In 1996 Mansun arrived in a flurry of outrageously flamboyant posturing, with a market stall cut-and-paste clothes sense and a penchant for eyeliner, mascara and nail varnish. Yet, surprisingly, the quiet, unassuming phone voice of Mansun s talented guitarist Dominic Chad doesn t tally with this image of unrelenting exhibitionism. When I broach the subject, Chad sighs, takes a deep breath and says: That s something we re not doing any more. We went through different phases, we had a lot of different images if you like, but we ve settled down a lot now.
This stubborn individualism, this refusal to conform to the vagaries of fashion, this fusion of clashing styles manifested itself in Mansun s ambitious yet perfectly formed 1997 debut album Attack Of The Grey Lantern. Its disquieting vision takes in a vista of musical styles and is a remarkable tour de force for what is ostensibly a guitar band. The tortured beauty of Wide Open Space and the lush strings and layered vocal harmonies of She Makes My Nose Bleed sit alongside the orchestral James Bond-style strings of The Chad Who Loved Me .
Like a surreal trip through an adult version of Alice In Wonderland, this voyage is peopled with a cast of bizarre characters. Meet the Stripper Vicar who enjoys a bit of cross-dressing and Egg Shaped Fred , a composite of music biz liggers everywhere. It s all saved from the mire of suicidal melancholy by the Monty Python-style humour that frontman Paul Draper spikes his dark lyrics with. Taxloss is a pastiche of The Beatles Taxman that also manages to take a dig at The Osmonds with the lyric I ll be your tax loss lover from Liverpool . . .
Now Mansun are recording their second album which they hope to release in late summer. But if you start your career with a concept album that goes straight into the UK charts at number one and spawns five hit singles, is it not a formidable task to try to better that?
You can t get yourself into that situation, says Chad. It s a year later and it s a different album. The only way we can take the pressure off ourselves having had a successful first album would be to remake that album, but we don t want to do that. So we should make an effort to develop the sound in a different direction.
We just want to make a guitar album, but an exciting guitar album, sort of 90s British guitar rock. It s going to be very different from the first album. We don t know how people are going to react to it.
placid philosophy
This new rock swagger was in evidence at Mansun s recent Irish debut gig in Belfast, where fresh material and reworkings of the old singles were fuelled by savagely intense guitars courtesy of Chad and Draper. Drummer Andy Rathbone and bassist Stove King, too, were rocking out big style. In fact, at times the band were teetering on the edge of rock parody the kind of stunt that only Mansun could pull off.
Chad is excited by this raw, guitar-centred approach which sees him charting the same territory as his idols Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones. Brian Jones is a big hero, originally because I was a big fan of his style, his clothes and so on. I thought he was the first truly flamboyant pop star really because he stopped wearing a suit and tie like a rock band. And then I found out he was born in the same place as me and that he was a big fan of Winnie The Pooh. I ve always been into Winnie The Pooh books, particularly because there was a book called The Tao Of Pooh which explains how Winnie The Pooh is a Taoist book.
Sorry, did you say Taoism?
It s an interesting philosophy, very suitable for me, he enthuses. I ve always been a person who lets things run their course. I ve read about Taoism and basically what it s about so it appeals to me quite a lot, just the whole thing about letting nature take its course then things sort themselves out.
It seems that this placid philosophy has helped Chad overcome the drink problem that dogged him during the early days of the band. His habit was fuelled by his day job, working in the bar in Chester where the four members first met. But surely two years of non-stop touring and the usual accompanying drinking frenzy must have tested his powers of abstention?
I gave up drinking over a year ago and it s easy really, he replys, just a tad too abruptly. I don t think it s any big problem staying off something.
Despite Mansun s new rock leanings, their songs still peddle an overwhelming sense of isolation, desperation and alienation. I don t think happiness in music is a particularly powerful emotion, explains Chad. The stuff we do tends to be consuming, darker music. But I don t think we re particularly melancholic people. We generally enjoy our lives but musically you can write a happy tune and you can sit and play it with a smile on your face but we want something with a bit more power in it.
And so Mansun continue to forge their own unique path with indomitable panache, and I for one will be slavishly following them into the wide open space. n