Manfred Mann - EP

This disc is a pleasant surprise, insofar as its musical content goes, illuminating the visual side of a group that never left behind a concert recording or any major film appearances with which to visualize them or their performances. Manfred Mann's appearances on the German Beat Club show, whence these clips came from, were confined to the Mike D'abo line-up of the group, which encompassed their hit 'Mighty Quinn' and the psychedelic-era numbers 'My Name Is Jack', 'Fox On The Run', and 'Ha Ha Said The Clown'. They seem a little bit twee when the singer tries to mime the latter song, but it is good to see keyboardist Manfred Mann, guitarist Tom McGuinness, and drummer Mike Hugg throwing themselves into the performance with obvious good spirits. As with the rest of this series, it's necessary to access each clip manually, and more space on the disc is given over to promoting the rest of the series than it is to the performances you're buying (and even the promo clips must be accessed one-by-one, manually); and the pop-up function manages to be pretty dull. But as a minor, slightly overpriced gap-filler in the history of Manfred Mann, this is a handy release for serious fans