Mike Foster - Egor/T2
Mike Foster was the bass player in two incredibly influential bands, Egor and T2, of the late 60’s and early 70s. Foster began playing the bass when he was just 11 years old and quickly became interest in bands like The Beatles and later Cream. Foster would soon meet Nick Diss to form the late Egor and create some of the heaviest and most original sounds coming out of London at the time. With the unfortunate demise of Egor, Foster would join the already well respect T2 and the rest is history. Enjoy!
Mike and his sister around 1954.
I was born 5 years after WW2 in Chingford East London. My parents were both in the medical profession and I had good and caring upbringing. My Father liked Classical music and Jazz, and played violin when he was younger. At about 11 I persuaded my parents to buy me a cheap guitar and I had a few lessons.
14 year old Foster with his first bass, the Futurarma.
At 12 I joined a school pop band, but they needed a bass player, so I bought a Futurama solid bass on payments from a Saturday job, and my Father bought me a small tube amp combo. Two years later I joined a semi pro working band playing late 50's to early 60"s pop, Del Shannon to Beatles material etc. This was good experience for me and I remember being very nervous the first few gigs.
A couple of years later I was tied of pop and wanted to play the more modern Blues and Rock. Was very into Cream and the Who etc. Saw an add for a local band, and that's when I met Nick Diss. We played with them for a few months, but we wanted better. So that's when Egor were born after we found Eric Taylor and John Flite. We rehearsed for a month or two and then started doing the clubs and pubs around London After a few months we got a residency at one of my favorite local pub clubs, the Plough and Harrow.
Egor with the late great John Flite on lead vox.
Egor circa: 1971.
Egor circa: 1971 with Eric Taylor, Steve Frost and Forster.
The band we replaced were Freedom a great and popular band, and they were off to the States to support Jethro Tull on tour. It was a good break for us. A month or so later two guys came down to watch the set and in the break asked if they could come back next week to record us and put one track on a LP they were producing with London bands.
Portrait of Foster around 1972.
They recorded many songs and picked Street for the opening LP track. A few weeks later they gave me a quarter inch copy and a bit later to all of us, two copies of the album. I said it was a good break for us, as since then Street has been released a total of Six times, the last time a few months ago with Ancient Greece Records in LA, who are also releasing an EP in the near future taken from that very same set recording.
YES, a very good and lucky break working at the Plough and Harrow doing that residency. Unfortunately big success didn't come to Egor in the 2 years we were together, and Nick left to join Tinted Aspect and I moved on to join T2 making 3 albums and 2 tracks on compilation CDs.
The T2 era.
In T2 l played bass on live gigs and lead guitar and bass on the Album's apart from the first one before I joined. To be honest, my best experience in any band I was with. Hoping that Adam will release the last mixed master album we finished before I moved to Thailand. T2 played in Thailand a lot as well a few years ago. Peter Dunton bought a holiday house in 2004 a few minutes from me and came out regularly to play together.
Sold it 4 years ago. The first Album "Boomland" was re released a couple of months ago by Cherry Red records. Shame I wasn't on that one. Nick and I played together again in the late 80's early 90's and we have been great friends since 1969. He still comes out to Thailand to visit, after I relocated there in 2002.
