Mikey likes to be called “Kat in De Hat” – it’s on his business card, alongside the Jamaican flag. His parents are from Jamaica, but he was born in Camberwell and grew up there and has since lived in Dulwich, Peckham and, of course, Brixton. He is a Brixtonian at heart. He says it is his “stomping ground”.
He was 12 when he first played a steelpan: “I used to just mess about with a primary school band that had got a steelpan set, which was fun to do and it helped me progress learning. I moved into a professional band, which is where I learnt the rudiments of the instrument and how to play properly.”
Mikey has been a member of the London All Stars Steel Orchestra since 1986. It was founded in 1974 by Trinidadian Frank Rollock, a very accomplished pianist and multi-instrumentalist, who lays claim to organising Brixton’s first carnival.
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"Some years I played with two different bands in the same competition."
Merrytonestothebone: Why yuh encourage THIS SLACKNESS all over the WORLD OF PAN?