Mike Brady

Another aspect of Mike is his live performances and motivational speaking. Mike is the driving force behind The Mike Brady Band, one of the hottest corporate acts in Australia.

When Mike gives a talk, he takes the audience on a journey through his early days as a young immigrant kid, through to the exciting teen years as a member of MPD Ltd. He talks of his rise in economic circumstances as a music writer and then to the reasons he felt the need to leave it all behind for a career in business and entrepreneurialism. During Mike’s talks, he uses his music and jingles to help tell the story about the lessons he has learnt. Mike puts great emphasis on the benefits of staying close to what one knows and the power of fighting back and winning.

Current work

Over the recent years Mike has continued to write music for films and television projects including a children’s TV series for Channel Seven The Adventures of Chuck Finn, together with writing songs for various sporting events – ‘Courage In Their Eyes’, which was used to launch Channel Seven’s media broadcast for the Olympic Games and ‘Rise To The Moment’, which was the official Paralympic team song for the 2000 and 2004 Games.

Previous experience

Jingles: After MPD Ltd, Mike spent the majority of his time building his career as producer and writer of advertising jingles for television and radio. One such piece of jingle songwriting brought Mike back into the recording industry limelight. He was asked to record a promotional song for Channel Seven’s football program. The song, ‘Up There Cazaly’, went on to be the biggest selling local single of its time, with sales in excess of 250,000 and has become the unofficial anthem of all Australian rules football Fans.

Theme songs: His song ‘One Day In September’ has become part of the football language. Mike has since written and recorded club theme songs for many of the football clubs in the AFL. He also co-wrote and produced Greg Champion’s huge hit ‘That’s What I Like About Football’.

Jingles: Over the years, he has been responsible for some of Australia’s most catchy advertising jingles, including lassics such as ‘Lucky, You’re with AAMI’, ‘Hard Yakka’ and ‘SPC Baked Beans and Spaghetti’, and many current music tracks on TV. Mike has written jingles for most of Australia’s famous brands.

Record Company: During the 70s Mike formed his own record label and production company, Full Moon Records, and publishing company, Remix Publishing. Two hugely successful singles released by Full Moon were Mark Jackson’s ‘I’m An Individual’ and Joe Dolce’s ‘Shuddap You Face’. ‘Shuddap You Face’ broke the record previously held by Mike’s ‘Up There Cazaly’ as the biggest selling single in Australian History and has been translated into many different languages.

Artists: Mike and his company have produced albums for artists such as Tina Arena, Colleen Hewett, Mark Gillespie and Mike Rudd and Bill Putt. Many of Mike’s songs have been recording by leading artists including Sammy Davis Jnr., Tina Arena, John Farnham, Rene Geyer, and Dianna Trask.

Losing it: During the heady boom years of the 1980s and early 1990s Mike ‘diversified’ into areas not associated with his core talent – property development, hotel acquisition, timber milling, restaurant ownership and various other ventures. This was at first a great success but the good times did not last and Mike slid from the top of the heap to the bottom. This was a major lesson to be learnt: to stay true to what one knows, which in Mike’s case was music and jingles.