Hairy Mike and Helen at a Max Merritt gig back in 1965

Mike's Pith & Wind - Hot lips
When I’m in Camberwell Junction I’ll occasionally drop into the Universal Sushi joint in the Portobello Arcade and have a modest Japanese lunch. The girls almost know my order by now – I’ve been going there for at least five years – a couple of (California) rolls (salmon and prawn) and a bowl of miso (soup). Miso is as about as ubiquitous as you can get in your Japanese-style outlet and I reckon it’s possible to get an idea of the quality of the rest of their fare by sampling this simple, wholesome soup.
It’s customary to drink it directly from the bowl, as the Chinese and Japanese didn’t think to invent real soup spoons, along with the rest of the arsenal of useful cutlery devices we in the West take for granted. (BTW, what the hell were they thinking? And they call themselves civilised?)
These particular Bakelite soup bowls come with the saucer on top to keep the liquid warm, which is probably a good idea if there was a consistently safe way to remove them. You have to think about what you’re doing, but on this one occasion I was possibly guilty of thinking a little too much. I’d prised the lid loose and was just congratulating myself on a job well done when it squirted from my fingers straight back into the bowl, ensuring a dollop of scalding-hot soup was deposited directly onto my genitals.
There’s a split second to decide whether to react or not, and this time I chose to sit tight and smile.. read more

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Dick's Toolbox - Nearly famous..
It’s not often that I am called either an unstable communist or an out-of-work actor but, as I worked in the proof-reading room of the Christchurch Press in the 1960s, this is what the New Zealand comedian David McPhail believed me to be. Mike referred to David’s book ‘The years BEFORE MY DEATH. Memories of a comic life. ’ a while ago as he scoured the book for references to himself. McPhail is best known here for the television series ‘Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby’ - the ‘known’ qualified by catching it on the ABC at some obscure hour*. Naturally Mike figured marginally and photographically in the memoir as he was Head Chorister of the Christchurch Cathedral Choir in which David also sang.
Early in his working trajectory David became reporter on the Christchurch Press and the reporters and sub-editors room provided the large, noisy and smoke filled ante-room to... read more