music

i blame my dad for liking the manhattan transfer. firstly he was keen on what he considered good singing (essentially being able to hold a tune while clearly singing the words). he was easy listening man, or a lounge lizard. so the ground was prepared for enjoying the close vocal harmonies of the manhattan transfer. secondly my dad gave me the copy of playboy magazine that featured a review of the manhattan transfer, while it mentioned their singing skills it was mostly about how they appealed to new york’s underground avant-garde fetish scene (like i knew what they were talking about), so now i was interested.
fast forward a bit and i finally got to hear them. loved them. was hooked.
then somehow my dad got me tickets to see them live. not only that he also managed to get me a kipper tie with their logo printed on it. i was as pleased as punch.
i was wearing the tie the second time i went to see them. i was down the front at the hammy odeon and excited. one of the stage crew was doing a final check and he turned to one of his colleagues and was talking about the band he mentioned how the ‘little girl went out to the stage door and lifted her skirt to fan some air onto her fanny.’ i can’t lie; i was hoping to get a flash before the night ended. i didn’t. still the singing was divine.
even the move from standard harmonies to complex avant-garde jazz stylings have not dented their vocal gold. sit back, click your fingers, tap your toes and be a hep cat daddio.

the first clip features laurel massey (the red head); a serious accident caused her to leave the band. it is also one of several clips from the ‘old grey whistle test’ which i really enjoyed and it was a sad day when whispering bob stopped gracing out screens. i was also in the balcony at this recording and it is probably the closest i will ever come to fame.




back then i had a thing for janis siegel (the other one and famed fanny fanner), i still do. just a shame she doesn't feature that much in the next clip. instead welcome
cheryl bentyne, who is giving a full on demonstration of jazz hands. the other members of the band are just letting her get on with it. the clip ends rather suddenly so we can only imagine how she might have concluded the song: it would have been explosive.



and a bonus track - first time i had heard this one.