Mansun are four bullshit-free rockers from Scouseshire, completely uninterested
in biz/media hype. Then's no such hurry necessary, they're musicianship
will ensure they don't go unnoticed for long. There's The Hib (dreamy-eyed
and nearly dancing on his drum stool to his tight funky rhythms), Stove
(carelessly cool bass, this man has been known to wear a hanger in
his shirt on stage), Chad (genius riffs, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
guitar hero, probably wears his shades to bed) and Paul (guitar amazing
songs and an exceptional voice that swoops and dives from lullaby to sneer
with ease).
Stove and the Hib's beat is like being 'on one', while Paul Draper
and Dom Chad are Plant and Page with unforgettable pop tunes. Together
this group have all the ingredients necessary.
You
can head bang or dance like a freak to their anthems. The lyrics are out-there
with the titles. "The thing I wrote three months ago could be about one
thing, and the thing today could be something else, but the thing is, that
could all be bollocks. At the end of the day it's about having a good tune".
Their sound is sometimes lazily dismissed as "post-Oasis". Well, Oasis
are equally "pre-Mansun". A Happy Mondays/Radiohead cross! Metal! Dance!
Hendrix! Hip Hop! Blondie! The Vervel They're an unclassifiable one-band
scene cult with ultimate crossover potential to equal any of pop's finest.
Mansun aren't holding their breath for recognition. Career plans? "Don't
care really. We're having a well good laugh at the minute and that's what
we set our to do, like. We're not doing this band for anyone else but ourselves.
If we have a hit we'll be well into that, but it's really just a laugh".
Interested in being the "next big thing", high on playing their songs and
having adventures, and not letting the 'biz' interest manipulate them.
Mansun want the record company support and their own artistic control,
even the art- work (another role The Hib plays - Mansun share the load
off stage too). Control includes doing things their own way. Fact is, they'd
probably prefer you to see them live and be won over, rather than read
this and get into them, but fuck it, buy Mansun record or catch them performing
as soon as possible. If you think they're bollocks, then fair enough, but
it may just brighten your year. "We're not trying to con anyone, if people
don't like us it's because we're shit, simple as that" Well, many people
haven't been able to resist their sexy rock'n'soul since last summer.
This quarter used to be a quintet with sampler beat-boxing courtesy
of a sussed teenager called Mark. They pur limited pressing singles out
an their own label, Sci Fi Hi Fi. At initial gigs in Liverpool there were
a few scuffles for the "plastic Scousers". Mansun had bypassed the new
bands and it got a bit hairy, bottles thrown, a few punch ups etc. But
it's all behind them now. So is the A&R freak show (bribes, tickets,
limes, etc) that surrounded the desperation to sign them.
Summer '95,'Take It Easy Chicken' double A-side 7" (the title a Mansun
saying) recorded, producer-free, for £150, sold out in a day. November
'95, he who skins, wins: double A-side 'Skin Up Pin Up'/'Flourella' 7"ICD
sold bucketloads. Both releases are now highly sought after. Ah, the frustration
of excellence ignored. Mansun's self-made singles were orgasmic anthems
which should have appeared in every "single of 95" list, instead, in the
Pop Cop requirements of accessories over talent, Mansun lost attention
to a new scene, starting at the time called Romo. The words "barking
wrong" and "tree" sprang to mind especially 'barking' and inspired
this piece. Mansun don't need/want hype. They weren't even out to get a
record deal. They had jobs so initially only rehearsed on Sundays. More
a gang who play music, than 'a band', the fact that they're one of the
most exciting new sounds is just uncon- trived chemistry. Nothing more,
nothing less. "It's like a giant elastic band: the more you pull it back,
the greater the tension and force when you let it go. We are building the
interest in us up until people won't be able to get enough of us".
They didn't do promotion at first. By the time they'd done a handful
of shows, along with the early gig scuffles, was a cheque-waving frenzy.
Seeing them in the flesh, it's understandable. Mansun are explosive, their
music communicates like early Manics gigs, more via adrenaline buzz than
technical perfection. Gigs are a totally unpredictable affair. When they
supported China Drum/Whale at Camden
Live
Week the crowd were stunned - real pop stars! (Y'know pink frilly shirts,
cool shades and hats. Shaggable poses and, most noticeably, a groove shaking
their collective thangs simultaneously). Opening with the well wicked 'Drastic
Sturgeon' they had the floor moving within eight bars. Not only was the
audience impressed but of the many acts that week, Mansun were the ones
on the cover of the industry weekly, Music Week days later and, literally,
as they left the stage, picked up The Charlatans tour support (where they
sold out of T-shirts nightly and swelled their fast-growing following).
You can tell a band are special when the backlash against them starts
before they even sign a deal. Music writers outside London don't go to
'biz' shows, only see real reactions, so cotton on early, with no network
to know what other local writers think. At the time of The Charlatans tour,
as "we love you" graffiti appeared in Mansun's tour van's dirt (alongside
"also available in white"), so did excited reports,
from coast to coast: "the hottest of the hottest new Britpop challengers"
(Sheffield Telegraph); "probably going to very big, very soon - when they
are, that hat the singer's wearing probably won't look quite so stupid"
(Spark); "expect great things from this band in the near future. Without
a doubt 10/10" (Grip); "perhaps if Alan McGee had been checking out Chester
on the night he signed Manchester's finest, the story might have been different"
(EP); "play full-on music with no compromise and no bullshit" (Fusion);
"this blistering slice of arrogance walks a ragged, cocky swagger down
the streets of
Madchester '89, pissing against every wall it comes to. Bloody brilliant"
(Gait Rhydd); "you'll be hooked from the first second" (Shout);: "if 'Skin
Up Pin Up/Flourella' is anything to go by, the future promises
Gallagher-sized success for this bunch of northern upstarts" (London
What's On).
These observations differ greatly to the dismissive "I guess that in
an economic desert any old dried-up Oasis must look like Tooting Lido"
of one music weekly to the "so-called best new band in Britain" sneer of
the other. The singles sold like hot cakes anyway. Luckily both music weeklies
have a "Paul M". "Paul M" knows where the kids, the drinks, the party and
the bands are at, so Mansun began 1996 hotly tipped. A friend of Oasis
(a Paul M!) was dj-ing, Noel heard 'Take It Easy Chicken' and was won over.
Post Oasis hype? Nah, the people who buy records and tickets can spot a
special band a mile off (essential talent in a recession - note attendance
at Romo tour!). There are also Mansun fanzines already. By the time public
attention kicked in, Mansun had 'made it', all under their own steam. Playing
the same stuff as when they started, they're already getting dressing room
invasions, interest from America, Germany and Japan. 'Skin Up Pin Up' may
not have cut much ice with everybody when released, but it was Single Of
The Week in The Observer.
Mansun are dead sound and refreshingly direct. A self-contradictory close-knit unit with an endearing chemistry, disarming and sullenly attractive. There's a dry humour and irony line in inter-group banter and on-the- road stories (funnily enough, often about Chad - the only man to be run over by a parked car!). Their wise-eyed silences can be disconcerting as Christine Owen found when interviewing Mansun in November.
Boys just aren't what they used to be. Just imagine, a kindly A&R man from a record company which will remain nameless, is desperate beyond measure to sign your band. "This", he thinks to himself. "calls for a cunning and deeply underhand play on yonder boys' carnal desires. They will be like putty in my full of beans after being hailed Britain's hottest unsigned band, In fact looking at their sombre faces, you'd think they'd found a penny and lost £100!
Mansun's story is a rare one. It starts in the medieval town of Chester
early 1995 when Paul, Stove and The Hib, printers by trade and Chad, their
barman, formed a band to while away boring Sunday afternoons. Mark, a I5-
year-old schoolboy who Chad used to secretly smuggle into the pub kitchen
pestered them to death until they let him join. "I blagged my my into the
band by saying, 'l can do this and I can do that' with this crappy sampler
I bought" he mumbles self-consciously "but I couldn't really" Eight months
of weekend rehearsals, Mark's a dab hand with his beat box, Stove has mastered
the bass, and Mansun decide to self-finance 'Take It Easy, Chicken'. Steve
Lamacq plays it to death on Radlo 1 and, hey presto!, instant superstardom
beckons. "One minute. no-one wanted to know,
everyone was ignoring us:' explains Chad, "then suddenly. there's like
25 record contracts on the table, offers of drugs, prostitutes, plane tickets
to America."
All this before they'd graced even the humblest of stages with their
mighty presence. The audience at their first gig, Sept '95 at Liverpool
Lomax, was a milling hive of vulturous A&R men vying for their signatures,
all laden with what they presumed to be tantalising incentives. Mansun
were deeply unimpressed with their blatant bribery and plumped with the
only one which, they claim, didn't bribe them - Parlophone. It's hardly
surprising then, that they're a deeply suspicious and overtly reticent
bunch of characters. You certainly don't warm to them, but then, I doubt
they'd want you to. "There's a misconception about what we are:" explains
Paul. "unfortunately for us, people picked up on us too early. We should
still be playing pubs in Stockport to two people, but we're not, we're
playing at Brixton Academy to 4,000 people."
"Don't get us wrong:" cuts in Chad, the most cheerful member of the combo, "were happy about it all. It means we don't have to go to work:" And much to his delight, Mark doesn't have to go to school either! He's been marked down as absent for the rest of the year with his teachers' blessings. In October. he sprinted out of the school gates for the last time, tossed away his text books and PE kit and jumped onto the tour bus. So what are Mansun most looking forward to? "Three new Star Wars films:' deadpans Stove. "You see," sighs Paul wearily, "were not really bothered about achieving anything, being in this band isn't the be all and end all for us. We're just out to have a Iaugh, really. If we carry on for another year, then everyone says you're nothing but a two-bit band, we'll be cool about it, and we won't resort to writing song which sound like George Formby just to get in the charts either!"
'Yeah,' adds Chad, "we've done everything we wanna do, really."
Well, everything from New Year 1996 is a just a bonus for Mansun then! Jan '96, it's all going egg shaped, A low-key midnight appearance at London's Midweeker Club and, next night, a crowd- (if nor, review-) winning show at the NME Brats (Vicar's shirts and all!). This was their last appearance as a five-piece. Mark was too sound for a 'teen rock star', especially under the pressure of the circus surrounding them. Chad, Stove, Hib and Paul are 'out there' (in varying degrees) and fuelled to further insanity by the mayhem of the rock'n' roll road show that is Mansun on tour. The instant stardust was too much for Mark though, he was last seen at the Roman Orgy that is the Brats party. (Incidentally, hours after the party Chad was found, on the steps of the old EMI building, having lost his hotel in a drunken haze!)
Feb '96: Mansun support funky rockers, Audioweb, on a UK tour. "Mansun
are a classic four-piece and they came up with a six-song set of such classic
proportions that you'd have liked another hour yet somehow didn't feel
in the least dissatisfied," said Gary Shawford's prophetic review, and
concluded,
"Mansun are hugely marketable. Just watch them go and don't begrudge
them any of their richly deserved success."
Some people reckon Mansun never speak. Dave Marsden went to another gig at the start of the Audioweb tour, expecting some straight talking from Mansun and, err, got it.
What's all this post-Oasis bollocks in the press then? "Dunno man, I
haven't really seen anything in the press. I try not to read the press,
y'know what I mean?" Are you into the humour side of stuff, because on
your new EP it seems to come through a lot. From the song titles to the
lyrics, sort of crossed with a fuck-off attitude: "It's more sarcastic
really. It's just we can't stand bands who're trying to say something and
don't just say it, y'know? I just think it's shit. Because anyone now who's
going out trying to say... 'Let's cause a problem'. White riot or something
like that is just wasting their fucking time." What about something like
Rock The Vote then! "I don't know anything about it except that Radiohead
are into it, I like Radiohead so I'II probably give it a bit of ear-space,
you know what I mean! But like, I just think that they're probably just
pissing in the wind. Basically right, if somebody wants to do something
political you don't fucking be in a band to do it, you get off your arse
and go and sit in a tree and stop them trying to build a motorway you know?
Anyone who says they're trying to change anything by being in a band are
just cowards. You just go out and do it. You know, march on Parliament.
My view of it, is that ifyou're in a band you're in a band and if you want
to change something you go into politics."
You don't think a lot of young people these days look into bands for
more than just their music and that bands mean more to them than, say,
politicians? "Yeah, but you listen to bands to be entertained. You don't
get any politicians with a guitar do you? Politicians are shit at music
and musicians are shit at politics. I can't think of one musical thing
that's ever changed anything, ever." Live Aid? "It did fuck all. Ten years
on people are still starving right the way through Africa. I just think
they're all bullshit, and I don't want to get involved in it. I don't want
to get involved in it because I'm fucking stupid. It's like, 'Ooooh politics,
I don't want to get involved with that'.... I fucking know the score, but
I just don't want to get involved with it because I think they're fucking
corrupt. So, that's maybe why we wrap the music up in the... sarcasm."
How come you changed the name from Manson to Mansun: "The name at that stage happened to be the name when we put the first record out, but we'd gone through like, three names so then we went and changed it again. Twice. We started off as And She Said and then we were Man Called sun then we were Manson then we were Mansun the we were Sci Fi Hi Fi then we were Mansun again. We were only Sci Fi Hi Fi for the day for In The City then changed back to Mansun. So we'll probably change it again like, probably a few times, it's never really settled on anything we like really. So what the name is now is like a compromise... sort of a fudged version of all the different names we've had."
You've mentioned Radiohead as someone you like. Are there any other bands you see as your contemporaries? "I like Radiohead, but then I like The Prodigy as well. We're just a rock group. We're nothing to do with indie music, we're not on an indie label or a supposed indie label we're just a rock group really."
A lot of bands which were seen as 'alternative' last year are now 'breakfast
show' material. Do you see that as having made room for more bands to fill
the shoes of the ex-'alterna- tive' bands! "But they never were alternative
were they, it's just how you project yourselves. Northern Uproar are no
more alternative than East 17, it's just what angle you're coming from
you know... we aren't an alternative group, we never wanted to be an alternative
group, we want to be the big group selling records throughout the world.
We're just a rock group. That's it"
Parked cars. Discuss.: "Well, he (points at Chad) was chatting up some
bird and we were up the road waiting for him. We were fucking off our cake.
And he just turned round, he - hits this car, and obviously thought it
was moving and fucking launched himself over the bonnet then he got up
saying, 'I've been knocked over! I've been knocked over!' We were just
collapsed - hundreds of people were pissing themselves..."
Is it true that some sad record company tyke tried to get you a call girl! "Yeah, prostitutes yeah. Turned up at our house in Chester with a, bottle of champagne. We've had everything.
Is this the first tour? "Well, because we're still a new group we just did about 40 dates last year, trying to get our act together. We're still doing that now really. This is like a warm-up. We're doing a Cast tour. Still got a long way to go, you know!"
D'you think it's a problem for you, getting exposed this early on! "Definitely, yeah. it's like you've got to try and like... grow up in public, y'know! The bands who really suffer though are the ones who go through it all straight away. Loads of press and all the hype. We haven's really had anything yet, which is cool. It depends what you're trying to do really. As a pop group and you'd be pretty much dead in the water if you didn't have the press. Record companies probably know that there's only about four or five decent bands a year, but they sign everyone anyway and it's basically just a kind of numbers game. There's got to be shit to be good so it's just whoever's prepared to play the game, work and that's it really. And then bands that are like... didn't play the game have to make a lot of stuff up to make out that they're not playing the game to be interesting; if you know what I mean."
What can we expect from the album' "We've done it like, yeah in November and January, 16 tracks. We wanted to do a double album, but Parlophone weren't really going for that like but they don't mind how many tracks we do for the single album. So we've done 16 and we're going to do a series of EPs."
You produced it yourselves? "Yeah. that was one of the terms of the deal that we can just do our own thing really. Anyone who tells you that they've got 'complete artistic control', is just lying. So we've just got to work with the record company and our only specification basically that we give 'em a DAT and they put it out So that is why you've got guitars out of tune and vocals outof tune and stuff like that but that's more Ilke reality to me like than giving it to some big mixer who fucks it up cos we've had that experience already. You get it back and it's just fucking completely different so we just said no."
March 1996: pills, thrills and bronchitis - Mansun filmed the "Egg Shaped Fred" video on the road and supported Cast (selling twice as much merchandise as support bands normally do). By now music press reviews were getting a little kinder; "sloppy hybrid of cliched guitar solos". 'Third-rate Manc' grooves". " Alarming suspicion that they are very nearly Curiosity Killed The Cat with added sneering", remarked one paper while in the other 'The One EP' was dismissed as "horrid rock rubbish". It's not cool to be a Mansun fan. It's fucking hot! In just one month on the road Mansun lived the whole rock'n'rollercoaster; temperamental instruments, much booze- etc. fuelled antics and some resulting injuries, hotel fines, Stove jumping into the crowd, female stalkers, sickness, smashed guitars etc.
Despite spooky experiences on their way to the first Cast show at London's
Forum, Mansun take to the stage that night (minus the shades and hats mocked
in the press that week) and are perfect. Yep, by the time the "Mersey-both-sides-Cast-and-Mansun-nice-
one-like" road show hits London, the Chester
quartet are greeted by frantic moshing during their set and shouts
from women (?) down the front to get their trousers off during the Marivin
Gaye-of-a-classic that is 'Naked Twister'. On the second night Mansun go
out in an alternative blaze of glory. They launch into a furiouc 'Ski Jump
Nose', then push their tour-weary instruments to last one more time. Paul
half-sings, half-coughs his way through the songs, wracked with bronchitis.
The equipment is breaking down all around them. Finally they have to quit
before the end of their set, explaining that their gear had packed in.
Acknowledging a brave, legendary end to the tour, the crowd cheer a heroic
exit. Depressed, Mansun saw it differently and
wanted to split that night 'cos they were crap' - luckily their moddswing
changed yet again.
April, '96, acclaim: 'One EP' Radio 1 Breakfast Show Single of the Week, the madMansunliveandmad 'Egg Shaped Fred' video on the Chart Show, Top 40-ness, a John Peel session (bronchitis and all!) Next follows tours across Europe, Japan and the US. Recent news suggests Mansun have lost their drummer - Whirlpool suggests that you see Mansun yourself while you still can!