Welsh Guitarist Micky Jones RIP

I'm pretty sure a copy was sent to Esoteric. It now remains to be seen if they reissue Welsh Connection and All's Well. Both of these need to be reconsidered. TWC should really be remixed. I don't know what happened, but the drum are just lost. The live album is so bland... Deke said they didn't pick the best performances, and again the mix is lacking. The Tivoli would be the perfect companion to this... thing is, they played even better the last night of the tour, and Cipollina came out and played the best of those three nights.

 

Was Tivoli the show that was broadcast? If I recall correctly he was playing on that.

 

which date was the KSAN broadcast from? The Savoy Tivoli show I have with Cipollina (8-5-76) isn't the best sound qual...the 8-9-76 Keystone show is the one officially released, right?

 

Ok, I had to pull out the big book to get you the dates

• 
  
  • Berkeley Comm Theater 7.31.76 w/ Utopia
  • San Jose CPF 8.1.76 w/ Utopia
  • Savoi Tivoli 8.5.76 broadcast by KSAN
  • Santa Cruz Theater Workshop 8.7.76 w/ Greg Kihn
  • Keystone Berkeley 8.8.76 w/ cipollina
  • berkeley Keystone 8.9.76 w/ Cipollina "official release"
  • Savoy Tivoli 8.11.76 with John Cipollia 1 track released on Terrascope CD
  
  I have board tapes from the first two shows and audience recordings of the others. There was one more show at the San Jose Civic with Rainbow. I didn't go.. as I really didn't want to see all those people I had left a couple of years earlier

 

just ordered the Esoteric expanded editions of Be Good To Yourself, Back Into The Future and Rhinos on Amazon, a pretty good deal: 6 discs for $47 shipped, can't wait to hear the bonus stuff!

 

Saddened to hear the news. I was a huge fan after discovering them when "Be Good to yourself" was released. I was definitely in the minority in my rather well versed circle of friends. I soon went out and acquired the rest of their vinyl catalog on import. I especially have a soft spot for "Do you like it here now....?, besides being great music it has one of my favorite album covers.

After discovering Man it lead me Help Yourself and the all rest of course. They were a really well kept little secret over here, but they deserved a much wider following.

R.I.P. Mickey..........Keep on crinting

 

Fred Mills wrote a very nice piece for Blurt Online. http://www.blurt-online.com/news/view/3474/

 

Gone way too young.
RIP.

 

man, that bonus disc on the Esoteric Rhinos smokes ! (Live at the Whiskey, L.A. 1974) too bad it's not the whole show...Ron, did you go with them down to this show? My only complaint is that the mix isn't that good, too much drums and vocals and not enough guitar, sax, and bass....they really stretch out on this one, all the versions of the songs here are totally unlike any of the other live ones available...in the liner notes Deke mentions them doing the Help's Blown Away, why didn't they include this ????

 

That is just a board tape. I'd had the American Mother for all these years. I saw them a couple of days later. They did play Blown Away in Berkeley. I tried to get them to record it for Call Down The Moon. Micky said yeah, but Deke nixed the idea.

I think that is the whole set, but they may have done more than one set, and I sort of think they played the Whiskey twice. I have an audience tape of another set, but it's not very good SQ.

I've had messages from Phil Ryan, Tweke Lewis and Martin Ace today. Micky's funeral was on Thursday. Sounds like it was a proper send off.

 

Zellerbach Hall, 3-10-74, love it !!!! hopefully someday we'll be seeing a lot more archival live releases...were a lot of Micky's bandmates at the funeral ? that musta been a special time...

 

Some photos here:

http://britrockbythebay.blogspot.com/2009/12/man-march-1974_23.html

 

thanks. I have a few snaps from that show. I think I was at most of the shows that are featured on that blog. Genesis, Yes, Wishbone Ash and ELO.

 

sweet pics, just finished digesting the Esoteric 3 disc Back Into The Future, that 16 minute Bananas is out of this world !!! Interesting to hear some songs played live that I've never heard before, as it seems that a lot of Man live material (both released and un-released) features the same songs...those 2 bonus studio tracks are sweet, especially the first one The Single (I'm Dreaming)...I wonder if it's worth it to get more of these Esoteric editions for the extra stuff, specifically Slow Motion, which is one of my least fave Man releases (2nd only to Welsh Connection)...Man (3rd) and Pagent Rooms I'm definately gwan hafee get (eventually) ...the more I've been re-visiting Man recently the more I realize how much Micky Jones really had that Cipollina vibrato sound down (it's not too hard from experience, IMO) but he was so much more constant and multi-dimensional than J.C., and in tune the whole time, it must have been a real mind blower for him to meet and play with Cipo, as it seems his style is SO influenced by him, yet he seems to only dip into that sporadically when it fits the song...

 

Slow Motion suffers from the lack of material. Fours songs: Hard Way To Die, Rock And Roll You Out, You Don't Like Us, and Bedtime Bone are killer. The reissue adds a version of Rock And Roll with the Chris Mercer sax solo and a live version of Hard Way To Live from the 1999 Party. The CD is filled out with the first half of the 1975 Berkeley concert. The second half being found on Max Dark.

Paget Rooms is a companion to the Greasy Truckers. It adds a blazing version of Daughter Of The Fire Place and the jam H Samuel. It also has a complete version of Spunk Rock. The Truckers version lacks the intro, as it just fades up. The Paget Rooms version is a little lack luster though.

Micky could do the Cipollina sound, but he had a lot more than just that. John was perfect for what he did. I was there when they met up the first time. It was like gun slingers circling each other. In fact, Micky just watched when the first jammed. He only picked up a guitar at the end... Later they seemed to get along ok. Back at John's place there was some wild fun... It was only after touring that Micky realized John just wasn't up to the rigors of touring. There was some tense discussion when John asked why he was mixed out of some of the album. Micky totally dodged the issue. John had a much better feel for the Man sound when he played with them at those 1976 gigs. But, you can hear Mick say "tune up you amateurs." The John plays 100% spot on.

By the 90's Micky sound had really evolved. He was off into some very deep places. I was just watching some footage for a proposed live dvd. It's from 1996. Mick is soaring. The last time I saw him three years later he was in full exploratory mode. I just stood there with my jaw on the floor.