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THE STORY OF THE BAND

Site Updated on 17th November 2002 by Terry Willson

Where Have You Been For The Past Six Years

"During the last year we had found little to agree upon, but of one thing we were all sure. We would never, ever, be one of those bands who re-formed in a futile attempt to recapture past glories and maybe earn a buck or two along the way. This was the end. We reformed on All Fools Day, 1983"

So wrote Deke as the closing lines of his book "Rhino's, Wino's and Lunatic's" his 1996 history of the first years of the Manband. And in 1976 that was it - "All's Well That End's Well" their final album had been released in 1977 with no involvement from any member of the band as they had all gone their separate ways.

Deke's 1979 Solo Album - Before Your Yery Eye's

After the band split Micky formed several bands, including The Micky Jones Band, Manipulator and the delightfully named Flying Pigs, and became a regular on the pub circuit.

Deke started to record his third solo album "Before Your Very Eye's", which was finally released in 1979, reformed his touring band, Iceberg, spent some time in America. On his return he formed a band with Sean Tyla, former front man with Ducks Deluxe, called The Force who released one album.

The most successful ex-member was Terry Williams who, as a member of Dave Edmunds Rock'n'Roll band, Rockpile, enjoyed some chart success with I Knew The Bride, Girls Talk, Queen of Hearts and Crawling From The Wreckage. He also did some session and touring work with, amongst others Tina Turner and Meatloaf before eventually joining, one of the worlds biggest bands at the time - Dire Straits. While in Mark Knopfler's combo he played on "Brothers in Arms", the worlds first Million selling CD. He also managed to earn the title of "Princess Di's favourite drummer" during this period after the Princes declared the Dire Straits were one of her favourite bands.

Also of importance are Martin's activities during this period. "The Flying Aces" continued to play some very successful Gigs but were unable to secure a record contract and they finally split in 1978. Martin then spent some time as a Roadie on the "legendary" Stiffs package tour, joined The Motors and along with Terry and played on their last album. He finally joined the backing band of Pete Singh, a Sikh Elvis impersonator, who had also recruited one Micky Jones.

Have You Missed Us

After The Force split, Deke's agent, Dave Betteridge, was trying to book a tour for Deke in Scandinavia but he kept getting the response why don't Man reform. So why didn't they? "During all those years (1977 to 1982) nobody ever asked us" said Deke in a TWC interview, "I asked everybody and they said yes, but Terry couldn't make it as he had just joined Dire Straits. So we asked John Weathers".

John "Pugwash" Weathers was another member of the Welsh music scene, having played in Eyes Of Blue before joining progressive rockers Gentle Giant who enjoyed touring success in the 1970's.

Micky And Martin - 1983 Marquee

The newly reformed Man made their debut at The Hope And Anchor pub in Islington and after a brief tour of Germany, played at the Marqquee club as part of the concerts to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the club. Once again a mobile studio was on hand and the some of the concert made it to vinyl.

Released in January 1984 as the only ever album on the independent Picasso label, "Friday 13th" finally gave fans a new recording. Although there was no new material on the album, despite new songs having been played at the shows, it included for the first time live versions of the title track of the 1973 album "Back Into The Future" and Kerosene from 1974's "Rhino's Wino's And Lunatics" album. A film recording from the gigs was also later released as a retail video called "Banana's". This video, which was still available in 2000, contains the tracks on Friday 13th, with the exception of Back Into The Future and Kerosene. Also, missing from both the video and the album are Spunk Rock, What A Night and Many Are Called But Few Get Up.

Further touring followed and in August 1983 they played the Reading Festival for the first time since 1972. Once again the mobile studios were present, mainly to record performances for Radio One, and Man's performance was aired on the Tommy Vance Show in October. Once again the tapes were available from the BBC and were finally released as a CD in 1993 as"Live At Reading". In early 1984 the band went to Germany where a fan was willing to sponsor the recording of a new album. Recordings took place at the Klaus Schultze Studio in Hamburg for what is now called the missing German Album, so called because, despite 10 tracks being recorded, legal and contractual problems prevented the album from being released. Some tracks did eventually turn up on 1998's "Rare Man" compilation but they were rough recordings.

Lean Times

Though things went well for the rest of 1984, during 1985 work started to drop off. Deke - "We were managing ourselves, which is fatal. We started off playing 2000 seater venues and ended up playing the Half Moon at Putney once a month". After a gig at the Woodside Theatre in July 1985, the band didn't reappear until December 1986 at - The Half Moon Putney. During this time a compilation album was released called "Greenfly", compiled by Man fan Nigel Cross. This album, which is no longer available, but it consisted of tracks from the United Artist period of the band. 1987 was much the same except that of the four gigs they did play, Terry, who was having time off from Dire Straits had replaced John on the drums, who according to Deke "didn't mind". The main gig of 1987 was an appearance on the 27th September at the 2nd Blues Festival held at the Biskuithalle, Bonn. Four tracks were subsequently issued on a 1988 CD of the Festival including an extended jam featuring Micky and Deke with Canned Heat playing the Elmore James blues standard Dust My Broom. 1988, 1989 and 1990 all really followed much the same pattern, though for most of the gigs John was restored to the drumming stool. When John couldn't make it, which was most weekends during 1990, Rick Martinez stood in on the drumming stool.

The Welsh Connection Magazine - Essential For All Fans

In 1991, things started to look up and another important name in the history of the band, Michael Heatley, launched, via his publishing firm, the  Man magazine/fanzine "The Welsh Connection" Although an earlier magazine had been published during the 70's through then Manager Barry Marshall, this was certainly a more sophisticated product. Michael, who had gained a reputation as a good rock journalist, and who is also a long time supporter of Man, and associated bands, launched "TWC" in January 1991. The main objective being to get dates, interviews and other articles out to Man fans as it was obvious the publicity machine, such as it was, did not work. The publication quickly became important for Man fans, as it not only achieved this but also ran a lot of articles on the bands history that certainly helped to fill the missing knowledge for most.

This all coincided with a new, enthusiastic, Manager for the band, Dai Rees, and a well-publicised gig at the Marquee. The magazine started to achieve its aim with the booking sheet in 1991 increased by at least 5 plus gigs a month. Also, at this time, EMI decided to release a compilation of the albums they controlled - the United Artists recordings.

The Album, "Perfect Timing", was released in July 1991, and unlike Greenfly had input from Micky and Deke, via Michael, on which tracks were included. A prestigious European tour with Ten Years After and Wishbone Ash took place during November/December 1991 but back home the fans were clamouring for new material.