Mike Brooks (JA / UK) live alongside King Kong Sounds Outernational
09.June 2017

MIKE BROOKS – BIOGRAPHY

Mike Brooks has been in the Reggae music business for over 25 years.
He established the Teams label with long time friend Patrick „Jah Lloyd“ Francis in 1969.
However the label was not activated until the release of ‚Soldier Round The Corner‘ in 1970.
His debut single was produced by the legendary Lee ‚Scratch‘ Perry entitled;
‚The Earth Is The Fullness‘ released on Harvest label in 1972. While it was not exactly a million seller, it did establish him as a major talent in Jamaica. How ever, it was a Jo Jo Hoo Kim’s Channel One Studio at Maxfield Avenue, birth place of Rockers a sub genre of Reggae in Trench Town where Mike Brooks really made his mark as a producer laying rhythm tracks with the studio’s famous session band The Revolutionaries between 1974-77. Among the tracks produced during this time was The Mighty Diamond’s classic ‚Shame and Pride‘ by released on the teams label co-produced with Pat ‚Jah Lloyd‘ Francis.
Mike Brooks can be best be described as an enigma in the Reggae music; some might even regard him as being eccentric. The man has produced so much good music over the years yet he remains one of the most accessible artists / producers in the business always on the look out for new talent totally ignoring his own profilic ability as a vocalist. Mike is in fact gifted with one of the best falsetto voices in the business that is by any one’s
standards. Reminiscent of the great Curtis Mayfield were Mike and american R’n’B singer he would be now surely have secured the king of accolade and financial rewards his talent truly deserves.

Mike Brook’s production skills took him to Duke Reid’s Treasure Isles studio where he produced „Night and Day“ with another of Jamaican popular music’s most pheno-menal and accomplished vocalists inimitable Mr Pat Kelly. The flip side of „Night and Day“ was ‚Jamming So‘ voiced by 70’s DJ music artist, the effervescent Trinity. He has also worked at Joe Gibbs studio. Mike Brook’s production credits including the likes of Blacka Morvell whom he produced ‚Wonderful World‘ Earl Chinna Smith and the Soul Syndicates ‚Cool Running‘ (Released in Japan by Aquarius records), Hortense Ellis Born For a Purpose‘ Gladstone
Gladdy Anderson Holly Mount Zion BIM Sherman Down, ‚Bobby Melody‘ Hunger and strife and Ting Lings‘ ‚Reggae in the sun‘.

Believing that his talent needed more of an
international profile Mike Brooks moved to
London, England during the early 90’s. In London Mike soon got busy checking out the studios around the city. Mike Brooks is an active and indispensable force for
reggae music in the UK and all over the globe who helps emerging new talents and releasing music independantly since 1969.