mikedabosolo_text.htm

After leaving Manfred Mann, Mike d'Abo had been offered a contract with Immediate Records for which he made one single and one album, both entitled "Gulliver's Travels".

Then he switched to MCA Records and his first album was issued in mid 1970, simply titled "d'Abo". His next project found himself scoring for the Peter Sellers/Goldie Hawn movie "There's A Girl In My Soup", and from this came the single "Miss Me In The Morning/Annabella Cinderella" in December 1970.

1971 saw the release of the "Jesus Christ Superstar" album on MCA, on which Mike d'Abo sang the part of Herod.

In June 1971 he signed with Chrysalis Records, though nothing of his recorded work for this company was released. Anyway, by the end of the year he changed companies once again, this time to the American A & M Records.

The best period of his solo career was just about to begin. His debut album was "Down At Rachel's Place" followed by the single "Belinda/Little Miss Understood". Nothing more was heard from Mike for more than a year, then he re-appeared as composer of five songs on the debut album of John Christie "Relax".

Halfway through 1974, another single emerged: "Fuel To Burn/Hold On Sweet Darling" which served as an introduction to his solo album "Broken Rainbows". It received very favourable reviews, though like his earlier solo outings, it was not successful on the charts.

Then we had to wait for more than ten years before Mike d'Abo released his last solo album "Tomorrow's Troubador" on the President label. This album has some Manfred Mann covers and some new material as well, and as artists are mentioned: Mike d'Abo & His Mighty Quintet.

At this moment Mike is working as a DJ for Gloucester Radio, and he also does some Manfred Mann revivals shows every now and then.

THE MIKE d'ABO SOLO DISCOGRAPHY:

02-69	(See The Little People) Gulliver's Travels/An Anthology (Gulliver's Travels part 2)	Immediate IM 075
07-70	Let It Roar/California Line	Uni UNS 525
12-70	Miss Me In The Morning/Annabella Cinderella	Bell BLL 1134
07-72	Belinda/Little Miss Understood	A & M AMS 7016
06-74	Fuel To Burn/Hold On Sweet Darling	A & M AMS 7121
04-87	Loving On A Shoestring/Thank You	President PT 559
00-88	Tomorrow's Troubador/Velvet Glove	President PT 570
00-90	Isle Of Debris/Jump Boogie And Jive	President PT 593

I also have a demo record of "Miss Me In The Morning/Arabella, Cinderella" which has "Arabella, Cinderella" on both labels, but still the a-side plays "Miss Me In The Morning".

-67	7" In The Beginning (one sided)	Emidisc
-70	7" Handbags And Gladrags (one sided)	Emidisc
-71	Get Out Of His Life Girl (one sided)	Emidisc
-71	Down At Rachel's Place	?

From the above five acetates I have two of them: "Handbags And Gladrags" which is the same version as on Mike's solo album "d'Abo" and "Get Out Of His Life Girl", which is a song which was never released by Mike, so you probably can imagine that this is one of the best items in my Mike d'Abo record collection. It's also nice to mention that Mike's name was misspelled on the "Handbags And Gladrags" acetate: D'ARBO.

The other acetates have in total four songs, and Mike didn't put any of them on his records. Only "In The Beginning" was recorded by the Dutch/German group The Boots. Mike also had sheet music from this song, which he let me photocopy.

Mike also had an acetate album, but that was the same as the "normal" release "Down At Rachel's Place".

12-68 Gulliver's Travels Instant INLP 003 (UK)

side one:	side two:
Intro	Gulliver Travels
The Journey	America
Gulliver Travels	Afterglow
The Sea	Laputa

This really is one of the most strangest albums ever made. The album opens with a few lines from "Do You Believe In Magic" by The Lovin' Spoonful and then passes into "Silent Night". There is a lot of noise but little music. In fact the only "normal" song on the album is "Afterglow", which was a smash hit by The Small Faces. Instant is a sub-label of Immediate.

Another strange point about this album is, that no musicians, no songwriters, no producer nor anybody else is mentioned on the cover or on the label. You can hear that Mike d'Abo is singing every now and then, however his name is not even printed.

Mike was playing a role in the theatre production of "Gulliver's Travels", and it was there that he got the idea of making the record. The album is very hard to obtain and is a real collectors item. There probably were not many copies made of this very strange album.

Also the spelling of the album title is a bit strange. On the front cover is printed "Gullivers Travels", on the back cover and label is printed "Gulliver's Travels", while the individual songs on side a and b are called "Gulliver Travels".

The last strange thing I want to mention about this album, is that it was released before Mike parted from the Manfred Mann group.

11-06-2001	CD Gulliver's Travels	Castle Music CMRCD063 (UK)
Tracks of this CD are:
1.	Intro: Silent Night/Happy Days Toy Town (excerpt	Small Faces
2.	The Journey	Small Faces
3.	Gulliver Travels (Alias An Anthology Of Gulliver's Travels – Part Two	Michael d'Abo
4.	The Sea
5.	Gulliver Travels (alias [See The Little People] Gulliver Travels	Michael d'Abo
6.	America (excerpt)	The Nice
7.	Afterglow	Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band
8	Laputa	with excerpts from Zodiac Cosmic Sounds & Little Richard
Bonus tracks
9	See The Little People) Gulliver Travels (A-side	Michael d'Abo
10.	An Anthology Of Gulliver's Travels – part 2 (B-side)	Michael d'Abo
11.	In The Beginning	Michael d'Abo (previously unissued)

The "Gulliver's Travel" album was issued on the Immediate subsidiary label Instant in 1969. It has always been a strange album, which often was put on the Mike d'Abo discography, because the Mike d'Abo songs "Gulliver Travels" and "See The Little People" were included and because Mike played the main role in the "Gulliver's Travels" musical in the Mermaid Theatre.

It's a very hard to find album, so it was a great idea to release it on CD and the inclusion of the mono versions of "Gulliver's Travels" and "See The Little People" make this CD even more interesting, but the most interesting item of the CD is the inclusion of the never released Mike d'Abo song "In The Beginning". I knew this song, because it was released by the Dutch/German band The Boots, which even made it a small hit in Holland.

07-70 d'Abo - Uni UNLS 114

side one:	Side two:
Let It Roar	Maria, Maria
Walk A Million Miles	Woman In My Life
As Long As I Have Loving	Clancy
Mary, Warm My Bed	California Line
Call My Heart You Home	Oh! What A Day
The Ladder (When The Sun Comes Shining Through)	Handbags And Gladrags

All songs are written by Mike d'Abo, except for "Woman In My Life", which was written by Tony Macaulay/d'Abo. This album has 12 tracks, and I’ve found 6 songs that are recorded by other artists, which is quite unique. The information about these tracks you will read further on in this book.

The album is produced by Mike Leander and Mike d'Abo, and the musicians on this album are:

Guitar : Albert Lee, Chris Spedding
Bass guitar : Pat Donaldson, Roy Babbington
Drums : Gerry Conway, John Marshall
Harmonica : Matthew
Piano : Mike d'Abo
Backing vocals : Sue, Sunny, Doris and Nanette
Hugh, John, Neil and Tony

10-70 Jesus Christ Superstar - Various Artists	MCA MAPS 2075/6 (Italy - with envelop-ish cover) MCA MAPS 2075/1-2/D (Germany - box-set) Petersburg STEREO 91 00029 (Russia)
side one:	side two:
Overture	Hosanna
Heaven On Their Minds	Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem
What's The Buzz/Strange Thing	Pilate's Dream
Mystifying	The Temple
Everything's Alright	Everything's Alright
This Jesus Must Die	I Don't Know How To Love Him
	Damned For All Time/Blood Money

side three:	side four:
The Last Supper	Judas's Death
Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say)	Trial Before Pilate (Including The Arrest The 39 Lashes)
Peter's Denial	Superstar
Pilate And Christ	Crucifixion
King Herod's Song	John Nineteen: Forty One

Mike d'Abo played the part of King Herod in "Jesus Christ Superstar", so he only sings "King Herod's Song" on side three of the double album. I was much surprised to find the Russian 2LP set in a second-hand record store in Linköping/Sweden. In Russia the album was officially released in 1991.

All songs are written by Mike d'Abo. The album is produced by Chris Demetriou. In 1998 I discovered that this album was made of red vinyl. You don't see that when you take the album out of the sleeve, but when you hold the album to a light backgroup and you will see that the album is indeed made of red vinyl.

The musicians on this album are:

Bass guitar : Mo Foster
Drums : Grant Serpell
Acoustic Guitar : Mike Jopp, John Kongos
Guitar : Mike Lentin
Percussion : Ray Cooper (on "Poor Man's Son")
Trombone : Keith Christie (on "Salvation Song")
Concertina : Jimmy Robertson (on "Battlefield")
Organ : Mike Moran (on "My Life")
Harmonica, Tenor & Soprano Saxes & Flutes : Lyn Dobson
Vocals & keyboards: Mike d'Abo

It's always interesting to look at the musicians of an album. We will find Mo Foster back in the Smith & d'Abo band. Grant Serpell plays drums in Sailor, who took Smith & d'Abo on tour through Europe. Mike Moran can be found as the main musician on Dave Clark's soundtrack album "Time".

09-74 Broken Rainbows	A & M AMLH 63634
side one:	side two:
Fuel To Burn	Handbags And Gladrags
This Is Me	Sitting On A Wood Floor
Broken Rainbows	Pappa Didn't Tell Me
The Last Match	My Load
I Go Where My Spirits Leads Me	Hold On Sweet Darling

All Songs on this album are written by Mike d'Abo.

"Handbags And Gladrags" on this album is not exactly the same song as on the "d'Abo" album on Uni UNLS 114.

This album is produced by Elliot Mazer, and the musicians on this album are:

Rhythm guitar : Teddy Irwir, Rab Noakes, Graham Nash
Banjo : Bobby Thompson
Bass Guitar : Gary Taylor, Elliot Mazer
Drums : Denny Seiwell
Harmonica : Graham Nash
Pedal steel guitar : Ben Keith
Backing vocals : The Jordanaires
Electric guitar : Mike Bloomfield, Teddy Irwin
Organ : Mark Naftalin
Dobro : Ben Keith
Cowbell : Elliot Mazer
Piano, electric piano, clarinet, tambourine, vocals : Mike d'Abo

However, even though Mike d'Abo didn't have any chart success, he could persuade many well known musicians to play on his albums. Artists like Albert Lee, Chris Spedding, Mo Foster, John Kongos, Graham Nash, Mike Bloomfield, and The Jordanaires are well known to all of us.

00-87 LP Indestructible	President PTLS 1084
MC Indestructible	President PTLC 1084
side one:	side two:
Loving On A Shoestring	Thank You
Love Indestructible	Wonder Of A Woman
Horns Of Memphis	Slow Burning Love
Nobody Else But You	Whose Geart?
Easy Street	Ships
Time Warp	Revival

The above album is very hard to get. So far the copy that I have is the only one I saw so far. It was recorded at three different studios, every time with another engineer as well:

- Herne Place Studios, Sunningdale (recording engineer: Roger Howorth)
- Gooseberry South Studios, London (recording engineer: John Gibbons)
- Millstream Recording Studio, Cheltenham (recording engineer: Mick Dolan)

Mike d'Abo used the following musicians:

Drums: Zak Starkey (yes, the son of .....)
Bass: Charlie McCracken (Dik Cadbury on "Revival")
Guitar: Mick Moody (Dik Cadbury solos on "Shoestring" and "Revival")
Piano: Mike d'Abo
Synths: Eddie Hardin, Mike d'Abo (Matt Clifford on "Revival")
Sax solos: "Bimbo" Acock
Brass: "Bimbo" Acock, Danny Ellis
Backing vocals: Lynn Sheppard, Dik Cadbury, Mike d'Abo, Regine Candler.

The album is produced by Mike d'Abo & Eddie Hardin. We know Eddie from The Spencer Davis Group and Hardin & York and countless contributions to albums from all kind of artists. It's also nice to see that Mike wrote the song "Ships" together with his Manfred Mann mate Tom McGuinness. This is a bit funny, because there were no Mike d'Abo/Tom McGuinness songs released when they played together in the Manfred Mann group.

00-88 LP Tomorrow's Troubador	President PTLS 1090
MC Tomorrow's Troubador	President PTLC 1090
side one:	side two:
Tomorrow's Troubador	Build Me Up Buttercup
Twinkle In The Eye	Just Like A Woman
Velvet Glove	The Mighty Quinn
Hurricane	Handbags And Gladrags
Isle Of Debris	Fox On The Run
Jump Boogie And Jive	Rock 'n' Roll Crusade

This album was released as Mike d'Abo & His Mighty Quintet.

The album "Gulliver's Travels" is a rare and hard to find Mike d'Abo album, but this one is even more hard to find. I discovered this album in 1991, but didn't find a copy until Mike d'Abo himself told me to go to the office of the record company President Records in London. There I met the managing director David Kassner, who gave me a copy of the album. Later he also took care that I got the three singles that Mike released on the President label.

The album title is "Tomorrow's Troubador", which causes confusion, even at the office of President, because on the single "Tomorrow's Troubador" they spell the LP title right, but on the second single from the album they spell the album title as "Tomorrow's Troubadour". Can anybody tell me what is right and what is wrong ? At least I can tell you that Mike is singing "Troubador".

Side one has all new songs, while the first five songs of side two are songs that made Mike d'Abo famous as a writer and/or singer of Manfred Mann. The song "Tomorrow's Troubador" is really a fantastic song and is one of the most played songs in my house since I got the album from David Kassner.

The album was produced by Mike d'Abo and Dik Cadbury and engineered by Mick Dolan. The songs were recorded at the Millstream Sudios, Cheltenham, a place in the neighbourhood of where Mike lives today.

00-75 Family Portrait


Only Japanese Mike d'Abo single	Picture cover of German	Picture cover of Italian
Stardust Serenade/All At Sea	Belinda/LittleMiss Understood	Miss Me In The Morning
on A&M Records AM-230	on A&M Records 12542 AT	Arabella Cinderella on R International SIR-BL 20.150

Japanese Mike d’Abo singleLet It Roar/California Lineon MCA records D-1077

06-72 Down At Rachel's Place	A & M AMLH 68097

side one:	side two:
Rachel's Place	Little Miss Understood
Belinda	Salvation Song
Poor Man's Son	Battlefield
You Are The Singer	Tomorrow On My Mind
My Life (Is Starting From Today)