Michael William "Mike" Hart (3 December 1943 – 22 June 2016) was an English singer-songwriter and poet. In 1962 he founded the band The Roadrunners, before leaving in 1965 to join The Liverpool Scene, a poetry and music collective, with Adrian Henri, Andy Roberts, and Mike Evans. After recording one album with them he had a solo album, Mike Hart Bleeds, produced by John Peel, on Peel's Dandelion Records label. He recorded a second solo album with Dandelion; Basher, Chalky, Pongo and Me. In 1980 he began work on a third solo project. Five tracks were recorded, but none were released. They have been rediscovered, remastered, and put online.[1] He died on 22 June 2016 at the age of 72. (Read more at Wikipedia.)
Links to Peel[]
Mike Hart - Arty's Wife (p) 1969
Of all the members of the Liverpool Scene, it was Mike Hart who seemed to retain Peel's admiration. He contributed three tracks to the band's debut LP, Amazing Adventures Of...., which Peel produced, and did a solo Night Ride session which went out in May 1968. He also wrote the Liverpool Scene's first single, "Son, Son", which Peel played, but had left by the time the band did their first session in early 1969. Nevertheless the DJ produced Mike Hart's first LP and continued to play tracks from the singer's albums, even if they were among the more obscure releases on the Dandelion label and Mike Hart himself had left the music scene.
Peel had a special affection for the song "Almost Liverpool 8", from the LP he produced, Mike Hart Bleeds, choosing it as one of forty records to celebrate his fortieth birthday in August 1979 and later including it in the Peelenium for 1969. (The song's title was also used for a 2021 documentary film about the Toxteth area of the city[2].) Another favourite from that album was "Arty's Wife", whose lyrics Peel admired (see comments below). Peel revisited these tracks in later decades and also played reissues of the material Hart had recorded with the Roadrunners during the 1960s Merseybeat boom.
Festive Fifty Entries[]
- None
Peelenium[]
- Peelenium 1969: Almost Liverpool 8
Sessions[]
One session only. No known commercial release.
1. Recorded: 1968-03-15. First broadcast: 15 May 1968. Repeated:
- Elsie Straus / Spiders And Larks / Is It True / The Shelter Song
Other Shows Played[]
- 1970
- 21 February 1970: Arty's Wife (LP - Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion
- 14 March 1970: Arty's Wife (LP - Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion
- 25 July 1970: Elsie Straws Saga (Compilation LP - 49 Greek Street) RCA
- 1973
- 22 March 1973: Almost Liverpool 8 (LP – Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion
- 29 March 1973: Arty’s Wife (LP – Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion
- 12 April 1973: Yawny Morning Song (LP – Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion
- 1979
- 30 August 1979: Almost Liverpool 8' (Dandelion) (Peel's 40 records for his 40th birthday)
- 18 September 1979: Arty's Wife (LP - Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion
- 1980s
- Peel July August September 1982: Almost Liverpool 8 (LP - Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion
- 22 October 1985: Almost Liverpool 8 (LP - Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion
- 1990s
- 15 April 1994: (Linking four tracks from Sonic Youth to Mike Hart: Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore played on the Backbeat soundtrack album, impersonating the Beatles in Hamburg, while the Roadrunners LP was recorded by a genuine Merseybeat combo at the German city’s Star Club, with band members including subsequent Dandelion solo artist Mike Hart.)
- Arty's Wife (LP – Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion (JP: "Mike Hart made an LP for Dandelion Records, which was the label I had at the end of the 1960s/beginning of the 1970s. Catastrophically unsuccessfully financially but artistically sound - not always I have to admit, but a lot of good stuff nonetheless, and few things better than this, which is a song called 'Artie's Wife'. Pay particular attention to the way he sings "She lives now in Belgium" and even more so "Reads a book on plastics". And I think "plastics" is delivered with more venom than any other single word in all of recorded popular music.") - 23 April 1994 (BFBS): Arty's Wife (album - Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion (John produced the above album, and he met the guitarist from that album Rick Sanders for the first time in 20 years, at Calais on his way to the Alexandra-arranged French family holiday.)
- 12 October 1998 (BFBS): 'Arty's Wife (CD-Mike Hart Bleeds / Basher, Chalky, Pongo And Me)' (See For Miles)
- 09 November 1999: Almost Liverpool 8 (LP-Mike Hart Bleeds) Dandelion (Peelenium 1969)
- Roadrunners
- 05 January 1981: Little Ruby (album - Twist-Time Im Star-Club Hamburg 4) Ariola / Star-Club
- 15 April 1994: (Linking four tracks from Sonic Youth to Mike Hart: Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore played on the Backbeat soundtrack album, impersonating the Beatles in Hamburg, while the Roadrunners LP was recorded by a genuine Merseybeat combo at the German city’s Star Club, with band members including subsequent Dandelion solo artist Mike Hart.)
-Beautiful Delilah (LP – Twist Time In Star Club Hamburg 4) Ariola/Star-Club - 23 April 1994 (BFBS): Beautiful Delilah (live at Star Club) (album - Twist Time In Star Club Hamburg 4) Ariola/Star-Club
See Also[]
- Dandelion
- There Is Some Fun Going Forward
- Sounds Playlist
- Gigography 1969
- Disc & Music Echo: Peel Columns
- Sounds