SPRING 1995
Issue No 6
Contents
- Fish Soup (News)
- Back to the Media (Radio & TV Sessions)
- Manfred Mann Chapter III Cuttings In the Workhouse (Soft Vengeance in the Making)
- SAS Band (Chris Thompson)
- Recollections from Australia (Continued)
In the Workhouse (Soft Vengeance in the Making)
No this is not an essay on how we have fallen on bad times, nor is it anything to do with conservative government policy for the 1990's, but a
report on a very happy afternoon spent within the hallowed walls of the Workhouse Studios. Here such Earthband classics as 'Father of Day' and
'Blinded by the Light' were first put onto tape. From the outside the Workhouse Studio is probably much less imposing than many Dickensian
namesakes and easily missed by the average passer by. Inside in reception the wall is filled with gold discs, not only for Manfred Mann but fro
many other artists who have graced these studios over the years. These include The Christians, Ian Dury, Stereo MC's and many others. Amongst
Manfred's gold discs are many of the 60's group singles and the vast majority of Earthband albums coming right up to date with the greatest hits of M.M.E.B. 'Blinded by the Light'.
Today however, I was here to check progress on what will hopefully be the next gold disc. Now it must be understood before I go any further that
for most musicians of any note, the studio is a very private place. This is where all the hard work and frustration happens. The painstaking work of
making a record sound good. Manfred and Ian Thompson the ''invisible'' engineer, were working on a track called 'Tumbling Ball' a sort of slow kind
of song accused by Manfred at one point of bordering on dreary. The basic song was already together on tape to which Manfred was adding a
Piano, Mini Moog and Organ. The Piano is played directly onto computer, Manfred explains that it becomes easy to correct mistakes, despite this he
has various attempts before being relatively happy the piano is as he wants it. The Moog is added live onto tape, there is more trail and error in this
and again various takes between more experimenting Manfred has particular difficulty in making Moog sound right in the chorus section. Once
reasonably happy the organ is wired in and the process begins again. "Now you know why it takes so long to make an album" smiles Manfred, "I
don't want to go on I'd like to make the deadline earlier and do some gigs in the summer, but we've got to get it right!"
It has taken all afternoon to complete the above, the track is still not finished and still has to be mixed. Then it may or may not have worked.
"I've spent three months on one track, 'Times They Are A Changing', I tried all sorts of different ways, it's a great song, but just didn't work. I went
away on holiday and came back hoping I was wrong, I played a couple of seconds and knew I wasn't".
So will 'Tumbling Ball' work, Manfred isn't sure if its's not pretty enough it could sound very dull - it'll probably end up a good album track but no
more. Manfred wanted to know if I recognised the vocalist. "Well", I said, "I know it couldn't be, but...". "Yes it is", said Manfred, "but don't tell anybody yet". So I won't.
There is more than enough music to fill an album already, about ten songs none of them quite finished and some a little way from finished. There are about three more songs to do yet, not to mention those less fortunate junked along the way.
"I'm afraid it is going to be September now", Manfred informed me sadly. "Is that a deadline?" I enquired hopefully. "Yes" I was told, "Unless it's not
quite right, after it's taken this long another six months hardly matters". Andy Taylor Feb 1995 (The rest of this article can be found in Platform End #6)
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