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Mike Mingins -
drums + vocals + vocal harmonies
Having started playing in St.
Patrick’s youth club in 1965 I always had a dream of playing in bands, and
after playing with my brother in a trio called ‘Connection’ and a dance
band called ‘The Belltones’, I started playing as resident drummer in the
Knights Club at Cleator Moor. That gave me a lot of experience backing
different artists and I progressed to Workington band ‘Knightride’ in 1972
with Paul Mossop, Paul Briggs and Jimmy Bell and for four years we were
very successful including 2 auditions with Hughie Green’s ‘Opportunity
Knox’.
Hall. Towards the end of 1975 the band was not progressing
so I formed a 5 piece harmony band called ‘Camelot’ with my pal Dave
Fearon. I brought Jimmy Bell in from ‘Knightride’ to play keyboards and we
were the first local group to feature Eagles numbers. The band was very
successful and went on to gain quite a bit of local publicity featuring
interviews on local radio as we progressed to the national semi-finals of
‘The pub entertainer of the year’ contest and only just missed out on a
place in the national finals at the Albert Hall in London.
In 1979
Camelot was coming to an end and I thought this was the end of the road of
my semi-professional career; but little did I know the best was yet to
come. One evening while off the road in January 1981 an old pal of mine
from ‘Knightride’ – Paul Mossop, came to see me and asked if I would form
a band with him and two other lads – Malcolm Smitham and Alan Stubbs who
had played together in a band called ‘Glass Mountain’. We started
practising at the Railway Club in Workington 2 or 3 times a week just
doing Shadows and old sixties numbers.
I came up with the idea of
the name ‘Salvador’ and we went on the road for the first time on March
12th 1981 at Egremont Rugby League Club and again I brought Jimmy Bell in
on keyboards to give the band a stronger sound. The band just took off,
but eventually Alan Stubbs left and we stayed four piece until Paul Mossop
had to leave the band through family reasons. I replaced him with a young
man from Cleator Moor called Peter Richardson, and this was the best thing
we ever done. The band really started to progress when Peter came. The
harmonies became better and the music stronger, he was and still is a very
talented singer and guitarist. The band was to go through more changes, as
Jimmy Bell left ‘Salvador’ in 1987. We came off the road until May 1988
when Malcolm, Peter and myself carried on as a three piece which went well
for four years. We decided we needed keyboards again, brought in Fraser
Hogg and went back to a four piece.
In Christmas 1993, Malcolm left
the band and we brought in Keith Starkey on bass. In 1998 both Keith and
Fraser left the band. This time Peter started up with a band called
‘Tribute’ but he missed ‘Salvador’. In the meantime, Fraser asked me to
start up again and Peter was all for it, so again we were a three piece.
After two years, Fraser retired and I brought back Jimmy Bell. The band
has been like this for the last four years and I can’t see it changing.
The band is going from strength to strength - playing to packed houses all
over the north, east and west including theatre performances. That’s the
story so far, so we’ll keep on playing and enjoying it as we do as long as
people want to hear us.
If you're a big fan of the
'Salvador' sound, then why not send us a comment, fotos..etc, by email and
we'll stick 'em up on this website - you can have your very own
'Salvador' fan club right here!
Don’t forget to come and
see the band when you can and say 'hi' ..we'd love to see and entertain
you!
meet the
other band members ..click here!
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