REVIEW: Let me tell You ‘bout the Manfreds
By Kent Barker
The replacement of Paul Jones by Mike d’Abo as Manfred Mann’s lead singer in 1966 was, for many British teenyboppers, as cataclysmic an event as Dylan going electric had been for American folksters the year before. Jones had been with the band since it was the seven-piece Mann-Hugg Blues brothers,(Manfred and Mike Hugg reportedly having met while playing at Butlins in Clacton). Anyway, pop-idol Paul Jones had a string of top ten hits with Manfred Mann from 5-4-3-2-1 in 1964 to Pretty Flamingo two years later.
Paul Jones
That’s very nearly 60 years ago and you might have thought there wouldn’t be too many people around now who’d remember them. And you’d be wrong, as the audience at the Royal Hippodrome in Eastbourne ably demonstrated. Well, not so ably actually. There were plenty of walking sticks and even the odd zimmer in evidence. But if his fans were getting on, then what about Paul? Well, he’s just turned 80. It’s true that he doesn’t shimmy around the stage like Mick Jagger. But then Mick’s a whole year younger. Looking at the remarkably well-preserved Jones you wonder if he hasn’t an aging portrait in a ‘Dorian Grey’ attic somewhere.
But the pop fans of half a century ago still love him, in his rock-anthesis blue blazer with leather elbow patches and tan chinos. Unleashing that mischievous, boyish, smile he tells us that he actually wrote
the apogee of self-centred songs (‘The people of the town – Came just to stand around – And see the singer lookin’ sweet’) for Keith Relf of the Yardbirds – who self-effacingly declined to do it. Hmm.
Interval merchandise session
There was quite a bit of name-dropping … but then Manfred Mann – and in their new incarnation without Mr Mann, the Manfreds, have attracted an extraordinary number of people to play with them including
Jack Bruce (later of Cream). Then mainstay member, guitarist Tom McGuinness who joined in 1964, left in ’69, had success with McGuinness Flint, and then reconnected with Paul Jones forming the Blues Band in 1979 and the Manfreds in 1991. And the latter have been gigging ever since with Eastbourne as part of a 26 venue tour this autumn and winter.
Endearingly, they appear in the foyer at half time to sign and flog albums and merchandise.
With so much experience it’s hard not to be slick. But to begin with they were so laid back they seemed to be ‘phoning in’ a performance. As soon as Jones delved into his harmonica collection, things warmed up and by the time they were into Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightening you remembered why Manfred Mann had been so much more than a mere pop band. Trouble is that Paul Jones has a great pop voice – possibly kept sweet by all that Christian clean living. But the blues demand rather harsher, raspier, vocals. A good thing then that his formidable harmonicas could take over.
Quite apart from the excellent McGuinness guitar, there was considerable musicianship on stage: a generally restrained Keith Riley on drums, Marcus Cliffe on bass, Mike Hugg on keyboards and the stunning Simon Currie on sax and flute.
It was nice to hear the old favourites: Come Tomorrow, Do Wa Diddy Diddy and Just Like a Woman, and that’s what people had clearly come for. But actually the free-form jazz and blues numbers were much more rewarding. A pity to be constrained by all those hits of the 60s!
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