Chart entered : 30 April 1969
Chart peak : 8
Another band who split up at their peak, in fact while this single was in the top 10.
Manfred Mann had been remarkably consistent since their breakthrough. Just two of their singles had failed to chart and most of the ones that did went into the Top 10. They had managed to ride personnel changes in 1965-66. First guitarist Mike Vickers left ; Tom McGuinness switched to guitar and his bass slot was filled briefly by Jack Bruce and then Klaus Voorman. Then Paul Jones quit to pursue a solo career. Not many thought they would be able to prosper without their pin-up frontman but they replaced him with the unknown Mike D'Abo, almost as pretty , with a smoother but less distinctive voice and some songwriting nous , and confounded their critics by maintaining their position. In fact they were the first band to successfully replace a popular well-established lead singer and not too many have pulled off the trick since.
They flourished through a single-minded devotion to the music, which was why Vickers and Jones's extracurricular ambitions could not be accommodated, and judicious song choices. "Ragamuffin Man" written by Mitch Murray and Pete Callendar is well up to standard. It's lush late sixties pop , an interesting song addressed to a young rich boy slumming it, brimming with hooks like the little harpsichord flourishes and a rousing chorus where the lads are joined by some unidentified females to make it even stronger.
This all makes the decision to split still rather mysterious. Manfred Mann ( the guy ) said in 2011 "We weren't making great records . Some things come to a natural end" . It's difficult to identify which songs he was meaning. I think in his case , it was just the jazz musician's desire to escape the pop straitjacket and do something else. As he was taking drummer Mike Hugg into his next venture and , pre-Taggart , the name of the band into the bargain , I don't suppose the others had much choice in the matter. It's also been suggested that their failure to make an impression in the album charts was frustrating them.
At this point when dealing with groups I have to make the decision whether to do a chronological narrative or take the individuals in turn. In the Manfreds' case I'll plump for the latter approach.
Mike Vickers , a multi-instrumentalist, was never going to be content with a restricted role in a pop band. He wanted to compose soundtracks and do orchestral arrangements. In 1965 he did the theme tune for the BBC's Wednesday Play series which was called "On The Brink" , a tremendous racy instrumental which was released as a single ( as the Mike Vickers Orchestra ) and became a Northern Soul favourite although at some point it was misattributed by one of the DJs to throw others off the scent. As a result of that he was offered a couple of film soundtracks - two long-forgotten British comedies "Press For Time" and "The Sandwich Man" - and he left the group in October to pursue that avenue. He also started working for Air London , a consortium of producers headed by George Martin.
In February 1966 he released a single "Eleventy-One" ( a tune actually composed by Tom McGuinness ) which was the theme to a short-lived late night wrestling programme on ITV. His next one in May was the Johnny Dankworth -composed theme from the film "Morgan - A Suitable Case For Treatment" a jaunty period piece. In March 1967 he pre-empted Procol Harum by releasing an arrangement of "Air On A G String" then zoomed down the cultural scale with a version of the Captain Scarlet theme.
In 1968 he released the album "I Wish I Were A Group Again" which is a horrible collection of muzak-y versions of contemporary hits. Why his ex-bandmates helped him make a James Last album is anyone's guess although it has a following among easy-listening afficianados.
He restored his credibility by doing the orchestral arrangement on The Beatles' All You Need Is Love and subsequently programmed the Moog synthesiser they used on Abbey Road . He was not short of work as an arranger , working with Engelbert Humperdinck, Cilla Black , The Hollies, Bee Gees amongst others. He also made easy listening albums under the guises of "Baker Street Philharmonic" and "Mandingo" ( with Geoff Love ).
After scoring two bigger films, "Dracula AD 1972" and "At The Earth's Core " Mike moved to Hollywood in the mid 70s but failed to get a toehold on the ladder and returned after a year to work in TV. This led to an unlikely return to the charts and a Top Of The Pops appearance with Kenny Everett on "Captain Kremmen", a number 32 hit in 1977 on which Mike played the sweeping synths as Kenny extolled the virtues of his camp astronaut.
Since then he's worked steadily as an arranger and a compiler of library music. In the nineties he worked on writing big band material as a personal venture but it has never been released. From 1991 to 1999 he was perhaps the unlikeliest member of The Manfreds, the resurrected band ( less the man himself ). As at 2008 he was working on a novel and a computer program combining music and graphics.
Paul Jones also felt the need to fly the nest in 1965 but with commendable selflessness he stayed on for another year while the band scouted for a replacement. He was immediately vindicated when his first two solo singles the snappy R & B pop of "High Time" and Tom Jones-ish "I've Been A Bad Bad Boy " ( written by Mike Leander who should surely have saved it for a future client ), both went Top 5. He then made the film Privilege in which he starred as a pop star who is used as an instrument of social control by The Man. Despite good notices it appears to have had a calamitous effect on his pop career and the likeable "Thinkin Ain't For Me" in August 1967 failed to breach the Top 30. His next single the less immediate Leander tune arranged by Mike Vickers "Sons And Lovers" didn't chart at all in the UK ( though it reached number 7 in Sweden ). Whether it was a result of taking time out to do the film at a crucial point or his audience not taking too well to their idol apparently satirising their relationship , his career as a successful pop singer was effectively finished.
For a time Paul persevered with juggling recording and acting. His next single in April 1968 " And The Sun Will Shine" should have got him back on track considering the heavyweight help he had. It was written by The Bee Gees and features Jeff Beck on guitar and Paul McCartney on drums. It's a good song but I think it would work better with a smoother vocal ; Paul's attempt to work some R & B grit into a melancholic pop ballad doesn't sound quite right. His next single was a cover of an Australian hit "When I Was Six Years Old" and I haven't heard his version.
Paul next took on "Aquarius" from Hair with Geoff Love and his Orchestra . Paul wasn't in the original production but this may have been a step in his move towards musical theatre. It's not the best version I've heard; Paul's vocal is a bit stilted and I'd stick with the 5th Dimension. Nevertheless it gave him a last minor hit ( number 45 in 1969 ).
Paul was given one more shot by Columbia with a version of "It's Getting Better" arranged by Tony Visconti and released at the same time as the Mama Cass version. She you know what's on Paul's over-theatrical version from a great height and the single never got out of the blocks. Paul has said in recent years that he was coerced into recording unsuitable material which may be true - he always come across as a very straight bloke - but you suspect that's perhaps a conclusion drawn from failure rather than something he knew at the time.
In 1970 he began his long association with children's TV with a recurring spot on Jackanory
and in the new decade he was primarily an actor who made the occasional record. In 1971 he went over to New York to record his last solo album for 30 years, "Crucifix In a Hole" released on Vertigo. The single "Life After Death " came out in October and sounds like a lost Bowie track with Paul trying to seduce a spiritual chick by engaging with her beliefs over a sprightly country blues backing. In fact quite a lot of the album , mostly self-written, sounds like Bowie with its wordy songs ( Paul studied English at Oxford ) , similar vocal tone and eclectic mix of styles and given the time frame you wonder who influenced who. Nevertheless Paul's album remains an obscurity.
In 1973 he was starring in the title role of Bob Fosse's musical Pippin in the West End. He put out a single on Philips called "Perfect Roady " in February which I haven't heard but it doesn't appear to have been related to the musical. I haven't heard Paul's 1974 version of "Love Enough" by the American singer-songwriter Tim Moore whose first album was released that year. That was on Private Stock. as was "After All I Sacrificed" in June 1975.
In 1976 he appeared on the original Evita album in the role of Peron alongside Julie Covington. The following year he was on another label, this time RCA with a single written and produced by Robert - not yet "Mutt" - Lange. "Stop Stop Stop " has Paul looking like a Littlewoods catalogue model on the cover in comfy jumper and check shirt and is a rather lumpy disco number. It reached number 15 in Lange's native South Africa. Lange wrote his next one "Give That Thang To Me" which I would presume is more of the same.
In April 1978 he was on RSO when he put out a version of "Pretty Vacant" in the AOR style of Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street with "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" . Apparently he did mean it as a joke - certainly his vocal doesn't display much care - but his cheek wasn't rewarded with a hit and it almost wraps up his solo career on 45rpm.
While Paul was never a punk he was enthused by the surge of interest in other earthier music styles that followed in its wake and in 1979 teamed up with his former bandmate Tom McGuinness and initially Tom's musical partner Hughie Flint to form The Blues Band. Their first album "The Official Blues Band Bootleg Album" a mixture of standards and new songs had to be self-pressed because no record company was interested but after Simon Bates got behind it Arista signed them and the album got to number 40 in the UK charts. The single "Come On In" a Dr Feelgood- style rocker composed by Tom and Paul didn't chart but the follow-up "The Blues Band EP , headed by a driving cover of Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" , snuck into the bottom end of the charts in June 1980 to give Paul his last entry in the singles charts. They were always going to be more of an albums act and "Ready" made number 36 in 1980 and "Itchy Feet" got to 60 a year later. After that the need to fit their schedule around Paul's TV commitments made them effectively a part-time band. They lost impetus and the records stopped charting; the band briefly split up in 1983. The band also helped establish Paul as a session harmonica player. He also sang the R Dean Taylor song "There's A Ghost In My House" on the BEF album Music Of Quality And Distinction but it's not very good and wasn't chosen for single release.
With his genial persona and eloquence, Paul was much in demand on TV and radio.In 1983 he appeared as Macheath in a TV production of The Beggar's Opera , a role he'd already played on stage ( where he met his second and current wife Fiona Hendley ) . He was a castaway on Desert Island Discs the same year. He appeared in every series of Mike Read's Pop Quiz . He turned quiz master himself on the children's quiz Beat The Teacher which ran from 1985 to 1986. In the former year Cliff Richard nabbed him, previously pop's equivalent to Richard Dawkins ( in 1967 he had taken part in a TV debate with Cliff arguing atheism's corner ), for Christianity. In 1986 he duetted with Marti Webb on a version of the Minder theme "I Could Be So Good For You". It was for her album of TV themes but released as a single, probably the last with "Paul Jones" on the label. I don't like the song much anyway so it's probably a blessing not to have heard it.
In 1986 Paul was given his own show on the blues on Radio Two which is still going. In the early nineties he seemed to be never off children's drama; if you turned on the TV around four o' clock in the afternoon he'd be there but I realise now it was probably all the same show , the "Uncle Jack" series with Paul in the title role which ran for four years from 1990 to 1993. At the time of writing it's his last acting credit. In 1991 he and Tom became involved in The Manfreds in addition to The Blues Band - he must introduce the wrong band sometimes - and since then he has been primarily a musician once again.
In 2001 he put out an album of show tunes "Showcase", his first solo LP in thirty years. More credibly he released a blues album featuring Eric Clapton in 2009 "Starting All Over Again" and The Blues Band still release records occasionally.
We've partially covered Tom McGuinness already so he may as well be next. When the band split he wasn't inundated with offers but in 1970 he teamed up with drummer Hughie Flint who had been the Bluesbreakers' drummer before Aynsley Dunbar and formed the band McGuinness Flint in imitation of Fleetwood Mac. The line up was completed by singer and keyboard player Dennis Coulson and the versatile Scottish duo Gallagher and Lyle ( them again ) escaping the mayhem at Apple.
McGuinness Flint scored an immediate bull's eye with their debut single "When I'm Dead And Gone" which reached number 2 at the end of 1970. Written by Gallagher and Lyle , this mandolin-driven folk rock tune about living for the moment, with a memorable kazoo break and unusual drum pattern, set them up as a sort of British Band. The eponymous debut album came out while the single was still in the charts and referenced it with a cheery picture of the five lads posing as undertakers lowering a coffin. It reached number nine in the charts. Nine of the eleven tracks were Gallagher-Lyle compositions. It's a pleasant enough collection of amiable roots rock but apart from the single only the moodier "Brother Psyche", a proto-backpacking anthem and the closing ballad of religious doubt, "International" demand a second listen.
Their second single "Malt And Barley Blues " in July 1971 wasn't on the album but did almost as well as its predecessor reaching number five. It was another Gallagher and Lyle song with the latter doing the lead vocal. With banjo and accordion to the fore it's a friendly warning not to listen to drunken bullshit set to another irresistible melody. When they did it on Top Of The Pops Tom was sporting a long black beard that made him look like a serial killer.
That was as good as it got; it's long been fashionable to regard their ephemeral success as the product of a confused period between the end of the Beatles and the rise of glam when no one was quite sure where pop was heading but I think it's simpler than that. Their purple patch was a fluke ; they picked up a pair of talented songwriters on the rebound from a bad situation and were only contenders in the short period they were on board. They were also reportedly poor on stage as they struggled to reproduce the sound of the album and their first tour was disrupted by illness.
Even Benny and Graham couldn't produce a rabbit from the hat every time and third single "Happy Birthday Ruby Baby", a jolly piano tune ( with Stones sideman Nicky Hopkins making his presence felt on the keys ) paying tribute to a generous lady who supported the band, didn't make the charts. There's no obvious reason in the grooves - Airplay ? Distribution problems ? I don't know, I was too young. The album of the same name which met the same fate is much smoother, less acoustic than its predecessor with jazz leanings on tracks like "Fixer" with its long sax solo that make them sound more like Steely Dan than The Band. The exquisite ballad "Sparrow" is a Cat Stevens-esque take on a song G & L had previously given to Mary Hopkin.
Gallagher and Lyle who'd written eleven out of the twelve songs on the LP drew the obvious conclusion that McGuinness Flint was no longer an appropriate vehicle for their ambitions and quit the band at the end of 1971. With their departure went the record contract with Capitol. After a long and largely fruitless search for replacements ( including a short trial for ex-Bonzo Neil Innes as a pianist ) they settled on just a new bassist Dixie Dean. Their first release was a one-off single on Blue Mountain "Let The People Go" , the first one written by McGuinness and Flint themselves. Unfortunately a reference to Northern Ireland led to a BBC ban and I've never heard it either. The immediate answer to their songwriting problem was recording an album of the most obscure Dylan songs they could find. "Lo And Behold" was cumbersomely credited to "Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint" and tidily produced by Manfred Mann. The single in May 1972 "Lay Down Your Weary Tune " is a creditable country rock number with some nice harmonies on the chorus , the title track could easily be Eagles and the whole album is worth investigating but failed to get off the ground.
It was now Coulson's turn to quit and Dean consented to a reversion to the original name as Lou Stonebridge and Jim Evans joined the line up on keyboards and bass respectively. The first release on Bronze in November 1973 was the single "Ride On my Rainbow" written by Dean and someone called McGann a passable folksy strum let down by a weedy nasal vocal from whoever sang lead in this line up. The parent album "Rainbow" sank without trace. By the time of their last single "C'est la Vie" written and sung by Tom ( also the title track of their last album ) in July 1974 , they sound tired and defeated, like a geriatric folk band in an Irish pub. They officially called it a day in 1975.
The next two or three years are rather shadowy for Tom but it appears he remained in partnership with Lou. In April 1976 they wrote and produced a single for the harmony group Sparrow who won New Faces ( the sleeve notes to their previous single naively disclose that two of them had been in The Symbols, a group produced by Mickie Most in the sixties ) . In 1977 they released a single as Stonebridge And McGuinness "Street Talkin' " which I haven't heard..They also wrote and produced two doo wop singles for Rudy and the Rialtos , a name which sounds suspiciously like it might have been a cover for the guys themselves. The 1976 single "Christmas Tears Will Fall" is just about the dreariest thing I've ever heard and the other one sounds like a very poor imitation of Darts.
In July 1979 they scored a minor hit as Stonebridge McGuinness with "Oo-Eeh Baby" produced by Mike Moran . This got them on Top Of The Pops with Tom now sporting the short hair, skinny tie New Wave look although the record is comfortable soft rock, not a million miles away from Gallagher And Lyle's I Wanna Stay With You. The second single "A Fine Time" didn't do anything which no doubt prompted Tom to accept Paul's proposition to form the Blues Band even though there was an LP in the works. "Corporate Madness" came out in 1980 ; I've only heard one other track " Small Town Days" which is good enough - somewhat akin to post Godley and Creme 10cc - to suggest that the LP might be worth further investigation if you can find it.
Tom's next work outside of the Blues Band was a collaboration with Graham Lyle during the Blues Band's temporary dissolution in 1983-4. Lyle had been brought in earlier to write some songs for the Blues Band but they'd been rejected as unsuitable ; perhaps Tom felt guilty about that and offered to record them with him as a joint venture. Their single as Lyle McGuinness Band ( how did he come up with these names ? ) , "Elise", came out in 1983. It's an amiable 12 bar blues later covered by Don Williams ; it's hard to spot anything that wouldn't fit the Blues Band's sound. The album Acting on Impulse followed in 1984; I've heard three other tracks and they've all been under-produced and underwhelming. In any case Lyle was about to restore his standing with Tina Turner's What's Love Got To Do With It and had no need to continue the partnership.
Tom is frequently described as working in TV which seems to rest on being the musical coordinator and composer for a miniseries Return To Treasure Island in 1986 and a documentary The Victorian House in 1987. Hardly a substantial career and let's not beat around the bush, he had contacts. The theme to the former was released as a single credited to him and Terry Oldfield and it's horrible , a tinny Fairlight approximation of the sweeping glories of The Onedin Line and its ilk. He also scored a UK thriller The Fantasist in 1986. His wikipedia entry describes him as a TV producer without giving any examples of what hes done.
Since then his story is mainly the same as Paul's. The Manfreds were actually conceived at his fiftieth birthday party in 1991. He did break ranks to record his first solo album called, with his usual imagination , "Tom McGuinness" in 2001. I haven't heard it so we'll have to leave Tom there.
I don't think Jack Bruce was in the group long enough to justify what would be another lengthy part of the post so we'll move on to Klaus Voorman. His three years in Manfred Mann have been overshadowed by his long association with the Beatles which began in Hamburg when he brought his friend Astrid Kirchner to see the band. After the band split up he became involved in John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band ( more on them soon ) and played with them at the Toronto concert in September 1969. He co-wrote a song with Doris Troy when she started recording for Apple
In 1971 Klaus moved to Los Angeles the better to develop his career as a session musician. There were persistent rumours that the Beatles would be reformed as The Ladders with Klaus replacing McCartney but this line up only came together ( plus Billy Preston ) for one track on Ringo Starr's Ringo album from 1973. Besides playing on records by Lennon, Harrison and Starr, Klaus appeared on records by Lou Reed, Carly Simon, Nilsson and James Taylor.
In 1979 Klaus returned to Germany and worked with the band Trio, responsible for the atrocious "Da Da Da " single in 1982. He announced his retirement from the music business in 1989 to spend time with his family. In 1995 he was asked to do the sleeves for the Beatles' Anthology albums following on from his design of the Revolver sleeve and has designed sleeves for other artists since.. In 2003 he published his autobiography which unsurprisingly dwells longest on his interactions with the Beatles. He followed this up in 2009 with a solo album "A Sideman's Journey" , a collection of songs that he played on, re-worked with the help of famous friends such as McCartney on the opening Fats Domino cover. The Manfreds came in to re-record "The Mighty Quin " which appears to be Klaus's only subsequent collaboration with any members of his old group.
Mike D'Abo had started a sideline career as a songwriter for Immediate while still finding his feet in Manfred Mann and chalked up a hit with his most famous composition "Handbags and Gladrags" recorded by Chris Farlowe in 1967. His biggest seller though was "Build Me Up Buttercup" co-written with Tony Macaulay for the Foundations which made number 3 in the USA at the beginning of 1969. In December 1968 he tried out musical theatre with the title role in Gulliver Travels at the Mermaid Theatre. He released the theme song as a single on Immediate in February 1969 under the impression that Fontana had given him clearance and had to pull it after a week on learning that was not the case.
Mike got a deal with Uni records and was ready to launch his solo career in July 1970 when the single "Let It Roar" came out. Co-produced with Mike Leander it's a reasonable enough piano blues shouter , not too far from Beggars Banquet -era Stones, but all the gospel singers on the chorus can't disguise that it needs a stronger lead vocal to cut through. The album "D'Abo" quickly followed. It's an accomplished collection of piano-based pop with "Oh What A Day" and "Call My Heart Your Home Girl " being particularly good. He was seemingly well-equipped to take on Elton and Cat in the singer-songwriter stakes but it didn't happen.
His next recording was a song on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album. He sang King Herod's song " Try It And See" , a vaudeville-flavoured number which Mike makes his own. The album made number 23 in the UK but topped the charts in the US. Rice and Lloyd-Webber had wanted to give him a bigger role but Mike had other irons in the fire. At the end of 1970 the film he had scored, the Peter Sellers comedy There's A Girl In My Soup was released as was his next single "Miss Me In The Morning" which was featured in the film. It's a likable enough example of bubblegum pop that could have been strengthened with some harmonies on the chorus.
He spent time in 1971 playing John Lennon in a provincial play based on a mistaken assumption that Lennon wrote Eleanor Rigby . The following year he met Sue Manning who drew him into the lucrative world of writing advertising jingles, where he soon came up with the Julian Clary favourite "A Finger Of Fudge" which would be his most famous composition were it not for Ricky Gervais.
Mike re-launched his solo career in July 1972 with the album "Down At Rachel's Place" and the single "Belinda" on A & M. The latter's not a great song, a lazy piano ballad that might have worked for Elton or Billy Joel but with Mike trying out at least three different vocal styles on the track it's the opposite of easy listening. And that's kind of the problem with the LP , you can hear echoes of Elton, Macca, Gilbert, James Taylor but little that's definitively Mike D'Abo apart from an increasing tendency to distance himself from the subject matter. There are too many third person narratives and on "Poor Man's Son" ( Mike's dad was a stockbroker ) and "Little Miss Understood " he's perilously close to being patronising. There is some good music on it ; both sides close with lengthy instrumental passages - and Mike Lentin's guitar solo on "Tomorrow On My Mind" is worth hearing - but if they're the highlights of a singer-songwriter album something's gone a bit awry.
He re-emerged in July 1974 with his best single to date "Fuel To Burn" , an urgent country rock tune with a clever set of lyrics. Unfortunately it's the best track on his third album "Broken Rainbows" which is mainly rather turgid country pop with a couple of forays into Randy Newman territory on side two.
With his A & M contract at an end, Mike was free to team up with Mike Smith, the former keyboard player and lead vocalist with the Dave Clark Five. The first single from Smith and d'Arbo was "Running Away From Love " in June 1976, an infectious slice of disco-inflected mid-seventies pop; it could only be want of airplay that stopped it cracking the charts. Intriguingly it's not clear who's doing what on the single; neither of them seemed to have a falsetto in their previous work though one's clearly being used on the track. The follow-up in September, the road-weary ballad "Free As A Bird" isn't quite as appealing to me but very well executed and was played at Smith's funeral. Their third single in November "Ray Of Sunshine " was another classy pop tune. The "Smith and d'Arbo" album has further delights such as the sad tale of family break-up " A Broken Dream" and the Andrew Gold-ish "Hang Your Hat" with its Cat's In The Cradle pay-off.
It was our Mike that called time on the partnership as he was set on moving to America and wouldn't make another record for over a decade. Whatever Mike got up to there there was no end product and he returned to England in 1982. Mike worked at his songwriting well off the radar until 1986 when he filled in on Radio Two's teatime show over the Christmas period after David Hamilton's departure. I don't know how he got that gig nor an acting appearance in Lyttton's Diary .
The following April he released a new single "Loving On A Shoestring" which he co-produced with former Spencer Davis Group man Eddie Hardin. It's an unlovable slice of guitar-driven AOR with typical late eighties lyrics about financial concerns. The album, "Indestructible" isn't quite as ugly elsewhere but doesn't have a song strong enough to divert your attention from the horrible late eighties production trappings. "Ships" has a nice enough tune but sounds like post-Lady In Red Chris de Burgh and "Revival" was surely written with Barry Manilow in mind.
1988's optimistically - titled "Tomorrow's Troubador" is more of the same only worse. The title track and single is pure de Burgh schmaltz with horrible boomer angst lyrics about wanting a new Dylan to rally round. "Twinkle In The Eye " is a hideous hotch-potch of Huey Lewis-isms with terrible lyrics. "Isle Of Debris" sounds like some awful European act like the Goombay Dance Band. As if the new songs weren't bad enough, the second side sees Mike re-working past glories so you get a cod-reggae sax-heavy assault on "Handbags and Gladrags" and a jazz-funk take on "The Mighty Quinn". It's complete shite.
In 1991 he too joined The Manfreds. Mann's refusal to be involved neatly solved the problem of how to accommodate both front men as Mike could play the keyboard parts himself . He also became a regular broadcaster on West Country radio during the nineties. In 2000 he got involved with Ian Moor who won Stars In Their Eyes by impersonating Chris de Burgh and played keyboards at some of his live shows ; quite what he got out of that is hard to fathom.
The following year his profile was raised by the use of the Stereophonics cover of "Handbags and Gladrags" as the theme to The Office . Since then there have been a series of compilation CDs of his solo work released. In 2007 when he was 64 his wife gave birth to twins ( and I thought I was an old dad that year ! )
In 2011 he released a new solo album "Passion Driven" on which he re-works "Handbags And Gladrags" yet again. The only track I've heard is "Tiny Miracles" about his babies which is well-meant but hard to listen to - it rhymes "miracle" with "pinnacle" for one thing.
It's a bit unclear at the moment whether Mike is still with The Manfreds. On the band's website he's not listed as a member of the line-up but he's not included in the Former Members section either.
Mike Hugg went with Manfred Mann into Manfred Mann Chapter Three which we'll discuss below but parted company with him when that band dissolved in 1970. Mike put out his first solo single "Blue Suede Shoes Again" in August 1972 , a likable account of his teenage years that sounds very like Gilbert O' Sullivan in the verses before a rousing chorus. His album "Somewhere" followed. Some of the songs were originally intended for an aborted third Chapter Three album so Manfred's on it too as is future Cliff Richard and A-ha producer Alan Tarney on bass and a whole parade of guitarists including Tom McGuinness. I haven't heard all of it. The title track is a long introspective piano ballad which reminds me of Robert Wyatt. "Bonnie Charlie " ( which was coupled with a Slade song on a flexi given away with a music magazine - possibly Popswop ) an orchestrated tribute to a boat is very pretty. Mike doesn't have the best voice but it's very English and diffident and works with this sort of material. The glam-tinged rocker "Fool No More " does reveal the limitations of his voice though I like the bass and early 70s synth work on it. "Love Is Waiting" is a soporific piano ballad.
The following April Mike returned to the charts in the guise of Highly Likely ( with Tony Rivers on vocals and Tom McGuinness on guitar ) with "Whatever Happened To You" , the theme to Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads which reached number 36 . As an 8-9 year old viewer I thought the song was the best thing about it but of course I wasn't aware of the back story. Mike had previously worked with Rodney Bewes on the intervening comedy series Albert ! which isn't so well-regarded. They wrote the theme together ( "Remember When" which Bewes put out as a single under his own name in 1970 ) and Mike appeared in a 1971 episode.
Mike released his next solo single "Stress And Strain" the following month, a classic example of early seventies ennui about the pressures of modern living with a wispy vocal prefiguring Scritti Politti and a downbeat melody that suggests Mike might have been interested in the provenance of Brian Protheroe's Pinball the following year. I like the jazzy organ and guitar solos too. Again I haven't heard all of the album of the same name that followed just "Tonight" , a reasonably pop number and "So Sorry Please" which sounds a bit like The Korgis but Mike's vocal is so weak you can hardly make out the words.
In 1974 another comedy series for which he wrote the music was broadcast. "Thick As Thieves" starred Bob Hoskins and John Thaw and I don't remember it at all.
Mike formed a quartet called Hug for his next album "The Neon Dream". Their single "Keep Pushing On" is best described as prog-disco, a clumsily-phrased positivity anthem with jazzy organ and guitar solo on top of a George MacRae rhythm track. From the album I've heard "Breakdown" a six-minute doom-laden Santana-esque Latin funk work out with an extended guitar solo from John Knightsbridge and the even longer "For As Long As I Live" which is more like Steely Dan. Both suggest the album is worthy of further exploration.
In 1976 he scored the film of The Likely Lads which more or less concluded his film and TV work ( in 1979 he came up with a theme for Minder but it was discarded ). He formed a new band Mike Hugg's Freeway. I haven't heard their first single "Same Old Fantasy" from Februrary 1976 but the follow-up "Wichita" in November is the same Steely Dan-ish blend of wispy vocals, jazzy organ chops , guitar solo and middle-aged angst as his previous solo work. It was co-written by comedy writer Ian La Frenais so may have been connected with the film. There was no album and that single was the last record to bear his name.
In the late seventies he did some production work with a group called Full Alert and the heroically untalented Gillian Burns ( daughter of fifties crooner Ray ) who was having a second crack at fame after appearing on New Faces ( she failed to launch herself on the back of Opportunity Knocks in 1969 ). In fairness to her she subsequently made a living in musical theatre but her records are awful. Another client was Nick van Eede who later found five minutes of fame as lead singer of Cutting Crew. In 1981 he produced the Christmas novelty hit "The Moon Shines Tonight On Charlie Chaplin" by Beau Jangle a version of a 1918 song criticising Chaplin's failure to enlist ( topical eh ? ).
Thereafter he falls off the radar until the formation of the Manfreds but apparently was beavering away with his Fairlight on " interactive entertainment projects". Besides The Manfreds he has an occasional jazz trio PBD and in 2007 he and Mike Vickers privately released "Somewhere Else" a CD of work they did together in 1993.
And so by process of elimination we come to Manfred Mann himself. When I first started thinking about this blog he immediately came to mind as someone who had a substantial body of post-hit work so some compression will be necessary here.
Manfred and Mike Hugg set up Manfred Mann Chapter Three specifically as an antidote to pop compromises. They would play wilfully uncommercial music influenced by their jazz heroes. Mike was liberated from the drum stool to switch to electric piano and vocals ( in lieu of anyone better ). Steve York and Craig Collinge joined on bass and drums respectively and there was a five piece brass section accompanying Bernie Living, a permanent member on alto sax. The band played their first gig in October 1969 and released their eponymous debut LP the following month. It's not quite as fearsome as I expected; there are some pleasant passages and the version of "Mister You're A Better Man Than I " the song they gave to the Yardbyrds is quite appealing. On the other hand "Konekuf" and "A Study In Inaccuracy " ( the two tracks written by Manfred alone )
certainly fulfil the brief. The latter track with its sadistic false ending is particularly patience testing. Fans of Kid A -era Radiohead and latter day Talk Talk might enjoy the LP.
The second album "Manfred Mann Chapter Three Volume Two" came out in 1970. It featured Mike's brother Brian playing acoustic guitar on a couple of tracks. Otherwise it's more of the same uncompromising jazz rock. A four minute edit of the interminable "Happy Being Me" ( nearly sixteen minutes long , much of which is free form sax squawking ) was put out as an extremely optimistic single. The irony is that all this experimentation was being funded by Manfred and Mike doing music for commercials notably for Michelin and Ski yogurts.
Although a third album was largely complete Manfred dismantled the band at the end of 1970 and he and Mike went their separate ways. By the summer of 1971 he had put together a new band , the Earth Band consisting of himself on the organ and increasingly, synthesiser , Mick Rogers on guitar and vocals , Colin Pattenden on bass and Chris Slade on drums. Indecision over the name led to the first single, a cover of Randy Newman's "Living Without You " having "Manfred Mann" on the label in the UK and "Manfred Mann's Earth Band" in the USA. It's a strange track, seemingly a straightforward country rock strum but periodically interrupted by loud blasts from either Rogers's bottleneck guitar or Manfred's organ. It did nothing here but got them off the mark in the US peaking at number 69.
It was something of a false start as the next few singles ( and albums ) didn't chart on either side of the pond. "Mrs Henry" was a hard rocking blues cover of a Bob Dylan song with a lengthy guitar solo from Rogers . Both it and the previous single featured on the eponymous debut album released at the beginning of 1972. It's a fascinating listen because Manfred isn't sure in which direction he wants to go. There's some brooding atmospherics left over from Chapter Three minus the grating brass section such as the Floyd-ish instrumental "Tribute" which much later earned him a tidy sum from Massive Attack who sampled it without permission. Only on the coda to the Dr John cover "Jump Sturdy " does self-indulgence take over. He now has a guitarist in the band who wants to be heard and he certainly gets his wish on the pounding "Prayer". And then the last two tracks are semi-acoustic folk rock co-written with David Sadler and sung by Manfred himself in a creaky drawl.
Their second album "Glorified Magnified" quickly followed in September 1972. It's less eclectic than its predecessor with more of an emphasis on hard rock although the re-worked "One Way Glass" from Chapter Three days and acoustic passages on "Ashes To The Wind" and the cover of It's All Over Now Baby Blue" offer some variety. Manfred gets the chance to play around on the Minimoog synthesiser on "Wind" and the closing title track. The hefty "Meat" with its weird kazoo interjections and treated voices was subsequently released as a single with "Earth Band" on the label but had little chance of success.
The next single ( still credited to Earth Band ) preceded its parent album in April 1973. "Get Your Rocks Off " is a hard rocking cover of another Dylan song and was a more likely hit contender than its predecessors with their new female chorus softening the attack. The album "Messin" followed. It reveals both a resurfacing pop sensibility and a new political edge. The single and the version of Dr John's "Mardi Gras Day" have no instrumental flab and Rogers' guitar workout on the instrumental "Cloudy Eyes " remains beautifully controlled and melodic throughout. The title track was rescued from the abortive third Chapter Three album and retains Mike Hugg's lyrics of ecological concern while "Black And Blue" , though actually a cover of an Australian chart-topper about the days of penal servitude, was replaced on the American release for fear it was referring to slavery.
Before the fourth album the band had the unexpected boost of a substantial UK hit single with "Joybringer" , a tune based on part of Holst's Jupiter Suite from "The Planets". Modestly, Manfred gave himself no writing credit though one must presume the lyrics are his. Their uncharacteristic optimism ( which might be why it didn't appear on an album ) is capable of a drugs interpretation but the song's strength is the way the heavy drumming, wailing fuzz guitar and wigged-out synth solo are all put to the service of a strong ( albeit borrowed ) melody. it reached number 9 in the UK in September 1973.
Maintaining a commendable workrate, their next album "Solar Fire " was out by the end of the year. Despite kicking off with a Dylan cover "Father Of Day, Father Of Night" , it's a space concept album, the rest of which was written by the band themselves. The Dylan song itself is extended to nearly 10 minutes with a long guitar solo and a synth break that's close to the sound of a sax. An edited version came out as a single in February 1974 but was ignored. "In The Beginning , Darkness" gives Slade his chance to shine while you can forgive the attempted dog noises ( about as convincing as Tony Blackburn's "Arnold" ) on "Pluto The Dog" for the sheer proggy inventiveness of the track. The title track features the Chanter sisters duetting with Rogers before heading off into King Crimson territory. This is exactly the sort of music we children of punk were conditioned to hate and there's still an illicit thrill to be had as Manfred and Mick show off their dexterity on these long complex tracks. It was their first LP to make a minor showing on the US charts.
By 1974's loosely eco-themed "The Good Earth" there were signs of exhaustion. The first side comprises three covers , two of them originally recorded by the Australian band The Spectrum, and the original album comes in at just 37 minutes. Manfred closes out "Earth Hymn" with a typically fiddly synth solo and all four of them freak out on the instrumental "Sky High" before the gentler "Be Not Too Hard" , a vain attempt to chalk up another hit single. Despite the gimmick of allowing prompt purchasers to register rights over a square foot of earth in Wales it was one of their poorest sellers. It did however get them off the mark in Norway where they found their most enduring support.
1975 proved to be a turning point. In July 1975 they put out "Spirits In The Night" a cover of a song from the debut of the much-touted but so far commercially unsuccessful Bruce Springsteen, about a group of working class kids hanging out by a lake on a Saturday night. Manfred's doleful organ suggests the gloom and drudgery lying behind this temporary escape although his synth runs at the close are completely superfluous. The blatant reference to taking drugs kept it off the airwaves here but it sneaked into the American charts at 97 and was a more substantial hit in Canada and Holland.
An extended version kicked off their next LP "Nightingales And Bombers", inspired by a sound recording from World War Two where a naturalist taping nightingales caught the sound of bombers flying overhead. The actual recording is worked into the track "As Above So Below".The album is more accessible than its predecessors with the prog jams corralled into instrumentals like "Crossfade" and " Countdown" which are below five minutes in length. "Visionary Mountains" is a cover of a Pam Nestor / Joan Armatrading song and its languid space rock groove isn't too far removed from Pink Floyd. The band's popularity in Europe was growing and the album made the charts in Holland and Germany as well as Norway.
Just after its release Mick Rogers amicably resigned at a band meeting with the rest of the band unwilling to follow him down the cul-de-sac of Frank Zappa-inspired jazz rock. He was replaced by Chris Thompson a New Zealander on vocals and rhythm guitar and Scotsman Dave Flett on lead guitar. Rogers's departure brought their days as a prog rock act to a close. Despite having all the credentials they never managed to find the mass audience some of their peers enjoyed. There were many prog fans at my school but I never heard them mentioned alongside Genesis, Rush , Floyd and ELP and their erratic chart fortunes reveal their failure to build a reliable fanbase. You do wonder if having Manfred's name out front helped them or turned off potential listeners through its ineradicable association with besuited sixties pop.
The first single with the new line up was the immortal "Blinded By The Light" another song from Springsteen's debut LP and a rock radio staple to this day. I'm not going to wade into the endless debate about whether it concerns cocaine, masturbation, a coded account of Bruce's early career frustrations or all three. Manfred sets his dense lyrics , growled out by Thompson, in a bath of celestial organ which changes as the chorus approaches to a burst of noodling synth and then an almighty high pitched screech to herald whatever revelation Bruce was writing about. Manfred himself has a crack at the vocals singing a couple of verses underneath Thompson's final chorus. It was a hit everywhere but crucially number 1 in the States in early 1977 after a long slow climb to the top.
Buoyed by the single's success the next album "The Roaring Silence " got to number 10 on both sides of the pond. The album displays a more song based approach with only one completely instrumental track and more classical borrowings than improvisational passages. "The Road To Babylon" arises out of a passage of plainsong while "Starbird " and the follow-up single "Questions" are based on melodies by Stravinsky and Schubert respectively. The latter is straightforward AOR with no prog touches apart from its portentous but utterly meaningless lyrics.
It wasn't a hit so they re-did "Spirits In The Night " with Thompson singing and that reached number 40 in the States in June 1977. By that time Colin Pattenden had left the band and been replaced by Pat King. Manfred watched in irritation as Philips tried to exploit his success by reissuing "Pretty Flamingo" . The next single was "California " in November 1997 written by Sue Vickers ( I don't know if she was related to Mike ). This took them much further down the AOR road ; apart from Flett's closing guitar solo it could be Lindisfarne. Despite strong support from Radio One and a wildcard slot on Top Of The Pops ( notable for Thompson's bobble hat and rainbow coloured jumper combo ) it was too insipid to be a hit anywhere but the Antipodes.
The album "Watch" was released in February 1978. It continues the move towards the mainstream with no instrumentals this time and only "Martha's Madman" can really be described as "prog" . Manfred acknowledged his pop past with a live version of "The Mighty Quinn", released as a single shortly afterwards to little interest. The other live track was a version of Robbie Robertson's "Davy's On The Road Again". The band went into the studio to polish it up and it became their last major UK hit single in May 1978 peaking at number 6. With no single hits in the States interest fell away sharply and the album stalled at number 83.
The band underwent more personnel changes in 1978 as Dave Flett and Chris Slade left to be replaced by Giant Haystacks -lookalike Steve Waller and Geoff Britton respectively then Chris Thompson announced his intention to leave and pursue a career with his own band Night while they were recording the next LP "Angel Station". It's the only one of their albums to yield two hit singles in the UK, albeit both of them minor. The one that preceded it was a bright pop rock cover of Dylan's "You Angel You" which still allowed Manfred a twiddly bit in the instrumental break. It reached 54 here and 58 in the US. The album let in outside influences such as Jimmy O' Neill from Scottish band Fingerprintz and former Henry Cow member Anthony Moore who played some of the synthesiser parts and co-produced the album. I think it's their best, finding the right balance between good tunes and inventive arrangements exemplified by the opening track and second single ( in edited form ) "Don't Kill It Carol" a rather oddly expressed love song from Mike Heron ( of the Incredible String Band ) warped into sinister shape by Steve Waller's gutteral vocal and work on the Heil Talk Box. It got to 45 here but was too weird for the US. The album did OK here reaching number 30 but didn't make much impression over there.
Ironically just as the synthesiser came to dominate the British pop scene Manfred found himself out in the cold. For all Trevor Dann's bombast about dropping Status Quo from Radio One's playlist in 1996, the station had long had a quiet policy of exiling acts they deemed out of date for Radio Two to pick up if they were interested, which usually meant a permanent exit from the singles chart. The Earth Band fell victim to this in 1980; when "Lies" their next single appeared on the "Radioactive compilation ( reviewed here ) I'd never heard it before. The album "Chance" , featuring new drummer John Lingwood, a chastened Chris Thompson whose albums with Night had stiffed and an increased number of guest musicians , also missed the chart. It's a poor effort with the majority of the songs covers. "On The Run" is a synth-y rewrite of Noosha Fox's "The Heat Is On" ( later a massive European hit for Agnetha Faltskog ). The Springsteen cover "For You" sticks out like a sore thumb as a blatant attempt to get another American hit ; it failed. Manfred's songs - all credited to him alone, suggesting band democracy had broken down by this point - are dreadful. His melodic sense seems to have deserted him on these gloomy synth-based songs and "No Guarantee " which sets the wording of the guarantee on one of his pieces of equipment to music as a duet with Dyan Birch might have seemed like a good idea at the time but is one of the most wretched things I've heard in a long time. By some bizarre process it actually improved on "Angel Station"'s showing in America.
In 1981 Pat King left to be replaced by Matt Irving and a female singer Shona Laing was added to the line-up. In November 1981 they released a standalone cover of the Leiber-Stoller song " I ( Who Have Nothing ) which is tolerable but was only a minor hit in Germany. The follow-up in February 1982 was a cover of Al Stewart's "Eyes Of Nostradamus" which gave the first hints of Manfred's new interest in world music with its chattering percussion track but it bombed everywhere. In June 1982 the new single was a genre-bending cover of Marley's "Redemption Song " de-reggaefied with a Giorgio Moroder synth pulse and incorporating Zulu chanting behind Laing's lead vocal which is too low in the mix. It marked the start of a string of covers which seemed calculated to get up peoples' noses perhaps on the grounds that vitriolic reviews at least let people know the single is out. November's "Tribal Statistics" is a fast-paced synth rocker about the bureaucracy needed to maintain the apartheid regime in South Africa. In January 1983 they followed Grace Jones in covering The Police's "Demolition Man" in a similar synth rock vein.
After keeping the pot boiling with five singles in a row, the album "Somewhere In Afrika" finally came out in February 1983. Besides including the last four singles - "Redemption Song" being extended with a guitar solo from guest Trevor Rabin - there's a rocking cover of Anthony Moore's "Third World Service" but the album's centrepiece is the eight minute plus "Africa Suite " which is a well-intentioned attempt to blend Western rock with African music but not particularly well executed - part b "To Bantustan" is particularly ugly. It was their last LP of original material to chart in the UK.
They toured the album without Laing in spring 1983 ; their performance in Budapest was released as a live EP early in 1984. After it finished Steve Waller left the band to be replaced by the returning Mick Rogers. The group then took the Olympic dollar and recorded the Ian Thomas song "Runner", a generic corporate rock number that sounds like Survivor. To be fair it's not the worst song in the world and Chris Thompson's voice is a perfect fit for it. It gave them their last hit single anywhere ( 22 in America, 32 in Canada ) and when bolted on to a re-arranged "Somewhere In Afrika " ( where it fits like a stone in a shoe ) it gave them a last album chart placing in the US ( number 40 ).
The band re-emerged in March 1986 with a new bass player Steve Kinch and a horrible MTV-rock cover of Eddie and the Hot Rods "Do Anything You Wanna Do" with Manfred posing with one of those Roland guitar-shaped keyboards in the video and some bratty teenagers joining in on the chorus. It was released under the banner "Manfred Mann's Earth Band with Chris Thompson " which is puzzling as Thompson didn't have a high profile outside the band. Perhaps Manfred felt his voice was indispensable to their sound and it was a necessary sop to keep him on board. As if the Rods cover wasn't bad enough they next assaulted The Jam's "Going Underground" redoing it as an Ultravox number. The album "Criminal Tango" quickly followed in the summer of 1986. Its nine songs include six covers and the three originals are either forgettable including the instrumental "Crossfire" where you might have expected Manfred to cut loose or embarrassing "Who Are The Mystery Kids". It's a dismal empty album whiich nevertheless charted in four countries.
By the following year's "Masque" Thompson had gone and the band were down to a trio of Manfred, Rogers and Lingwood with a large collection of guests filling the gaps. "Masque" is a hotchpotch of ideas from different parts of the band's history so some of the tracks incorporate bits of The Planets and "Joybringer " is unwisely included as the opening track. There's another Jam cover, this time "What You Give Is What You Get ( Start )" orchestrated and sung by guest Maggie Ryder. "Sister Billie's Bounce " and Billy Orno's Bounce " set parts of Charlie Parker tunes to a go-go beat and are more reminiscent of Doop and Jive Bunny than anything else. The single
"Geronimo's Cadillac" is a horrible lead-booted synthy cover of a Michael Murphy tune. The album doesn't remotely hang together; it sounds like a party host has put his worst CDs into the machine and put it on shuffle mode. What those Germans who pushed it up to number 44 in their charts were doing God only knows.
Manfred rested the Earth Band shortly afterwards and his next LP released in August 1991 came out under the aegis of Manfred Mann's Plains Music. It comprised his re-arrangements of traditional songs of the North American Plains Indians though it was filled out with a couple of South African songs recorded there because he could after three decades of exile as a consistent opponent of apartheid. I'm not really into music as cultural tourism but it's a pleasanter listen than any of his eighties albums. It didn't sell. The following year a compilation LP reached number 69, their last UK chart placing to date.
Manfred rejected the invitation to join The Manfreds and eventually reconvened the Earth Band for a new album in 1996. The line up featured Rogers, Thompson, Kinch, Noel Macalla the singer on the Plains Music Project and two drummers Dave Barker and Clive Bunker. It was nearly all covers with "Pleasure And Pain" ( The Divinyls ) and "Nothing Ever Happens" ( Del Amitri ) released as singles. The former has had its S & M allusions removed and the latter its melody largely re-written so that both fit into a slick soft rock mould. They're not unpleasant but I suspect that's more because 90s production values are more palatable to our ears than any real improvement on the band's part. Germany and Sweden gave it a chart placing and they toured in Europe in 1996-97 with yet another new drummer, John Trotter. Another live LP "Mann Alive" resulted in 1998. Thompson left the band again shortly afterwards.
The only subsequent album has been "2006" confusingly released in 2004 and more confusingly released by "Manfred Mann with Manfred Mann's Earth Band". Manfred wanted it to be viewed as a solo album because the others were not on all the tracks and it wasn't representative of the whole band's tastes. Though it does contain the odd track that harks back to former Band glories it's generally an eclectic low-key synth-pop album with some pleasing eccentricities that you thought had been lost some time back. It didn't chart anywhere
The band continued as a touring concern. Macalla left in 2009 and was briefly replaced by ex-Go West vocalist Peter Cox. In 2011 Manfred put out the single "( Lick Your ) Boots " which sampled HRH the Queen in a mildly irreverent way to an Air-ish synth doodle. It was a trailer for an album "Rational Anthems" which has yet to be released. Initially it was delayed because Manfred had to look after his wife who died in 2011; presumably they're still working on it.
And that finally wraps this post up, hopefully the longest on here but you never know.
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