MIKEADAMSSECURITY

Born in the London suburbs, Mike Adams was born into a musical family. His mother was a classically trained pianist and professional accompanist with perfect pitch, and could virtually read any piece of music on sight. Mike and brother Bryan were also classically trained on piano. ​Dad was a Police Officer in the Met Police who had an obsession for home security, and the personal safety of his family.
 
From school, Mike joined the Royal Navy. Subsequently, Mike volunteered as Ship's Diver, or Shallow Water Diver, underwent intensive instruction and practice on searching ships' hulls for explosives, generally working on ship's hulls, decompression chambers, and diving equipment maintenance. Ever hugged a mine in total darkness, to estimate its size, shape, and what type of mine it is?

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Mike took up the guitar - a somewhat rare instrument in those days. After an eight-year stint in the R.N., Mike continued his guitar studies, and eventually turned professional, working in many London clubs, also gigging with Georgie Fame, Eric Delaney, singing, playing guitar, and writing arrangements for Roger Whittaker (the 'Whistler').
Speaking of guitar, Mike also went to the same grammar school as Eric Clapton. Just name-dropping a bit more!!

 

​Mike then gave up the music scene and became a successful businessman, with his own lucrative advertising and marketing agency, and lived a life of relative luxury.

 

​Great eh? But having made the mistake of putting all his eggs in one basket with an exciting contract, the inevitable almighty crash came. The  client in question, a director of one of the newly evolved secondary banks, was involved in an enormous scandal. The client's cheques bounced like Wimbledon tennis balls! BOOM! The secondary banking crisis of 1973–1975 was a dramatic crash in British property prices that caused dozens of small (“secondary”) lending banks to be threatened with bankruptcy, sending the UK economy spiralling into recession.

 

​Mike opened a shop in a none too salubrious area of south-east London selling martial arts clothing, equipment, and weight training equipment. His naval experience and association as a diver with 41 and 42 Commando with whom he had undergone combat training, led to the opening of a women's' self-defence club, which proved a great success. The shop stayed open thanks to a steady trickle of customers, but the humdrum existence finally caused Mike to sell up.

 

​He and his wife moved to her native France, where they failed to succeed in the importation and marketing of an American automobile product. As well as the problems of language, culture, continental restrictive business practices, such as the strict employment laws and colossal social security charges, forced the decision for them to retire.

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​After the death of his wife, Mike now lives alone in his home in the south of France, and has a small recording studio at home. He still plays piano and guitar, sings a bit - country music, some Chris Rea numbers, the Eagles, the Mavericks + jazz guitar recordings, but just for pleasure; his that is, maybe for no one else! Who knows?

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​Mike is a blogger, writes articles on self-defence, home security, and personal safety, makes YouTube videos, and promotes on various social media platforms ...