Mike and Michelle Jackson were an Australian multi-instrumental duo principally known as children's entertainers. Between 1979 and 1986, the pair featured in a national TV Show (''Playmates'' on

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

), created ten albums (three Gold and one Platinum), produced three songbooks and they teamed up with Western Australian author/storyteller Kel Watkins to create an instructional book, ''String Games for Beginners''. They had two albums released through

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

in Canada and toured extensively throughout Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. (Alaska).

History

Mike and Michelle, both singers and multi-instrumental musicians, met on stage at the 1979

Kapunda Kapunda is a town on the Light River and near the Barossa Valley in South Australia. It was established after a discovery in 1842 of significant copper deposits. The population was 2,917 at the 2016 Australian census. The southern entrance ...

Celtic Music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerab ...

Festival and married soon after. They toured Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S. almost non-stop for 7 years and in between tours they created three songbooks, co-wrote an instruction book for

string figure A string figure is a design formed by manipulating string on, around, and using one's fingers or sometimes between the fingers of multiple people. String figures may also involve the use of the mouth, wrist, and feet. They may consist of sing ...

novices and recorded ten albums - two collections of Australian

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

for adults and eight for children. The bulk of their thousands of performances together were Arts in Education performances designed to introduce children to a wide range of unusual instruments and encourage them to play music. Mike and Michelle's children's albums were a huge success with their second, ''Playmates'' going Platinum and the rest of their first four kids' discs going 'Gold' in Australia. They had two North American releases, ''

Bunyips The bunyip is a animal, creature from the Australian Aboriginal mythology, aboriginal mythology of southeastern Australia, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, stream, creeks, riverbeds, and wiktionary:waterhole, waterholes. Name The origin of ...

, Bunnies and

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

'' and ''Playmates'', which were released in Canada on

Sharon, Lois and Bram Sharon, Lois & Bram (also known as Sharon, Bram & Friends, Sharon & Bram or Sharon & Randi) are a Canadian children's music group founded in Toronto, Ontario, 1978. The group's original lineup consisted of Sharon (née Trostin) Hampson, L ...

's Elephant Records label, distributed by A&M Records. They were featured artists on the ABC TV program ''Playmates'' and regular contributors to many other 1980s Australian children's shows. In 1986, the pair went their separate ways. Mike Jackson has continued touring, writing and recording both in Australia and internationally.

The duo

Mike Jackson

Mike Jackson (born

Fishtoft Fishtoft is one of eighteen civil parishes which, together with Boston, form the Borough of Boston in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Local government has been arranged in this way since the reorganization of 1 April 1974, which resulted ...

, Lincolnshire, England) emigrated to Australia in 1970. He taught himself

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

in high school and acquired a taste for comic songs from his grandfather and the radio. He branched out onto other instruments and acquired a reputation for being able to get a tune out of almost anything.

Michelle Jackson

Michelle Jackson (born

Noosa Heads, Queensland Noosa Heads is a coastal town and suburb in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Noosa Heads had a population of 4,484 people. It is a popular holiday destination. Geography The suburb is bounded to the west by Wey ...

, Australia) already played

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

;

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

; and

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

when she met Mike and quickly added a number of other instruments to her list of skills.

Discography

References

External links

Mike Jackson's website
Australian children's musical groups Australian folk music groups Australian musical duos Folk music duos Male–female musical duos Jackson, Mike and Michelle Musical groups established in 1979 Musical groups disestablished in 1986 A&M Records artists Jackson, Michelle {{Australia-musician-stub