| Brief Biography |
| The Rat Hole Sheikh / Mike McCann was born 1:st of february 1957 in London. He started playing drums in "Orc" in 1974, then tried vocals with "Five fingered widow" 1976 - 1977. Between 1981 and 1983 he was a guitarist in the London based garage band "The Cannibals" and played on the album "Bone to pick" in 1982 on Hit Records, single "Mumbo Jumbo/Led astray" 1982 on Hit Records, free single "Don't make me angry/Hey Mr.Clap Trap" 1982 on Trash Flash, compilation album "These cats ain't nothing but trash" (with The Stingrays & The Milkshakes) 1983 on Big Beat Records and Compilation CD free with Garage bands revisited issue #4 2002. Under the summer of 1983 Mike played acoustic reggae on the streets of Nymegen in Holland with Danny Welsh on vocals. The Sheikh also played guitar on "Government Scum" with Well known Wankers on a Greenwich performance collective cassette release called "Here's the shit" 1984. Then played guitar with "Mass Murder" 1984 - 1985, and guitar with "No, No Go Zone" 1985. After moving to Sweden, The Sheikh joined "The Lost Ghost" in 1987 and recorded a single "Affections/Glad you found out" on Wee wee Records 1989. Formed "The Fledgelings" in 1990.Busked and played guitar with Wes (from Deep Forest) and Laingo both from The Cameroon in 1992 under the Stockholm water festival. After Stockholm county council unjustly threw Mike out of his hospital job in 1992 (resultling in an out of court settlement that gave Mike 3 years pay)Mike invented The Rat Hole Sheikh and invested his own money into making the 2 man band Mad cow disease C.D. in 1997 and continued to make his own D.I.Y. one man band c.d's until 2003. From 2004 - 2008 Mike has played music in various forms with Christine Smith from Linz in Austria. Currently Mike has been busking at the Broadstairs folk week and outside the entrances to Gamla stan and Hornstull underground stations in Stockholm during the rush hours. Just now Mike fights a malignant tumour and a very slow moving health sevice in Stockholm in order to keep alive. |
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| Mad Cow Disease 1997 on Silly Moo Records CD In the Sewer 1998 CDr Exile in Cuckooland 1998 CDr Epileptic Warrior 1999 CDr My People were queer and had spunk in their hair.. 1999 CDr |
| Discography as a solo artist |
| Round the Bend 2000 CDr Golden Shower of The Rat Hole Sheikh 2001 CDr The fried brain of The Rat Hole Sheikh 2002 CDr Exspermdonator 2003 CDr |
| Dirty Rotten Sadist EP on Subway Star Records 1999 Rock'n'Rolls Royce on Motor Madness comp EP Hell on wheels Recordings 2001 Jag m�r s� illa EP on Subway Star Records 2002 |
| Guitars on "Catastrophe" Sloggy EP "Lofi tracks for highwaycracks" on Hell on wheels recordings 2002 Guitars on "See you in hell" and Catastrophe"Sloggy CD "The singles collection" on Hell on wheels recordings 2002 |
| CD's |
| Guest appearances |
| Links |
| "Fuckeryerface" on free CD with OX Fanzine #42 2000 "He's a poor Norwegian cowboy and he rode the train to hell" on free CD with Banzai fanzine. #8 2000 "I need a woman with no knickers on" on free CD with Banzai fanzine #10 2002 |
| Tracks on Comp. CD's |
| My Music |
| My music is a mixture of one man band garage rock'n'roll, punk, blues, instros, psychedelia, folk and humour, recorded on a second hand 4-track porta studio in my kitchen. |
| Interviews (In French) Dig it fanzine Click on "Articles" issues #25 and #24! |
| Mike has written articles for the following fanzines: Trash Flash Where's the shit? Vit Slavhandel Bazooka Currently reviews DVD's for Dig it, and DVD's /CD's for Ugly Things. |
| Vinyl |
| CLICK HERE to view some covers and tracklists! |
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| The Rat Hole Sheikhs- Mad Cow Disease CD |
| The cover shows a dude clad only in stripey underpants glaring at the camera through a mop of hair, "troll" doll style. Hhmmm. He doesn't look too happy.The band name and CD title aren't too happy either. I expected a batch of angry punk rock songs. Well wouldn't you know it...Instead we have a one-man band (plus drummer) from Sweden with some of the best '60s snot psych, surf and blues to be recorded in a kitchen on a four track. Seriously, the material here is damn good. The genius behind this disc is Mike McCann according to the liner notes. Pardon me but "is he somebody?" Yunno, somebody from a legendary Swedish band?? If this is Mike's maiden effort, well, he's one hell of a talent. He has a real command of the guitar..."Shadale" is a damn good surf instrumental. "Rabid blues" reminds me of R.L.Burnside's up tempo groove. Several songs have a '60s punk feel. In spite of the range of guitar stylings, Mike's high energy level gives a common feel to all 26 songs on the album though. He's a convincing garage singer too. Excellent effort here, damn well worth finding. TheeWhiskey Rebel. |
| From Carbon 14 |
| I'm looking for labels to put out my stuff, send me an e-mail! |
| Live review |
| Night of Trash at Dingwalls. June - 82 |
| The Cannibals topped the bill with a long set that got progressively louder, more discordant and chaotic, hammering out one r 'n' b token after another and flattening each one 'til it was thin and hard as a new penny. Unlikely looking lot, the Cannibals, unfashionable and coarse and , naturally, terrific. Led by the charmless, gormless Mike Spenser, a gum-slinging caterwauler of rare excellence, the Cannibals butchered and savaged their material and that of their heroes in a systematic rampage of unremitting and careless fury, full of doubleshot leads that cost me at least ten per cent of my hearing. It ended too soon. The Night of Trash is a bargain debasement extravaganza not to be missed by rockin' roll fans. The Cannibals, the Stingrays and the Milkshakes can play at my parties anytime; I'll pay for the damages. Gladly. Ralph Traitor. |
| From Sounds |
| EP - reviews |
| From Fear and loathing |
| Dirty Rotten Sadist E.P. |
| From Carbon 14 |
| Motormadness EP |
| -ex-member of the Cannibals, now living in Sweden, and producing raw, raucous garage punk. Limited to a mere 300 copies, so track it down soon! Andy Pearson. |
| The flip side takes an abrupt upturn in volume and production with tracks by The Rat Hole Sheikh (England) and Superhelicopter Ltd. (Germany) The Sheikh delivers solo Brit punk a la Billy Childish, only bigger, better and more powerful. Larry.Kay. |
| Jag m�r s� illa E.P. |
| The Rat Hole Sheikh conjures up a twisted blend of garage rock and delta blues that's certain to appeal to fans of The White Stripes or Hasil Adkins. Songs in Swedish and English that deal with hell, voodoo dolls and God knows what else. Who cares. I'm hooked! Patrick Sayers. |
| From Punk Planet |
| The Cuckoo Orchestra 2005 Cuckoo reggae 2005 Disi & The Rat Hole Sheikh 2005 Kitchen, Livingroom & Bedroom tapes 3 solo cd's including Danny Welsh 2006 Disi & The Rat Hole Sheikh sing Hillbilly 2007 Disi & Mike play Folk 2007 Shitty Fingers 2008 Die udda takes 2008 |
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| Writing |
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| ALBUM - reviews |
| CDR''s with Disi Smith |
| DVD |
| Mike and Disi live 2006 |
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| Most recent news updates |
| Discography with bands |
| The Cannibals "Bone to pick" L.P. 1982 These cats ain't nothing but trash L.P. 1983 Mumbo jumbo/Led astray single 1982 Don.t make me angry/Mr clap trap single 1982 The Lost Ghost Affections/Glad you found out single 1989 |
| DISI & THE RATHOLE SHEIKH |
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