Boss Trivia

         
Taken from Blues & Soul magazine December 1982     Taken from Blues & Soul Magazine June 1987                                     Capital Radio mug shot   

Mike Allen with DJ Cash Money & Marvelous (the photo is from Cash Money's personal collection, thanks to Mex)

       
This is a promotional poster for Ice T's 1987 album 'Rhyme Pays', you can see the poster has been signed for Mike by Ice T, the message reads "To my Homeboy Mike Allen, Squeeze The Trigger, Ice T, Rhyme Syndicate 87".

In the late 1970's Mike Allen was involved in drag racing, he and his team had a car especially built, the name of the car was 'American Dream I', below are a couple of pictures of the car, you can see Mike's name along the side of the car along with the Capital Radio logo.

  


 

Al Matthews

During the month of June 1985 Mike took some time out, during this period Al Matthews stood in for Mike. Al Matthews was an american actor/singer who was UK based during the 1980's, he is probably most well known for his role as Sgt. Apone in the 1986 movie Aliens, he also appeared in Grange Hill. It would appear Mike left Al a playlist so he knew what records to put on as it was apparent that he had no idea what he was playing and he even went as far as making fun of the music.

 

Froggy

Froggy was a well respected club DJ on the London scene in the early 80's playing soul and funk, his sound system was legendary and a young Derek B learnt his trade as part of Froggy's set up. During early 1986 Froggy stood in for Mike on at least one occasion possibly more, he had his own show on Capital at the time and had gained a reputation for putting together master mixes and remixes, some of these were played by Mike himself including a cut of Whistle's 'Just Buggin' and a Cutmaster DC megamix.

This is an advert from Blues & Soul magazine from August 1982, it seems Mike was a name on the club circuit.

An advert from Blues & Soul magazine from December 1982, Mike headlines on an All-Dayer at the Hammersmith Palais.

                 
Mike with Lionel Richie - Blues & Soul December 1982            Mike with Steve Walsh at Gulliver's nightclub

Mike with Grandmaster Richie Rich in 1986

Point Blank MC's

In 1987 the Point Blank MC's released the record 'Hard to the Body' on Beauty & The Beat Records, at the end of the record there is a shout out to 'The Boss' himself Mike Allen. This was probably due to the fact that Duke Bootee who owned the label had been a guest on Mike's show a year earlier, he probably figured by name checking lots of DJ's they would play the record. Mike did indeed play the record and was obviously aware of his name check as he cut the record immediately after his name.

 Point Blank MC's - The picture cover to their other release 'What the Party Needs', a big record on Mike's show in 1986.

Grange Hill

In 1987, in the 11th series of the long running BBC children's show about a London comprehensive school a Hip Hop storyline was introduced, who else but Mike Allen was asked to be the "Hip Hop Adviser". Thanks to Repo for spotting this one.

 
UK Fresh 86

Here are some choice snaps of Mike at the UK Fresh 86 concert on 19th July 1986:

    

    


In 1988 Jive Records released the second in their Word compilation series, Mike Allen wrote about the current state of Hip Hop on the back sleeve of the album...