Mike Harrison

Born in Carlisle in 1942, at 14 Harrison heard the future in Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel floating over the pirate radio waves and found his own voice and consuming passions somewhere between Ray Charles and Etta James. In 1963, he and his mates, including future Humble Pie bassist Greg Ridley, formed The VIPs, tasted local success and tried their luck in Swinging London.

Chris Blackwell signed The VIPs as one of the first bands on his fledgling Island label, they had a chart topping single in Europe - I Wanna Be Free – before morphing into the prog rock Art with a couple of personnel changes.