Topic: The Paul Draper and Mansun appreciation thread

[Vodka Margarine]

Got to be some fans still knocking about on here.

After many a year spent in the wilderness and as a producer / general back room bod, PD finally returns with a new EP in June. Lead track 'Feeling My Heart Run Slow' is here. It's no 'Six' and the production is a little too polished for my liking but the tune is right up there with Mansun's melodic best so it's got my 90s bone a-twitchin'.

I gather there will also be a full album to follow at some point and I'm very much hoping for a tour as well. Hey, if the Bluetones can somehow still exist in 2016 then surely this talented bastard deserves another crack of the whip.

[Enzo]

yeah was a big 'six' head back in the day. Think the new track is decent. quite reminiscent of some Mansun b-sides.

A tour would be good, only ever got to see Mansun once and it was a terrible gig. It turned out to be their last ever gig, so it was understandable I guess.

[PaulTMA]

Wonder how he feels these days about Stove King, who allegedly nicked loads of money from Mansun and was booted out when he got caught.  Draper has said he'd like to reform Mansun but can't, purely as Chad has no interest.  Does that therefore mean Stove would be welcomed back should he have a change of heart?

[Johnny Textface]

What the fuck happened to Chad? Anyway, new song.. I like it but sounds overwrought.

[PaulTMA]

 I heard he became a paramedic

[Johnny Textface]

These people.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Ambient Sheep]

I still get those opening musical-throat-clears from the start of Six...

Dum-DOM diddle-e-dit, diddle-e-dit

...running through my head at the strangest times.  Usually when just about to get in the shower.

Beautiful album.

I don't have much more to say about this but thanks for the heads-up.

[Steven]

Does Draper have a brother? I live in Chester and know someone who looks a lot like him but have never bothered to ask his second name out of embarrassment. I'm keen on some of their stuff such as I Can Only Disappoint You, but remember nobody I knew at the time was into them, remember half their singles have the same bloody guitar riff on them. Remember chatting to someone in a pub a few years ago and he brought up liking Mansun and I facetiously pulled a face which instantly made him a bit shirty so I said "Hey, take it easy, chicken!"

[Pepotamo1985]

I absolutely love Mansun - Attack Of The Grey Lantern and Six get fairly regular airings, and my assorted playlists are littered with their singles. Attack is an absolutely superb pop album, and Six, while overlong and occasionally overblown and bizarre (I speak exclusively about that Tom Baker cameo, of course), is fucking amazing. This lengthy blog post by Draper, authored on the 10th anniversary of its release, is well worth a read; http://southofthepaintedhall.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/six-10th-anniversary-by-paul-draper.html

While I was gutted when they split and all disappeared into obscurity (not so much Stove - he sounds like a cunt), I nonetheless respected Draper massively for doing it - and given how utterly dreadful the Little Kix recording process was, I understood not wanting to work with a label ever again. Very happy to hear he's interested in releasing music for public consumption, again - and looking forward to hearing the album.

[Vodka Margarine]

What the fuck happened to Chad?

I heard he became a paramedic

Music's loss is Wussywat The Clumsy Cat's gain.

Also - a very illuminating recent-ish interview
with Draper. Sounds like Chad also took a turn for the cuntish, sadly.

[The Plunger]

One of those bands where each of their single/e.p. releases were always worth a purchase, as they had so many great b-sides. 'Kleptomania' was excellent (and contained some of the material from the aborted 4th lp), although it now looks to be out of print and pretty expensive :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0002OTI5W/sr=1-1/qid=1462130066/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1462130066&sr=1-1

'Legacy' is probably my favourite single of theirs, utterly sublime.

Saw them live 3 or 4 times and they were always excellent. Their live take on Take It Easy Chicken was epic.

Liking the new Paul Draper song and will definitely be getting the e.p.

And The Bluetones still exist in 2016 because they're fucking ace.

[Johnny Textface]

I don't suppose anyone here has a copy of The Dead Flowers Reject album? I downloaded it when it was up around the time of that Six blog.. but lost it now :(

[purlieu]

And The Bluetones still exist in 2016 because they're fucking ace.

They had one of the shortest breakups ever, must have been about 18 months. But yes, what a lovely band.

Attack of the Grey Lantern and Six are tremendous records. Six must have taken me about fifty really close listens to begin to understand. Has to be one of the strangest albums to hit the UK top ten, certainly in the '90s.

Found this new single surprisingly enjoyable. I had no real hopes but yeah, that bodes reasonably well - hopefully the slightly weird stuff that happens mid-way through the guitar solo suggests he's still interested in pushing beyond the pop formula, and I hope the excessive compression particularly obvious at the end is more to do with the YouTube stream than the actual mix. But overall, not bad at all.

[Vodka Margarine]

I loved 'Expecting To Fly' back in the day, so to use The Bluetones as a shorthand for Britpop mediocrity was poor form, especially when the likes of Ocean Colour Scene are still apparently 'going'.

[purlieu]

Especially given that Mark Morris always said they were inspired by American stuff - The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash - and '80s jangle pop, and had no interest in the whole British Invasion II feel of Britpop at all.

[Steven]

I loved 'Expecting To Fly' back in the day, so to use The Bluetones as a shorthand for Britpop mediocrity was poor form, especially when the likes of Ocean Colour Scene are still apparently 'going'.

The Day We Caught The Train is a fantastically written and produced little single, and some of their other stuff like The Riverboat Song are very effective for how actually bloody simple they are, literally the same 3 notes repeating.

Was never a fan really, though, or of The Bluetones, but would listen to the odd single when it was on MTV, Slight Return was a nice little slice of Pop. Here's Adam & Joe's Justice Squad molesting Mark Morris with a dildo.

[buzby]

Very optimistic about this - I was a big fan of Mansun and was gutted when they split. 'Little Kix' did come as a disappointment after 'Six' but as we later found out there were reasons for that. The new track certainly has the feel of his work with Mansun and I can't wait to hear more of his new stuff.

I had read last year he was planning to release solo material - it came about because the Mansun convention held in Chester in 2014 asked him if he had any new tracks they could preview, so he dug out the stuff he wrote in the aftermath of the split and hadn't touched for 10 years (in fact the only copy of the demos was on an unlabelled DVD-R his studio tech had taken home and tried to record Match Of The Day onto, and then left in a box in his mum's loft). He polished up the demo of this new track so it could be played at the event, and enjoyed the experience enough that he decided to record a proper version of it and then work onthe full album. It probably didn't help that Catharine AD was poached by Jim Kerr to be part of Simple Minds, which put a stop to any further work as The Anchoress with him (she is apparently collaborating with Bernard Butler for the next album).

One of the strangest things he's done over the last 15 years was this unreleased vocal remix of Mason's 'Exceeder':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-CuL7r_ijs

On the subject of Stove King, as well as the speedway thing one of the other rumours was that he was working in the Toyota engine plant in Deeside. A bloke I work with went to school with him in Ellesmere Port and said that he was a bit of a knob back then too.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Big Mansun appreciator right here. Even Pulp haven't lasted quite as strongly in my musical affections, so this is very welcome news. I'd heard the new song a year or two ago and really liked it, but had long ago given up hope of any more new tunes. I'd never even heard of the Dead Flowers album, so I hope that'll see the light of day too.

I wonder what the chances are of new new material.

Also - a very illuminating recent-ish interview
with Draper. Sounds like Chad also took a turn for the cuntish, sadly.

I guess that's only one side of the story but, yes, that's quite disappointing to see.

[hewantstolurkatad]

It does make you wonder what mansun would have sounded like if he had bandmates who were into the same stuff. I love them but a whole load of their songs are fragmented as hell and only almost work.

I'd be fairly concerned about what any new draper would sound like after a decade of exclusively doing production work (which is bound to change how a person listens to music and works in a studio)

[daf]

'Kleptomania' was excellent (and contained some of the material from the aborted 4th lp),

Love Remains is my favourite - what a great song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X57Ie-HoULU

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

A reminder, in case it's needed, that the E.P. is now available.

I'd be fairly concerned about what any new draper would sound like after a decade of exclusively doing production work (which is bound to change how a person listens to music and works in a studio)

It seems like he always worked best when he was in charge of the studio business anyway - assembling the songs from different takes and adding layers of effects and such. I'd be interested to hear what difference it had made.

[Sgt. Duckie]

Quite a positive comeback, sounds like Mansun unsurprisingly! I heard the F.M.H.R.S. bootleg ages ago and really enjoyed it so good to hear it in a more polished format. Really into the lyrics. The rest of the e.p. - No Ideas is classic Draper lyrical self-deprecating stuff and a strong addition to his output.

The Silence is Deafening is too similar to Home off of Kleptomaniac, in tge verses... so takes me out of the song slightly...bit too overloaded but there is a pretty gleeful finale.

In an ideal world I want the album to be like Six 2.0 but I'd say that it's asking far too much.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

The Silence is Deafening is too similar to Home off of Kleptomaniac

I've not heard that yet, but Home was my favourite song on Kleptomania, so that's a plus for me. I love the wobbly guitar bit on the verses.

[Johnny Textface]

In an ideal world I want the album to be like Six 2.0 but I'd say that it's asking far too much.

Yeah I don't think there's much chance of that, far too long a gestation period. There might be a chance of AOTGL 2 though! Very happy he's eventually decided to do the front end stuff.

Love Remains is my favourite - what a great song!

Yeah its choice. The demo has a slightly more interesting chord sequence but they were probably right to sack it.

Legacy is a sublime piece of songwriting, shame about the production on it though.

Six is probably one of my favourite albums. Bonkers, catchy, interesting, funny, sad.. It's got everything. It's better than OK Computer (some comparisons have been made in the press). NME gave it a 6/10 lol. (Also, it may have reached 6 in the UK charts, but I might have made that up in my brain).

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

This is terrible.

Not the music, obviously - that's great. What's terrible is the fact that there isn't more of it.

[Vodka Margarine]

Very impressed with this. I got vague echoes of 'Railings' from 'No Ideas' (especially with the Catherine AD vocals cutting in) and 'The Silence Is Deafening' is almost textbook Draper melodrama. He can still sing like a bastard too. I for one am chuffed silly this music finally exists and with more to come. Not that I'm holding this against him but the ugly nature of Mansun's demise left a massive honking turd over their (yes) legacy for me and now it feels like it's finally getting flushed away.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

The follow up, imaginatively titled EP Two is out. I can't say anything else, as I've not heard it yet.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Named after a Verve song apparently.

Anyway, just posting that because I wanted to add another 'i'm a Mansun' fan to this list. Good band.

[Sgt. Duckie]

EP1 made it to the top of the vinyl singles chart and now EP2 has hit top spot in the physical singles chart. Pleased there is still love for this guy out there after so long away. There is a cracking mini album amongst the B-sides until the proper album arrives next year.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I imagine the physical singles chart is a fairly small pond in which to be a big fish these days, but that is heartening nonetheless. Mansun always were the type of band to inspire a devoted following.