Mick Whitnall

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Mick Whitnall with a Rickenbacker 340 during a concert in Berlin in 2008.

Michael Whitnall (born November 7, 1968 in Doncaster ), mostly just called "Mick" or "Mik", has been guitarist and backing vocalist for the British rock band Babyshambles since 2006 . He replaced Patrick Walden , who left the band in 2006 due to his heroin addiction . Whitnall spent a few years of his childhood in South Africa after his father found work there, but the family soon returned to England .

life and career

Whitnall started playing guitar at the age of 13 , but showed a keen interest in music even before that. He began to be interested in music after he went to a music store with his father and saw an electric guitar on the wall, but his father told him, "Don't touch that, it's really loud!" "Don't touch that, it's very loud!") Kept them from touching them.

Whitnall played in various bands, including in the 1980s in the left skinhead band Skin Deep , in the 1990s in the ska band 100 Men and later in the band Kill City .

Michael Whitnall and Peter Doherty have known each other since the late 1990s and first met at John Hassall's home in London . Since then both have been close friends.

Babyshambles

Whitnall worked as a technician and roadie for the Babyshambles since 2004 . When Patrick Walden left the band in April 2006 to get rid of heroin , Whitnall became the new guitarist for the Babyshambles. This change also changed the style of the band, which until then had been strongly influenced by Walden's guitar playing. The band now increasingly picked up reggae and ska elements, which can be attributed to the fact that Whitnall was enthusiastic about rocksteady , ska and reggae from an early age .

Whitnall's first release with the Babyshambles was The Blinding EP . The ska track I Wish was written in the early 1990s and was regularly played at concerts by Whitnall's former band 100 Men . The version on the EP is a slightly changed version, the text of which was extended by Peter Doherty .

In 2007, the band 's second album, Shotter's Nation , was released. On this album the influence of Whitnall on the band can be heard, as he wrote most of the songs together with Peter Doherty. The song Baddies Boogie was written when Whitnall was 19 years old. During a rehearsal, he played it to the other band members. They were enthusiastic, but Whitnall said that the instrumental was too immature. Eventually Doherty wrote the lyrics and the song was recorded, and there is also an instrumental version of Baddie's Boogie with Whitnall's former band Skin Deep .

In the summer of 2007, spent Whitnall a week in a rehabilitation clinic in North Yorkshire to get from cocaine and crack to get away.

On October 12, 2008, Whitnall was arrested in a pub on suspicion of possessing drugs. After his arrest, police raided Whitnall's home in Blackheath , where investigators found supplies of crack and cocaine. He was released on October 13, but had to appear in court in November 2008 .

Equipment

Electric guitars

Electric guitar amplifier

Discography

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  1. Mick Whitnall in the Albion Wiki ( Memento from December 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. a b Mick Whitnall on Voxcamps.com ( Memento from February 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. http://www.nme.com/news/babyshambles/40401
  4. http://www.gigwise.com/news/46742/Babyshambles-Mick-Whitnall-Arrested-For-Suspected-Drugs-Possession
  5. Mick Whitnall Interview on albionarks.com 05/2009 ( Memento from March 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  6. http://www.discogs.com/artist/Mick+Whitnall