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"This is a crowd-pleaser with howling guitars and hot organ flushes most of the way." (Adelaide Advertiser April 1984)
"This album should remain a testament to his (Manfred Mann) and the group's ability to play quality music in a live format." (This Review)
This is album review number One hundred and seventy nine in the series of retro-reviews of both vinyl and CD albums from my collection.
The series is called Cream of The Crate and each review represents an album that I believe represents significant musical value, either because of its rarity, because it represents the best of a style or styles of a music or because there is something unique about the music, the group or the particular production. The first fifty reviews were based on vinyl albums from my collection, with the following fifty on CD albums from my collection. Links to all these reviews can be found at the bottom of the page.
Some artists from the 60's failed to transition into the '70s and even fewer made it into the 1980's. I have pulled a vinyl album from my crate featuring a man, who was successful in all three decades.
This artist is Manfred Mann and this, a vinyl album is titled - Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Live Budapest. Released on the English Bronze label in 1983, it has the identifying code of L 38153. The album has eight tracks and are from a series of live performances when the band played to over 350,000 people at 50 shows in 10 European countries between February 8th and April 14th, 1983.
Manfred Mann's career started way back in 1962 when he met Mike Hugg and they formed the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. This was the period of the early formation of what would later become known as the British Beat period, giving rise to such memorable bands as the Beatles, Stones, Animals, Pretty Things, Kinks and many more, including a group called Manfred Mann, which developed from the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers.
Manfred Mann (the band) had considerable success right through the 1960's, and although never quite reaching the pinnacle of fame that the Stones and Beatles reached, they were indeed very popular and very successful. The group had many lineup changes but Manfred Mann (the artist) and Mike Hugg remained the consistent lynch-pins.
In 1969 the group finally split, even while having the track Ragamuffin Man in the top 10.
Manfred Mann Chapter Three formed out of the Manfred Mann group, but followed an experimental jazz style and only lasted about 2 years when they disbanded in 1971.
This saw the formation of the Manfred Mann Earth Band. The original line-up consisted of Mick Rogers (guitar and vocals), Manfred Mann (organ, synthesizer and vocals), Colin Pattenden (bass guitar) and Chris Slade (drums and vocals). The group were probably best labeled as a progressive rock band, although with Manfred's predilection for jazz and a love for English 20th Century classical music, the group's style was in fact quite unique.
Not long after it formed, Manfred purchased a Moog synthesiser and used it extensively on stage, and being a new instrument at the time, it also helped with the group's unique sound.
By the 1980's Mann had become personally active in the international anti-apartheid movement and was banned from entering his home country of South Africa. Undeterred, members of the band made journeys to South Africa to record African musicians for the album Somewhere in Afrika.
MMEB in Budapest - Lingwood, Irving,Mann,Thompson & Waller
By 1987 with membership changes, the band temporarily retired before being revived in the 1990's and with constant line up changes, in fact a total of 23 musicians have at one time or another been part of the band, it has continued playing through until today.
This album, as indicated earlier, came about as result of a series of concerts in Budapest, and the recording was actually taken from the shows on April 6th and 7th 1983. At this stage the band consisted of:
Manfred Mann - Keyboards & Synths
John Lingwood - Drums
Chris Thompson - Vocals & Guitar
Steve Waller - Vocals & Guitar
Matt Irving - Bass
Inner Cover - Credits
Track Listing:
Side 1
1. Spirits in the night (6:04)
2. Demolition man (4:32)
3. For you (6:49)
4. Davy's on the road again (4:43)
Side 2
1. Lies (through the 80's) (4:34)
2. Blinded by the light (7:45)
3. Redemption song (No Kwazulu) (3:26)
4. Mighty Quinn (4:15)
Rear cover
Side 1 kicks off with a rousing audience and the band breaks in a Bruce Springsteen number, Spirits In The Night. A powerful track it grabs attention without being an uptempo track. Featuring a Talk Box and some very nice guitar lines, it is lush with keyboards and some beautiful harmonies. In some ways it is a good track to start the album off with as it allows us to slip into the mood of the night, and is a nice track for both the head, and the ears.
The track, as written and released by Springfield,had no "s" and was called Spirit in the Night. On this album and indeed the original album it was released on - that being the 1975 album Nightingales and Bombers; the "s" was added to the title. When in 1976 it was released as a single, the "s" was dropped. The track is not my favourite on this album, but it's still pretty damn fine.