A Yawn in Your E-Mail (July 2001)
Carol and I have run the Manfred Mann Fan Club for about ten years now. Those of you who are members will already know this
and my ability to ramble on in our magazine Platform End for a page or more under the highly appropriate heading "A Yawn In
Your Ear". During those ten years we have managed so far 21 magazines and the odd newsletter, and who knows we may
even get a mag out this year yet. (Who saw the pig with the MMEB logo fly past the window?) The enemy is time. Last year I took
on a challenging change of career whilst Carol has been doing an intensive training course leaving us little time for Platform End.
We still get lots of queries to answer and there are other related projects going on which all takes up time. We have no intention
of stopping Platform End although a change in how it is funded must limit the number we can do, as well as the aforementioned
time constraints. We did however need another way of talking to members across the world and had for sometime be talking about our own web site.
To start a web site you again need time and I guess some money and the technology! As somebody who still marvels at the concept of radio
waves the later was asking a great deal, so the idea was like the new album slow to progress. Then two things fell into place that made all this
possible. Webmaster and all round good egg Ron Clint offered part of the official site to us by the most incredible of coincidences only weeks after
I had sold (selling is what I do best) the web site idea to good (and perhaps a little gullible) friend Nigel Stanworth who does have the technology.
With Ron's offer in place Nigel bursting with ideas set about putting the new look site together. I use the new look term reservedly because Nigel
was required at least for now to retain the official site style of presentation. Nevertheless I think you will agree having invested a lot of man hours
into the project Nigel has managed despite these restraints to give the whole thing a fresh look. A past contributor to Platform End and a bit of a
computer whiz but perhaps surpassingly not boring with it, (I know many of you know Nigel well) will join me in welcoming Nigel to the team and perhaps take a moments silence in memory of his spare time gone now for ever.
I also use the Yawn to bring you up to date on what is happening in the world of MMEB. The new album continues to progress slowly and I was lucky enough to hear a couple of things just recently. The songs are home grown not
covers with some oddly familiar classical themes creeping in from time to time, and very atmospheric and moody. There are some nice vocals from
Noel and some nice instrumental sections including some very nice keyboard playing from Manfred. I was told fans might not like some of it I would
be very surprised if that was true. It is different, that is true but Manfred has always tried to move on and do different things and for me it works
well. Although a new direction it still has many aspects familiar to any fan of Manfred's music. The bad news is that the project is still some twelve
to eighteen months from completion. I just hope Manfred is able to retain the freshness and spontaneity of the stuff I heard.
The boxed set also continues to make progress. More about that when I can. Suffice to say if it goes to plan you will kill for a copy! It will be four
CD's with a booklet. Provisional titles for the CDs are "In the Beginning", "Hollywood Town", "Brothers and Sisters" and "To the Limit". To keep you
going Best of Volume 2 should be available soon and yes it does include "I Who Have Nothing". If your bag is 60's Mann then I notice one more compilation of those sixties hits complete with CD ROM history of the band.
All that and a new Chris Thompson album on the way with Manfred making a guest appearance. MMEB are on the road again, who knows they
may get to your town. Might see you there. I am off to get the next Platform End and the box set finished (with Carol's help and Nigel's help). Have
a good summer and if your not a Platform Ender then you should be. It's only £12 Sterling a year plus a bit of patience now and again, and lots of people have made lots of good friends and for me that is much of what its about.
Rock and Roll Andy and Carol Taylor PS The Platform End web pages belong to the fans, if you have any ideas for content, or better still the time to write an article, review or have
some photo's, send them in, Nigel will be glad of the support. Send them to
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