Mike Howlett

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Mike Howlett (born April 27, 1950) is a Fijian-born musician and producer based in the United Kingdom.

In the late 1960s Howlett was the bassist in Sydney pop band The Affair which travelled to England after winning a music competition. He then settled in London and in 1973 joined renowned British progressive rock group Gong, which had been founded by another Australian expatriate, Daevid Allen. Howlett remained with Gong until 1977, recording several albums with them and co-writing much of their material later in this period with drummer Pierre Moerlen.

After leaving Gong, Howlett formed the short-lived band Strontium 90 in 1977, bringing together Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Andy Summers, for the first time; the latter trio would later achieve massive success as The Police. Howlett originally intended Strontium 90 to consist of himself, Sting, Summers and drummer Chris Cutler, but Cutler was unavailable and so Copeland was recruited, brought in by Sting, with whom he had already been playing in an early incarnation of The Police. Howlett taped several demos of the band, including the very first version of Sting's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" which was the first recording of the song ever made; he also taped a Paris Gong reunion concert in May 1977, which marked the first time that the future Police played together live. An archival collection of Strontium 90 material was released on Sting's Pangaea label in 1997.

Howlett became an in-demand producer with a string of notable credits. He produced many hit singles and albums for leading New Wave music acts including:

Fischer Z
The Teardrop Explodes (When I Dream)
Sniff 'n' the Tears
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Enola Gay and Souvenir)
Martha & The Muffins (Echo Beach)
Tears for Fears
Gang of Four (band) (I Love a Man in a Uniform)
Blancmange (band) (Living on the Ceiling)
Comsat Angels (Independence Day)
China Crisis (Working With Fire and Steel: Possible Pop Songs Volume 2)
Berlin (band)
John Foxx (former lead singer of Ultravox)
A Flock of Seagulls (numerous recordings, including their biggest hit, I Ran)
Thompson Twins
Joan Armatrading
The Alarm
Hunters & Collectors (Payload EP).

Gong performs occasional reunion gigs around the world, and Mike usually joins them. In recent years he also launched a record label, Mauve. Mike now lectures in music technology at several universities, including the University Of Glamorgan (Pontypridd, Wales, UK) and Thames Valley University, Ealing. He lives in West London with his Australian-born wife Been and their three teenage children.