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When it comes to musicians who have been around a long time, I am sure each of us has a favourite time from within their chosen maestro's long and illustrious career. It may not be when they were at
their most popular, or most successful in terms of commercial success and there will always be many different reasons for certain times being more special than others.
I think I have four special times in terms of my interest in Manfred's music, which is not to say I hated everything else. It is interesting with music. Some things you loved at the time it was made, but not so much in retrospect, some
is, well just ok. Some you love not so much because it's brilliant music, but because of the memories it brings flooding back every time you hear it played on the radio.
I have probably already documented the four great periods for me, two of which I am going to pay particular attention to this time as they are the focus of two major new releases.
The first as anyone who as stumbled across my rambling in the past will know is the EMI years, 1963-1966. This is represented by a very clever
four cd set entitled 'Down the Road Apiece' subtitled 'Their EMI recordings 1963-1966'. Now I have not listened to any of this stuff in a good while
so here was the first big test. Would my memories of those years, when I first discovered pop music, blues and jazz all neatly packaged in one band prove to be mistaken, or was the first Manfred Mann simply brilliant?
First of all I will take care of the album itself. For what for some of us is a very special part of Manfred's career, the packaging is a little
disappointing. It is just a fat plastic box into which is stuffed four packed cds and a booklet with the same front cover and a handful of pictures
inside, only two of which I have never seen before. What did strike me however was how good this band looked in photographs. Maybe I am
biased, but they would look as cool now as they did back then. There was just something about these five guys that looked good. They would not look out of place in Jonathon Ross's green room on next weeks show.
The booklet is written by Tom Mc Guinness, who had joined the band to replaced bass player Dave Richmond in late 1963, even though he was a
blues guitarist. Back in those days Tom was famous for writing off the wall sleeve notes, which I for one loved. My Wise Owl liner notes on Plain
Talking were strongly influence by Tom's funny, witty and sarcastic liner notes from the early years. Here however he has decided to write a serious and sadly rather bland account of the EMI years.
Once again we are reminded how awful it was that the band was named after just one of its members, whilst the funny Burt Bacharach story
always told at Manfred's expense whoever tells it seems a lot funnier when it is Manfred relating the tale. He does cover some interesting points,
very well, but sadly there is little new for the more discerning fans of this period. The usual excuse is that the compilation is aimed at the casual
buyer not the fan. In this case I fear this would be a poor defence. There have been plenty of compilations for the casual buyers; this one is for
the fans. I suppose it is all down to expense, but I can't help feeling the booklet could have been more substantial and the packaging much better.
What is truly brilliant as far as this compilation is concerned is that it contains as far as I can tell, (without months of tedious research) every EMI
recording which survives. Even more inspired is to put the tracks in chronological order from when they were recorded. Now this I did find a very
interesting part of the booklet. All tracks are listed with the day they were recorded. So ok I'm a self confessed train spotter, but some of these songs are like old friends to me.
Also of interest is the listing of a number of tracks for which no tapes could be found. Now there's a challenge for someone. I bet they're gathering dust somewhere!
At this point I can hear Manfred, smugly telling me he has often told me so, but the quality of the material not released at the time is mostly very
poor. In the case of the demos towards the end of cd4 frankly this does not matter, these early recording are fascinating to listen to. My only slight
quibble is that I have been the proud owner of a copy of these tapes for many years and now everyone has got them! Is that selfish? There is in
fact very little else on this collection that has not been released before, even the unreleased stuff has, if you see what I mean.
One interesting addition is an alternative version of 'One in the Middle.' Tom explains that this was from a TV competition show. Now, I remember
this and remember being gutted when they got disqualified. As I remember it they had played the track on another radio show, but had not yet released it. I did not remember how different the words were.
This could have been a very special release, but even in the form presented I would strongly commend it to people. I found it a little shocking that all
the HMV recordings fit onto four cds. Having listened to the music does this period remain one which is special to me?
I think most of the time this band were absolutely brilliant. There is of course that slightly schizophrenic feel to the music. Much of it is blues with
strong jazz undertones, but this is mixed in with tracks that are pure pop. It is however only the most poppy of these songs that sound particularly
dated. The band are tight the soloing from Mann, Hugg, Vickers and Mc Guinness, often inspired and the one in the middle, Paul Jones commands
your attention with dynamic vocals and some of the best mouth harp you will ever get to hear. He has the almost unique ability to be almost as charismatic on record, as he is live on stage.
I never saw this band live. I imagine they were brilliant. Tom says in his sleeve notes that much of the earlier stuff here were tracks they
performed live. Even when I saw the band a few years later with D'Abo in the middle they were sill hammering out heavy blues songs live, a far
cry from the pretty little pop songs the general public recognised the name Manfred Mann for. You can already tell on the later recordings in this
collection that the bands recording output was beginning to become more pop, although to counter this came the instrumentals arranged by Jack Bruce.
This music is probably special to me because it was a special period of my life and it brings back so many happy as well as a few sad memories
from those times. However Manfred Mann did much more than that. Somewhere between 1963 and 1966, they introduced me to jazz for a start
and to the blues, two forms of music I have loved ever since. You could even argue that my son who wasn't born until 1987 owes his passion for music and in particular jazz to those early recordings.
Mike Vickers introduced me to saxophone and flute. Thanks to him I went on to discoverer many other great sax players. It's probably thanks to him
and maybe Rowland Kirk that I became a big Jethro Tull fan. Mike Hugg introduced vibes into my life and Paul Jones the harmonica and my love of a
little showmanship from the band's front man. Tom, back in those days was one of my favourites. He could play a mean blues guitar solo and if you can catch the Blues Band on their forthcoming tour he still can.
Despite the bands rather intellectual tag, Tom never seemed to take himself or anyone else for that matter too seriously. I don't know what it was
about Manfred that caught my imagination. I loved his keyboard playing and I loved his eccentricity. I loved his geekish look and did my best to copy
it, although I couldn't grow a beard at the time to save my life. Still I must have been the only kid who wanted to wear glasses. I also sensed even
then that he gave much more to that band than just his name. The great Burt Bacharach may have got it right at the time, Manfred does not play on
the song 'Little Red Book of Winners' and wow can't you tell! It is the most dated and least Manfred Mann track on the album and was never released in the UK during the sixties. Now that tells you something.
If I haven't persuaded you in the past to check out the EMI years, then please, please, please go do it now. Start from around track 5 or 6 on cd1
turn the volume up high, make sure you got plenty of bass and let it go. I promise you, you will be wondering what you have been missing all these
years. If you think you know all about this stuff trust me and do the same thing. For me it was like reuniting with old friends, and yet also very
different. The recordings are mostly of a very high standard and sometimes, if you close your eyes nice and tight, you feel like they are actually in
the room playing live, especially for you all the way from the early 1960's. This is probably the closest I will ever get to a ride in the Tardis.
So I liked Chapter III and I think I know the other person who did. (Only joking) but the next special time for me and many, many others was the first
MMEB, one of the most fantastic bands to walk out onto a stage in my humble opinion and there was only four of them. There are brilliant examples of this band on the last DVD.
For these ramblings our time machine moves us on to the period 1979-1983 and the 'Somewhere in Europe' tour. For me this was MMEB at its very
best. We had just gone through the period where the band had enjoyed huge commercial success and at the same time manage to look much like
any other good rock band. Dave Flett sounded like a great rock guitarist and he also looked liked a great rock guitarist. On the other hand Steve
Waller looked like Steve Waller! Like the much missed Mick Rogers he also had a distinctive way of playing that was instantly recognisable.
Add to this Chris Thompson singing and playing guitar at the very top of his game and Manfred in some of the golden years of the moog solo, and it
is easy to understand why this one of my favourite periods. They had not long released one of the best studio albums Manfred has ever made in
my opinion, 'Somewhere in Afrika' but they also were touring with a very long set packed with brilliant arrangements of classic songs. Not only
was the music brilliant, but we had the films, the scary heads, robot and the exploding PA. In terms of a total live experience the Somewhere in
Europe tour was unbeatable. Now after all these years a complete (well almost) and mostly unedited copy of one of the concerts in Budapest has been released on DVD.
Let's start as we did with the EMI cds by reviewing the package. The cover is exactly the same as the album cover from the 1984 released live
album. I would have done exactly the same had I been in charge of this, so full points so far. Inside is a beautiful miniature reprint of the 1983 tour
brochure. This is an inspired idea and is far more than most DVDs give you. It was a nice program to start with, the best ever produced for the
band in my opinion and even if you have the original it is nice to have the new version which is a faithful reproduction, although it comes with the added bonus of some well researched notes by Nigel Stanworth.
The quality is good considering the age of the film. Whilst a band like Floyd for example might have spent loads of money cleaning up the negatives
it would not have been cost effective for an MMEB album. To be honest I am not convinced that in this case it would have greatly benefited this, as the whole concert captures well the atmosphere of those three nights in Budapest.
The only odd thing about this DVD and this is not a criticism, is that Davy is missing. Those of you who have got hold of the heavily edited version
that has been doing the rounds for many years will know that Davy is on that, so it was filmed. My only minor criticism is the lack of extras. I don't
think this matters for die hard fans because this is a must have anyway. My concern are reviewers in the main stream press who are obsessed
with extras on DVDs and may give this excellent offering a negative review, just because it has no extras.
So does Budapest live up to my memories of these great times? The short answer is yes. It is a brilliant example of a band at the top of their game.
There are other tracks missing of course, most notably The Eyes of Nostradamus. I was not at Budapest but was at the Dominion in London for the
end of that tour, where some of the live album was recorded. I would imagine the sets were very similar. However the amazing live version of
Africa Suite is here in all its glory as well as Steve's unforgettable performance of Demolition Man. I shan't even mention the two moog solos included, except to point out that Martha is now in full colour.
As I said before, this is a must have for anyone who likes this band. For all the true MMEB fans back in 1984 reeling with disappointment at the
Budapest album, it would have been far beyond our wildest dreams that one day we would own and be able to listen to and watch unedited versions of most of the concert. My thanks to everyone involved in this project for making it possible.
Added to all this the 1967 instrumental 'Sweet Pea' is going out at regular intervals on British telly as the music to a series of Norwich Union
adverts. It is a catchy little number, so perhaps the record company should consider giving it a go.
Moving on I did my best to find out what was going on with the next album. Manfred kindly e mailed me from Berlin recently in reply to my enquiry.
He said he was in Berlin recording with a trumpet player for the next album. He said he is really into the new project, but hasn't got much to tell me
as he doesn't like talking about stuff until it is finished. I will bring you more news as soon as I have some.
Before I close, don't forget to check out the Blues Bands website for tour dates. If you haven't seen Paul Jones, Tom McGuiness, Dave Kelly and
the rest of them live then you should. Just got our tickets today and Birkenhead was almost sold out.
Finally I was flicking around the channels the other night when I came across two naked women making love. For some reason and this I'm certain
will surprise everyone, I paused to check out the scene. This became very bizarre indeed. The blonde was suddenly dead, whist the other girl
climbed naked into a bath before slitting her wrists! Cut to rolling waves and then to a well known American actor playing trumpet in a jazz band.
Next to him (with lines to say!) was Manfred. So what was the film? Answers to Nigel please and who knows there could be a prize for the winner. See you next time. Andy Taylor
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