Yes, I do sometimes forsake my beloved Acapela Studios to see gigs in other venues. The Pontardawe Arts Centre is only about 7 miles away from Fleet Towers so it's a fairly relaxed short drive to the venue. It's a lovely venue with a decent size hall with a balcony. One of the Arts centres that popped up in multitudes among the Welsh Mining towns and valleys that became homes from everything from Colliery Bands to Male Voice Choirs. There's always a lovely welcome with friendly staff and I just wish I had the opportunity to go more. But the size of the hall suits a bigger audience to a lot of the music I listen to. But never mind, tonight it is almost sold out yet again for The Manfreds,
The band born from the Manfred Mann Band that ran from 1964 to 1979 and now features original members Paul Jones and Mike D'Abo on vocals, Tom McGuinness on guitars and vocals and Mike Hugg on drums. Now augmented by Simon Currie on Sax & Flute and Marcus Cliffe on Bass & Vocals.
Although we have a change in line-up tonight with Frankie Tontoh replacing Mike Hugg on Drums and Mike Gorman replacing Mike D'Abo on Keyboards.
Playing once more, a game of two halves, the band came to the stage and launched with a surprise as the instrumental Why Should We Not kicked off tonight's show.
Why Should We Not
I've seen quite a few bands play 'The Nostalgia Circuit' but the lovely things about The Manfreds is that the band have all had a multitude of careers within music and call on this diverse musical blend which is interesting, informative and entertaining in equal measure.
The One In The Middle gives Paul Jones a chance to flash his best smile and I'm sure he mast have a picture in the attic as at 77 he looks fitter and healthier than a man half his age.
The One In The Middle
With such a wealth of material to choose from, and that's just from the Manfred Mann back catalogue, it's interesting to see which songs 'made the cut' in tonight's performance.
Perhaps the name of this year's tour, gave an indication of the variety of music we could expect tonight.
The hits just kept on coming as Sha La La and Groovin' from the 1964 EP of the same name, showcasing what an accomplished set of Musicians we had on the stage.
The next song was the first of the 'Solo' songs of tonight's performance. Tom McGuiness formed a band in the 1970s with former John Mayall drummer Hughie Flint and called it McGuinness Flint. Although perhaps more importantly it also contained two up and coming songwriters called Benny Gallagher & Graham Lyle. These guys went on to become two of the best songwriters in the world and have written countless hits since those early days. Tonight we were treated to The Manfreds version of Malt And Barley Blues with Tom on lead vocals. It got a great response from the crowd most of which will have definitely been around for the original in 1971.
McGuinness Flint
Malt & Barley Blues
Next up, my highlight of the night. Mainly because my friend the multi-instrumentalist Marcus Cliffe , dedicated his solo song to my wife (who has been very ill) and myself. - a beautiful version of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready which he played using just a looped bass and vocals. A more complete version you can find on his solo album Heard - which also features tonight's keyboard player Mike Gorman.
After an emotional song for me, we get another Manfred Mann hit with Just Like A Woman
Just Like A Woman
A the title of the Tour suggests, it is an assortment of musical genres on show tonight and next was Simon Currie's Smooth Times from his latest album called Smooth Sax.
Smokestack Lightning was another highlight as it gave Paul Jones a chance to really give his Harmonica a good outing.
How Lucky Can One Man Be followed before the final track of the first half - the mega hit and chance for some severe crowd participation, Pretty Flamingo.
How do you start Part 2 of the evening? Easy, just play one of your biggest hits - in this case
5 4 3 2 1. And for good measure, why not follow it with another hit, Watermelon Man.
5 4 3 2 1
By now the crowd are singing their hearts out and are up for absolutely anything.
Next up it was solo time again as this time the spotlight shone on Paul Jones for a swinging version of Nat King Cole's Straighten Up And Fly Right from his recent solo album.
Another classic hit followed as the band started up Oh No Not My Baby - the Goffin/King classic from 1965
Oh No Not My Baby
It's amazing how many hits the band had over the years and tonight they tried successfully to showcase their considerable talents with playing songs old and new and not so well known tunes.
Another unexpected highlight of the night was seeing Mr Cliffe & Mr Currie given the chance to shine on a fabulous interpretation of Put It Where You Want It from The Crusaders first album back in 1972.
Kingpin and Come Tomorrow which followed kept up the momentum before one of the biggest songs of the evening.
And then it was time for one more solo song - they play it at most gigs and it's a guaranteed singalong moment in the show. Once more Tom McGuinness picks up his mandolin and takes lead vocals for a spirited When I'm Dead & Gone by McGuinness Flint
When I'm Dead & Gone
The honour of the final song of the set went to Mr Bob Dylan as the band played one of their biggest hits from the 60s - which turned out to be an epic as Paul Jones encouraged some severe audience singing which went down a storm as the girls and then guys in the audience took on different harmonies. The Mighty Quinn.
The Mighty Quinn
This obviously brought the house down and the audience rose to give the band a standing ovation. The band were not going to be allowed to leave the venue without an encore and they chose a singalong killer to come next as they played their biggest hit Doo Wah Diddy.
In recent years the band have always ended their shows with the aptly applicable If You Gotta Go, Go Now. The end to a perfect night of Nostalgia, Musicianship and of feeling fine. Any band that can make people leave a show with big grins on their faces deserve all the success they get. These guys have seen it all, done it all (many times over) and are STILL making people happy. And in Britain at this time - that's quite a gift to possess. Here's to hoping they make it to a 2020 Tour. I'll be there if I'm still on the planet.
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