A Yawn in Your E-Mail - June 2004

A Forty Year Yawn.

Forty years ago I remember my mother asking me to turn the terrible row of the television. A bunch of long haired and rather windswept lads were telling their own rather one sided musical version of the siege of Troy. Playing out on a windy dockside or something like that their appearance made the Rolling Stones look almost respectable. To the girls it was the pouting one in the middle who no doubt caught the eye, for me it was the odd looking guy leaning bizarrely over his keyboard whilst staring insanely at camera. In that brief moment I felt there was something special about this guy, a bit different than your average pop star. Then I did as I was told and switched him off.

I suppose my interest should have ended there. A day or so later I had a chat with my best friend at school Mark, about exactly who Manfred Mann was. It was unusual for a singer even as good as this one not to give his group a name when all is said and done. Then I learnt that in fact it was the odd-looking keyboard player who owned the name and that struck me as even more peculiar.

That would have been the end and then two records later and almost forty years ago came "Do Wah Diddy Diddy". I don't care what anyone says it was a great pop record and the Top of the Pops performances mimed brilliantly.

I bought the next couple of singles and my sister bought the "One in the Middle". The latter contained the first hint for me of what this band could really do in "Watermelon Man" as well as the first and probably best pre Father of Day Dylan cover, "With God on Our Side". This apparently even blew Dylan away.

Also forty years ago came that album. I refer of course to 'The Five Faces of Manfred Mann' recently described in the music press as one of the albums that shocked the world. On here we get some polished and powerful British R and B fused with the jazz influences of Mann, Hugg and Vickers. The jazz influence would remain a constant element of much of Mann's music for the next four decades.

Players came and went. I was devastated when the bands showman Paul Jones still one of this country best blues singers and harmonica players. So were the record company who dropped them like a ton of bricks. Just before EMI consigned the band to expected obscurity an EP escaped containing four instrumental versions of classic pop songs like "I Got You Babe" and "Satisfaction". These were arranged and played on by legendary bass player Jack Bruce. He had joined the band in place of Mike Vickers with bass player Tom McGuiness moving to lead guitar. The point in there was never a dull moment with Manfred Mann. Whilst other bands churned out formula pop music this band was always ready to bring out the unexpected.

So although the new singer Mike D'abo settled in and they enjoyed a string of better than average formula pop songs I tuned in to Crackerjack one day to find they had released an instrumental single called "Sweet Pea". The B side was a truly excellent bluesy jazz instrumental called "One Way".

I suppose part of the reason for the unpredictable and sometimes-odd direction of the band in the D'Abo period is that none of them were doing exactly what they wanted to. Joe Public were happy to go on buying the formula pop songs and whistle them on the way to work.. For the true fan there was the "Up the Junction" music composed by Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg a familiar split of pop and jazz. They also wrote TV music for the BBC Wednesday Play 'The Gorge'. There was lots of other TV and radio stuff including lots of adverts where they were able to continue the blues and jazz traditions of the bands genesis.

Radio provides us with some brilliant examples of the band such as a Jack Bruce featured track sung by Paul Jones before Bruce was replaced by Beatles artist Klaus Voorman.

Klaus who features in the early Beatles story and went on to play in John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, also taught himself the flute so that he could play on some of Hugg and Mann's jazz numbers, such as "Golden Flower" (Colour Me Pop BBC2) parts of The Gorge (BBC Wednesday play) and a live radio version of an older track "Bare Hugg".

There was another outrageously silly instrumental EP called 'Instrumental Assassination', which still classes amongst my all time favourites, whilst many of the B sides still reminded the listener of the bands jazz and blues background as well as their strong sense of humour. The B-side of "My Name is Jack" gives us both, whilst the humour of "By Request Edwin Garvey" was to inspire their final album, 'The Mighty Garvey' which has some well crafted pop songs penned mostly by Mike D'Abo or Mike Hugg.
Live was still the blues and jazz until they stopped playing live. What followed was at the time appreciated by very few. I loved Manfred Mann Chapter III. This was one of the truly innovative bands that came out as the Sixties came to a close. If you have not checked them out do so. The music isn't perhaps as shockingly different now. It is still however very good and often very exciting.

I doubt however that many who have got this far in these ramblings would be surprised that what finally cemented this forty years love affair were the coming together of four guys and a Moog Synthiser . The first time I saw MMEB live I was blown away by the energy, the excitement, the innovation and the great soloing of Rogers and Mann, made possible by the perfect engine room of Slade and Pattenden. Earth Band has had none of the restraints of the earlier years, changing developing and growing along the way. I find it surprising when people say they are not sure if the next album (They say September by the way!) is an Earth Band album. I found myself asking what is an Earth Band album? It will be a different answer for each of us I guess. For me I always want something different, something unexpected that surprises, even shocks maybe. I never want the same tired old formula and with Manfred you very rarely get that. Of course after all these years of following his music it is much harder for him to take me by surprise. I sometimes think I can almost feel where he is going next. Still if anyone is still able after a bit more than forty years to surprise then it has to be Manfred and I guess that more than even the best piano or moog solo, is why I am still a fan after all these years.

CD releases

A few interesting CD releases to cover this month. From Japan I have the two Chapter III albums (see the separate review of these) and the first D'Abo album from 1966.

'As Is' released in 1966 introduced the faithful, to Mike D'Abo and Klaus Voorman. German Klaus Voorman who as you probably know was an artist as well as a bass player designed the best-known cover for this album. (The one with the cloisters.) He had befriended Stuart Sutcliffe, the fifth Beatle also an artist whilst the Beatles were out in Hamburg and went on to design the 'Revolver' cover as well as play with John Lennon. D'Abo had come out of Band of Angels and as well as a good singer was a pretty good piano player, although with both Mann and Hugg wanting to play piano he never had much chance. He was also a good songwriter although he was able to write only for albums due to the bands belief that their own songs were not good enough. D'Abo got a hit with the Foundations covering his song "Build Me Up Buttercup". A year or so ago the Sterophonics had a huge hit with his best known composition "Handbags and Gladrags", also used as the theme for hit TV comedy The Office.

Anyway back to 'As Is' To the best of my knowledge this is the first time anyone has put the album onto CD. The alternative and less well known cover has been used although I don't mind because it has a steam engine on the front. For the anoraks it was taken in the long gone Clapham Transport Museum and the locomotive at the front is a Furness Railway Coppernob. For a long time this engine lived in a big glass case on Barrow station suffering enemy fire in the last war. You can now find this locomotive complete with bullet wounds in the National Railway Museum at York.

The producers probably thought the other cover wouldn't work so well CD sized, but you get a nice copy of it anyway along with lots of sleeve notes in Japanese.

'As Is' marks a point when Manfred Mann began to loose the image of being a bit more than just a pop band. Most of the content is catchy well written pop songs, however we are reminded once again of the jazz origins of this outfit in the instrumental arrangement of the classic "Autumn Leaves". The blues legacy is not forgotten either with the wonderful if far too short "As Long As I have Your Loving" and "Dealer Dealer" a song later used in the early days of MMEB before turning in to an altogether different song.

It is a very enjoyable album and if you don't find yourself humming "Trouble and Tea" to yourself all day, then you are probably dead or something. All the same it is difficult for the listener to wonder if the cynical little song "Another Kind of Music", was close to how most of the band were beginning to feel.

Andy Taylor

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