Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip

“[Sweet Leaf of The North] my favourite song of the last decade” Iggy Pop.

Hugely popular Leeds-based trio Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip are well known for their unique live performances and madcap antics deeming every performance not just a gig, but a truly momentous event. So much so that they have been entertaining the Glastonbury Festival for the last 11 years*. Some say Glastonbury hasn’t really started until they’ve seen one of Mik’s multiple performances.

Mik spouts poetic verse, creates chaos, plays air-crook lock (!), and all-out entertains over the top of an exquisite layer of rock, soul, funk, and punk created by multi-instrumentalist Jonny Flockton on electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, and ukelele.

They have over recent years established themselves as festival favourties having performed at many of the major UK festivals, including Boomtown Fair, Latitude, Bearded Theory, Beat Herder, Wilderness, Beautiful Days, as well the last 7 Port Eliot Festivals.

BBC Radio 6Music have long been playing Mik’s music with Gideon Coe, Chris Hawkins, Shaun Keaveny and Tom Robinson all big fans of the band.

In December last year no-less that rock icon and 6Music presenter Iggy Pop endorsed Mik’s anthem of hope ‘Sweet Leaf of the North’ as his favourite song of the last DECADE!.

“Best live band I have seen all summer” Gideon Coe
“Inspirational” John Cooper Clarke

Born on a mischievious night in 1969, in Keighley, West Yorkshire UK, local doilum “Captain Hotknives” initially got into the Sex Pistols, Black Sabbath, and The Clash. Jimi Hendrix has also been a big influence, although he did not help with the maths exams. Initially, Captain Hotknives was a bassist in various bands from late teens to early thirties, when a gap between bands inspired a move to doing solo stuff.

Unhindered by concepts such as “being able to sing”, or “making words which rhyme”, the first two albums were recorded in the top of a terraced house. “The Pigeons Told Me to Shoplift” and “Blarneystoner” were then largely given away to random people at the back of pubs, resulting in the beginning of ‘The LOngest Slowest Tour wi the most Gaps ever’, which is haphazardly continuing to this day. Tackling subjects such as begging, solvent abuse, pigeon hypnosis, skankin yr nana, the pathetic nature of petty racism and the terrible quality of muffins on trains, the lyrics are improvised stories over simple riffs. Having found that giving up on success brings an artistic freedom of sorts, you may well meet him in a field but probably not see him on any telly. Captain Hotknives is also occasionally to be found playing bass for Babar Luck.