The Mann who came in from the cold
UK Press 1976
So how come Manfred Mann gets the big freeze when promoters work out those big festival line-ups? It's a situation which continues to embitter the Mann who's currently high in both the single and album
charts on Bronze with Blinded by the Light and Roaring Silence. The general seeming lack of interest in his recent bands is another reason Mann has spent so much time out of Britain since his last hit, 'Joybringer', but he is philosophical.
"I've got used to the English attitude. I've also realised that publicity follows from whatever you do. What you've got to do is create interest in yourself. If an album doesn't do well, I take the blame. If the record is right, suddenly
the whole world is interested." The departure from the EarthBand of Mick Rogers meant a switch in its music, a switch which has paid dividends. Pausing only to dash downstairs to his bike to collect a bag of apples from the carrier
bag, Manfred explained: "When Mick Rogers went we were left with a gap. My inclination is always to have someone waiting on the sidelines before I change the band, except this time we decided to take a chance. It's a compliment to Mick's
ability that we brought in two people (Chris Thompson and Dave Flett) - he was a superb guitar player, not quite a good enough singer, and so I realised right from the beginning that we wouldn't have one guy good enough to sing and play guitar
as well. Between the two different guitar styles (Flett is lead with Thompson also on guitar) we have a nice balance, and the band has shifted five or ten percent towards songs." "People's attitudes within the band are more open,
less self conscious. There was a schizophrenic element before, half jazz and half rock. Now I think we can combine the two. Chris is not, as Mick Rogers was, primarily a guitarist, but a vocalist. The way we perform alters the character of the
band. That's why the bands I've been in sound so very, very different. All the people I work with will male the band work in different ways." Manfred's forthright attitude tends to upset some people within the music business and music
press, but he's himself and he intends to stick that way. One example of his attitude is that between 1964 and 1969 he notched up 15 straight hits. Then packed it all in. "We'd been doing sort of pop singles for six years and I felt
that the time had come to stop. I was a slight misfit throughout the 60's. The time had come to stop trying to hold onto success. Mike Hugg and I got involved in a very heavy jazz-rock thing that was an over-reaction to the pop thing. I've
never, since then, missed the razzmatazz that surrounds singles, but when it's occasionally returned I don't regret it. We enjoy the success of it. But I don't want the people in the grocery shop looking at me again." Mann and Hugg -
before Manfred Mann the group, they were the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers in the early 60's - formed Manfred Mann Chapter Three. It didn't last long. "We lost our way," Manfred confesses. "I felt I had nothing to contribute to
that era, and it seemed very, very logical for Mike to do his thing the way he wanted to do it. I'm better as an interpreter than as a writer, plus the fact that I am seriously not a good songwriter. If you look at our albums, you'll see that
I've written stuff, but the best things have been those written by other people. And the best things I've written tend to be instrumentals. I wanted to work in a situation where there are no preconceptions, so I got hold of people who had
abilities and said 'Let's form a band'. We (EarthBand) gradually moved in a direction unselfconsciously. I feel my job in the band is to use everybody's abilities to the full. I couldn't do it all on my own... I need their abilities."
And, with a rare attack of modesty, our hero was on his velocipede and away. Richard Green
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