Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Manfred Mann's Earth Band is a British progressive rock group formed in London in 1971 by Manfred Mann, the South African-born keyboard player who first became known as a founding member and namesake of the 1960s group Manfred Mann. The band remains active and its line-up includes Manfred Mann and Mick Rogers.

Origins and style

After the end of his earlier group, Mann writes advertising jingles while continuing to work in a band format. He first forms Manfred Mann Chapter Three, an experimental project that develops into Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The group combines progressive rock with a strong melodic focus and is described as deliberately contrary from a pop point of view. Its broader sound includes classic rock, rock, art rock, progressive pop, psychedelic rock, pop rock and AOR.

Early releases and themes

Mann has an interest in English 20th-century classical music and reworks Gustav Holst's Planets Suite, leading to the UK hit Joybringer, a version of the Jupiter movement with added lyrics. The 1973 album The Good Earth reflects ecological concerns, a theme that returns in Mann's later work, and is issued with a piece of land in Wales given away with each copy sold.

Key members and changing line-ups

The band's membership is relatively informal. Mick Rogers first handles lead guitar and lead vocals before Chris Thompson takes over vocals and Dave Flett joins on guitar. Chris Slade plays drums and later goes on to perform with AC/DC and Asia. Colin Pattenden is the band's bass player and later works as a sound consultant, designing and installing sound systems.

Major songs and albums

The group's breakthrough in the United States comes with Blinded by the Light, a version of Bruce Springsteen's song, which reaches number one on the US pop charts in early 1977. The band's version is a driving rock recording built around Mann's Moog synthesizer and organ work and Flett's guitar. Mann can be heard singing at the end of the track with Thompson. The band then reissues Springsteen's Spirit in the Night, originally recorded the previous year on Nightingales and Bombers, in some territories with Thompson on vocals.

Nightingales and Bombers, The Roaring Silence and Watch are widely regarded as the high point of the group's work. Nightingales and Bombers takes its title from a wartime field recording of a nightingale singing while aircraft fly overhead, and the recording appears in one of the album's tracks. The Roaring Silence includes a guest appearance by jazz saxophonist Barbara Thompson. Watch features live versions of Davy's On The Road Again and Mighty Quinn, and also produces the hit single Davy's On The Road Again.

Later work

Dave Flett leaves before the 1979 album Angel Station and is replaced by Steve Waller, who shares vocal duties with Thompson. Chance, released in 1980, moves toward a more electronic sound and contains songs including Lies (All Through The 80's), Stranded and For You, another Springsteen cover, all of which receive significant radio play.

Mann becomes active in the international anti-apartheid movement and is barred from entering South Africa. Instead, members of the band travel to South Africa to record African musicians for Somewhere in Afrika, which also includes covers of The Police's Demolition Man and Bob Marley's Redemption Song. The American version also includes Ian Thomas's The Runner.

Continuing activity and related projects

The Earth Band continues to record and perform, covering songs by artists including Paul Weller, Robert Cray, Del Amitri and The Lovin' Spoonful. Mann also releases a solo project, Plains Music, based on Native American music. His 2006 album includes collaborations with the German rapper Thomas D and songs featuring music by the Super Furry Animals. A four-CD set of re-released and previously unissued material appears in August 2005, including tracks from the unreleased Manfred Mann Chapter III Volume 3 album, material from Stepping Sideways, and studio and live recordings.