A Career Pathway
Mick was born in Dovercourt, Harwich, Essex in 1946. From an early age, Mick felt a determination to pursue a career as a professional musician. Although aged just 14, it seemed a natural pathway for him considering that his father was a professional drummer, and his uncle an accomplished guitarist, electric bass and double bass player.
Being drawn to the mid to late 1950’s rock & roll dominant popular music scene of the time, Mick soon fell under the influences of the blues rock, rockabilly and jazz rock genres. The early pioneer performers such as: Eddie Cochran; Ray Charles; The Ted Heath Band; Lonnie Donegan; Frank Sinatra; Cliff Gallup (Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps); Franny Beecher (Bill Haley & The Comets); and Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley's backing group, The Blue Moon Boys), heavily influenced Mick’s early musical direction. A little time later, Mick also admired several virtuoso guitarists from Britain, namely, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and John McLaughlin. Mick also took influence from Steve Lukather from America and they would eventually play live together.
Mick, 1959, with his first electric guitar, a Horner Colorama
Mick, (15), playing fender with his father's band also featuring his uncle with a Burns Sonic bass
Mick, (10) in his first band, The Cobras
Combined with a natural ability, an adaptive vocal range, and a determination to succeed, Mick's confidence quickly developed in these early years and he was able to showcase his talents by performing on stage at local music clubs. Mick was further encouraged by a journalist who saw him performing at his local holiday camp. This led to some favourable written reviews and a relocation to London where he was able to capitalise on the much larger sources of work. Mick joined The Vision, a musical group from Romford, Essex, that backed both Adam Faith and Helen Shapiro. The band, otherwise known as The Imp-Acts, comprised Mick Rogers (lead guitar); Howard Morgan (guitar and vocals); Ray Frewin (bass and vocals); and Lloyd Courtenay (drums). They released a single, entitled, The Dum-Dum Song / If I Were The Only One, in 1965.
Initial Success in Australia and Procession
The young Englishman found more early success when, after re-locating from London to Australia, he joined various bands, most notably, Normie Rowe and The Playboys. But after Normie Rowe split with his Playboys backing group to take up National Service in Australia, several of the band musicians, including Mick, remained undeterred, and immediately formed a new band calling themselves Procession. This band comprised: Mick (vocals, guitar and bass), Trevor Griffin (organ), Brian Peacock (bass) and Craig Collinge (percussion). The group was highly motivated and achieved some moderate commercial success in Australia with a late 1967 charting single, Anthem. Keen to capitalize on this initial success, the band moved to London where they performed regularly at the Marquee Club during the first half of 1969. The band released a second album, eponymously titled, which was produced by Mike Hugg, the long-term collaborator of the rhythm and blues band, Manfred Mann. Despite receiving many positive reviews, the new album did not attract sufficient commercial sales. Following some brief member changes triggered by these disappointing sales, the group officially disbanded in September 1969. Mick considered it unfortunate that the UK management wanted the band to play pop songs. It was, on reflection, time to move onto a new project.
Procession (studio album, 1969)
Following the disbanding of Procession, Mick returned to Australia and quickly found continuity of work, hooking up with the band, Doug Parkinson In Focus. Shortly afterwards, in 1970, Mick jointly formed a three-piece power rock band called Bulldog, which comprised: Mick (guitar and vocals), Peter Miles (percussion) and Bob Dames (bass). The material and live sound demonstrated great promise, highlighted by a different musical direction to that of Mick's preceding collaborations. The music was more hard-edged with subtle jazz vibes.
All the while during these early years, Mick was honing his self-taught skills on electric, bass and acoustic guitars as well as developing his distinctive and appealing vocal range and stage presence. The frontman responsibility would not go unnoticed, culminating with his big musical career break with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1971.
Bulldog: Mick, Peter Miles and Bob Dames
Bulldog single release
Mick Rogers, 1972, with his Les Paul Custom
Mick Rogers Recruited into Manfred Mann’s Earth Band - 1971
Since 1962, and extending the durations of Mick’s periods with both Procession and Bulldog, both Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg achieved considerable commercial success in the United Kingdom with the Manfred Mann rhythm and blues band, securing a string of chart entries, including three number ones in the United Kingdom.
Despite these achievements, Manfred Mann felt compelled to change his musical direction and explore his love of jazz rock fusion. Consequently, both he and Mike Hugg formed a new band in 1969 entitled Manfred Mann Chapter Three. Whilst recruiting for the band, Mike Hugg recommended that Procession’s Craig Collinge was recruited for the role of percussion and drumming. This would have a detrimental affect on Procession. Hugg also applauded the vocals of Mick, who, for the time being remained in Procession since the music of the Chapter Three was purely instrumental. After just two years and two relatively unsuccessful albums, Manfred concluded that the Chapter Three project was going to have a limited future, partly due to the lavish number of payrolled musicians considered necessary to produce the bigger band sound. Consequently, after a nine-year collaboration, Manfred split with Mike Hugg and embarked on forming a new band that could freely explore the longer song format of the progressive rock genres that were becoming increasingly popular since the late 1960s. Manfred quickly recruited Chris Slade for the drumming duties, who in turn recommended Colin Pattenden for the bass duties. Manfred also greatly admired Mick's singing voice from his Procession period and therefore it was no surprise that Manfred quickly approached the singer to join him for the new project. This was the big musical break that Mick yearned for and therefore he immediately returned to England after disbanding his short-lived Bulldog project. Manfred and Mick quickly started to collaborate, and it soon became obvious to Manfred that, apart from being a talented frontman and vocalist, Mick was also a naturally gifted and competent guitar player. As a newly formed four-piece band they immediately began recording material and touring. After taking time to consider a new name for the project, they finally settled on Manfred Mann's Earth Band, this in time for their first album release.
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – 1971 to 1975
Between the years of 1971 and 1975, Manfred Mann's Earth Band produced six album releases, namely, Manfred Mann's Earth Band (1972); Glorified Magnified (1972); Messin' (1973), aka in America; Get You're Rocks Off; Solar Fire (1973); The Good Earth (1974); and Nightingales And Bombers (1975). They also released nine official singles, namely; Living Without You (1971); Mrs Henry (1971); Meat (1972); I'm Up And I'm Leaving (1972); Get Your Rocks Off (1973); Joybringer (1973); Father Of Day, Father Of Night (1974); Be Not Too Hard (1974); and Spirits In The Night (1975).
The consistent line up for all six of these albums was: Manfred Mann (organ, synthesiser, backing vocals), Mick Rogers (lead vocals and guitar); Colin Pattenden (bass); and Chris Slade (drums and percussion).
The band toured extensively across Europe, Australia, USA and Canada, performing at over 300 concerts. They shared the stages with some of the worlds greatest bands, including: Deep Purple, Free, Uriah Heep, Status Quo, Greenslade, ELP, UFO, Hawkwind, Soft Machine, ZZ Top, Electric Light Orchestra, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The Gary Moore Band, Heavy Metal Kids, Camel, Steeleye Span, Kiss, Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Rush and Frank Zappa.
Mick achieved much success in this period and he helped propel Manfred Mann's Earth Band into one of the finest live acts of the period.
Whilst touring the USA in Cleveland on 3rd December 1973, Manfred Mann's Earth Band were providing support for Frank Zappa. Tom Fowler, who played bass guitar for Zappa's band (also comprising, Chester Thompson, drums and George Duke, Keyboards) had suffered a broken bone in his hand and therefore couldn't play the gig. Frank Zappa's management asked Colin Pattenden to help out but instead Mick stepped in for the rehearsals, since he was already very familiar with the music. The rehearsal impressed Zappa so much that he was immediately given the gig. Mick therefore played both sets that night and, even though Mick considered it an absolute honour to play with Zappa, the Zappa management team insisted that he was paid for the gig. Mick invested that fee by buying a new Les Paul Deluxe guitar, a memento to what Mick still considers to be one of his greatest night's of his life.
in 1975, Mick was not fully satisfied with the forward direction of the music and had continued to express to Manfred his excitement for the work of Frank Zappa. But Zappa's jazz rock style was not appreciated or encouraged by Manfred Mann sufficiently enough to change the band's musical direction. This respectful difference of opinion between the two artists ultimately lead to Mick being released from the band. His last gig in this chapter of his career was on 22nd August 1975 at Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Chris Thompson immediately replaced Mick for the vocal duties, and Dave Flett for lead guitar. The band was to move forward and achieve charting success with Blinded By The Light in 1976. Oddly enough Mick has already mastered the rehearsals of Blinded By The Light.
However, and most importantly, Mick would keep in touch with Manfred and even contribute with guest vocals and guitar to the future album releases: The Roaring Silence (1976); Chance (1980); and Somewhere in Africa (1982).
Aside from his contributions to Manfred Mann's Earth Band in this period, Mick added some guitar (with Kevin Peek) on Mike Hugg's 1972 album, Somewhere, and backing vocals on the 1973 album, Stress and Strain. Both albums are highly acclaimed.
1972, Australia - Mick Rogers, Manfred Mann, Colin Pattenden and Chris Slade
Nightingales and Bombers: Chris Slade, Manfred Mann, Mick Rogers and Colin Pattenden
Post Manfred Mann's Earth Band 1975 to 1983
After exiting from Manfred Mann's Earth Band in late August 1975, Mick immediately made plans to return to Australia to hook up with various musicians to explore new musical possibilities that best expressed his ideas. He formed the band Eclipse who released a promo single of Get Your Rocks off.
In 1977, Mick relocated back to England, after being recruited to tour live with Greenslade, an off shoot band resulting from the demise of Colloseum in 1971. Greenslade had previously split in 1975 due to management difficulties, but after the release of Dave Greenslade's solo album Cactus Choir, the band decided to take their music on the road again. This 1997 line-up comprised, Dave Greenslade (keyboards), Mick Rogers (guitar and vocals), Tony Reeves (bass), and Jon Hiseman (drums).
After tour duties were completed with Greenslade, Mick co-formed a very exciting and promising band with Jack Lancaster (ex. Blodwyn Pig, The Mick Abrahams Band, The Soul Searchers). The band surfaced as Aviator and comprised: Mick Rogers (vocals and guitar), Jack Lancaster (saxophone, flute, lyricon and synthesizer), John Perry (bass and vocals), and Clive Bunker (percussion and drums). John Perry had already played with Caravan and Quantum Jump, whilst Clive Bunker had achieved much success with Jethro Tull, Steve Hillage and Blodwyn Pig. This band was a very serious proposition and they immediately got to work recording their first album, simply entitled Aviator. The album was produced by the band, with assistance from Robin Lumley (Brand X). A mixture of rock and jazz rock, the band took to the road in 1979, in Europe, supporting The Steve Hillage Band. The band played some festivals in Germany and also recorded a live set to WDR Radio in Cologne.
Following this tour of Germany, Jack Lancaster departed the band but the remaining trio recorded a second album in 1980, entitled, Turbulence. Mick brought his influences to bear on this rocking album and included a hard hitting version of, Get Your Rocks Off, an old Manfred Mann's Earth Band song.
In 1981, the four original members of Aviator were reunited for Jack Lancaster's solo album entitled, Skinningrove Bay.
During the time of Mick's tenure in Aviator, the symphonic progressive rock band Genesis were facing the daunting prospect of finding a replacement for the departed vocalist Peter Gabriel. It is documented in the Genesis Archive 2 box set that Mick, being a contender for the singing roll, came very close to being selected. In the end Phil Collins offered to take the vocal duties and so it came to pass that Genesis continued as a four-piece band with the live drumming duties being provided by Bill Bruford.
Following the break up of Aviator, Mick toured with The Dave Kelly Band in 1983. A concert at The Venue, London was recorded with the band (Dave Kelly, Mick Rogers, Rob Townsend, Gary Fletcher, John Earle and Lou Stonebridge).
Mick also collaborated with Simon Phillips, Tony Reeves, and Colosseum II.
In 1983, Manfred Mann's Earth Band signed a record deal with Arista Records in the USA and released a new version of their 11th studio album, Somewhere In Afrika. This album featured two new tracks for which Mick provided guitars and backing vocals, namely on Rebel and Runner. In 1984, Runner was released as a single and charted at number 22 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song was heavily played on radio and a video was produced for MTV. The video, featuring Mick on both backing vocals and guitar, was adopted by the American Broadcasting Company for their televising of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Games.
Phil Collins' hand written notes
Manfred Mann's Earth Band 1986, Mick Rogers, John Lingwood, Steve Kinch, Manfred Mann, Chris Thompson
Mick's Return To Manfred Mann's Earth Band
In 1985, Mick attended a live concert of Manfred Mann's Earth Band and was asked by Manfred Mann at a meeting after the show to rejoin the band on a permanent basis.
The new line up then comprised Manfred Mann (keyboards); Mick Rogers (vocals and lead guitar), Chris Thompson (vocals, guitar), John Lingwood (drums) and Steve Kinch (bass). The band would set to work on material for a new album having just signed a new contract with Virgin 10 Records following the demise of Bronze.
The band released three singles in the spring and early summer of 1986, namely: Do Anything You Wanna Do; Going Underground; and, I Shall Be Rescued, before releasing the full album, Criminal Tango in the UK in June 1986. After band rehearsals, Manfred took his band on the road for their first tour since April 1984. They commenced the run with several warm up gigs in the UK in March, before embarking on an extensive tour of Europe where they would perform over 60 concerts. Following the completion of the 1986 tour, Manfred Mann decided to put the touring band on temporary hold, especially since Chris Thompson had decided to leave the band to focus on a solo career. Instead he would set to work on a 13th Studio album, Masque. Following Masque, the band returned to touring on a regular basis in 1991 and released the albums: Soft Vengeance (1996) and Manfred Mann '06: 2006 (2004).
During the periods of inactivity of Manfred Mann's Earth Band, especially during the period when Manfred Mann was working on his solo project (Plains Music), Mick took the opportunity to collaborate with other artists.
Joan Armatrading embarked on a sold-out tour of the UK, Europe, USA and Canada accompanied by Mick.
In 1994 Mick joined Eddie and The Hotrods and during his tenure with the band they released the album Gasoline Days which was recorded in 1995. Mick featured on fender guitar and Ovation acoustic guitar and provided lead and backing vocals. Mick very much enjoyed his time with the band, contributing to the writing and production, but unfortunately the sales were not sufficient and the collaboration ended.
Gasoline Days, back cover, Mick front centre
In 1998 Mick, finding some time between Manfred Mann's Earth Band touring duties, was delighted to accept an offer to perform on stage at Subrosa, Almero, The Netherlands on 20th February, to celebrate the music of Jimi Hendrix. Mick's set included his signature song, Father Of Day, as well as Statistics (another Manfred Mann's Earth Band arranged classic), and renditions of Jimi Hendrix's classic songs Highway Chile and Fire. Pat Travers and Steve Lukather also featured that night. To mark the occasion, a live CD was released.
Mick would later include a special arrangement of 'Fire' on his first solo album, Back To Earth (2002).
Throughout the period following the release of Manfred Mann's Earth Band's 1996 album, Soft Vengeance, Mick was kept extremely busy touring Europe and there hasn't been a single break in their touring activity. Nonetheless, Mick desire for writing new material remained very strong. In 2002 Mick released his first solo album, entitled, Back To Earth and followed that up by releasing an extended play disc entitled Father Of Day. Both albums are hugely acclaimed and really showcase Mick's fine vocals and guitar work.
In 2010, Mick united with some of his special friends in the music business to form The Bad Apples, a live blues band, comprising: Jimmy Copley (percussion), Mick (guitar, vocals); Micky Moody (guitar), Ian Jennings (bass) and Matt Empson (keyboards). The band also featured some notable guest singers and musicians including Eric Clapton, Paul Jones and Robert Hart. The band would release a fine album in 2014, entitled, Played!, that also featured guest musicians including, Manfred Mann and Anthony Head.
In 2011, Mick hooked up with Status Quo's keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Andy Bown to record an album, Unfinished Business, where he played guitars and backing vocals. The band also released an official video, Rubber Gloves, to accompany the album.
Mick released a Christmas single in 2012, entitled, Happy X-Mas, War Is Over, featuring Heidi Aboab.
In 2013 Mick produced a third fine album, entitled, Sharabang, again receiving critical acclaim. The album, cut in Austria, engineered and mixed by Chuck Ainlay, also features world class supporting musicians, namely; Gregg Bissonette (drums); Matt Bissonette (bass); and Matt Rollins (keyboards).
Mick continues as a full time member of Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and, along with Manfred Mann, they are the only two remaining original band members. The band continues to tour Europe on a regular basis, performing in front of sold out venues. He has also performed in Spain with fellow Manfred Mann's Earth Band singer, Robert Hart, in 2024, billed as The Duo.
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