After reading music at York university Mike got a job in the BBC Training Orchestra in Bristol, moving to Manchester a year and a half later to take up the no. 2 position in the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently became principal bass in the BBC Philharmonic. 

Throughout his career he has played with various chamber music and baroque ensembles, and in the late 70s the Legrand Ensemble  made the decicion to play on period instruments, so he began to investigate how an C18th bass might have been set up. He was fortunate to find an early C18th bass (in Kendal Milne's department store!) which he altered back to something like its former state, and in 2007 left the BBC to concentrate on period performance.