I have just read, with much regret, of the demise of Mike Hibbs and would like to commiserate with all of those who knew him. As I now live in Israel, I hadn't seen Mike since we met during a concert that "The Southern Gentlemen" gave in Bournemouth some years ago. The name of that group fitted him ideally as he was always the gentleman. In the years that I knew him, both as part of a "rival" band, "The Clay County Travellers", and as a member of the Southern Ramblers, I never once heard him use bad language and even his responses to hecklers in the audience was always within the limits of good taste. Also a talented artist, his cartoons of band members for group advertising and business cards always made me smile. Mike was an outstanding P.R. man and his management of the "Ramblers" could not be matched as we sadly found out after he left the group to live in Southampton. Here you will see that I have created a page of "Southern Ramblers" trivia, which includes some examples of his artwork and a few recordings (MP3 format) that we made in the mid seventies and which were never used for publication.

Lynn Lewis (former guitarist with the "Southern Ramblers")

May 2000.