THE MIKE COLE STORY #1

Mick O’Hanlon’s research for Ray Dorset’s forthcoming book brought him into contact with Mungo’s first bassist, Mike Cole.

He joined the band when they were still called the Good Earth. Mike was instrumental in renaming the band before the Hollywood Festival and he laid down the bass groove on In the Summertime.

Mike has recently set out his memories of those incredible days that saw the band soar to global fame, tours of Europe and the U.S, before his untimely sacking at the end of 1970.

Mike’s career did not end there, and although he co-operated with Ray on Naked From the Heart years later, his rich jazz background provided an outlet for his talent and he is still very much involved with that discipline.

Schooldays & Musical Beginnings: I enjoyed simple music at primary school. We were lucky to have as teachers a husband-and-wife team – Mr and Mrs Weatherburn. They are long-since deceased but I will always be grateful to them for arousing and encouraging my love of music.

The music was naturally very basic; we would play on triangles, tambourines and suchlike. We were asked to sing. At the age of 6 or 7 years I had no inhibitions or nervousness and I would often be invited out front to sing to the whole class.

Within a few days of starting grammar school at age 11, the music teacher (yes, in those days many schools had a dedicated music teacher), Mr Merlyn-Smith came into our classroom and asked if anyone wished to learn to play a musical instrument. I stuck my hand up.

I have fond memories of Mr Merlyn-Smith, although he could be a bit of a tyrant at times, but he helped me a lot. He said that he had lots of violin students but there were vacancies for ‘cello players. I was fortunate enough to be offered the chance to play ‘cello. This involved hour-long lessons every Monday lunchtime with a professional player. I managed to attain grade 5 of the Royal Academy of Music exams. But I didn’t practise enough.

My sister, who was 4 years older than I, bought a lovely walnut Ferguson radiogram. On this I played 45’s by Little Richard, Bill Haley, Elvis and later Chris Barber, Lonnie Donegan, etc.

My introduction to modern jazz came about because my sister had bought an EP of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong accompanied by the Oscar Peterson trio. This was the first time I heard the great bass player Ray Brown.

From about the age of about 15, I used to ‘jam’ frequently with a guy called Mick Pickworth (a classmate) at his house in Kilburn – he on guitar/vocals and me on ‘cello.

As well as that, we used to ‘play’ with his airgun, shooting at objects from his back window. As a callow teenager I had a crush on his rather attractive mother. I have not had any contact with him since then.

As ‘Mike Hurst’ he became musical director and guitarist/backing vocalist for Dusty Springfield as part of the ‘Springfields’. He went on to have a pretty successful career in music, doing his own thing.

I played in the school orchestra and in various ensembles, including, a few years later as a six-former, a jazz duet with a friend on piano, me on ‘cello (trying to play like Ray Brown). At age nineteen I wanted to be a jazz musician, but even top-liners were earning little more than a living wage, so what chance did I have ?

I had to make a career choice.

Chartered Accountant & Musician: I opted for a ‘proper job’ and became a Chartered Accountant. I call it my ‘Monty Python’ moment. I took articles with a professional firm at the princely salary of £7 per week. Almost immediately I bought a double bass from Footes in London’s Golden Square; it was a Czech laminated job. It cost me, as I recall, £3.16.8d per month over two years.

At around this time we had weekly jazz sessions at the Brondesbury home of Michael Cockerell who went on to become a very respected political broadcaster and documentary maker. We had a jazz quartet comprising a guy called ‘Dave’ (tpt), my pal Joe Barnett (p), Michael Cockerell (d) and me (b).

After a few weeks, a new guy turned up – a very good tenor player and an excellent pianist. He was quite a few notches better than the rest of us. This was John Mitchell (sadly, passed away a few years ago). He later introduced me to other good musicians, including pianist Peter Lemer.

After one of these sessions I was walking home from Eastcote station with my bass slung over my shoulder when a car drew up beside me. The driver asked me if I was interested in gigs. He was a local businessman and semi-pro musician by the name of Brian Fredericks. It was a lucky break for me and I will always be grateful.  My first gig via Brian was the annual dance at Garston Fire Station. The band was led by a vibes player (Johnny Jenks) who played virtually every tune in C# ! Was every gig going to be like this ?

But through Brian I joined a local trio comprising Russ Pinder on accordion (he had studied with Martin Lukins) doubling on vibes, Bob Gould on drums plus me; we all did vocals, although mine were backing vocals. I learnt a lot from Russ – particularly as regards chord progressions. I have since studied jazz harmony with good teachers and claim to be an authority in my own right.

We had lots of hotel and cabaret jobs plus all sorts of other gigs – rockers’ weddings, working men’s clubs, night clubs.

Talented, in our way, and very versatile, we had a massive repertoire and did cover versions of whatever songs were in the hit parade, which meant that we played virtually all the Beatles hits up to that time, as well as songs by Rolling Stones, Kinks, Roy Orbison and countless others.

We were so versatile that we did a mean take-off of the Barron Knights. I remember that we played for a few weeks at middleweight champion boxer Terry Downes’ club in Harlesden.

It was wonderful experience and it raised my living standard beyond that of my meagre ‘day’ salary. Very often I earned more in an evening than my week’s salary. Eventually I had to quit the trio in order to concentrate on studying for my accountancy finals.

As well as that trio, I joined a jazz quintet led by Claude Laugier (as, fl); the other members were (I can still remember their names) Des Bray (tpt), Barry Laver (p), Peter Voss (d) and me. We rehearsed on Saturday mornings at Claude’s house in Ealing and played quite a few gigs. We had a residency at The Starting Gate pub in Wood Green which was a jazz venue at that time. Claude was a fine player and quite a disciplinarian, so it was a good learning experience.

When I was about 19 years old I was playing with some excellent players, some of whom went on to have successful music careers.

Amongst other gigs I played in a piano trio led by Peter Lemer. One of our regular weekly gigs was as the interval band for the Manfred Mann group (a dynamic R & B band – nothing like their pop hits in the charts – ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’, ‘5-4 3-2-1’, etc) at the Marquee when it was in Oxford Street. Paul Jones was the lead singer with Manfred and when we had finished our set we would retire to the pub next door and chat to Paul for about 10 minutes before he would leave for his second set. 

Another gig was a quartet with John Mitchell at a Hampstead club. We had played several tunes when Graham Bond, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker suddenly arrived ! Graham asked to sit in on alto sax; we gladly accepted. The next number, Jack asked me if he could take over on bass, followed by Ginger Baker on drums. They proceeded to take over the gig, played about three numbers and then left as suddenly as they had arrived.

Another gig I had at about that time was a residency at a club in Bayswater, backing singer Duffy Power. I have an old schoolmate, Gordon Hadler (a drummer), to thank for this. We played every Friday and Saturday nights (or maybe it was Saturday and Sunday); the lineup was vocals, guitar, bass, drums. The gig lasted for several weeks. There was a small dance floor. I was intrigued by one of the regular patrons. He was a friendly guy, as I recall, but slightly built, balding and bespectacled. He was a regular at the club. What intrigued me was that he would be dancing with a different attractive woman almost every night. How did he do it ? At the time I didn’t realise that they were all hookers. That’s how naïve I was at that age !

A good few years later Gordon told me that the guitarist was in fact John McLaughlin, who played with Miles Davis on such historic albums as Bitches Brew. He was renowned for his virtuosic work in jazz fusion, progressive rock, and world music and led the highly influential Mahavishnu Orchestra.

In addition to these gigs, I spent the next few years working as an articled clerk with a firm of West End accountants in Howland Steet. Eventually I passed my finals and became a qualified Chartered Accountant. Wow !

As soon as I qualified and was earning a decent salary with a firm that became part of Ernst & Ernst, I was able to move out of the parental home and shared flats in Kilburn, Gloucester Place and Maida Vale. I was still actively playing during this time and amongst other jobs I had was a regular duo with a very good pianist who played very much in the style of Errol Garner.

I was dating a girl whose brother had restored an U.S.A Willys jeep from World War 2. In 1969 we drove down to Southampton, took the ferry to Bilbao and then drove south via Madrid all the way to Estepona on the Costa del Sol.

The Spanish people were lovely and friendly, waving to these eccentric English people driving their open jeep or chatting to us when we would stop at a bar for refreshment. We both worked in bars throughout the summer and early autumn. I became quite fluent in (Andalusian) Spanish.

There were a lot of retired British people in Estepona at that time, typically retired civil servants or military personnel. Why not ? Property prices, even then, were a fraction of those in Britain, booze was dirt cheap and sunshine guaranteed.

Click HERE for Part 2