Manfred Mann at the Anvil

I tend to avoid shows featuring British bands of the sixties rehashing their hits (Tales From The Woods shows excepted) but I made an exception for last night's show by Manfred Mann at the Anvil, Basingstoke. And I'm glad I did, as it was a brilliantly enjoyable night of sixties pop, with a touch of blues included. Original members of the Manfreds on show were Paul Jones (looking and sounding great as he approaches his 80th birthday), Mike D'Abo, who took over as lead singer when Paul left, guitarist Tom McGuinness, who went on to form McGuinness Flint, and keyboardist Mike Hugg. Manfred Mann himself was missing as he now prefers to play jazz (so they are officially billed as the Manfreds), but the rest put on a top show, ably supported by sax man Chris Currie, drummer Rob Townsend and Marcus Cliff on bass.

Vocal duties alternated between Paul and Mike and Paul kicked things off with 'The One In The Middle', a song very much about the Manfreds featuring 'the singer looking sweet'. Mike followed up with one of the big hits from his late sixties era 'Ha Ha Said the Clown' and then it was back to the early days as Paul sang the 'Ready Steady Go' theme song '5-4-3-2-1'. I remember seeing Manfred Mann at the Bromley Court Hotel in 1964 when this first came out. Great memories. Mike followed with 'Just Like A Woman', with excellent sax work by Chris Currie and then it was back to Paul for 'Sha La La'. Tom McGuinness took the next song - McGuinness Flint's 'Malt and Barley Blues' - followed by Paul with his solo hit 'Bad Bad Boy', Mike (pictured below) with 'Semi Detached Mr James' (originally Mr Jones but changed as Paul had recently left the band) and Paul again with 'Pretty Flamingo'. Mike sang 'Build Me Up Buttercup', which he wrote and was a big hit for the Foundations, and the first half ended with Paul going back to his beloved blues with Howlin' Wolf's 'Smokestack Lightning', which was the first track on the band's first LP, 'The Five Faces of Manfred Mann' and featured some excellent harmonica playing by Paul.

The Manfreds have been on tour for several weeks now and have featured a guest spot by Georgie Fame. But after the interval Paul announced that Georgie was unwell and that they had found a substitute in Zoot Money. He was more than an adequate replacement and was excellent on 'It Never Rains But It Pours', his biggest hit 'Big Time Operator', Sam Cooke's 'Bring It On Home To Me' and Ray Charles' 'It Should Have Been Me'.

Mike took the vocals next with a song he wrote that was a hit for Chris Farlowe and Rod Stewart and, much later, the Stereophonics, 'Handbags and Gladrags' and the band followed with a vocal version of Herbie Hancock's 'Watermelon Man'. The hits kept coming with Maxine Brown's 'Oh No Not My Baby' (with a jazzy intro) sung by Paul, 'Fox On The Run' (Mike) and 'Come Tomorrow (Paul). Tom (pictured below) sang McGuinness Flint's 'When I'm Dead And Gone' (written by Gallagher and Lyle) and then Mike launched into his biggest hit with the band 'The Mighty Quinn', with enthusiastic singalong along from the audience. That was followed by more audience participation on 'Doo Wah Diddy' (originally by the Exciters) and as an encore 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now'. It was a rousing finish to a show which more than lived up to expectations, even without Georgie, who I would have liked to have seen (as well as Zoot ideally).

Jay Black RIP

Sorry to hear of the death aged 82 of Jay Black, lead singer of Jay and the Americans. He wasn't the original Jay, as it was Jay Traynor (who died in 2014) who sang lead on the group's first hit 'She Cried'. Jay Black (real name David Blatt) took over as Jay and it was his soaring voice that took the lead on a string of US hits during the sixties, none of which was a hit in the UK. These included dramatic remakes of 'Cara Mia', 'Some Enchanted Evening', 'Crying' and 'This Magic Moment' along with other impressive songs such as 'Come Dance With Me', 'Come A Little Bit Closer', 'Let's Lock the Door', 'Sunday and Me', the Northern soul favourite 'Livin' Above Your Head' and '(He's) Raining In My Sunshine. Born in New York, Jay started his career in doowop group the Empires. After the group broke up he toured as Jay Black and the Americans and after losing the right to that name appeared as Jay Black 'The Voice'.