharing what I've learned over the years, and continue to create music whilst also help others start their musical journey. It's a pretty cool position to be in for a kid who picked up a pair of sticks as a hobby aged seven"