Michael David Kenneth Read was born on 1 March 1947 and is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter.
45 Facts About Mike Read
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Mike Read has been a broadcaster since 1976, best known for having been a DJ with BBC Radio 1, and television host for music chart series Top of the Pops, children's programme Saturday Superstore and music panel game Pop Quiz.
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Mike Read is a prolific author, having written over 50 books, including his autobiography, Seize the Day.
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Michael David Kenneth Mike Read was born 1 March 1947 in Bury, north of Manchester, the only child of a publican.
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Later, Mike Read worked as an estate agent, and recorded under various names, including Mickey Manchester.
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Mike Read joined Radio 1 in November 1978 and was presenting the night-time programme before the slot fronted by John Peel; here, Mike Read championed new groups and featured live sessions.
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On 11 January 1984, Mike Read suddenly interrupted broadcasting the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song "Relax", halfway through playing the single, denouncing the lyrics as 'obscene'.
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Mike Read was heard on BBC Radio 2 in 1992 presenting special shows looking back at the career of Cliff Richard and playing his music.
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Mike Read then joined Classic FM, where he presented a weekend series, and had a stint as weekday breakfast presenter starting in March 1996.
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From September 1999, Mike Read presented the breakfast show on Jazz FM in the north of England; then, in 2001, he joined Spirit FM in Chichester, initially presenting a Sunday slot from 10am to 1pm before moving to a weekday afternoon slot from 2pm to 3pm, playing music from various featured years.
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Between 2003 and 2004, Mike Read presented a Saturday morning slot on the Magic network around the UK.
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Mike Read became the third former Radio 1 disc jockey to broadcast on the station, along with Tony Blackburn and Paul Burnett.
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In November 2009, Mike Read began hosting a mid-morning slot on TotalStar in the West of England.
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Exactly a year later, Mike Read had returned to Big L with a daily slot from 8am to 12pm, Monday-Friday.
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Mike Read hosted an additional weekly series for the station, entitled I Write the Songs.
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Mike Read left to join the new line-up of Nation Radio UK from 4 January 2021, and was replaced by Neil Fox in April.
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Since 15 November 2020, Mike Read has hosted The Heritage Chart on Sunday afternoons on the Nation Radio network in the UK.
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From August 1 2022, Mike Read continued his breakfast show, but with an audience from Sunshine Radio Online, with a dual broadcast-type arrangement.
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Mike Read combined his radio work with a second career as a television presenter.
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Mike Read hosted the Yorkshire Television children's series Pop Quest from 1977 to 1979; then, on BBC1, Read presented or co-presented 65 editions of the music chart series Top of the Pops from 9 November 1978 to 28 December 1989.
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From 1982 to 1987, Mike Read presented the BBC's Saturday morning children's programme Saturday Superstore, as well as the Saturday night music game show Pop Quiz, which regularly got audiences of 10 million and featured rock and pop stars answering music trivia questions; the series spawned board game and computer game spin-offs.
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In 2004, Mike Read was one of the contestants recruited for the jungle-based ITV reality series I'm a Celebrity.
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Mike Read was among 10 former presenters who returned as guest co-presenters for the final edition of Top of the Pops, broadcast 30 July 2006 on BBC Two.
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Mike Read has appeared as a regular newspaper reviewer for Sky News.
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In 1979, Mike Read wrote and performed the pop-punk song "High Rise" under the guise of The Trainspotters, following this in 1980 with "My Town", by his next studio group, The Ghosts.
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Mike Read then wrote lyrics to the theme for the TRIC Award-winning Trainer; the resulting UK Top 30 single, "More to Life", was performed by Cliff Richard.
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In 1991, Mike Read provided a guest rap on "Radio Wall of Sound", UK Top 30 hit for Slade.
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Mike Read has written music to accompany many poems written by John Betjeman.
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On 19 October 2011, Mike Read was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge Award in recognition of his contribution to music.
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In 2014, Mike Read wrote and recorded "UKIP Calypso" in support of the UK Independence Party.
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Mike Read has staged a number of musicals, including Young Apollo ; Oscar ; Great Expectations; A Christmas Carol; Cliff - The Musical and Ricky Nelson.
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Mike Read took one of the lead roles in the Cliff musical, touring with it and appearing for a three-month run in the West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
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Mike Read was one of the founder editors of the UK chart reference series Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, and co-wrote other Guinness music books.
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Mike Read has edited and supplied biographies for the two best-selling poetry books, 100 Favourite Poems and 100 Favourite Humorous Poems, and contributed to many of the titles in the series Poets' England.
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In October 2007, Mike Read started to produce contemporary art, with a gallery of works in the medium of confectionery entitled Choc Art.
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Mike Read had a stalker who had changed her name to Blue Tulip Rose Mike Read and believed that she was married to him.
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Mike Read was featured in a 1996 film made by Jaine Green for Channel 4, entitled I'm Your Number One Fan.
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Mike Read was filmed as she travelled to the offices of Classic FM, and as she wrote "love letters" to Read.
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Mike Read subsequently announced that he was instead putting his energies behind the ultimately successful candidate Boris Johnson.
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On 21 July 2012, Mike Read spoke at the UK Independence Party's South East regional Conference in Frimley, where he was announced as a member of the party.
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Mike Read has since spoken at the UKIP 2012 Annual Conference at Birmingham Town Hall on 21 September.
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Mike Read wrote and recorded a song in support of the party, "UKIP Calypso", which was released in October 2014 as a single credited to The Independents.
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Mike Read adopted a faux-Jamaican accent, but said that it was 'not remotely racist' to do so, saying: 'It's a satire and a bit of fun.
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Mike Read withdrew the song from sale on 22 October 2014 and apologised 'unreservedly' for the fact that it had 'unintentionally caused offence'.
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In 1999, Mike Read founded the Rupert Brooke Society of which he was chairman for a few years, as well as editing the society's twice-yearly magazine and creating a museum at the Orchard Grantchester.