The musical journey of Brother Lee began when he formed and fronted the pop psychedelic magpies that were The Prescriptions. Fez-wearing neighbour Mick Stuart was guitarist and chief xylophone botherer and by the time of “Psychedelicatessen” their wayward 1993 LP for Target Records, the group seemed destined for great things. However following the band’s demise, and after a short spell in a bizarre religious cult, Lee came to the realisation that an instrumental career was the next logical step. Rumours that this decision was triggered by an excess of LSD and too many Burt Bacharach albums are largely unsubstantiated. But the pair collected up their Hammond organs, Wurlitzer pianos, sitars and wah-wah pedals along with their maracas and assorted percussive fruit and headed for the big city which they found further down the A19. At this point they came up with a cracking bunch of soundtrack inspired funk tunes that formed the basis of the “Mike’s Bag” album. To add a little bit of brassiness they imported saxophonist/flautist wiz Daniel James Allen and kinky French horn specialist David Milner to give the tunes a good seeing to. The entire album was recorded in Lee’s apartment onto cassette on a shonky old Tascam 424 Portastudio and the production was suitably tarted up at the mixdown stage by studio legend Willie Deans, whose work with Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai is quite rightly revered. Rumours abound that his nervous twitch and still raging Nurofen habit were triggered by a single day in the studio with The Mike Lee Sound but this is largely unsubstantiated. The “Mike’s Bag” album won rave reviews, and strong international sales enabled Mick to open the worlds first Heinz Baked Beanz museum, winning him ‘Entrepreneur Of The Year 2005’ award and an adoring coterie of beanz-loving female admirers such as Joan Collins, Daphne & Celeste, Mary Berry and The Cheeky Girls. However, his range of designer toast saw him hit the headlines in 2006 after it emerged that for every £179 diamond-encrusted slice of “Mike’s Toast” he only paid HMRC £0.02p in tax. The ensuing media backlash against Mick’s glittering gluten-rich designer snack forced him into exile and his whereabouts remain unknown to this day. Except to his wife. And the Cheeky Girls. And their canoe. The £1 that Lee earned from the album was spent on a jackpot-winning lottery ticket which has enabled him to start his own internationally famous denim brand (named “Lee“) and travel the globe eating jelly off of supermodels suntanned bodies in tax havens worldwide. Rumours that the Greek authorities still wish to question him about an incident involving the prime minister’s delightful wife, a bag of unidentified white powder and 25kg of Chivers Lime Jelly are largely unsubstantiated. Lee is currently living a tax exiles life in France. Some more of Mick’s pre MLS music can also be found on the Wendells Parlour page (yeah he’s been about).