Michael William Dale (born 22 March 1968) is the keyboardist for the English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

indie band, Embrace. He grew up in the Heaton area of

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, West Yorkshire.

History

Before joining Embrace, he had previous experience with local bands Poppy Factory, Kitsch, Copingsaw, Lazer Boy and more famously

Cud Cud is a portion of food that returns from a ruminant's stomach to the mouth to be chewed for the second time. More precisely, it is a bolus of semi-degraded food regurgitated from the reticulorumen of a ruminant. Cud is produced during the phy ...

, who enjoyed moderate success themselves, including three Top 40

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

. With Poppy Factory he released one EP and three singles. Their debut, the ''Fabulous Beast'' EP, met critical acclaim and was played by a number of radio DJs and stations (it was notably thrashed by Rock FM's Tim Lancaster), though its chart performance did not match industry reception. Next came the 7-inch "Stars", and then "7x7" (composers Cotton/Dale/MacDonald), produced by David Creffield. An album entitled Good Time, which was promoted as 'forthcoming' on the rear sleeve of "Stars" never saw the light of day and the band's contract with Chrysalis foundered. They self-released a 12-inch promo, "Drug House" before fading into obscurity. The band's frontman Mickey Dale later rose to fame as the keyboard player for Embrace. Dale officially joined Embrace in October 1998, just after the release of their first album, ''

The Good Will Out ''The Good Will Out'' is the debut studio album by British rock band Embrace, released on 8 June 1998, by Hut, Mobetta and Virgin Records. The band formed in 1993; by 1996, they consisted of vocalist Danny McNamara, his brother, guitarist ...

''. Dale had been playing live and on record with the rest of the band beforehand, but was an 'unofficial member'. He composed all of the string arrangements for ''The Good Will Out''. As well as his continuing work as a member of Embrace, Dale has been working as a producer, making records with bands such as Glass Mountain, LELO, Marsicans, Talkboy and Faux Pas. He also owns and runs his own studio, known as 'The Cellar Of Dreams'. In 2018, Dale produced an album with One Sided Horse entitled, “Between Light and Space” which was released via UK Independent Butterfly Effect Label. One Sided Horse began as a side project of Preston-based singer-songwriter, Mark Whiteside (Evil Blizzard). Dale also performed on the album alongside fellow Embrace members,

Steve Firth Steven Mark Firth (born 1 February 1965 in Halifax, England) is the bass guitarist for the English band Embrace. He studied art at Liverpool University, and also completed a psychology degree. Firth admitted that he only found out about Emb ...

, Mike Heaton and

Richard McNamara Richard McNamara (born 23 October 1972 in Mytholmroyd, West Riding of Yorkshire) is a British musician and record producer, best known as the guitarist and co-lead vocalist for Embrace. He and his older brother, Danny, grew up in the village ...

. In early 2019, Dale and some close friends set up a label called 'the boy who left home to learn fear'. Run as a collective of filmmakers, visual artists and musicians, the label released two singles on 7 June 2019: *LFR1 - LELO - "About A Journey" (digital and 7" coloured vinyl *LFR2 - Glass Mountain - "Autumn Jam" (digital only)

References

1968 births Living people English rock keyboardists English rock guitarists English male guitarists English multi-instrumentalists English male songwriters English music managers Musicians from Bradford {{England-musician-stub