Michael Arnell

We moved to Peterlee in 1973 when I was 11 years old. I’d only just finished junior school, so our arrival coincided with the school summer holidays. A few weeks later I started at Shotton Hall Comprehensive. The first year was hard. You could say it was a baptism of fire! With not being from the area I didn’t know anyone at school and with having a strong Hartlepool accent, I stood out like a sore thumb. It didn’t help that I had only recently lost my father, who died in an accident at work. Understandably, I was lacking in self-confidence and as a result took a fair few kicks and punches from the other boys.

Seeing that I was coming home from school most days covered in cuts and bruises and with torn clothes, my mother found a boxing and karate club at Peterlee Boys Club on Grampian Drive and sent me there. I almost lived in the place for the next year. The thing I came to discover, is that once you build up the confidence and people know you’re ready to fight back, nobody wants to pick a fight with you.

We lived at 87 Pentland Close, towards the bottom end of Pennine Drive. It was a real showbiz area. A lot of artists lived nearby, including John and Betty Hall who lived next door to us. They were a well-known Country and Western duo and toured all over, from Scotland to Yorkshire. I became close friends with their children Brian and Mandy. Their house had musical instruments scattered all over the place and they had a great record collection. Peterlee is central in relation to Durham, Sunderland, Tyneside, Teesside, and North Yorkshire, so it’s ideally located if you’re an entertainer working the club scene. Also, back then it was a lovely place, with lots of green open space and a distinctive modern vibe. And of course, there were plenty of new houses available to rent.

Around the corner from us on Brecon Close was the Heart family. Julie Heart, who was only a year older than me, was a well-known singer on the club circuit. Near them lived The Fontaine’s, whose real name was Robinson. John and Julie were both singers on the club scene. They taught their kids to play and sing, training them into a three-piece band with Shane on drums, Steve on guitar and vocals, and Billy as the lead singer. They were only 10, 11, and 12 years old when their parents had them playing the clubs and holiday camps. Though John and Julie had separate careers, they also toured as a package with the kids. You also had Frankie Cash, a club entertainer who came originally from Liverpool. He looked like Clark Gable. He was a well-known impressionist and part of his act involved mimicking the sound of airplanes taking off and stuff like that. At the time it seemed that just about every street in the area had their own band and everybody knew everyone else.

In the fifth form at Shotton Hall I joined a school punk band called ‘The Scum’. The other members of the band were in the 6th form. We played one gig together! After leaving school at sixteen I became a busker living off Bayswater Road in London and from there busked my way around Europe. I must have visited every country on the continent before returning to live in Peterlee. It’s around this time in 1984 that I formed ‘Family Politics’, with John Close (bass), Garry Watson (guitar), and Graham Chesterton (drums). I was the lead singer and songwriter. I left the band for a short while before they asked me to return with the intention of entering the Band of the North contest, which was sponsored by The Northern
Echo. First prize was a cheque for £2,500, a brand new Bedford van, two crates of Moët Champagne, and three days studio time with DJM Records in London. I agreed, but on the condition that I got the van. They all had cars and I didn’t.

Apparently, 110 bands from across the region submitted demo tapes, which they whittled down to 16 for the live heats. We won our heat at Peppermint Park in Stockton, which was also the venue for the final which we also won.

After that there was a lot of disagreements and in-fighting. Some of this resulted from us playing benefit gigs for the striking miners in places like the Village Club in Easington. John our bass player was a huge fan of Maggie Thatcher, while Charlie our drummer worked at the pit. I ended up doing the gigs solo. When Family Politics broke up, I had to sell the van and split the proceeds with the others. It also turned out that DJM Records only wanted to deal with the songwriter, which was me. Their plan was for me and Alan King, the guitarist from Mongolfier Brothers (runners up in the band contest), to form a band with Colin Butler, Robbie Ryan, and Mick Ray. Alan and I signed a publishing contract for two songs we
wrote together (‘Freedom Express’ and ‘Racing the City’) before this band split after playing only 4 gigs.

I then formed a skiffle band with Dominic Richardson and David Boyes, who’s now a County Councillor for the Easington Ward. We did about 50 gigs and 50 street busking sessions and made a bit of money. We even ended up on the TV show TX 45 hosted by Chris Cowey, who later became the producer for Top of the Pops.

Becoming a dad in 1986 changed a lot of things. I started driving a taxi for Phillips Taxi’s, which was owned by my step-dad Cliff Phillips. After that I got a job selling advertising for Read Northern Newspaper’s. During this time I kept involved with music through Durham Street Recording Studios in Hartlepool, where I joined the Board of Trustees in 1989. In 1994 I formed The Durham Street Refugees. The band was co-opted by Teesside Health Authority because one of their health workers had heard me busking one of my songs about drug abuse and thought it would be a good way to get the message across to the kids. This resulted in the recording of our first album ‘Push Back In’. It sold 1,500 copies through J&K
Records and got us a gig at Glastonbury, which we played in 1998, 1999 and 2000. The experience of playing Glastonbury also inspired me to set up Monkey Hanger Productions and organise the Haystock Festival at Wingate Grange Farm. It was around this time that I became a full-time jobbing musician and started running buskers’ nights, which I still do. To pay the bills I’ve played in numerous cover bands over the last 20 years or more. Alongside this I’ve kept doing my own thing, writing, performing, and recording as Mick Arnell & The Kets.