Bio

Mikey Rainsford is a 27 year old singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Birmingham. Mikey first turned his hand to the guitar at 13 years old, when picked up his brother Chris’ guitar and began to teach himself, he has been hooked on rock music ever since.

“I became interested in alternative music mainly through my dad, as he has been into rock since he was my age… Led Zep, Queen, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy… so he had a pretty good era for rock music! He played me Led Zeppelin IV when I was old enough to appreciate it, and it snowballed from there. But I also found my own way, becoming really into bands like Linkin Park and Coheed & Cambria in the early 2000’s.”

He began performing and writing as a solo acoustic singer/songwriter at the age of 15, playing small gigs around the West Midlands. At age 16, after having a track played on BBC WM ‘Introducing’, Mikey was invited to appear in an hour long ‘Live Lounge’ style performance and interview live on BBC WM.

The first serious band Mikey appeared in was Kerrang! Award nominated Octane Ok, in which he played guitar for 4 years. In the band, at just 17 years old, he began touri
ng the country and recording in several prestigious studios. Most notably Sonic Ranch Studio in El Paso, Texas and Rockfield Studio in Monmouth, the studio where ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ was captured. After a successful debut EP, the band were nominated for ‘Best British Newcomer’ at the 2011 Kerrang! Awards. The band embarked on 2 headline UK tours with several sold out shows, including a home town sell out at the Birmingham O2 Academy 2 to 600 people. They also supported several big American bands such as Sugarcult, Theory Of A Deadman and Kill Hannah.

The next band Mikey was to be a part of were punk/rock/ska outfit ‘UK Feds‘. Again lining up as lead guitarist, he was with the band for 2 years. It was an extremely busy two years with several big UK tours, festival appearances and recording sessions. The band released their self-recorded debut EP ‘Living In Anger’ in 2015 and went on tour with several big names such as The Ruts, The Selecter and Adam Ant. The nationwide tour with Adam Ant in 2016 included a sold out show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton to 5,000 people. That summer the band were also invited to play the main stage at Beautiful Days festival to over 20,000 people, and the BBC Introducing stage at Wychwood Festival. UK Feds final show before going on an indefinite hiatus was in December 2016, again supporting Adam Ant at a sold out Camden Roundhouse to 3,000 people.

Since then, Mikey has continued to carve out a career as a self employed, professional musician. Playing live upwards of 20 times a month, with hundreds of happy clients and audience members up and down the country.