For his 'Chance' outing in 1980 Manfred retained the services of Pat King on bass, John Lingwood on drums & an assortment of vocalists & guitarists for the project. Chris Thompson returned to sing the first 3 tracks on the album & he was augmented by others including Steve Waller. Waller was still with the line-up as guitarist but had been joined by Mick Rogers, Geoff Whitehorn, Robbie McIntosh & Trevor Rabin. With this array of musicians it's not surprising that much of the guitar playing is quite stunning & the vocal contributions quite varied. The album has less of an Earth Band feel, however, than some of the previous releases & is often viewed by fans as a 'solo' Manfred album. The record is crammed with some great pop tunes performed in true Manfred style.
The release of the album in October 1980 was preceded by the release of 'Lies (Through The 80s)', which had been written by Denny Newman, a friend of one of the Earth Band's roadies. Newman was later to join the Band for a short period. The B-side was 'You're Not My' which was actually a re-titled album track, 'Adolescent Dream'. 'Chance' also held some other interesting compositions including 'On The Run', co-penned by Mann, Florrie Palmer & Tony Ashton (formerly of 'Family' & 'Ashton Gardner & Dyke' fame). It also contained another Springsteen composition 'For You'. Manfred's rendition of this is absolutely superb & there are many who would agree that Manfred is better at interpreting Springsteen's songs than the Boss himself. 'For You' is a perfect example of both Springsteen's talent as a songwriter & Mann's ability to make such a good composition his own. 'For You' was also released as a single although it was a different version for the album recording. The single was backed with a non-album track 'A Fool I Am'. Both have been included as bonus tracks on this re-mastered set.
Manfred & the Earth Band toured the 'Chance' album during 1981 often opening the shows with an unreleased track form the 'Chance' sessions. Entitled 'Hello Hello' this remains unreleased to this day & this may be due to the fact it was never recorded or if it was no studio recording survives today. Had we been able to locate a copy we might have included the song, however it remains elusive & may have been destroyed in the infamous Workhouse fire during the 1980s.
All in all 'Chance' was a good album. It has stood the test of time well & remains on of the easiest Earth Band albums to listen to. 'Lies' could even be re-recorded (with the years changed!) for the millennium & still be relevant! Now there's an idea...
1981 was a busy year for Manfred. The Earth Band had completed a tour to promote the 'Chance' album, Pat King, the bass player had departed the band & was replaced by Matt Irving (ex 'Babies'). Chris Thompson was busy recording for his 'Night' projects, hence the band was often reduced to a four piece of Mann, Irving, Lingwood & Waller. Manfred however was not deterred. He proceeded to record a number of songs that quickly emerged as single releases.
Using a well-known New Zealand female singer called Shona Laing, Manfred recorded several songs with her, even incorporating her into the Earth Band for a short time. The first of these songs was the Shirley Bassey & Tom Jones former hit, 'I, Who Have Nothing' (also recorded by an infant Status Quo in 1966!). This was backed by 'Man In A Jam', neither of which has ever previously been released on album or CD. (These will be included on 'The Best of MMEarth Band' Re-mastered Vol. II' due for release later in 1999). The second single to be released (Feb 1982) using the 'I, Have Nothing' line-up was 'The Eyes Of Nostradamus' backed with 'Holiday's End'. Next in June of the same year 'Redemption Song' backed with 'War Dream'. These last two A-sides were later added to the 'Somewhere in Afrika' album.
Released in Germany in October (four months prior to its UK release & over a year ahead of a US release) the album shipped some impressive numbers upon release. For the recording of 'SIA' album Manfred once again used a variety of musicians including Shona Laing, Chris Thompson (who sang on three tracks), Steve Waller (guitar & vocals on most of the remaining songs), John Lingwood on drums & Matt Irving on bass. Manfred was very impressed with Shona as a vocalist but could not visualize the band live in this form so in the end it was Chris Thompson who covered most of the vocal duties with Steve Waller. While recording the album Manfred included several African singers & musicians to enhance a genuine feeling of Africa. This predated many other attempts at combining modern rock & powerful ethnic music together & achieved considerable success.
The 'Somewhere In Europe' tour was one of the most visually stunning tours put on by the Earth Band, & it was these concerts which culminated in the recording of a live album during these concerts in Budapest. The show featured films, cartoons, robots & a dozen or so spare heads. The robot also featured on many of the single releases from 1982 onwards. 'SIA' received great critical acclaim as well as charting both in Europe & the UK & remains one of the most interesting Earth Band albums to date. The album spawned several singles with alternate A-sides & otherwise unreleased B-sides. We have included several of these as bonus tracks on this newly re-mastered version. Enjoy.
Following the 'Somewhere in Afrika' album & the subsequent 'Somewhere in Europe' tour on which the live 'Budapest' album was recorded, MMEB underwent some changes. Singer/guitarist Steve Waller left the band at the end of the tour while Manfred was still recording additional material for the US version of 'Somewhere in Afrika', he was replaced by founder member Mick Rogers.
With Chris Thompson & John Lingwood still in the band Manfred recorded two new songs for the US market one of which was 'Runner'. This made the US Top 50 in 1984 on the back of the Olympic hype. The song also received plenty of airplay across Europe. Despite the EB's continued success their record company Bronze was in disarray & finally went into bankruptcy (primarily caused by the management's disastrous foray into the airline industry). Manfred & the EB were soon without a label. Undeterred Manfred commenced work on what would eventually be released as 'Criminal Tango'. Securing a contract with the 10 label (part of the Virgin empire), the album was completed & released in mid 1986. The album was preceded by the release of an album track. 'Do Anything You Wanna Do' as a single.
The A-side was a hit for Eddie & The Hot Rods in 1977. The B-side was another cut from the forthcoming album entitled 'Crossfire'. A 12'' version of the single was also released with an alternate edited version of 'Do Anything You Wanna Do'. Unfortunately this single pretty much sank without trace.
Virgin then released another single, again an album track - number one hit for The Jam in 1980, 'Going Underground'. This record single was backed with another album track 'I Shall Be Rescued' (although on the album it only appeared as 'Rescue'). Once again both 7'' & 12'' formats were released. Again the single foundered.
The singles & the album itself were actually very good, maybe not the EB's most notable effort but they did sparkle. The album actually had a very American AOR feel to it. One problem though: it never secured a US release. Faux pas if ever there was one!
Another error was to title the album as MMEB with Chris Thompson. This really bred confusion about whether Thompson was in the band or not. Good as Thompson was (& still is). Manfred & his EB could definitely survive without him as was proven with the release of the next album 'Masque' & the addition of Noel McCalla as vocalist in the early 90's for subsequent recordings.
Plains Music, the lost MMEB album it is not!
Following the release of the fragmented but enjoyable MMEB album 'Masque', Manfred began working on what he describes as 'straight commercial pop music'. The EB, like the Masque album, had become fragmented. Chris Thompson had departed to follow a solo career & with Masque long way musically from the big selling albums of the late 70s & early 80s it was clear to Manfred that he needed a change in direction, at least temporarily.
While working on his pop projects Manfred kept playing melodies of various American Indian compositions he had become fond of after obtaining a book on Native American music. His purchase of the book had actually been sparked by curiosity on the origins of Geronimo (as featured in Geronimo's Cadillac, a song Manfred included on the Masque album). He couldn't get these melodies out of his head & proceeded to work on them more & more, eventually dropping his other musical work in favor of a project based around a Native American theme. Manfred eventually moulded these American Indian melodies into the music that would form the basis for his next album, Plains Music.
It is important to note that that Plains Music was not an EB project. It was instead Manfed working with a completely different set of musicians altogether. He recorded most of the album whilst visiting his family in South Africa, using local musicians. The initial recordings came together on about four weeks of recording in Johannesburg. Manfred then spent quite some time adding choirs & perfecting other overdubs.
Manfred's new musicians included Smile Makana, famous for playing African hunting bow, Barbara Thompson, a well known & respected jazz sax player, & vocalist Noel McCalla. McCalla was later to join a reformed EB. He is still with the band today, sharing the vocals duties with Chris Thompson. Plains Music was a genuine attempt at recording an ethnic album, not based around Manfred's home continent Africa, but instead North America & the Red Indian. The album really is quite a charming collection of music, however, due to the lack of promotion when it was first released it failed to gather not only the acclaim it should have received but also to accrue the sales. It did however do well in the US Alternative Chart. The album & the single Sikelele also fared well in some alternative markets with the single reaching
Number one in South Africa.
There were several permutations of covers & even track inclusions issued in different territories. Hopefully this re-master will put this right as we have included all of the original album songs from Europe, South Africa & the US along with an extra track LIASOM recorded during the same period. McCalla's interpretation of the songs on Plains Music is really quite magical. His later contributions to the EB both live & in the studio became increasingly important to the cohesiveness of the band. Plains Music was definitely an underrated album & if you put in the context of other world music masters such as Peter Gabriel & Osibisa it is really on a par with anything they have ever attempted. Here's to hoping Manfred follows this up at some stage in the future.