Mick MacNeil

Norman Michael MacNeil (born 20 July 1958) is a Scottish songwriter and keyboardist. He is best known as a former member of the group Simple Minds.[1]

This article is about the musician. For the footballer, see Mick McNeil.

Mick Macneil
Birth nameNorman Michael MacNeil
Born (1958-07-20) 20 July 1958
Isle of Barra, Scotland
GenresRock, post-punk, new wave, pop rock, alternative rock
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter
Instrument(s)Keyboards
Years active1978–present

Trained as a folk music accordionist between the ages of seven and sixteen, MacNeil discovered pop music at seventeen.[2]

MacNeil joined Simple Minds in 1978 and left in 1990. During his time with the band he was recognised as one of their main composers. After leaving Simple Minds, he occasionally joined Simple Minds-related projects such as Fourgoodmen (along with fellow ex-Simple Minds member Derek Forbes plus Ian Henderson and Bruce Watson)[3] and XSM (with Forbes and original Simple Minds drummer Brian McGee).[3] He also recorded with a reformed Visage.

He released a solo album called People, Places, Things on his own record label, Mix Records, in 1997.

Equipment

During the early years of Simple Minds (the first four albums, between 1978 and 1982) MacNeil used a Farfisa organ and a "tiny wee Korg, two oscillators on it... It was a stupid sound, but it had lots of good noises on it."[2] He added a Roland Jupiter-4 programmable polyphonic synthesiser in the early 1980s, which featured heavily on the Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call albums.

In 1986, MacNeil's stage equipment included a Yamaha CP-70 piano (used as his master keyboard via MIDI), a Yamaha DX7, an Emulator II, an Oberheim OB-8, a Roland Jupiter-8 and an unspecified Kurzweil keyboard using an Apple Macintosh for program saving. He was also using an Elka accordion with MIDI capacity.[2]

References
  1. Chadbourne, Eugene. "allmusic ((( Mick MacNeil > Biography )))". Allmusic. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
  2. "Simply Said - Simple Minds", article by Tony Bacon in Making Music (archived at mu:zines Music Magazine Archive)
  3. "Michael MacNeil". Discogs. Retrieved 27 July 2021.


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