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THE STORY OF THE BAND

Site Updated on 17th November 2002 by Terry Willson

Deke's Back On The Payroll

During his two-year absence from Man, Deke had launched a solo career with the encouragement of Andrew Lauder. During this time he had released one solo album, Iceberg and was in the process of recording a second, to be called Kamikaze. He had also become closely involved with U.A. stable mates, Help Yourself , where he had deputised for keyboard layer Malcolm Morley, who was suffering from a depressive illness. At the time that Micky and Terry were putting Man back together, Help Yourself split. Deke, who had employed the two remaining Man members, as well as Martin, on his first solo album was invited back into the fold and he bought with him two members of the now defunct Help Yourself Malcolm Morley Keyboards and Ken Whaley - Bass, the first non Welshmen to join the band. The Manband were ready to roll again!

Rhino's Wino's And Lunatic's - Malcolm, Ken Terry, Micky And Deke

Rhinos Winos and America

With Deke back and also with the multi talented Malcolm Morley in the line up, the band settled down to record their 7th Studio album - Rhino's Wino's and Lunatic's and there was one main departure from previous albums for this recording.

Andrew Lauder, desperately trying to push the band up a league, insisted that they had a recognised producer- Roy Thomas Baker. Roy had already produced Queen's first two albums and would go on to produce more Queen, The Cars, Foreigner and many other bands.

Man was not overjoyed at the presence of Roy in the studio and according to Deke opposed him at every turn However when the album came out in April 1974, the presence of Roy and the more "commercial" approach of Deke saw an album that had a much slicker sound than had previously been the case.

Once the album was recorded the band toured the UK and then supported Hawkwind on a tour of the U.S.A. It was a five week tour and although the American Branch of United Artists were not enthusiastic and consequently did not support the tour, it had it's highlights - a phone link to LSD guru Timothy Leary in his jail cell during one performance, a tornado in Nashville crushed their hotel and a chance to see Quicksilver Messenger Service, a band that had been a big influence on both Micky and Deke. Unfortunately missing from the line up of Q.M.S. was Deke's hero John Cipollina and after the gig the band were invited backstage where Deke wound up singer Dino Valenti by asking about John. Once again a bootleg of one of the gigs, at Chicago on 21st March 1974, was recorded and as since turned up as the third of the Bootlegs to get an official release - Tour Party 1999. As with the previous two that have seen official release it gives a good insight into the style of the band, and also of Deke's opinion of Belgium.

After the tour finished, the band, with the exception of Malcolm, stayed on for a few days for some sight seeing and then returned for a few gigs in Switzerland. When the album was released, it also charted, entering on the 25th May 1974 and reaching No. 24 during a stay of four weeks, and in order to further promote the album another UK tour ensued. On the 5th July 1974, after a festival gig at Buxton, Malcolm announced he was leaving, a decision that came as no surprise to anybody as Malcolm had become more and more remote from the band. Once again they decided to continue as a four piece and so uring the summer of 1974, the band began writing and recording their 8th Studio Album.

Five to Four Again

Slow Motion was released in October 1974 and generally reflected the mood of the band; it has a darker quality than Rhino's, and the merits or otherwise of this album has caused much debate amongst Man fans over the years. However where as nothing as survived in the set from Rhino's, Hard Way To Die from Slow Motion was still played live up until the end of 1999. Also of major interest is the cover of the album. Designed by rock artist, Rick Griffin, it featured Alfred E. Neumann from Mad magazine carrying a fish, however Mad, who made a career from satirising popular figures, were not impressed. The full story, along with Griffin's original sketches can be found on the Manband Archive, under Manband Artwork/Art On My Sleeve - it's fascinating reading.

Slow Motion - Terry, Ken, Deke And Micky

Unlike it's two predecessor's Slow Motion failed to make the charts and in February 1975 the band once again headed west to support the Strawbs on a tour of Canada. This was followed by the bands second excursion to America to promote the recently released, over there, Slow Motion - a tour that had three major things. Firstly - they did two support gigs at The Winterland on March 21st/22nd which were recorded for the main act Peter Frampton, whose album from those tapes "Frampton Comes Alive" became one of the most successful live albums of all time. Secondly - half way through the tour Ken Whaley decided to quit leaving the band in a rather difficult position. "There's only one thing for it - Send for Ace" said Deke. Martin arrived in America with the clothes he was wearing and a spare T Shirt having agreed to join the band on temporary basis to complete the tour and the UK tour that was scheduled to follow.

Thirdly and most importantly, Deke finally got to meet his hero - John Cipollina. The tour also introduced the band to somebody else who would become another important name in the bands history - Ron Sanchez. Ron, who worked with DJ Sean Donohue, had been present a year earlier when, Deke, at their first performance in SF, had asked whether anybody had John Cipollina's address. He mentioned this to Sean who agreed to set up a meeting as John was a family friend, but he was laying low following the split of his band Copperhead. By the time of the second tour, Ron was a record researcher for Phil Charles at the KSAN radio station in San Francisco and the station had recorded the second of two shows Man had performed at the Keystone Berkley for a later broadcast.

After Ken had quit and Martin had turned up, it was necessary to do some work on the newer material and the band encamped to Sausalito to rehearse. Ron turned up, and at the end of the rehearsal the door opened and there stood John Cipollina. A little overcome, the band eventually asked John to have a jam with Micky standing back, but he eventually joined in. A night at John's house saw the start of a friendship that was to have a big effect on the band and on the last night of the tour, in Sacramento, John joined the band on stage. A fuller version of the bands encounter with Ron and a history of John can be found on the Donovan's Brain web pages, under the section 01-27-2000 in the Brain Patterns section.

With a UK tour imminent, the band invited John or Chippo as they called him to join them, which he did. So, with Martin already in, the band were once again a five piece, albeit on a temporary basis.

Man Meets Mercury

The Late Great John Cipollina

The UK tour with John Cipollina was a rather momentous occasion for me. It started on the 10th May 1975 at the Southend Kursaal ("Where else said Deke) and it was the first time I had seen the band live. On stage were the four members who had recorded the brilliant Spunk Rock on Greasy Truckers plus an American Guitar Legend - all in all a fairly amazing occasion, which I suspect many natives of Southend did not appreciate. Although the full set list escapes me, I see from Mannerisms (see Further Reading) that the set they played four days later at the Glasgow Apollo consisted of 7171551, Hard Way To Die, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Hard Way To Live, The Storm, Codine, Razorblade and Rattlesnake, Many Are Called But Few Get Up, Bananas and Romain.

By the 24th May the bandwagon had reached the Chalk Farm Roundhouse for three nights, which they called The West Coast Weekend. With A Band Called 'O', former Country Joe Macdonald partner Barry 'The Fish' Melton and The Flying Aces as support the residency was a great success and the trusty Pye Mobile recorded the final night. An album called Maximum Darkness was released from these tapes and featured 5 tracks, including a blinding version of "7171551", a track from Deke's Iceberg Album. Two early Quicksilver songs, "Babe, I'm gonna Leave You" and "Codine" ere also featured on the album, both taken from the soundtrack to the film "Revolution" and recorded by Q.M.S. It was released in October 1975 and like Back Into The Future and Rhino's Wino's And Lunatics it made a two weeks appearance in the Album Charts reaching no 25. The tour finished on the 28th May at Swansea, Chippo returned to the states and after a tour of Europe supporting Hawkwind, Martin was as good as is word and left to rejoin the Flying Aces. Once again the band were in a state of change and down to three members.