Phil Manning Band

Rip It Up, Issue 23, 1 June 1979, Page 8

Phil Manning Band

Ken Williams

The Gluepot in Ponsonby is crowded for the Phil Manning Band. As the posters proclaim, the band is "featuring Midge Marsden." This is the return of the popular Kiwi expatriate. And a happy occasion it is. Midge joined the Manning band a year ago at the instigation of Manning’s manager, Barry Coburn, a long-time friend of Midge. Since then he has been working hard. Between bites of his toasted sandwich supper, Coburn says the group worked 268 one-nighters across Australia last year. Right now they are in the middle of a 23 day non-stop stint. They are just finishing a four-night whistle-stop tour of New Zealand before catching a flight back to Melbourne. Tomorrow night they play at Geelong. The New Zealand tour is in the interests of promotion. The Manning band is an unknown quantity here. "Midge is very well-known,” says Coburn, "but you can’t sell a band on Midge Marsden alone. But the reaction we

have been getting in Christchurch and Wellington; should see us back here in July for a longer stay.” The Auckland gig clinches it. A tour is on. It’s easy to see why the Phil Manning Band works so much. Live, they cook with steam. Coburn says they’re among the top half-dozen earning bands in Australia, despite' their not having had the recording success of other Australian acts such as the currently-hot Angels. This could change. In the pipeline is an album: half studio cuts, half live music from the Christchurch Town Hall. The concert was also televised. Phil Manning is something of a guitar-picking legend across the Tasman. One company even puts out a Phil Manning instrument. He's a very tasty player, as is evident from the opening number, a kick start version of "Everyday I Have the Blues; Manning does most of the singing this night, and it's clear that while he has a good voice the music revolves around his virtuostic playing. It’s not showboating stuff (although later in the evening he does play his Strat behind his head), just intelligent guitaring. Midge has really landed on his feet with this outfit. With the Country Flyers dividing in musical discord, his Tasman crossing was a dive in at the deep end. But as he skids around the stage, .'wielding his - Fender Mustang or blowing his harp, he looks to be on top. In the phrase he made almost his own, it’s still "a buzz.” The blues have always been dear to Midge Marsden (remember his Blues Is News radio show in Wellington years ago?) and he’s right at home here with one of the best blues guitarists around. Manning is well regarded by American bluesmen who have'visited this part of the world, and with the group Chain he recorded with members of the Muddy Waters [Ba.ffIMBjBMBJBBPBHBSHBMBBBI Manning -believes■ there has been a resurgence of interest in blues, and to hear him fast-pick Robert Johnson’s ”32-20”, trading licks with Midge’s harp, you can’t argue. The band essentially plays- blues, some originals (ranging from the unremarkable to the rather exciting) and some old Flyers’ favourites (Bob Will's "Texas Blues’’,’“lt .Should Have Been Me”). Midge features a new song he has written, "Pacific Nights.” The evening winds up in good, crowd pleasing style with Manning powering his way through Hendrix’s “Hey Joe”, Bobby Bland's "Farther On' Up the Road" (a shade too fast), a superb reading of “When a Man Loves a Woman” arid a frantic "Roll Over,'Beethoven." Speakers strain to their limits, people fall about in momentary ecstasy, a good time is had by all.