Tommy Mandel's story

[tommym]

From reviewing the "famous" post that annoyed you,  I think it may have partly been down to the poster not having English as his first language... no excuse for being rude though.

Can I ask you about the equipment you used in DS, ie keyboards,  synths etc?

Thanks, Dusty - that's a very good point. I could have been more understanding. 

On my riser with Straits, there was Mark's Synclavier controller keyboard (i believe the massive rack of computer equipment and Winchester drives that produced the beautiful sounds of that top-of-the-line-for-its-day instrument, were either under or to the side of my riser so that the Incredible Ron Eve could access it to work his considerable magic were it necessary at any point during the show...)
  There was also a Prophet Five (either mine or Mark's or Alan's or Ron's) and a Korg CX-3 clonewheel organ, which was a very early example of that concept. It may have been routed through a real Leslie speaker, as was Alan's Hammond B-3 (the Real Thing!) But I might just have used the CX-3's built in Leslie effect and switch.

There was a lot of time when I wasn't supposed to play anything, given that we were recreating some sparse tunes that were recorded by only 4 guys. For example Sultans of Swing, which was 7 minutes long by then; Telegraph Road had many parts, but up to a certain spot it had to be empty also. So I guess I played an air-keyboard that was up there too, but invisible to all but me and Mark. He told me where not to play. And by the way, in the Twisting By The Pool video, I was supposed to look dumb! Wasn't I? Crimey, I wasn't? oops. In it, I was imitating the way this great actress girlfriend of mine used to dance in one of the plays she did, when she played a rabbit.

The hardest part was getting the string swells to come in just right - for that we tried Morley volume pedals but they just didn't feel right - so i picked up a couple of excellent Ernie Ball stereo volume pedals in NYC. But I still couldn't get that part of my performance perfect. 

[LoveExpresso]

Funny reading a Dusty Valentino post about not being rude..

LE

[dustyvalentino]

Thanks for the info Tommy, having to sit and play nothing must be tough.

Funny reading a Dusty Valentino post about not being rude..

LE

 

[Masiakasaurus]

Tommy, you mentioned playing with Mick Ronson earlier? Have you written anything about him? He is a hero of mine and it would be interesting to read some stories  !

Welcome!

[LoveExpresso]

Funny reading a Dusty Valentino post about not being rude..

LE

 

Sorry, Dusty, I take that back,  you got pm. 

LE

[Pottel]

a big welcome also from my side to mr. Mandel.
any little anecdotes to share with us mr. Mandel? (no matter which artists, just live on the road stories..)

Thank you, Mr. Pottel, great board you've got here. 
An anecdote? oh OK. Back in the 90's my friend, Jim Gregory, great lefty bass player from West Virginia (US) who got me many gigs when I was first getting started, and sadly passed away around 10 years ago    - well Jim's wife and Patti Hansen were best friends, maybe from the same modeling agency. Somehow, either Jim or Little Steven got me a ticket to a Bruce Springsteen concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, or it may have been Madison Square Garden in NYC; It could have been either dude, 'cause I had played on LS's Freedom No Compromise   CD and then we went to Japan (with Little Steven) for a gig (fine funky rock band with TM Stevens,Steve Jordan and Pat Thrall) & he had and good tunes too, and is a really sweet guy - saw him last year when he came to our Holidelic gig (check out Holidelic!) Anyway, Little Steven never got rattled by anything, which was very cool - now he's a tv personality too, but still has a Garage Rock radio show, check it out!) - Peter Gabriel was on that gig in Japan too, and we shared an electric razor in the dressing room. Random!!  Well, so Steven, Jim Gregory and maybe Nils Lofgren and me are sitting around the dressing room before the show, it was like a locker room for sports - not where Bruce was or anything...and in comes Keith Richard. He was funny and friendly. But here's my anecdote, the whole point of all this name dropping!  so Keith goes (to Jim and maybe Nils or Steven) - "Call me! Why doesn't anyone call me? What am I - a pariah?!" I thought that was a great use of an interesting word.

lol, amazing. and amazing to read about the names you've played with.
ever been starstruck? (and if multiple times, then pls all stories...)

[Pottel]

From reviewing the "famous" post that annoyed you,  I think it may have partly been down to the poster not having English as his first language... no excuse for being rude though.

Can I ask you about the equipment you used in DS, ie keyboards,  synths etc?

Thanks, Dusty - that's a very good point. I could have been more understanding. 

On my riser with Straits, there was Mark's Synclavier controller keyboard (i believe the massive rack of computer equipment and Winchester drives that produced the beautiful sounds of that top-of-the-line-for-its-day instrument, were either under or to the side of my riser so that the Incredible Ron Eve could access it to work his considerable magic were it necessary at any point during the show...)
  There was also a Prophet Five (either mine or Mark's or Alan's or Ron's) and a Korg CX-3 clonewheel organ, which was a very early example of that concept. It may have been routed through a real Leslie speaker, as was Alan's Hammond B-3 (the Real Thing!) But I might just have used the CX-3's built in Leslie effect and switch.

There was a lot of time when I wasn't supposed to play anything, given that we were recreating some sparse tunes that were recorded by only 4 guys. For example Sultans of Swing, which was 7 minutes long by then; Telegraph Road had many parts, but up to a certain spot it had to be empty also. So I guess I played an air-keyboard that was up there too, but invisible to all but me and Mark. He told me where not to play. And by the way, in the Twisting By The Pool video, I was supposed to look dumb! Wasn't I? Crimey, I wasn't? oops. In it, I was imitating the way this great actress girlfriend of mine used to dance in one of the plays she did, when she played a rabbit.

The hardest part was getting the string swells to come in just right - for that we tried Morley volume pedals but they just didn't feel right - so i picked up a couple of excellent Ernie Ball stereo volume pedals in NYC. But I still couldn't get that part of my performance perfect. 

am surprised to read mark has/had not one but multiple keyboards..pls tommy (can we call you tommy now?) keep em coming them stories

[jbaent]

Tommy, i've read some of the chapters and i was amazed by your honesty when playing for Bon Jovi, when you recognized that youn didnt have anything to add to their songs so you left the recordings. Others would had did whatever to stay and to get the money for thevsessions.

[tommym]

thanks, jbaent    I guess I'm not that good at playing along with pretense, (or couldn't think quick enough, hah) so I just gave Johnny an honest answer to his question. But at that point I wasn't all about the money - making ok money doing music was a great new development for me, but I was confident about the future, and not too greedy. Plus i had a manager for that! if he'd asked her - i might have been back for another day or two, whether I liked it or not lol.

re: was I starstruck?   Kind of, yeah! that's exactly why I wrote the 'book' - i was kind of starstruck. I had met and played with all these famous people (and very few were a******, that part was for a laugh!) and I didn't know what to think of it. Why me? What was it about all of them - the quality they shared that led them 'to the top' ??- That part is still a bit mysterious, so I just tried to tell my little stories and end each one with a lesson i thought i'd learned from each encounter.

But again, that honesty of ours may have left some rough edges, and rough edges are fine in real life, that's how life is, but they can be misunderstood, and blown up in today's internet and media. When we're not face-to-face, sometimes the 'human-ness' gets lost in translation. Some things better left unsaid.

re: Mick Ronson - Yes, what an awesome, wonderful, natural, gifted yet down to earth guy. More about him later. He came to my wedding!

[Masiakasaurus]

re: Mick Ronson - Yes, what an awesome, wonderful, natural, gifted yet down to earth guy. More about him later. He came to my wedding!

Thanks Tommy, that's wonderful to hear! I look forward to it 

[Pottel]

let me rephrase, what was the most starstruck you got?

[tommym]

let me rephrase, what was the most starstruck you got?

Definitely Steve Winwood, Pottel. I got called to audition for his band, and he met me downtown, took me up to a borrowed loft in an old manual elevator - a "lift" you might say - you know the kind with the gate? He said 'play me something' - was very smiling and modest, but I could see he was tickled by my extreme hero-worship vibe.  So I started playing this piece, called Vanilla of mine for him on the piano - one that i'd spent a lot of time deciding on. . . and. . . he walks out of the room! (to make us some tea, it turns out.) Eventually he came back, but I didn't notice until I heard his Prophet V doing the bass line (to Oh Happy Day, a gospel classic, which I had eventually come to be playing. . . ) more later - my students R here!

[Pottel]

wow, Steve Winwood, for me he will always be the one that majorly shaped the Blind Faith album, one of EC's finer moments.
great voice. great musician, and suprising choice :-)

[vgonis]

His  work with Traffic is great and lets not forget his earlier hits with the Spencer Davis group or his solo career. I would love to be around the shooting of Blues Brothers 2000 final scene where the two bands compete. A who is who of the musicians I like! Many of them already gone. Steve is there as well!

[tommym]

wow, Steve Winwood, for me he will always be the one that majorly shaped the Blind Faith album, one of EC's finer moments.
great voice. great musician, and suprising choice :-)

I agree, Pottel. and vgonis too! - Winwood is so cool!  and now, here's the least starstruck i ever got: Madonna -!-  No, she was not an a****** - she was nice enough, pretty normal actually, when we met (1980) after a David Johansen Band rehearsal, in the back room at Gotham Rehearsal Studio, in the unlit room where they store all the road cases, etc. Her manager, Camille, said, "there's someone I'd like you to meet..." so i went into that back room, and a girl, just like the ones I used to play for at my College gig in the 70's, says, 'here listen to my tape and tell me what you think, k?' - hah- it was like my bon jovi story. I listened with her earbuds - hey!@! I had madonna's earbuds in myears, WOW! As far as the music, I didn't think it was great - neither did I think it was bad. I asked her, "Who's playing on it?" She said "Frank Vilardi drums, (I had played a bunch of local gigs with him, nice guy) and David Frank on synths (he's awesome, went on to great things, in fact I got him some early gigs when he came to NYC from Boston...) so I said, "Well I guess you don't need me then!" and wished her luck, and walked away.