"On the 19th December 1972 the Man band and their
friends and ladies organized a Christmas party at the Patti Pavillion
in Swansea and as it was a good excuse to get a lot of people into one
place at one time we took the opportunity to take the mobile down to Swansea
as well, in the hopes that if anything vaguely sane came out of the party
we could preserve it for posterity and do a special 'cheapo, limited-edition'
album for the people who couldn't be there.
The party started at six and came to something of a premature end when
the Swansea Constabulary decided enough was enough at midnight. Wally
Hot Stuff and a Legion of Charlies started things off followed by Ducks
Deluxe, a newly-formed rock band who should be releasing records of their
own before long.
Help Yourself, who have been friends of Man's since the legendary "All
Good Clean Fun" tour ow Switzerland a couple of years ago, were next
on with former Man member Deke Leonard on guitar, and the 'very famous'
B.J. Cole adding steel-guitar licks here and there.
Next came the 'nostalgia' spot with three well-known groups from South
Wales's rock past re-forming for the occasion. First up were The Jets
(one of Swansea's finest) led by 'Plum Hollis' who, until recently has
been Joe Cocker's road-manager, along with Terry Williams from Man, Martin
Ace, the bass, another former Man member, and Deke on lead guitar who
after three numbers, with the addition of two legendary Welsh rock guitarists
Mickey Gee and Dave Edmunds, became Plum Crazy with Dave Edmunds or, if
you prefer, Love Sculpture with "Plum" (if you're confused consult
Man's family tree in "Be Good to Yourself").
The last of the re-formed bands was the Eyes of Blue, Phil Ryan's old
group, who played a very tasty set. Unfortunately, "Gazzy",
former lead singer now with Wild Turkey, was in the U.S.A. and "Pugwash",
the Eyes drummer now of Gentle Giant, was on tour with the Groundhogs,
so it wasn't possible to have the whole group back together, and rather
than be dishonest, we left the recording, hopefully, until another day.
Martin Ace and his wife George, better known as the Flying Aces, followed
'oldies but goodies' time with a very short first appearance in public.
Time was fast running out and the Aces only performed two songs, one of
which "Welcome to the Party" was, as Martin said, 'especially
written for the occasion'.
To finish off an amazing evening Man arrived on stage, and after a couple
of numbers had be joined by Dave Edmunds playing slide-guitar and Stan
Pfeiffer, who joined in on the vocals at the edn. Dead on midnight the
police stopped the show and the party was over. Man would have gone on
most of the night and the audience was ready to stay with them, but it
wasn't to be.
Happy Christmas! (Original Liner Notes by Andrew Lauder)
|