The Chase Announce One-Night-Only Show at KOLA, Portsmouth - Sat 16th May 2026
The Chase will officially reform for a very special homecoming performance at KOLA in Portsmouth on Saturday 16th May 2026 - 10 years since their last show at London’s legendary Borderline.
This one-night-only event promises to be a true celebration of the band’s legacy. The Chase will perform a career-spanning set covering all four of their studio albums, including:
A deep-cut fan favourite that has never been played live before
A brand-new song written exclusively for this show - a track that has never been recorded and, will never be recorded again
For fans who can’t attend - or those who want to relive the night - the entire performance will be recorded for release as a live vinyl LP, capturing this unique reunion in all its energy and emotion
This homecoming marks a major moment for The Chase and their fans. With rare songs, new material, and a decade-in-the-making return to the stage, it’s set to be an unforgettable night
For tickets and exclusive merch visit HERE
Stay tuned for more information
New Album ‘Secrets From The Back of Beyond’
My third solo album, and first full album since 2021, is now finished and new music will be coming very soon! The album is called “Secrets From the Back of Beyond” and is the first collection of songs I have done completely by myself. Written, performed, engineered, mixed and mastered entirely by me. The record contains some of the best work I’ve ever done and I’m looking forward to putting them out
The album will be available to download, in full, to BandCamp Subscribers on Thursday 30th May 2024. You can subscribe HERE
The album will be available to buy or stream from all other major platforms from Thursday 29th August 2024
I will be releasing one new track every Thursday via all major digital platforms, starting from Thursday 30th May for 14 weeks. Songs will be released in album track-list order.
More details will follow soon
M
New Song ‘Ever, Never or Now? (Piano Version) OUT NOW
A stripped back version of the brand new track ‘Ever, Never or Now?’ is available to stream now. The full version will feature on the brand new solo album due to be released in 2024. Recording is very nearly complete on the new record and I will be kicking of the mixing process shortly. More updates to come soon. New acoustic YouTube videos coming soon. Thanks for your support during 2023!
Hear the new track today; links below:
SoundCloud LINK
Spotify LINK
Apple Music LINK
M
Bass and drums done
So I’m currently working with 19 brand new tunes and slowly chipping away at recording the various elements. This will likely be the first full album I make which features only me playing everything you hear.
I’m constantly trying to refine what will likely be the final track listing and I currently have a draft list which includes the 14 best tunes. This collection of songs is probably the most balanced reflection of my main musical influences I’ve ever put together. Heavy rockers, slower piano songs, acoustic finger picking, psychedelic elements and all containing my best set of lyrics. Listening back to the rough tracks today I can hear the influence of AC/DC, Jack White, Paul Weller, Neil Young, The Beatles but hopefully blended in with a good amount of my own sounds.
I have now finished the drum and bass tracks and I’m starting to layer up the guitars. Next up will be vocals. It should take a few weeks to get them all down. Maybe a bit longer to finish all the backing vocals. Once the vocals are down I should be able to draft out a timeline for mixing, mastering, potentially physical manufacturing and then release. I’m certainly ahead of my original schedule which earmarked a release for May 2025
I’ll be recording some acoustic versions at some point to upload to YouTube so subscribe over there if you haven’t already.
More updates to come shortly…
M
‘Ever, Never or Now?’ Demo
Recording is well underway now and the songs are starting to come together nicely. An early favourite of mine is a track called ‘Ever, Never or Now?’. It’s a title I thought up roughly 20 years ago when I was in a band called The Chase. I had tried to use the title on various tracks back then but never had a song turn out strong enough. We ended up using it as the title of our debut album and it fitted very nicely. I still like the phrase and it is as relevant as ever. While writing a nice, slow piano led tune recently the lyrics seemed to line up with that phrase and I finally had a song to match it. It ties in the past with The Chase to the present with my solo stuff. Now.
As an insight into my writing, I have uploaded an iPhone voice note recording of the demo for the track to my BandCamp page (LINK). Just me on my acoustic, all in one take. The words were written all in one day, keeping up my new pace of writing lyrics. The full track has since developed nicely and is sounding pretty massive. It doesn’t necessarily reflect the overall vibe of the album; it is certainly one of the slower tracks.
I will share more demos and works in progress over the next few weeks
M
Writing almost finished; recording underway…
I’m very close to finishing the writing phase with this batch of songs, around 25-30 in total, and I’m well ahead of schedule. The music usually comes quite quickly, even though you never know what will appear when basically starting with nothing. The lyrics have surprised me on this occasion. I usually have to slog quite hard over the lyrics and it can really add to the writing time. Not this time! Easily finishing an entire lyric a day from scratch, if not more than one song. So most of the songs are pretty much drafted out and I’m very happy with them. One particular tune is sounding possibly like the best thing I’ve ever written.
I’ve now started recording a few of the tunes. Starting with the drums and bass on a track called ‘Circles’. A slow number with a big chorus. So far it has a really nice vibe. Will be adding the guitars shortly.
I will start sharing some of the demos on my BandCamp subscriber page soon; I haven't had a chance so far as I don’t want to break the writing momentum I’ve built up (another piece of Rick Rubin wisdom!)
Starting to look ahead to the release and possible dates, gigs etc.
More updates coming in a few days
Writing
The long road to releasing a new album starts with me flicking through old demos and voice notes looking for the seeds of some new songs. It felt like I was almost starting from scratch but I soon realised I had a good few pieces of songs which could turn into something good. At the same time as thinking about writing some new songs I read Rick Rubin’s book ‘The Creative Act’ which talks about the goal of art should be creating the art itself and nothing more. This concept seemed to trigger something because I almost instantly hit probably the hottest streak of songwriting I’ve ever had. This started with the song ‘The Prize’ which is lyrically based on that Rick Rubin concept. I’d had the music/melody for years, I think dating back to when I was still in The Chase around 2016, but I’d never been able to come up with a lyric. On day 1 of writing this album the lyrics came all in one go. And that has been the way ever since. For weeks I’ve been writing songs from start to finish in a very short space of time. Never longer than a day per song. Lyrics have never been particularly easy to write for me but they certainly are at the moment. Easily some of my best lyrics as well.
I will be sharing an acoustic demo of ‘The Prize’ on my BandCamp subscriber page very shortly for those who would like an early listen.
As well as finishing off old songs, I’ve written a good number of brand new tracks as well. A good mix of upbeat rockers and slower, acoustic things. I’ll post more about the individual tracks and share more demos along the way.
Work Begins on Album 3
It’s been a relatively quiet couple of years on the new music front for me but I've now started work on creating album #3. The whole project will likely take quite a bit of time as I work through writing, recording, mixing, mastering, marketing and release but I'm looking forward to getting into it.
I have mapped out a masterplan for the whole project, including all the steps listed above, which realistically sees a release in late 2024-early 2025. That does seem like quite a way off at this stage but the good news is I’m already ahead of schedule with the writing! Having not written much (or even played much guitar) recently, I dipped into my existing demos last week and started to finish some bits off. This triggered something as in the space of about 3 days I now have the bones of around 25 new tunes. Some have elements dating back to 2015 when I was still in The Chase; some written entirely in the past few days. Even in these early stages, some tracks have the potential to be the best stuff I’ve ever written. I’ll be finishing off these demos before picking the best tracks to record properly. I’ll hopefully be able to tempt some old friends into playing on the album as well. I’m also hoping to arrange a few gigs to support the album release as well. More details to come.
The group of original demos started off mostly little acoustic things but I now have a pretty good mix. Some heavier guitar stuff, some upbeat Chase type stuff as well as the acoustic bits. A nice mix but it also feels like a development of my sound and huge leap in my writing. I’ve definitely got the buzz for songwriting back!
I plan to share regular updates on this site, as well as demos, live recordings, videos etc over on my BandCamp page for subscribers. If you want to support the project and hear some early versions of the tracks, please visit BandCamp and sign up via the link HERE
It feels a bit like starting again so your support is much appreciated; please feel free to share my various links and encourage your friends to get involved. My feeling already is that this will result in the best album I’ve ever made and it’s great to have you along for the journey; I can’t wait to get underway!
Michael
New Website Launched
Today sees the launch of my brand new Official Website
I will be posting regular updates, as well as gig and new music announcements
Please sign up to my mailing list to receive updates first
Thanks!