THE OFFICIAL BOOTLEG (liner notes from the Point Records reissue)
Recorded by Roger Hoodless at the Glastonbury Festival 1994
THE OFFICIAL BOOTLEG The post 1983 years, though, saw few new recordings hit the racks, an early attempt funded by a German fan having failed to reach fruition. So by the time they played the 1994 Glastonbury Festival, only one new album -- 'The Twang Dynasty', released some two years before on the independent Road Goes On Forever label -- had emerged since they signed off in 1976 with 'The Welsh Connection'.
That album had lent it's name to an information service-cum-fanzine for the band, formed in the late 1980's. And it was for their readers that the '1994 Official Bootleg' was originally intended. Roadie Roger Hoodless, who tapes every gig 'off the board' for the musicians' benefit, had immortalised their show at that years Glastonbury Festival, and rumors emerged that it was something of a classic. The tape passed from band member to band member and even they, the severest of self-critics, had to admit it had that certain something.
The music ranges from their 1970s heyday 'C'mon' end 'Bananas' from 1972, plus 'The Ride And The View' from 'The Welsh Connection' through to 'Even Visionaries Go Blind', a Martin Ace co-penned highlight of the still-born German album, with four tracks from 'The Twang Dynasty' to bring us up to date.It's one of the last-mentioned that connects us to Man's first decade, too, since 'Wings of Mercury' is dedicated to the late great John Cipollina of late-1960s guitar gods Quicksilver Messenger Service. Quicksilver were a huge influence on the early Man, and 'Chippo' played a memorable UK tour with the band in 1975 that was recorded and the highlights released as 'Maximum Darkness'. His death in 1989 was the inspiration for the song, hence the valedictory 'Happy trails, old friend, goodbye...'
If 'Wings..." looked backwards with a fond glance, the opening jam that leads into 'C'mon' would provide the musical theme taken up on the title track of Man's next album. Entitled 'Call Down the Moon', it appeared in 1995 on the German Hypertension label. Soon after that, drummer John 'Pugwash' Weathers, whose percussive skills and harmony vocals are much in evidence here, quit to pursue his own projects and was replaced by 1970 recruit Terry Williams. He rejoined the nucleus of guitarist Deke Leonard and Micky Jones and bassist Martin Ace to recreate one of the band's alltime classic foursomes.
But line-up number 13 that features here was one hot band in its own right, and having survived intact for 12 years is confortably Man's longest-lived variation. The 1960s links resurface again on 'A Feather In The Scale of Justice', whose riff is not dissimilar to Hendrix's Gypsy Eyes' -- but as Deke Leonard, its writer, puts it with his typical wit, if you're going to steal, it might as well be from the best'.
Deke's also written a biography of Man's first eight years, entitled Rhinos Winos & Lunatics. There were plenty of Man-mad fans at Glastonbury, and all were agreed their performance was something special. The band went on to play at Croperty too, and are still staples at european rock Festivals where their freewheeling, improvisatory style goes down a storm.
Regardless of whether or not Man make it to the millennium and add a fifth playing decade to their history, the '1994 Official Bootleg' remains evidence of their continuing abilities in the fourth. Press play and prepare to get festive...
MAN -- The Biography
Man are a band from Wales with almost Greek history. They have made seventeen albums, done 7601 gigs, played 64000 songs and signed l l 21000 autographs. They have travelled 1,200,000 miles and crossed 330 boarders in and out of 117 countries on 2 continents. They have stayed in 6424 hotels and only been thrown out of 32.
During their tortured evolution, which would have baffled Charles Darwin, they have undergone 17 line-up changes, involving 4 drummers, 3 keyboard players, 4 guitarists and 5 bass players. They have gone through 500 sets of guitar strings, 2500 pairs of drum sticks and one set of bass strings. They have blown 161 amplifiers, 721 speakers and drained 350 pp3 batteries. They have burnt out 221 road managers, 117 Ford Transits, 16 artics, 36 hired cars and even a Volkswagen mini-bus. They have done 4111 press interviews, 146 TV shows, 386 photo sessions... and spent over £200 on clothes. They have drunk 20000 gallons of alcohol, smoked 750000 cigaretts, eaten 4600 curries and gone through 16000 packets of Rizlas. They have slept with 4163 women, not including wives, servents or pets. To reveal their names would be conduct unbecoming a gentleman.
The current line up is Martin Ace on bass and vocals, Micky Jones on guitar and vocals, Deke Leonard on guitar, keyboards and vocals and Terry Williams on drums.
Williams resumed his percussion duties with the band after an absence of twenty years, during which time he played with Dave Edmund's Rockpile, Meatloaf, Dire Straits, Chuck Berry, Paul McCartney , Tina Turner, , Ray Charles, The Everly Brothers, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Cliff Richard, Hank B. Marvin, Bruce Welsh, Billy Joel, Arthur Scargill, Dion,, Keith Richard, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, Robert Cray, Steve Cropper, Bo Diddley, Carl Perkins, B.B. King, Albert Collins, Nils Lofgren, Tracy Ullman, Natalie Cole, Cindi Lauper, Geraint Watkins, Terence Trent D'Arby, Joe Cocker, Al Green and Bob Dylan. Sources close to the palace will neither confirm or deny that he is Princess Diana's favourite drummer. He returned to the fold, he says, "because I missed the glamour of life on the road with the Man Band. MAN's latest album is LIVE OFFICIAL BOOTLEG. if you miss it, your life will be as nothing.
For further Man information, send SAE to PO Box 49 (VP), Bordon, Hants,, GU35 OAF, England
This is one of the first batch of Point Records (distributed by Voiceprint) reissues of Man material not previously available on CD, which includes the two MCA albums, the long out of print "Greasy Trucker's Party" and "Christmas at the Patti", and the formerly bootleg only "Live in London" and "1999 Party". Will update my discography with the others as soon as I get them.
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