1 - On The Beat

OTB 0210, Saturday 10 February 1990, Noon-1.35pm Manfred Mann (Part 1), Del Shannon The former members of Manfred Mann were seeing more of each other and would soon be working as the Manfreds. Manfred Mann himself had little interest in this and preferred to work as Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. They had a big following on the Continent and Manfred ran the Workhouse Studio in London. Some have assumed than Manfred was standoffish but he was fine when I met him at his house. We had a walk on the common with his dog and I recorded a 50 minute interview which I ran over two weeks. Manfred said, “I enjoy performing live and I lead a very normal life. I don’t have to keep myself in the public eye. I don’t see why I should do Celebrity Squares and I don’t like talking to dickheads.” (I remember thinking, “Can I get away with that on a broadcast?” and I did.) Del Shannon died the day before this programme and I broadcast the interview I had done with him in 1983. At the time I was disappointed, thinking that he wasn’t forthcoming and didn’t sound interested. Del had been playing the Wooky Hollow the night before and he came into BBC Radio Merseyside on a hot day and wearing a fur coat. He seemed distracted and although we didn’t connect, the interview wasn’t as bad as I thought and I know from the reaction that listeners were interested to hear what he had to say. Because he had died, this became a news item and had an immediacy to it. He wrote songs while jogging and he explained how the heavy breathing had led to ‘Cheap Love’. Mann, Cass 055 T, Shannon MD 007, 1990