{"id":591982,"date":"2026-05-19T06:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591982\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T06:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:48:10","slug":"marshall-law-drummer-dies-after-spiralling-from-kerrang-stardom-to-stoke-hostel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591982\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshall Law drummer dies after spiralling from Kerrang! stardom to Stoke hostel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Macari Centre has led tributes to Mick Donovan<\/p>\n

Mick Donovan outside his Macari Centre home<\/p>\n

A drummer who was a founding member of ‘the hardest band in Britain’ has passed away. Mick Donovan was once a member of Birmingham-based power metal band Marshall Law in the late 1980s and early 1990s.<\/p>\n

The band once featured in Kerrang! and the Guinness Book of Heavy Metal Bands and released numerous albums. But after leaving the band Mick had fallen on hard times and had spent a number of years living at the Macari Centre.<\/p>\n

Now the Macari Centre – which has moved from Hanley to Stoke – has announced that Mick has passed away.<\/p>\n

In a social media post, The Macari Centre states: “Micky Donovan played drums in a band before losing his way in life and ending up in the Macari Centre. I visited him in hospital on Thursday and was planning to go back that night when they rang me. Another gone before his time, that is homelessness for you. RIP Micky.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Drummer Mick Donovan at the Macari Centre(Image: Pete Stonier \/ Stoke Sentinel)<\/p>\n

It was back in 2022 when Mick spoke to StokeonTrentLive.<\/p>\n

Mick said: “We were the hardest band in Britain. We toured for about five years, we had one or two weeks off in the whole year. We got a big reputation! We got about six albums out. I’ve managed to keep most of my stuff.”<\/p>\n

But Mick faced struggles with his mental health after leaving the band.<\/p>\n

He added: “I was even suicidal, I didn’t go out for a year. When I got over it I started giving drumming lessons. I’ve got to get back into it.”<\/p>\n

Get even more North Staffordshire exclusives – and it is free<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Macari Centre has led tributes to Mick Donovan Mick Donovan outside his Macari Centre home A drummer who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,4367,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-591982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-stoke","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}