Mike Whellans

Mike Whellans
A long time fixture on the British and European club, concert, TV, radio &festival circuit, as a solo former,band leader and session musician, and having toured in Canada and the USA, Mike Whellans is once again making his mark in the UK - he went down a perfect storm at, the 2005 Glastonbury Festival.
Born in the Scottish Borders Mike began his musical life in the late 1950s/early 1960s playing his father’s
drum kit. By age 14 he was playing in local dance bands and in 1969 Mike
decided to turn professional.
In the early 1970s, Mike teamed up with Aly Bain, the brilliant and renowned traditional fiddler
from the Shetland Islands, and for four years toured the UK, Europe, USA, and Canada, showing
off his ability for playing amazingly clean and crisp flat-pick guitar behind Aly’s fiddle; a very
dynamic duo!He was also a founder member of the Irish/Scottish line-up of The Boys of the
Lough, but left them after a year to follow a solo career.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Mike lived in Denmark and toured all over Scandinavia, Germany and
the Low Countries, as well as working back home in the UK touring solo and turning out with
those madcap Scottish musos, The Vindscreen Vipers Skiffle Group (Tich Frier, Bill Nolan,
Malky McCormack and the late Danny Kyle) and the Block Bros Blues Band from Edinburgh.
Now, Mike’s back home again in the Scottish Borders and working as Scotland’s only (as far as
we know) one-man blues band - and there aren’t that many in the UK either - with his guitars,
mouth-harps, vocals and drum-kit - and of course his show-stopping, “mouth percussion”.Since
returning to Scotland, Mike has developed a creative partnership with Robin Morton, head of
Temple Records. With Robin as producer, Mike has released two successful records for the
Temple label with another in the pipeline for release in Summer 2008.
If you’re not familiar with Mike Whellan’s music (see: http://mikewhellans.com) then it’s pretty
much unashamedly good rockin’ 12-bar blues played in Mike’s inimitable style on 6- and 12-
string guitars (picked with great precision and at eye-watering speed), mouth-harp (masterful and
packed with music describes Mike’s mouth-harps - it’s as he’s filled them up with great music and
then he just blows it all out of them towards you), and a wee tottie drum-kit. And the other
things he can do with his mouth? Well, you’ve just got to see and hear his show-stopping vocal
percussion; a real tour de force - got to be witnessed to be believed (you just have got to hear his
self-penned “Smile on Your Face” and his take on Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker’s “Train Time” -
mighty!). Added to this; he sings, is a drummer of no slight talent (it was his first instrument
after all), writes songs, and seems to have boundless energy.
Mike Whellans doesn’t believe in doing things by halves. A Whellans gig is straight from the hip
energy so you’ve got a great entertainment in prospect with the most dynamic one-man blues
band any side of the Forth delta.
And, you’ve probably guessed it, you only see one guy on-stage, but close your eyes and you’re
confronted with a full band sound!
Mike, being based in the Scottish borders, and ’self-contained’ with his own PA and wheels, can
play an enormous range and style of gigs pretty much anywhere in the UK - well, nearly anyway.
And, of course, he’s very well used also to playing abroad.