Q&A With Mike Badger

Exclusive Interview By Karen Beishuizen
Photo Credits: Viv Healy, Nicholas Jones and Mike Badger

Mike Badger is a singer, songwriter, musician and artist from Liverpool. He founded the band The La’s and left just before their breakout song “There She Goes”. As an artist he uses recycled and reclaimed materials. He gives art workshops where he teaches people to have fun and make whatever they want to make from the materials available. His new album “Devils Ghosts & Firearms” was released in November 2025 which he is currently promoting. He has made a folk horror film titled “The Vadan” which will find its way tos ome film festivals this year.

KB: Did you always want to be a singer songwriter growing up?

I never knew what I wanted to be, I failed my exams at school but started to write poetry- social commentary -word play for fun. I was a dreamer. I started performing my poetry about 1980 in Liverpool at local clubs and wine bars under the name Badgeroo and the Badgerettes.

Eventually though I decided I wanted to form a band and so set to it. Lee Mavers lived down the road, this was about 1984. Before too long we were writing together and then out playing with various rhythm sections around town.

KB: How did you come up with the name The La’s?

I was asleep on my mate’s couch in Liverpool and woke up with the words The La’s in my head. It was quite surreal really. I thought ‘That would be a different band name’! Lots of bands in Liverpool had sentence names at the time, so it was very minimal. Related to music too: a note on the scale but also tied in with the scouse term ‘ La’ meaning ‘Lad’.

KB: You left just before the big hit “There She Goes”: Why did you leave and looking back at the timing of leaving, how do you feel about it now?

To be honest by the time I left at the end of 1986, a lot of the fun had gone out of the band. Things had become strained with Lee and myself. We shared the songwriting from the get go but I now felt the material I had initiated was being pushed out the set. It was a shame in many ways. We had taken Liverpool and were the next big thing, instead of us enjoying the fruits of our labor it turned sour. However I have absolutely no regrets about leaving.

I had the best time in the band when it was the real La’s. Looking back I did the right thing, because after I left Lee carried on the momentum for a year or two then ran the band into the ground with his obsessive behavior. I never would have stood for that. “There She Goes” aside- he squandered the opportunity to do so much more. I went on to form The Onset after the La’s, playing the UK College circuit, supporting Half Man Half Biscuit and playing a lot in Germany. Releasing “The Pool of Life” on Liverpool’s Probe Plus Label.

KB: How would you describe your art and what material do you use?

I use a lot of recycled and reclaimed materials. I have always created art alongside my music or writing, I suppose its that creative side of the brain. I use recycled tin cans to make B-Movie inspired Robots, (As seen on the “Space’s Tin Planet” LP cover). I started using collage and it went 3D. A lot of people in the art world know nothing about my musical life and vice versa. I like that. I think that’s cool.

KB: What do you teach people in your workshops?

I call it the art of chaos. I cover tables with junk- reclaimed objects and used up household objects, from clothes pegs to bottle caps and corks, wire, buttons, empty perfume bottles or whatever . Human nature is to fiddle with things. Before you know it, people are turning things upside down, placing one item on to another and creating spaceships, spiders, cars or animals. Its very inclusive my way of working. I’m there to help out if anyone is stuck or direct if needs be, but basically I give license to play again. Everyone always makes something, even if they think they cannot make art at the start. They take an ornamental sculpture home with them for the mantle piece. It’s about resourcefulness, reinterpretation, problem solving whilst having fun.

KB: Your album “Devils Ghosts & Firearms” was released in November 2025: How did the process go and what are the songs about?

It was my first album since moving out of Liverpool to the mountains of North Wales ( about 60 miles away). I’d been playing Rockabilly and Country mainly since about 2010. This album is more eclectic taking in singer- songwiter -indie and roots. It was produced by my son Ray who still lives in Liverpool in his home studio. I was lucky to have some amazing musicians at hand to play on it too: Martyn Campbell (Lightning Seeds), Henry Priestman (It’s Immaterial/The Christians), Paul Hemmings (The La’s), Furious (Liverpool Rock n Roll supremos). The title track is like a Spaghetti Western set in Liverpool. “Ghost in This Machine” (a single with video) is about me being everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The title came from music writer Tim Peacock refering to my situation in music and art. There’s some throw away fun tracks too like “Sci Fi Hot Rod Messiah” and “Beach Buggies on The Moon”.

KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or you wished you had?

I have worked with some amazing artists: Yungchen Lhamo, Margo Price, Johnny Echols (Love), Tymon Dogg (Clash-Mescaleros) plus all those on my new LP of course. There’s lots more I’d like to work with but its always best when it happens organically, naturally I find. I’d love to work with Poison Ivy from The Cramps or Roky Erickson if he was still with us.

KB: I let you make an album with 7 of your most favorite songs (not your own): what would you pick and why?

“Let it be Me” – Everly Brothers (Quite simply one of the most beautiful songs ever written)
“I Can’t Hardly Stand it” – Charlie Feathers (The undisputed King of Rockabilly)
“Train Kept a Rollin’” – Johnny Burnette Rock n Roll Trio (Such an essential rocker that kicked the doors open for everyone)
“Girl From The North Country” – Link Wray (Relatively unknown folk rock version of classic Dylan)
“You’re Gonna Miss Me Baby” – 13th Floor Elevators (Stone wall psychedelic garage rock classic)
“Perfect Day” – The Saints ( Epitomises the Punk Rock spirit from when it first started in 1977)
“The Modern Lovers” – Astral Plain (Classic from the great debut album: there’s always been a deep spirituality in Jonathan Richman’s music )

KB: What are you currently up to?

I have an exhibition called The Sacred Memory Bank at Kirkby Gallery in Merseyside with Liverpool writer Jeff Young until 27th March. Its an exhibition of assemblage that evokes memory and it currently getting some great feedback! It’s been an honor to work with Jeff. (Check out his book “Ghost Town”)

I’ve been promoting my new album “Devils Ghosts and Firearms” which has been getting played around the world. The title track is like a spagetti Western set in Liverpool.
We have made a folk horror film titled “The Vadan”, set here in North Wales around the ancient standing stones and circles of the area up above where I live. It has been getting screened at independent cinemas but we will be putting it in for some film festivals this year!

Working with asylum seekers making junk sculptures in Liverpool. It is very rewarding work and reminds me of how incredibly lucky I am.

Check out Mike’s website: HERE

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