It is about
growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s in northeast England where he developed a
love for music and in particular for the guitar, as played by his heroes Paul
Kossoff and Eric Clapton. During this period he saw some amazing bands
including the Beatles, Free, Back Street Crawler, Cream, Taste, Savoy Brown,
Jethro Tull, Blodwyn Pig, Skid Row, Bakerloo, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney &
Bonnie, Derek & the Dominos, Eric Clapton and many more.
These gigs and some legendary north east venues are
described including Newcastle City Hall, Club a’GoGo, Sunderland Locarno
(Fillmore North) and many others. The first chapter is about Mike and his
friends seeing Cream play at Club a’GoGo in 1967.
The release of
the Island sampler album You Can All Join In was major event for him,
especially hearing Free’s I’m a Mover. The first time he saw Free live
in 1969 in a half-empty Durham Town Hall had a profound effect on him and from
then on Free became his favourite live band. He later saw them many times at
Dunelm House, Sunderland Locarno (including the night they recorded Free
Live!), Manchester University, Newcastle City Hall and Newcastle Mayfair
Ballroom and these gigs are all described in detail.
Mike also
describes the final time he saw Paul Kossoff perform with Back Street Crawler
at Newcastle City Hall in November 1975, just a few months before Paul
tragically died.
Mike’s teenage
years included forming his first band at school. In the 70s and early 80s he
regularly played with other north east bands. This book covers the period up to
1985 when Mike formed After Midnight after being inspired by Eric Clapton’s
performance at Live Aid. For the next 40 years Mike performed at all kinds of
venues throughout the UK and abroad, including Glastonbury Festival in 2002. In
1986 he played a set of Free covers at the first Free Convention at Leeds
University along with two musicians he had just met. Also on the bill were
Beckett, Terry Slessor and Arthur Ramm who kindly allowed Mike to have his
photo taken with Paul Kossoff’s Les Paul.
In 1987 Mike
was influential in moving the Free Convention further north, nearer
Newcastle/Sunderland where Free had always received their most fanatical
support. Mike jointly organised the second Free Convention at the Park Hotel, Tynemouth
with his band After Midnight performing a set of Free covers. It was a huge
success with several hundred Free fans packing out the venue. Mike continued to
be involved with the Free Convention for several more years and got to perform
with Terry Slessor and John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick.
Free remain
Mike’s favourite live band and he has continued to include numerous Free covers
in the After Midnight set since they began in 1985.
Throughout his musical career Mike accumulated countless memories which are vividly described in his book.
To buy the book you can go to Amazon books and search for –
“Mike Hall Before Midnight”. (Paperback £14.99, Kindle £4.99).
We hope some of you will enjoy it.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Midnight-Memoirs-Guitarist-Early/dp/B0FFNFFG6J/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0
Sunderland Echo piece (October 12th, 2025)
