The legendary Manband from Wales...
...is, without doubt, one of my all-time favourite bands. Oh come on, any band that can come up with a song lyrics like:
"I like to eat bananas because they got no bones / I like marijuana because it gets me stoned."
has got to be worth listening to. Yeah, no prizes for guessing that I don't subscribe to the dumbass theory that smoking grass leads you to try harder drugs. No it doesn't. It leads you to giggling, raiding the fridge and falling asleep. If someone is going to end up hooked on coke or smack, they will do, irrespective of whether they smoke a joint at any point in their lives. But that particular avenue is best explored in the Rant section at some point, I think. Back to the Manband...
I have seen Man live on quite a few separate occasions over the years. My friend Mick Schofield first got me to listen to them in 1982, by playing me "Be Good To Yourself", "Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics" and "Slow Motion". He then progressed through "Greasy Truckers", "Padget Rooms" and "Christmas at the Patti". I was impressed. As we worked our way through the back catalogue, he inevitably dug out "Maximum Darkness" and that was the one that really sold me. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it was a combination of the music and the wicked Rick Griffin cover, who can say? Certainly, I still love the version of 7171-551 from that album.
"I like to eat bananas because they got no bones / I like marijuana because it gets me stoned."
has got to be worth listening to. Yeah, no prizes for guessing that I don't subscribe to the dumbass theory that smoking grass leads you to try harder drugs. No it doesn't. It leads you to giggling, raiding the fridge and falling asleep. If someone is going to end up hooked on coke or smack, they will do, irrespective of whether they smoke a joint at any point in their lives. But that particular avenue is best explored in the Rant section at some point, I think. Back to the Manband...
I have seen Man live on quite a few separate occasions over the years. My friend Mick Schofield first got me to listen to them in 1982, by playing me "Be Good To Yourself", "Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics" and "Slow Motion". He then progressed through "Greasy Truckers", "Padget Rooms" and "Christmas at the Patti". I was impressed. As we worked our way through the back catalogue, he inevitably dug out "Maximum Darkness" and that was the one that really sold me. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it was a combination of the music and the wicked Rick Griffin cover, who can say? Certainly, I still love the version of 7171-551 from that album.
Man - Raikes Hall Blackpool 20th February 1993
Setlist: C'mon / Mad on her / Jumpin' like a Kangaroo / Circumstances / Women / Wings of Mercury / Ride and the View / Feather on the Scales of Justice / Many are called but Few get up // Spunk Rock
'I had spoken on the phone to the promoter, Mick Schofield, a couple of weeks beforehand, and had been convinced it would be worth it. After all, what is a promoter if not a salesman ? No, that isn't fair. At the gig it became clear that Mick is a true gent. A displaced Yorkshireman, his enthusiasm for live music simply knows no bounds; he regularly puts on gigs at the Raikes, and believes that live is how music is supposed to be heard. Listening to a CD slumped on the sofa is fine, but experiences like the one I was about to undergo simply cannot be reproduced by mere electronics.
The event was a ticket only sellout. I arrived just a couple of minutes into C'mon due to taking a little too much time over the chicken with cashew nuts, and found the venue to be a narrow rectangular room above a pub just outside the town centre. No stage, and just two small banks of lights. A small bar at the back. And a room full of very lucky people. For on this night, Man were simply brilliant.
This performance was so much better than the Witchwood, and even a step beyond the Duchess. Magnificent. It might have been the intimacy of the venue, maybe the fact it was a Saturday night, hell, for all I know it might have been the sea air, but they were superb, and they knew it. All the banter was back, they never stopped grinning all night, and the crowd loved it. There were trivial technical hitches - Martin's bass was stubborn to tune ("thirty years in the business, what a pro" - anonymous shaven headed drummer) and a skilled technician had to hold the plug in the socket to stop the lights flickering until that road manager's cure-all, masking tape, was located, but these counted nothing against the sheer brilliance of the performance. It was the sort of night when the performance was simply so good you could not even bear to drag yourself away to the bar. I'm not generally one for superlatives, but this has to be the best Man gig I've seen.
And there's evidence : they don't do Spunk Rock every night, but tonight they did, and it was brilliant, as good a version as I've heard, live or on record. Breathtaking. And Micky Jones, not the most loquacious of men, stepped up to the microphone before the encores, and described this as the one of the best gigs of the tour. Coming from him, that has to be a real commendation.'
This view was copied from Live Reviews section of the Manband website www.manband.co.uk
As I was putting this page together I tried a Google search to see if I could find a setlist for the Raikes gig in '93. I found the above review and, as this was years before I started reviewing gigs, well I couldn't really have said it better. So, thanks unknown reviewer. If you read this and want a credit, email me
This was a special gig for me for many reasons. Mike Schofield was a good friend of mine and he introduced me to the wonders of the Manband. I met him in 1982, when we had both recently moved to Blackpool and were looking for something real in that terribly false town. We both loved books and music and we found many common interests. In 1987, I moved from Blackpool due to work, but still saw Mike when I could as he began to promote blues gigs in Blackpool. He was responsible for bringing many great musicians to the town and I was overjoyed to be involved with that. In the late '80s and early '90s I saw (and met) Colin Hodgkinson and Frank Diez, Robert Lucas, Jack Bruce, Norman Beaker, Bob Brossman, Walter Trout, amongst others, and, of course, Man.
This Man gig was a great gig. It was also the last time I ever saw Mike, who died a couple of years later, without ever telling me he was ill.
Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder
November 2010
'I had spoken on the phone to the promoter, Mick Schofield, a couple of weeks beforehand, and had been convinced it would be worth it. After all, what is a promoter if not a salesman ? No, that isn't fair. At the gig it became clear that Mick is a true gent. A displaced Yorkshireman, his enthusiasm for live music simply knows no bounds; he regularly puts on gigs at the Raikes, and believes that live is how music is supposed to be heard. Listening to a CD slumped on the sofa is fine, but experiences like the one I was about to undergo simply cannot be reproduced by mere electronics.
The event was a ticket only sellout. I arrived just a couple of minutes into C'mon due to taking a little too much time over the chicken with cashew nuts, and found the venue to be a narrow rectangular room above a pub just outside the town centre. No stage, and just two small banks of lights. A small bar at the back. And a room full of very lucky people. For on this night, Man were simply brilliant.
This performance was so much better than the Witchwood, and even a step beyond the Duchess. Magnificent. It might have been the intimacy of the venue, maybe the fact it was a Saturday night, hell, for all I know it might have been the sea air, but they were superb, and they knew it. All the banter was back, they never stopped grinning all night, and the crowd loved it. There were trivial technical hitches - Martin's bass was stubborn to tune ("thirty years in the business, what a pro" - anonymous shaven headed drummer) and a skilled technician had to hold the plug in the socket to stop the lights flickering until that road manager's cure-all, masking tape, was located, but these counted nothing against the sheer brilliance of the performance. It was the sort of night when the performance was simply so good you could not even bear to drag yourself away to the bar. I'm not generally one for superlatives, but this has to be the best Man gig I've seen.
And there's evidence : they don't do Spunk Rock every night, but tonight they did, and it was brilliant, as good a version as I've heard, live or on record. Breathtaking. And Micky Jones, not the most loquacious of men, stepped up to the microphone before the encores, and described this as the one of the best gigs of the tour. Coming from him, that has to be a real commendation.'
This view was copied from Live Reviews section of the Manband website www.manband.co.uk
As I was putting this page together I tried a Google search to see if I could find a setlist for the Raikes gig in '93. I found the above review and, as this was years before I started reviewing gigs, well I couldn't really have said it better. So, thanks unknown reviewer. If you read this and want a credit, email me
This was a special gig for me for many reasons. Mike Schofield was a good friend of mine and he introduced me to the wonders of the Manband. I met him in 1982, when we had both recently moved to Blackpool and were looking for something real in that terribly false town. We both loved books and music and we found many common interests. In 1987, I moved from Blackpool due to work, but still saw Mike when I could as he began to promote blues gigs in Blackpool. He was responsible for bringing many great musicians to the town and I was overjoyed to be involved with that. In the late '80s and early '90s I saw (and met) Colin Hodgkinson and Frank Diez, Robert Lucas, Jack Bruce, Norman Beaker, Bob Brossman, Walter Trout, amongst others, and, of course, Man.
This Man gig was a great gig. It was also the last time I ever saw Mike, who died a couple of years later, without ever telling me he was ill.
Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder
November 2010
