Mike Keen RIP

The band have just been informed via Myspace that vocalist Mike Keen recently passed away. We had been trying to trace Mike to let him know about the re-release. Bass player Damon Maddison comments

“I first met Mike back in 1985, when he was drumming with blues band the Lightning Brothers and working in a music shop in Brighton. A fun-filled, larger-than-life character, he liked the ladies and was loved by them in return.

A year later, when I was putting together the group to record the first Hydra Vein album, we decided Mike would “give it a go” on vocals. Though his performance on that demo isn’t in the same class as his subsequent efforts on the albums, it was abundantly clear this boy could sing: He was in.

During the subsequent five years of the band’s career, Mike developed into, in my opinion, one of the best vocalists the thrash metal scene of the late eighties knew. That’s a bold statement, perhaps, though not due to rose-tinted revisionism on my part but what I believe to be a simple and self-evident truth. He was core to the band’s sound and, most importantly, he was a mate. Always funny, occasionally borderline-mental, writing this, despite my sadness, I can’t help but smile at my memories of the man. His diving off the stage mid-song to blag a handful of some guy in the crowd’s chips keeps coming back to me. Maybe that’s apt..

When Hydra Vein split up, I emigrated to Amsterdam to set up a new band and, after a year or so, Mike came out to join me and sing for us. It was clear by then, though, he was fighting a whole host of demons and, although it didn’t become apparent until towards the end of his stay with me, was fighting a losing battle against the alcoholism that would eventually kill him. He stole out of town on the eve of our first recording session and returned to England to make a first attempt to dry out.

We stayed in touch for a few years but gradually lost contact whilst he continued to sing for a succession of bands and even, gloriously, appeared “as” Paul Rogers on TV talent show “Stars In Their Eyes” in 2002. I have to laugh again: Only Mike would consider going from cult thrash metal vocalist to tea-time cover singer was an entirely normal and reasonable thing to do. Shortly after that, however, he died.

Particularly the manner of his death but certainly the loss of a friend and the criminal waste of a real talent mean I can’t see his loss as anything other than tragic. That said, I feel privileged to have worked with Mike, have some glorious moments to remember him by and am the richer for having known him. Shine on, you crazy diamond”.

Damon Maddison