Federal Charm
The ‘Federal Charm’ tour
Nick Bowden (vocals, guitar) / Paul Bowe (guitar) / L.D. Morawski (bass) / Danny Rigg (drums, percussion)
Federal Charm were a Manchester-based blues-rock outfit who split after a final home-town gig in September 2019. When I saw them they were promoting their debut eponymous CD album.
I must confess that I don’t recall their set at all, preferring instead to concentrate on the headliners. No confirmed setlists exist for this period of the band’s history so we’ll just have to suppose that it was made up of tracks from that first album.
If you know different or can tell me more about the gig then please get in touch.
Setlist: unknown
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
Manfred Mann (keyboards, vocals) / Mick Rogers (guitars, vocals) / Robert Hart (vocals) / Steve Kinch (bass) / Jimmy Copley (drums, percussion)
I have always been a huge fan of the band and it pains me to say it, but I was very disappointed by this gig. My mate Rob Mellor and I sat on chairs set out in rows and I remember being stuck with the very last chair on the right of the front row, directly in front of the PA system where I was afforded a poor view of the stage and band, but a deafening position with regard to the sound!
Perhaps those two factors were what coloured my view of the gig, but overall I felt really let down. It had been almost forty years since last I saw MMEB and I was really excited and so looking forward to this evening as we made the short journey across to Holmfirth after watching a football match in nearby Huddersfield. However, all that I can remember is that the performance struck me as being insipid and that the band didn’t really put their all into it.
It’s worth noting that the setlist tracks comprise almost nothing but ‘cover’ versions of someone else’s songs although, in fairness, that’s pretty much how Manfred Mann’s Earth Band always operates and, in fairness, every song was probably brought into the public eye and made more famous simply by the band having covered it. I believe that the only original Earth Band song in there was Martha’s Madman, although Mighty Quinn and Do Wah Diddy Diddy were old Manfred songs. In truth, it was a great setlist filled with favourites but, as I said, it left me feeling rather rather let-down.
The Earth Band has always been more popular in Europe than at home, and it’s a real shame that they no longer seem to tour this country because as they are one of my favourite bands I would certainly go and see them on a regular basis, because I am convinced that I just dropped unlucky on this occasion. In truth I don’t think that I will ever get to see them again, which just makes my memories of this gig all the worse.
Setlist: Spirits in the Night; Captain Bobby Stout; Martha’s Madman; Dancing in the Dark (House of the Rising Sun Start); You Angel You; Cannonball Rag (Mick Rogers guitar instrumental); Do Wah Diddy Diddy; Father of Day, Father of Night; For You; Don’t Kill It Carol; Blinded by the Light; Davy’s on the Road Again; Encore: Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
I also bought a lovely metal/enamel pin badge at around this time but not, I am certain, from the gig itself.
Footnote
Stories about the Earth Band albums themselves don’t come readily to mind, but I do recall buying the brilliant ‘Angel Station’ as a reward for getting my first teaching job. Released on 8th June 1979, I must have bought it back in Doncaster when I got back to college. It’s still a favourite of mine to this day.
And in recent years I have been re-buying vinyl to replace the CDs which I had bought to replace my original vinyl collection. It’s a circuitous and expensive way to build a collection, I know, but that’s how it is. I have two copies of ‘Solar Fire‘: one is the standard UK gatefold issue, whilst the other is a single sleeve US version which includes the single ‘Joybringer‘ at the expense of ‘Earth The Circle Part 1’. I bought this album in Amsterdam in September 2018.
Gigs'n'Stuff 