Please email me with updates on new music

Hi! This is an archive website. My latest music is at https://soundcloud.com/mobbing_it_up  AND  https://soundcloud.com/clana_boys. There's lots of great stuff there and you can follow me on https://www.facebook.com/groups/1465586503597444/


Mike O'Neill, July 2023 :-)

p.s. Also, check out new stuff from 'Rothko and Mark Pritchett' on Spotify etc.

the start Rothko

Starting out with visits to see a young David Bowie at the Three Tuns, Beckenham in 1971, a friendship with Bowie's musical collaborator Mark Carr-Pritchard led to me joining avant-garde rock band Rothko in 1972...… 

Around 1971 (or was it 1791), in our youth, I got to know a guy called Mark Pritchett (music industry name Mark Carr-Pritchard). I can’t recall by what (nefarious) means I got to know him but he suggested coming down to see him play at the Three Tuns in Beckenham, where he was helping out a friend of his - David Bowie - with a bit of electric guitar support. Bowie had had a minor hit with Space Oddity at this time (there were a few songs about space, the moon, leaving Earth etc around that time and the first moon landing had captured everyone’s imagination)  but the world had no idea about what was to happen (to Bowie) later. I went along, on a couple of occasions, and Mark introduced me in the interval to this curly blonde haired guy, sat on a stool playing an electric blue acoustic guitar. He was preoccupied in chatting with Mark over what numbers they would be doing in Set 2 so there was not a lot of interesting chat, but he was pleasant and courteous. The music didn’t especially grab me as it was all a bit folky/arty, basic and introspective. I was into Hendrix, rock and – before that – soul/black music, Rolling Stones, sixties Brit pop groups like The Kinks, Small Faces etc, and the Beatles. But the beer and company at the Three Tuns were good so…..
Fast forward to 1972 and my very musical younger brother (he was 17, I was 20, a big  difference at that age) comes in with this new album he’s all excited about: ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars’. When I say I’ve never heard of them he explains its David Bowie. I’m now very curious to learn what the fuss is all about. My rock music loving ears are not expecting much but as I listen to the album my view rapidly changes: this is a great album. Its not long after this that Mark, who had heard I might be interested in singing in a band, gets in touch to say his band needs a singer to rehearse and learn their set in a hurry as  they’re hoping to support Bowie on his upcoming US tour. So, I audition and am suddenly in a band with ambition. The Bowie tour never happens as his rise is so meteoric that a more established band (Fumble, I think) got the gig. But under the management of a young and then unknown (but later to become a well known film director) Paul Greengrass (using the name Paul Allaway) we were got busy with gigs around London pubs and the wider university and club circuit (I recall supporting The Troggs on one occasion, Alexis Korner on another).  After a brief and intense working life, the band disbanded in summer 1973. I got chased by an agent called Andy Gould (later Billy Joel’s publisher) to do a pop act signing with EMI (which went as far as recording at Abbey Rd studios and doing photoshoots) but it wasn’t for me so I ducked out and went straight, as they say.

Rothko backstage at Cafe des Artistes c1973

Rothko rehearsal at Court Lane Studios aka the garage at my house ;-) [note the eggbox sound deadening and recording booth at back

Rothko onstage at The Collegiate Theatre I think (Alexis Korner gig) c1974

Mark Pritchett, Rothko guitarist and songwriter c1973

Andrew 'Ern' Wileman, drummer, Rothko (in soundcheck at Cafe  des Artistes I think) c1973

Paul Jennings, bassist, Rothko c1973

the reprise VHF

1976  and I’m bored with work. Mark comes a knockin’ again and I show interest, so we demo a few songs with session musicians (Kevin Currie, ex Supertramp on drums and Trevor Bolder and Pete Flaskett taking turns on bass).

The band VHF is formed out of these sessions with Simon Goldenburg on 2nd guitar, Paul Jennings (Rothko bassist and who had stayed working with Mark in The Mojos) and Larry 'Animal' Kjaer on drums .  We have a good season of gigging before Simon leaves after deciding rock is not his thing. Larry is replaced by Andy Poulton on drum. Paul leaves soon after to join KHz and is replaced by the legendary John McCoy (who goes on after VHF to join Ian Gillan).  This is a hot line-up on stage and we storm it on tour supporting the Tyla Gang on their UK tour, supporting them and (later) headlining at the Marquee Club, playing the Wigan Casino, and other medium size venues around the UK.  
By this time, VHF were smokin’ (in more ways than one), but the band couldn’t get a good signing and then the punk thing happened and after Island Records (who were backing us but wouldn't sign us) put us through a record company audition gig at The Marquee playing support to their new punk band signing The Automatics (£100k advance for a bunch of public school boys posing as punks and who ever heard of them!), I decided I didn’t want to be part of that (although, strangely, many punk audiences were prepared to see us as punk, so the door was open).  I left the band and the business and went straight again….for 20 years.

Photos (from top)

1) Mark Pritchett, Paul Jennings, Larry 'Animal' Kjaer (drums) - VHF (rolling a spliff I suspect, in Dulwich Woods while surveying for a photoshoot ) c1977

2) VHF onstage at The Albany Empire, Deptford c1977

3) Me onstage (with David Bowie's 12 string Hagstrom, borrowed for the occasion)

4) VHF penultimate line-up c1978: from top left Andy Poulton (drums), John McCoy (bass), Mark Pritchett, me



1) Simon Goldenberg, 2nd guitar, VHF c1977 (photo taken at The Green Man, Greenwich I think)

2) Me in the spotlight, Albany Empire c1977

3) VHF (first line-up) photoshoot, abandoned railway tunnel, Dulwich Woods c1977

4) Andy Poulton (drummer, 2nd line-up) at work, Albany Empire gig I think c1977



1) Me, Larry 'Animal' Kjaer, Paul Jennings - onstage at The Green Man c1977

2) Me onstage, Albany Empire c1977

3) VHF (first line-up) photoshoot, Dulwich Woods c1977

4) Me onstage, The Marquee, London c1977

the return Built4comfort 

Its 1998, and I’ve moved to Manchester with work, three kids and a mortgage etc. I'm a respectable married man FFS!

I'm introduced to Daymo (Damian Skelhorn), who is keen to develop as a singer and asks me if I would join him on guitar (I've stuck with playing the acoustic guitar over the years, mainly for myself as I’ve always kept up singing and playing at home!). He's got a great voice and as an ex singer I like the idea of working with a young talent. And so I get roped in, along with Daymo's mate (who became my good friend) Pete 'Wrighty' Wright and after Daymo twists my arm into doing gigs we go on to have a lot of fun just playing local pubs and parties using a drum and bass machine for the rhythm section (which nobody seemed to notice too much!).  I ended up working with Daymo for 15 or so years and we put quite a few gigs behind us. Me, Daymo and Pete built up some great memories from all the unusual venues and gigs we played - when Northerners go for a night out, they like to party. In fact it was the Northern audiences at VHF gigs many years before that had decided me I'd be happy moving away from London with work.   



There are no pictures of Mr Bigg, but the first picture below is an early pic of Daymo and me in Built4comfort, taken c2002
In the later years, Built4comfort was often joined by guests players, including my brother Hugh O'Neill (lead guitar) and (seen here) Adam George on keyboards and Stafford Murray on lead guitar. The group picture below was taken at a regular venue of ours - The Old Roebuck -  c2012, at probably one of our last gigs. 

Using a Fostex VF-80 8 track recording studio, standard stage microphones, and a ZOOM RhythmTrak RT-123 for bass and drums, Built4Comfort recorded and put out two CDs containing a few own-penned songs along with their take on other songs. 

Built4Comfort - Rode to Nowhere (2002)

Built4Comfort - Too Many Irons...not enough fires (2003)

Built4comfort on youtube - a fuzzy record of nights at The Roebuck, Altrincham

Some happy punter captured snippets of the band (with brother Hugh O'Neill - billed as Hugh Jazz -  who came up from Darn Sarf to guest on lead guitar). In the absence of any other visual or audio record of B4C playing 'live', you can enjoy these dubious offerings here: 

the reunionROTHKO

Unintended consequences.......

2012 and it looks like I'm about to (reluctantly) start life as a single man again. I always seem to find a (positive) project to focus on when times aren't good and this time its a longstanding idea I've had for a film. And so I email (the now well known film director) Paul Greengrass via his agent, though I don't expect to get a reply.  But a year later and out of the blue, I get a cheery reply advising me to 'just do it' (the film that is!) and suggesting we should get Rothko back together. Another year passes, during which time David Bowie sadly also passes, before we track everyone down and we meet up with Paul for a meal in Covent Garden. 

Photo: (from left) Mark Pritchett, Paul Jennings, Andrew 'Ern' Wileman , me, Paul Greengrass

Back in the recording studio...

Maybe it was the food and the wine, but the four of us decide to try out in the studio again, re-imagining some of Mark’s distinctive 1970s songs that we used to play back then. We're not expecting much after all these years of inactivity but session #1 produces four good tracks so we continue through four sessions and put down a total of thirteen songs. These include interesting remakes of songs that David Bowie either wrote for Mark’s band (The Arnold Corns: Hang on to Yourself; Moonage Daydream) or else Mark wrote and David and the Spiders backed him up on (Man in the Middle). We also do a video interview with Kevin Cann, Bowies biographer, as there is interest in Rothko as a previously unexplored part of the early Bowie scene.

Photo: (from left) Tom Gittins (engineer/producer/owner, Monochrome Studios), Andrew 'Ern' Wileman, Mark Pritchett, Kevin Cann (Bowie close friend and archivist), Paul Jennings, me
NEWS UPDATE 23 Feb 2019 As from 17 February, eleven of the tracks we recorded from 1970s catalogue, including 'Man In The Middle' have been made available for purchase on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and many other major channels. In addition, the songs an be heard on Youtube (click link by track listing to listen), and the 'Man In The Middle' video (with an introduction by Mark Pritchett explaining his friendship and collaboration with David Bowie) is also on Youtube (click the link at the left of the track listing below to view)
Man In The Middle introduction and song video
Photo: The mixing room, Monochrome Studios - (from left) Me, Mark Pritchett, Paul Greengrass, Andrew 'Ern' Wileman, Paul Jennings

Rothko - Reimaginings

Above: Session 1 at Monochrome Studios, 2016

The track listing includes two by the original Rothko (Upon Evening Streets, Cries out n the Dark), three from the Arnold Corns stable (Man in the Middle, Moonage Daydream, Hang on to Yourself), with the rest being from the VHF stable. In recording all these songs, we stuck to the 1970's approach of doing complete 'takes' for the rhythm tracks (and even the lead guitar and vocal work) in order to maintain the tension (and imperfections) that approach gives. Tom Gittins, engineer and producer, was sorely tried and tested by this since we were not a rehearsed or gigging band and even some of the arrangements had not been finalised. And we were trying to set down two tracks per day. But he played a blinder and the results stand up well. At his request, we even brought Paul Greengrass in on 2nd guitar in the outro session to 'Tell Me' (and he did a pretty good job!). Since there is currently commercial interest (as at August 2018) in publishing these recordings, they are not downloadable from this website. 

Rothko - Nowadays

Mark continues to be a prolific songwriter, and I write a little also. Rothko decided it would be good to record a few new songs, and to record and engineer them this time using a modern approach, with the facilities a modern recording studio offers and techniques used by a modern recording engineer.  The four tracks listed are again not available for download on this site at this stage (August 2018)

Me myself and others

Back in 2002 I recorded Built4comfort tracks on a fostex VF-80 digital studio and the results were quite acceptable (even if my sound engineer / producer skills were marginal!). In 2018, I was able to buy a little used example of its more expensive brother - the 16 track VF-160 - for a little over £100 (it would have cost upwards of £1000 back then). I also bought a couple of good condensor microphones and I had a Zoom 123 bass and drum machine for creating those parts.  I've just bought a Roland E-09 keyboard which will hopefully expand the arrangements I can bring to a song. Update - December 2018 and I've added a Yamaha bass guitar, Line 6 Variax guitar, Line 6 Pod HD500, and Presonus Eris 5 reference speakers to the kit. Things are smokin' :-)

So, its my time. Time to try writing and recording my own compositions and perhaps more importantly, to do my imaginings of a wide range of songs from the past that I'd always loved. Over the winter of 2017~2018 I set down a good number of tracks. Bob Dylan featured strongly, but I like a wide range of songs and I like great harmonies also. As 2019 started, I moved over to recording using Digital Audio Workshop software on a PC (Reaper, to be precise) which has taken me into a whole new world of learning and recording possibilities: I think its as much work learning it as doing an OU degree but hey!
Introducing The Mob:
Drums: Larry Zoom, Manda Powers 
Bass: Yama Hactive
Acoustic guitars: Pa Lor, Fret Atkins, Taka Mines, Simon and Patrick, Pinky
Electric guitars: Telly Fen-Der, Pa Cifica, Vari Axe
Keyboards: Roland Keys
Percussion: Backoff Bodys, Ian Eggman, ‘Cow’ Bell
Harmonica: Rusty Reeds
All tracks recorded at Fostex & Reaper Bedroom Studios.
Engineer and Producer: Miki Vada (don't ask!)

Dylan 61 Revisited

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