Saturday 24 December 2011

MANNING - New Live Line-up announced and more...

So here we are just before the Seasonal break and as well as wanting to wish you all a very Merry Christmas/Chanukah and a Happy, Peaceful New Year, we need to complete our 2011 activities with some late announcements!

THE NEW MANNING BAND:
We let you know recently, that Tim Leadbeater, the Manning keyboards player for the last two years had decided to leave the band for a 'quieter life!'...well we are very pleased to be able to tell you that our new keyboards player for 2012 and beyond will be Mr. Martin Thiselton. His full resume can be found on the site Biography page.
A well established arranger / composer / performer, Martin also plays the Viola and Violin, which I am sure will come in very useful indeed!

Also, we have now parted company with drummer, Joe Casey.
We wish him well with all his future projects.

Coming in to bat for us on Drums & Percussion is Mr. Rick Henry.
Again, find a lot more out about Rick on the Biography page.

REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS:
More interviews have now been published here on the Press page, garnered from articles on web sites and magazines.

On Dec 28th 2011, the new issue of CLASSIC ROCK PRESENTS PROG publishes it's Xmas edition with a very nice sized article in it all about the band (as a follow up to the fabulous "Margaret's Children" review we got in the previous one).
We hope you will like it and also the great photo session we did with professional photographer, Stuart Wood.

LIVE DATES:
2012 promises far more live concert performances from us including SUMMERS END FESTIVAL 2012, CAMBRIDGE ROCK FESTIVAL 2012 and some long overdue European dates!!!

For up to the minute information, please make sure you keep on coming back and check out the Live page and also sign up for our exclusive Mailing list (at top of this page)

OK, that's about it for 2011.... It has been another great year for us! We hope you have enjoyed it too....
See you all down the road in 2012! and thanks once again for all your support...much appreciated..

Take Care
GuyM, Julie, Kris, Kev, Chris, Steve, Martin & Rick

Friday 25 November 2011

MANNING - 2011 - 2 REMAINING GIGS

MANNING - 2011 - 2 REMAINING GIGS

SAT 26th NOV DANFEST, Leicester UK 12 Noon (TOMORROW!!!)
With The Tangent, IoEarth, Paul Menel, Alan Reed, Akoustik Manning, Grey Lady Down, The Moscow Riley

< http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=202957926419758 >


SAT 10th DECEMBER , THE CORPORATION in SHEFFIELD
MANNING OFFICIAL NEW ALBUM LAUNCH GIG
With Special guest Andy Tillison-Diskdrive giving us one of his rare magical solo shows!

< http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182582445111676 >

See you there
GuyM

Friday 11 November 2011

"Margaret's Children" now released!

and so another one leaves the nest...how fast they grow up...

Snippets:
2012 is going to be a fun year for the LIVE Band !

Martin Thiselton will succeed Tim Leadbeater as MANNING Principal Keyboards player mid DEC 2011

More news to come later...
Take care
GuyM

Monday 10 October 2011

Tim Leadbeater retires! The hunt for a new KEYS player starts

We have to report the sad news that our principal keys player Tim Leadbeater has announced his intention to leave the band at Xmas.

Here is a statement from Tim.

"I joined Manning in the nick of time to rehearse up for Rosfest 2010 and (writing the day after Steve Jobs died)
that was a great opportunity seized and a dream come true.

But even then, I knew it was a commitment piled on top of much else - not least running a whole other, 11-piece, band.

And so, having hung in there to support production of a new album and bed in new drummers (metaphorically you
understand), it is finally time to give myself a break.

I'm told you can check out but never leave. (This is very true! Ed.)

I'm certainly not trying to prove something different, but there must be somebody out there whose time has come to 'fire up the Fantom G8!' "

"On behalf of all the members of MANNING, I want to wish Tim continued success with the Beatleaders and a restful dotage!" GuyM

Tim has kindly agreed to stay with us while we find someone to take on his duties but, if we can manage a transition switfly, then the December gig will be his last with us, sadly. Please come along and wish him Bon Voyage!

Some names have already been put in the hat for this role but we would of course like to hear from any suitable KEYs players that want to work with us.

Gigs are already booked for 2012, a long awaited live album is now firmly under discussion too.

The band is gaining ground daily and the critcial success of the 11 albums released and the buzz about the new album #12 is testament to the fact that this is a golden opportunity for someone!

Email guym@guymanning.com

Tuesday 30 August 2011

MARGARET'S CHILDREN - Update

The album recording, mixing and production has now been completed and the artwork is being approved.

This means that the new album will be available to pre-order very soon! (Check www.guymanning.com website).

I think you will like it!

As the sequel to my 2006 album "Anser's Tree", it became very apparant that there was alot of historical narrative cross over between many songs on both these albums (i.e. cause and effect!).

The updated web site will feature a small microsite built around the characters found on the new album and this will be published in time for ths album's release in Nov 2011...stay tuned!

As we wait for all that, we welcome our new drummer/percussionist Mr. Joe Casey to the MANNING fold (again see the web site for his biog).

All efforts are now on bringing a number of the new album songs into the Autumn live set as we hope to debut these in Dec 2011.

Meantime, our appearance at this years Cambridge Rock Festival was a very enjoyable experience for the cut down Akoustik line-up...we went down well to an appreciative audience and sold some CDs to pay for our petrol - a SUCCESS!

So I think you are up to date now...if not I'll be back with more bulletins.....but please drop us a line to say hello and discuss MANNING stuff...we do love to hear from you!

Bye for now
GuyM, Julie, Kris, Chris, Kev, Steve, Tim & Joe

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Akoustik Manning - 5th August 2011

We will be performing some 'other' pieces from the Manning back catalogue,
'unplugged' on the Classic Rock Society stage (CAMBRIDGE ROCK FESTIVAL) at 5:15pm

There are some fine acts on, so please join us there!

http://cambridgerockfestival.co.uk/

GuyM

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Changes...

See main website (www.guymanning.com) for details, but our current Drummer, John Kennard is sadly leaving the line-up. We wish him well of course!

So! a new drummer is now needed...anyone with sensible replacement suggestions or wanting to audition, then please get in touch with me on guym@guymanning.com

Meanwhile, we have some Akoustik shows to do (including the 2011 Cambridge Rock Festival) and then, in October 2011 we launch our new set list featuring songs from the forthcoming brand new studo album "MARGARET'S CHILDREN"!

The album recording is going very well (if a little slowly), but the new material is nice and strong thankfully! :0)

More news as it comes in.....

See you all soon
Take care
GuyM

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Margaret's Children (Anser's Tree II)

Work has now started (in an unhurried and hopefully relaxed way) on the sequel to the MANNING 2006 album "Anser's Tree".

If you recall, this album followed the search for the family tree being carried out (in the future) by Dr Jonathan Anser (excavating in Scotland where his family originated) at a time when Global Warming has severely damaged the Planet and most of the Earth is flooded.

In order to establish correct timelines, events and characters, a full Family tree was created to support the album (originally available as a special poster sold along with direct web sales CDs).

I always said that one day we should go back and get more of the family documented in stories (as there were plenty left over!)...so here we are!

I will keep you periodically posted with any titbits and facts about the new songs as I too research these new characters and find out more about the ANSER family myself!

There will no doubt be some musical references to the earlier album too.

Also, please check out the GIG diary on the website for our dates starting March 2011!!

See you soon
GuyM, Julie, Kris, Kev, Steve, Chris, Tim & John