Episode 22 of First Impressions features musician, adventurer, woodworker, long-distance cyclist and organic farmer Mike Teague. Growing up on the Wirral with classical musician parents, it wasn’t until he met a Slash lookalike at school and started listening to Guns n’ Roses and Nirvana that Mike discovered his love of guitar music and began performing in a succession of bands – entering the Liverpool music scene alongside The Coral and The Zutons.
By resolutely refusing to plan his next move, a life of travel and adventure has followed. In this episode Mike, now qualified in environmental architecture, explains how he and his partner Aniko wound up building their own home on the Hungarian riviera before we travel back to his formative years and then on to Preston via a stint in a dysfunctional Commitments cover band and later Melbourne, where the mandolin became Mike’s instrument of choice. Next time, we talk about Mike, Guy and Karim’s musical hurrah in Liverpool, his time on the royal fiefdom of Sark, travels in Australasia and Africa, squatting in London, and going into the studio in Ireland. Special thanks to Jim/James Pollard, Mike’s unofficial music archivist (and an excellent musician in his own right) for helping source some of the tunes used in this episode. Here they are:
(00:00) ‘Petofi Pompe’ performed by Mike Teague
(32:35) ‘You really got me’ performed by the Cave Junkeez
(35:30) ‘Reggae Youth Club Anthem’ performed by Funky Didgerama
(36:45) ‘Afrobeatz’ performed by Funky Didgerama
(39:12) ‘Barryfish’ performed by The Weaverfish
(45:00) ‘Holdsworth Road Theme’ performed by Pool of Thought
(51:34) ‘Greek Song’ performed by the Maybenots
A few links connected to our conversation:
Mike on SoundCloud = @mikeymandolin
Guy on SoundCloud = @guyzeek
Steve Hall on SoundCloud = @steve-hall
The Coral = thecoral.co.uk
The Zutons = en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zutons
Patrick Fermor (travel writer) = en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Leigh_Fermor
Bruce Chatwin (travel writer) = en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Chatwin
Rowland Keeble (on building with rammed earth) = www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcI1OiW4nDQ
The History of Rock Music in 500 songs = 500songs.com
