Sensationell: Zwei Live-Klassiker erstmals zusammen auf Tour!
Status Quo und Manfred Mann’s Earthband garantieren klasse Konzerte! (thk) Zwei für ihre exzellenten Gastspiele bekannte Gruppen kommen gemeinsam auf Tournee: Status Quo und Manfred Mann’s Earthband! Nach der umjubelten Quo-Tour im Oktober 2007 steht auch der Herbst 2008 wieder ganz im Zeichen der britischen Boogie-Rocker. Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt plus ihre drei Begleiter sind im November bei sechs weiteren Konzerten auf deutschen Bühnen zu sehen. Schon Ende vergangenen Jahres zeigten sich Kritiker und Fans gleichermaßen begeistert angesichts der fulminanten Auftritte von Status Quo: Mit einem Mix aus Evergreens und weltweiten Chart-Erfolgen wie „Rockin’ All Over The World“, „In The Army Now“ oder „What You're Proposing“ sowie Songs vom aktuellen Album „In Search Of The Fourth Chord“ mach(t)en die Boogierockveteranen jeden Konzertabend zu einer „Megaparty“ (Oberbayerisches Volksblatt). Eintrittskarten für die „Pictures - 40 Years Of Hits“ genannten „Shows voller Überraschungen“ (Francis Rossi), deren Titel auf Status Quos hitträchtige Debüt-Single „Pictures Of Matchstick Men“ (1968) verweist, kosten zwischen € 33.-- und € 45.-- (zzgl. Vorverkaufsgebühr). Es ist ratsam, die Tickets an den Vorverkaufsstellen frühzeitig zu besorgen, denn auch das zugkräftige Vorprogramm hat es in sich: Manfred Mann’s Earthband kann mit vielen Konzert-Klassikern wie „Davy’s On The Road Again“, „Blinded By The Light“ oder „Mighty Quinn“ aufwarten und gilt als exquisiter Live-Act. Keine Frage: Dieses Tour-Paket hat es in sich und sollte nicht verpasst werden!             Status Quo bedeutet seit über vierzig Jahren gute Laune, solide Rockmusik und Konzerte mit Hit-Garantie. Im Herbst 2007 gingen die Briten mit ihrem neuen Album auf die Suche nach dem vierten Akkord („In Search Of The Fourth Chord“) und präsentierten dem deutschen Publikum auf ihrer ausgedehnten Tournee „ab dem ersten Tag puren Rock-Genuss“. Was dabei schnell auffällt: „Auch nach über 6000 Konzerten haben die Herren unglaublichen Spaß auf der Bühne“ (Augsburger Allgemeine) und bilden eine „Schallmauer aus Lebensfreude“.Von Altersmüdigkeit zeigt sich keine Spur. „Status Quo sind ein Fels in der Brandung des sich ständig ändernden Rockgeschäfts. Die Gitarren jaulen noch schriller als sonst, der Rhythmus shuffelt und das Piano arbeitet im Honky-Tonk-Takt“ (Esslinger Zeitung), sobald die Herren um Gentleman Francis Rossi die Bühne betreten. „Mit erstaunlicher Wirkung fackeln sie ein puristisches Feuerwerk ab und rocken einmal rund um die Welt und retour“ (Rhein-Main-Zeitung). Wie ein Reporter der Heilbronner Stimme berichtet, verwandelt sich die Konzerthalle schon nach den ersten Takten in „ein tobendes Rock’n’Roll-Festzelt“. Was den Zuschauer danach erwartet, ist eindreiviertel Stunden Party-Rock vom Feinsten. Das Set, gespickt mit Klassikern aus der gesamten Bandgeschichte, reicht von „Gerdundula“ über „Down Down“ sowie den Top-Ten-Hit „Rockin’ All Over The World“ bis hin zur Anti-Kriegs-Hymne „In The Army Now“. Und die gutgelaunten Boogie-Nummern wie „Paper Plane“ oder „Whatever You Want“ „schnurren wie ein treuer Zwölftakter“ (Welt).  Manfred Mann’s Earthband bildet den Auftakt zu dem fulminanten Live-Spektakel. Sie hat viele Rock-Klassiker im Programm und ist ein Garant für exzellente Konzerte.  Deshalb können sich die Fans bei dieser Tour schon im Vorfeld sicher sein, dass es ein unvergesslicher Abend wird, von dem sie noch lange schwärmen werden. 
MANFRED MANN
If classical music moves to the beat of the conductor’s baton, then Manfred Mann is the orchestrator of much memorable music in the fields of pop and rock. He’s been building bands, picking great songs and mixing styles ever since the early 1960s – and even if statistics told the whole story, a hit-list of 22 UK chart singles, six EPs and 12 albums would be impressive enough.
Yet this is the man who prefaced a 1995 book on his career by American author Greg Russo with the self-deprecating note: “I never thought anyone would remember or even care about what we did over the years.” Even now, he states “the past is of no interest to me at all”. Fortunately, there are others that disagree and have long sought a compilation that showed off all his musical facets. ‘The Evolution Of Manfred Mann’ is the impressive result.
For the very first time, his output from the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s has been combined in the same package. Two discs of music (34 tracks) are complemented by a third DVD of interview, video and performance footage to create a definitive profile of a master musician who’s led his field every step of the way.
Manfred arrived in Britain at the start of the 1960s with music on his mind. “I knew it was what I wanted to do, but being a musician in South Africa meant playing at weddings, Barmitzvahs and bars.” But with top-notch players like Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner, Bill Evans and, Miles Davis his role models, he initially lacked confidence in his own ability.
The vehicle to a career in music would prove to be pop, and the 1960s output of Manfred Mann’s eponymous group, from ‘5-4-3-2-1' to ‘Ragamuffin Man’ and featuring three UK chart-toppers in ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ (also a US Number 1), ‘Pretty Flamingo’ and ‘Mighty Quinn’ has entered legend. They even survived a change of singer from Paul Jones to Mike d’Abo with popularity intact.
Musicians of the calibre of Tom McGuinness, Mike Vickers and even for a short while Jack Bruce turned out some of the classiest pop this side of the Beatles – but, as Manfred remarks, technique was no guarantee of greatness. “The problem with good musicians is they often don’t play good music. Jack Bruce was pretty great but the rest of us weren’t the best…we were better than some and worse than others.” Let’s put it down to a combination of songs and savvy, then.
But the three-minute single blueprint proved too restrictive and, in 1969, Manfred moved from his pop straitjacket to one of his own devising in the short-lived Chapter Three. Formed with ever-present drummer Mike Hugg, it was “a conscious decision to turn our back on what we’d been doing, but we had too many anti-pop rules: no guitar, we had to only write our own songs.” Two jazzy and determinedly uncommercial albums resulted, plus an unreleased effort shortly to be represented on a box set.
Chapter Three’s frustrations during their brief life led to a new project – the Earthband – where the only rule was that there were no rules. “Chapter Three was very specific, so we said let’s just play and see what happens.” The first long-player from Manfred, Mick Rogers, Chris Slade and Colin Pattenden arrived in 1972, the first of three Top 10 hit singles, ‘Joybringer’, a year later, and the story continues successfully today, albeit with a new line-up. “It’s a constantly evolving thing, a series of different people in different situations. I just want it to be right.” Current lead vocalist Noel McCalla follows in the celebrated footsteps of Chris Thompson and Mick Rogers, the latter having returned to the ever-changing ranks.
The Earthband’s commercial peak came in 1976 when ‘Blinded By The Light’ topped the US chart. Perversely, perhaps, Manfred took the decision to withdraw from that most lucrative of music markets. “We went round America for six weeks, with me not seeing my children, and came back with $1500 dollars in my pocket - on a Number 1 record! We didn’t break the market, just had one big hit. So we were never really famous in America.”
He rejects the suggestion he turned his back on success. “I haven’t had so much success in my life that I can run from it! With the Earthband, that is – certainly in the 1960s I wanted to run sometimes! But that was fame. That was being recognised in the street, that was different from success.”
And if we’re talking purely musically, Manfred undoubtedly has the Midas touch. As with Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Blinded By The Light’, he’s successfully brought his interpretative powers to bear on material by Bob Marley, Sting, Paul Weller, Del Amitri’s Justin Currie and others. “Jazz musicians do other people’s songs all the time, so for me it was quite natural.” He’s open enough, too, to participate in a Funkstar Deluxe re-recording of ‘Blinded’ which became a European hit late in 2002, following in the successful footsteps of Bob Marley’s ‘The Sun Is Shining’. (The video is the final track on the ‘Evolution Of Mann’ DVD.)  Far from enshrining his history in stone, Manfred Mann is happy to take risks in the cause of progress.
1991 brought a masterpiece in ‘Plains Music’ reflecting the music and culture of the North American Indian. He rates it “the only thing I can listen to that’s reasonably natural, not trying to be anything. The other stuff I keep hearing how I should have done it differently!” Ever the perfectionist, he can most often be found in his Workhouse studio on London’s Old Kent Road planning his latest musical enterprise.
In an era when classic rock and its practitioners is finally being given its due, Manfred has no plans to hang up his keyboard. “Count Basie rocked till he dropped, Beethoven rocked till he dropped, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald…it doesn’t seem that odd that people should play music for their lives, if that’s what they do. Pop, rock and jazz is the music of the 20th century, certainly the last half, and the best music will last. I started off being a musician and I’m carrying on being a musician. As long as people will pay to see us do gigs, I’ll perform.”
From that, we can safely conclude that Mann-made music is set to reverberate for some while yet. The evolution is far from complete – and fans will be more than happy about that.