Music Review : God Walked Past - A History of the Manband

It's been a while since I've posted anything - the original intention of finding something to spend 20 minutes a night to share my thoughts with the outside world (or the three people who actually check out this site, whichever is the lesser!) lapsed into a case of leaving it until manana. And we know where that leads....and has lead. Anyway, occasionally something happens to break that spell and make it seem absolutely imperative to power up the laptop, log on and type furiously. Such an occasion was the receipt in the post today of God Walking Past which is Part One of a history of Man covering the period from 1968 to 1972. Jeez, still 36 years to go to the present day - just how many volumes will there be?!?!

As my acquaintances will be well aware, I am more than capable of talking at tedious length about the Manband....and occasionally for even longer than that!!! The good news for them is that all I'll need to do in future is to point them in the direction of this DVD (and its' successors) for this truly does provide the answer. The film is 3 hours and 6 minutes long with interviews with most of the major protagonists (but, sadly, not the mighty Terry Williams), footage of the band past and present playing the numbers from the early albums plus excerpts from footage of the seemingly ever-present camcorder owned by Bob Richard from the 1999 German tour. Mind you, that probably counts as a European Tour as they also venture into Switzerland.

Lovingly put together by the team at Effigy Music the films shows how the band developed out of The Bystanders and the other rising bands in the Welsh scene to become one of the pioneering and ground-breaking acts of the latter days of the 1960's and on into the 1970's. It covers the recording of the first four albums leaving the tale with the release of Do You Like It Here Now? Are You Settling In? which is one of the definitive cornerstones of the Man canon and one which I'll happily go head to head with all comers to defend.

Support is provided by many talking heads well known to Manfans including Michael Heatley, Ron Sanchez and Pete Feenstra as well as appearances from uberfan Tweke Lewis and John McKenzie who were in later versions of the band (and who will doubtless appear in the next volume which can't appear soon enough) along with a brief appearance by George Jones. I was a little surprised to hear Pete being just a little equivocal about Do You Like It Here Now, and impressed by Michael's marvellous ability to speak and hold up a copy of the CD at the same time - what a man!! I tended to agree entirely with what Ron had to say, whilst trying to make out what books or CD's he had on the shelf behind him! There's also a bit of a love-fest between the Manband and Nektar as each recall their time together in Germany in the early 1970's.

The interviews with Micky, Deke, Martin and Clive were warm, humorous and informative and depicted a bunch of very longstanding friends and colleagues with an immense amount of respect for one another and their contributions to the history of the band.

Bob's videodiaries of the 1999 tour just demonstrate the ability of the band to just keep on keeping on. It's amazing to think that they can survive each other day to day whilst travelling about in the van - six guys plus all the gear. It reminded of the last time Man played at the Ferry in Glasgow - in discussion with Martin my wife said she couldn't understand why they still travelled up and down the country to play gigs. Martin's response was definitive - "It's what we do". And long may they do so.

If you're a fan of the band, chances are you'll already be planning to get this - you won't be disappointed and you'll end up with a feeling of well-being about the world and a daft grin as I have at this point. If you're not a fan of the band, then a sample of this will point out the error of your ways in fine fashion.