In late 1962, and audition for vocalists brought the addition of singer and harmonicist Paul Jones as the band’s much-needed “front man.” Paul, née Pond, had gained experience with his Oxford University band Thunder Odin’s Big Secret and from accompanying budding Stone Brian “Elmo Lewis” Jones in the duo Elmo & Paul, and his charisma and enthusiasm for the Blues helped push the band’s musical leanings even further towards R&B. After a while they dropped the cumbersome surnames, and became The Blues Brothers, long before Dan Akroyd and John Belushi made the term synonymous with dark glasses and pork pie hats, thus launching a thousand tribute bands. For some time the band existed as an septet, featuring Manfred on keys and Mike on drums, with Dave Richmond on bass, and a four-piece horn section: Mike Vickers on alto, Tony Roberts on tenor, Don Fay on baritone and Ian Fenby on trumpet. When the season was over, he teamed up with like-minded Manfred, to form the awkwardly-named Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. Then fronting a band on vibes, Mike booked Manfred to play piano for the season in Clacton, with Graham Bond sitting in on the nights Manfred couldn’t appear. īorn Michael Hug in Gosport, Hampshire, Mike was fluent on drums, keyboards, and vibraphone. While playing a season for Butlin’s holiday camp in Clacton he met the man who was to become the band’s other founder member, Mike Hugg. Here, he worked as a musician, music teacher, and journalist, and it was his writing for Jazz News that birthed the nom-de-plume “Manfred Manne” which was later to be applied to the whole band. The seeds of Manfred Mann were planted when Johannesburg-born jazz pianist Manfred Lubowitz’s unhappiness with South Africa ‘s apartheid policies motivated him to quit the country and take his talents to the UK. In fact the band enjoyed so much chart success that their reputation as a pop group has often overshadowed their contribution to British Blues, a legacy not to be recovered until vocalist Paul Jones and guitarist Tom McGuinness returned to their Blues roots in the 80’s with The Blues Band. But unlike the GBO and many other Jazz-rooted R&B Bands of the ‘60s, The “Manfreds” showed a far shrewder grasp of what was required by the pop scene. Like their contemporaries The Graham Bond Organisation, Manfred Mann ‘s Rhythm & Blues displayed a strong Jazz influence. Personnel: Manfred Mann, Mike Hugg, Mike Vickers, Tony Roberts, Don Fay, Ian Fenby, Dave Richmond, Paul Jones, Tom McGuinness, Jack Bruce, Lyn Dobson, Henry Lowther, Mike D’Abo, Klaus Voorman The song that is perhaps the best example of their work: I’m Your KingpinĪssociated bands: The Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers, The Blues Brothers, Thunder Odin’s Big Secret, The Roosters, The Graham Bond Organisation, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, McGuiness Flint, Manfred Mann Chapter III, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, The Blues Band, The Manfreds MANFRED MANN CHAPTER 1: THE PAUL JONES YEARSĬontribution to British Blues: Bigger than you think!Īlbum to get: The Five Faces of Manfred Mann