Farewell to a musical legend of the early ’60s who grew up in my back yard of Stoke Newington, and found success in the pre-Beatles era with Joe Meek, North London’s own DIY Phil Spector.

Michael Hubert Bourne was raised in 47 Clissold Road from the age of six weeks old, and two years later his family moved around the corner to 185 Albion Road. He went to school at William Patten Primary School in Church Street before winning a place at Hackney Downs Grocers School (later Hackney Downs Grammar School), following in the footsteps of Michael Caine and Harold Pinter.

Leaving school at 16, he worked in Berry’s Music Shop in Mare Street before becoming an apprentice printer. In his spare time he sang in his local church choir and when the skiffle craze came along in the late ’50s he took up the washboard and joined a group called The Rebels.

As rock’n’roll took root at the start of the ’60s they introduced electric guitars and became Kenny Lord & the Statesmen (‘Kenny Lord’ being Mike’s stage name), covering American hits by the likes of Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent.

Their demo found its way into the hands of Joe Meek – Holloway’s answer to Phil Spector – who was struck by how much Mike sounded like Buddy Holly himself, and made contact with the group.

He tried to keep singer and band together, but the other members soon fell by the wayside so Meek recruited a London band called The Stormers and changed the name of both singer and band to Mike Berry & The Outlaws – the ‘Berry’ being a deliberate nod to ‘Holly’.

Tribute To Buddy Holly was their first single, with Chas Hodges (later one half of Chas & Dave) on bass, and became a hit despite being banned by the BBC for being “morbid”, after which Mike recorded as a solo artist.

He had several more hits and reunited with Hodges in 1980 for a cover of the pre-WWI song The Sunshine Of Your Smile, before going to Nashville to record an album with Buddy Holly’s old band The Crickets.