Biography
NME's Nick Kent once characterized Magic Michael, born Michael Cousins, as "Ladbroke Grove's answer to Wildman Fisher." A steady presence amid the early-1970s British hippie milieu, he nonetheless appeared fated to provoke dispute at every turn. Kent recounted how audiences at a Hawkwind gig drove him from the stage—an event then regarded as unprecedented—while footage from the preceding year's Glastonbury Fayre film shows him performing unclothed before an openly antagonistic gathering. His 1972 appearance at the Greasy Truckers Party survives on both the original limited-edition LP and the 2007 three-CD reissue, documenting the twenty-minute spontaneous creation "Music Belongs to the People." An entire album he tracked with Nirvana's Patrick Campbell-Lyons was prepared for Vertigo yet ultimately shelved. In 1973 he worked and recorded within Brian Eno's immediate circle and also auditioned, without success, for the vocalist slot in Can. Three years afterward he joined forces with Nick Lowe to contribute his own "Little by Little" to the Stiff anthology A Bunch of Stiffs. Another three-year interval preceded the 1979 single "Millionaire," cut with Damned members Rat Scabies, Captain Sensible, and Algy Ward. No further recordings have emerged since.
Albums