Michael Welch – MiC LOWRY

Mic Lowry, stylised as MiC LOWRY, are a vocal harmony boy band from Liverpool singing pop, contemporary R&B and soul music. The five-member band was formed in 2011 and is made up of Delleile Ankrah, Akia Jones, Kaine Ofoeme, Ben Sharples and Michael Welch, who all attended Calderstones School in Liverpool.

The band’s name comes from Manchester’s The Lowry Centre, which was the first venue the boys performed in, it is also Will Smith’s character, Mike Lowrey, from the 1995 film Bad Boys.

The band released their EP The Show in 2015 and their first single ‘Oh Lord’ in 2016, with sampling and large rearrangement of parts of the Phil Collins hit ‘In the Air Tonight’.

They appeared on BBC Introducing Merseyside stage and BBC Radio 1Xtra. In 2014 they won the MOBO Unsung Award, in 2015 were nominated for the BET Best International Newcomer and in 2016 won Liverpool’s GIT Award.

They opened for Justin Bieber the European leg of his Purpose World Tour and performed in 37 European dates in 22 cities.

My School: Booker Avenue Junior School and Calderstones School.

My Favourite Teacher: Of course our music teacher, Miss York. Also our student mentor, Earl Jenkins.

My Favourite Subject at School: Definitely music, but who doesn’t love PE as well, both of them were a lot more fun than maths!

Were you streetwise or a bit of a geek? Well I thought I was quite streetwise but given my love of comics and good grades I’d say I was probably more of a geek.

My Favourite Childhood Singer/Band: Well we all grew up listening to old Motown and soul, but as 90’s babies, favourites would be Boyz II Men, Usher, Destiny’s Child, Lauryn Hill, there’s too many to name!

My Favourite Extra-Curricular Activity: Football all day, once had dreams of playing for Liverpool but I couldn’t finish to save my life.

Do you remember your first school crush: Yea, hopefully she remembers me…

My Favourite Book: Do comics count?… The Amazing Spiderman – Spiderman Wanted!

School Dinners: To be honest, our school dinners in secondary school were really good. There were a lot of options and variety each day, so I can’t complain really. Still wish Jamie Oliver hadn’t robbed us of our turkey dinosaurs though.

My Ambitions at School: Besides music and football, I always wanted to get decent grades and get into university. Luckily though, the band ended up getting signed while we were still in sixth form and we dove straight into our music career.

You can see the MiC LOWRY on tour on the following dates: Monday 5 November Islington Assembly Hall, London; Tuesday 6 November Band On The Wall, Manchester; Wednesday 7 November O2 Institute2, Birmingham; Saturday 10 November Arts Club, Liverpool