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Michael Neale – Guitar
Mike’s musical career started in 1976 with new-wave band Weird Sister. From their first appearance at Rudolph's Club in South London, the band was an instant success. They built up a large following and record companies began to show an interest. Eventually they were short-listed by Polydor, but the band lost out to another up and coming band, the Boomtown Rats. Despite this setback, Weird Sister continued for several years until their drummer, bizarrely, left to join a circus! Late in 1979 Mike joined ex Weird Sister bass player Nick Burton in the rock band Pyramid. Frustrated by constant line-up changes and spending more time rehearsing than performing, Mike and singer Don Barker jumped ship to White Heat, who were developing some good connections with friend Neil Carter (UFO, Wild Horses, Gary Moore) often jamming with them and producing their first demo. Meanwhile, Pyramid released their first single "Star" which retained Don's vocals, but Mike's guitar parts had been removed. Unfortunately Mike's picture was left on the single's sleeve, forcing a plain-sleeved second batch to be hastily issued. With the drummer and bass player having second thoughts about a musical career, White Heat fell apart during their first recording session for Warner Brothers leaving just Mike and Don and a hefty bill for studio time. Warner’s appointed manager Tony Devlin to take over production. Devlin brought in old friend and former Tremeloes drummer Alan Blakley to help out and used members of the other act under his charge, The Ian Mitchell Band, to finish the project. The resultant recording featured vocals from Ian Mitchell (Bay City Rollers, Rosetta Stone) and Lea Hart (Joan Jett, Fastway, Roll-Ups, Ya Ya and backing vocals on the Bad Company album 'Holy Water') with drumming provided by Linsday Simon Honey (now known as Ben Dover), and immediately found it's way onto Dave Dee's desk. The initial response was good and the band were set to be the first signing for the newly formed D-D Records, but the over-use of Ian Mitchell's vocals gave the game away and the band folded. Now under contract to Tony Devlin, but with no full time band, Mike was kept busy working as session guitarist at Warner Brothers Kingsley Studios in Carnaby Street and standing in for bass player John Jay after he was taken ill while on tour with Ian Mitchell's freshly named La Rox. Mike also worked the club circuit with singer/compare Tony Brooker and was one of Darrell Laine's "Buzzin Cuzzins". Another 'Cuzzin' was drummer Martin Weaver who also played for the heavy rock band Thor for whom Mike often appeared as guest guitarist. Through working with White Heat, Mike had become friends with Neil Carter and when Neil decided to re-join UFO, he suggested Mike as his replacement in Wild Horses. But Mike found two heavy drinking and constantly bickering Glaswegians in the form of Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy, Motorhead) and Jimmy Bain (Rainbow, Dio) too much to handle and soon passed the challenge on to John Lockton. By 1984 Mike had teamed up with old school friend and Weird Sister founder member Steve Oxlade and set about forming a new band. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was in full swing and they were determined to be part of it with the posing, pouting Strutter. However, they were just a few months too late to jump on the bandwagon. Two girl backing singers were recruited and a change of musical direction was tried but, after two years of touring, the band failed to achieve the success they hoped for and went their separate ways. The following months were spent recording with The Blinders, who recruited Mike to add a hard edge to their otherwise typically '80's pop songs. Mike briefly re-joined Pyramid in 1988 to record four new songs for their album "Out of Control" which mainly comprised material recorded over the previous decade. With none of the former guitarists' on speaking terms, a second player proved hard to find leaving Mike to play all guitar parts himself. That same year Mike joined Selecter producer Errol Ross in his "Good Tyme Band" playing a mix of reggae, soul and rock and roll in venues around London, culminating in a charity performance at Croydon's Fairfield Halls. Apart from forming a successful writing and arranging partnership with Errol, Mike also formed a lasting relationship with one of the two girl backing singers, Allie, and married her in May 1990. Apart from a brief stint with Chelsea in 1994 for a punk revival concert at London’s Astoria and occasional outings with rock band Diamond Tears, Mike had resisted the temptation to join another band until he bumped into an old friend at Barnham railway station in West Sussex. That old friend was Andy Hirons…. and the rest, as they say, is only rock 'n roll!	Southern Blues Chelsea The Good Tyme Band Strutter Wild Horses White Heat Weird Sister