Tommy Mandel's story

[Dutchessy]

No, he's on Easy Lover... With PHIL(lip) Bailey

[Dutchessy]

Or is he playing darts with Phil Taylor?

[vgonis]

Oh brother, all these word playing made me thirsty and my cup is empty. Phil it up . Now, isn't it peculiar that we seek so much the details? What i was trying to do, was not to give a logical explanation, but to show that there is one, that probably elude us. The musicians have a social life. Maybe Phil was having too much to drink and Mark offered to drive him home, only to realize  that Phil had the rare recording of Hendrix with Miles Davis and the only way to listen to it was to hire Phil for the tour. But of course this is all a big joke, because we all know that Jimi never recorded with Miles (God rest their souls).
And since this thread is Phil infected, I will ask the deadly, irrelevant question to knock every Phil down: any Phil has an idea of how or where to buy the Lee Fardon's CD "Lost and found"? My emails to his address (the one i found at his official site) are not delivered and when i send them a post card, it came back 2 months later with the "Gone away" box ticked. Thank you .   

[ds1984]

So... MK played on the Phil Everly album then?

But why worry then. After the rain, the rain - Brittany adage 

[tommym]

Of course he doesn't say he is famous.
Obviously he is the main character of his book, which means the title is wrong unless he considers himself as a famous guy. 

Greetings from the real Tommy Mandel. My tour with Dire Straits was a great time for learning and growing. The dudes in the band were wonderful guys, and, yes, Mark was tough, but as someone here pointed out (as did I in the chapter you're salivating over) with such a big band and production, to a certain extent he really had to be. We all love his guitar playing and the scope of his music. If I ran into him on the street or at a session today, I'd be glad to seem him, and I like to think he would be too. You're wrong, famous was not supposed to refer to me, the author, or else I'd be calling myself an a****** too! Whoever posted, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" - I agree, and that's why you'll never see the chapter titled Herr K on the internet. Or in print. After playing with Straits, Adams, BonJovi, Chrissie Hynde, B-52's, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, David Johansen, John Waite, Peter Wolf, Little Steven, Cyndi Lauper and others, I had a lot of experiences to sort out. If you really want to know, that title was a tongue-in-cheek play on Gurdjieff's "Meetings With Remarkable Men" - a spiritual travelogue. And I've long ago changed the title. But I've realized (long ago) that ones privacy is more important than a few bucks, or some kind of weird satisfaction from slagging someone off, which I'm not doing, because you always end up regretting something like that, especially cuz you can never really 'take it back' in any meaningful way, once something nasty is said. So sorry that you're so clueless, author of the post I'm quoting, but now ya know. Life is Great. I can see things much more clearly now, and if there was pain, it's gone with time and understanding. Come check me out at Machiavellinyc some friday night.

[LoveExpresso]

Greetings Mr. Mandel, great for us that you found this thread, although one tends to forget that the internet is not a village but a global village, and that we are not "only"  discussing things here among friends, although it seems to be that way very often, and all the world can read and take part of it.

However, this link

http://www.tommymandel.com/mybookch1.html

is still active and at this place you are among the biggest lot of MK fans from all over the world for sure, and one or the other reader of that chapter is still waiting maybe for what exactly will come up to "diss" Mr. K., the Man who is still running and most of us have bought tickets to see him on his Tracker world tour, doing his thing still, for more than 30 years now..

So great to have you here, we already have had Jack Sonni visiting us, Guy Fletcher was also here if I remember correctly, so now it's you! Have a good time!

Will you contribute further on to this forum or was it just that one post you wanted to get off your chest?

EDIT: I had the "pleasure" to read chapter 10 about Marek Lieberberg and the "Teutonics" in general. So maybe I might not be among the people who would wait for the final "diss", thank you very much.

All the best,

LE

[tommym]

Hi. . . 
32 years is a long time ago, but I hope that between my post of today here, and Bruno's quotes and that little mini-interview I gave him I can make everyone here feel loved and happy. I'm still doing a lot of music in and around New York City, where I was born, and where I met Mark for the first time at Power Station recording studios.

 I had been doing a lot of studio work there on other acts, acts you might not love or even know, but it was a real happening environment. Must have been, because Mark and Alan Clark and Neil Dorfsman had just finished Local Hero's soundtrack there. I was on the west coast tracking down a gig with Eddie Kramer when I got a call from MK on my voicemail (back then it was called an answering machine!) We made a date to meet when I got back to NYC. So a few days later, I came in and Mark had a smile on his face. We probably shook hands, I don't remember exactly, and he asked me to play him something on the piano. So I played this funky bit I had written for my first rock opera. So Mark goes, "Hey Alan, come in here and listen to this boogie that Tommy's playing!" (he pronounced it the Long John Baldry way, IYKWIM.) So I guess I was pretty much "in" after that. Or maybe it was when I saw his glimmering National Steel guitar and bent down to look at it with great respect. He goes "you like guitars, do you, Tommy?" Kind of like in the movie Airplane. It was hysterical, but subtle! We went back to his apartment and listened to Love Over Gold.

Sometimes the internet gives people an opportunity to get hung up, to focus on the negative. . . but why 'go there'? Especially after all this time. We all know that if Guy F. had been available, DS wouldn't have called me in the first place - I think he was with Bryan Ferry at the time, and the schedules couldn't be reconciled. Guy came to a Bryan Adams show in the 90's, maybe Newcastle on Tyne, and it was great to finally meet him too, along with seeing maestro Alan Clark again. And incidentally, Bryan Adams has some pretty awesome songs, he's not just about Everything I Do. Someone made a snide comment about that, and well, that just made me lose some respect for the commenter.

Check out Bryan A in "I Need Somebody" "Tonight" "Thought I'd Died and Gone To Heaven" "I Ain't Gonna Cry Over You" "Fits Ya Good" "Long Gone" - great songs. And Keith Scott, Bryan's all time guitar player may not be Mark Knopfler (noone can be!) - but Keith is worth a listen too. Check em out!

If you want to hear what I'm up to, try http://www.cdbaby.com/artist/tommymandel   and   http://www.holidelic.com   and  http://www.nalanisarina.com   but let's live in the NOW ok! Rock On!!

[tommym]

So Joop de Koorte is Tommy Mandel.
Double work and only paid once. I better understand his eagerness now. 

Nope, sorry Tunnelman, Joop is Joop and Tommy is Tommy. We were both on that tour, but Joop's association with the band pre-and-post dated mine. Great guy though, really awesome. Intelligent, talented, rhythmic, friendly and humble. Good combination, eh?

[vgonis]

Glad to have you on board, sharing stories of the past and giving them a much needed personal perspective. As LE said we are fans that some time forget that this is not just small talk among fans but actually a public place. Everything you read is of course personal opinions. The fact that some things are already dated (the last post before you joined was from 2011)  also means that people who wrote them are usually not the same anymore. Or can't remember the context in which they wrote something. Anyway, welcome! 

(BTW, I like some songs by Bryan Adams, I have several of his albums-including Waking up the neighbours- but "Everything I do" still makes me sick. I guess it is not a bad song either, but back then it was playing everywhere 24/7 and the overexposure created those effects. Same goes for some Dire straits songs, as well.  So, no disrespect, I am sorry if it gave out the impression of a snide remark, just a personal feeling) 

[Jules]

Tommy, welcome!

It's an honour to read you in this forum, you played on my favourite band in my favourite era...

I also like Bryan Adams and you are not the only link between Knopfler and Adams, Bryan also had Danny Cummings in his band!

Her K chapter could be rewritten in a most adequate way. We appreciate a lot any source of knowledge about our favourite era of Dire Straits.

[Pottel]

a big welcome also from my side to mr. Mandel.
so after Jack he is now the second straits member (not in the legal sense, i know) to visit our little village, sweet!
and we all assume a mr. Fletcher lurks every now and then, maybe i should stop the forum now, you know, go out with a bang!
any little anecdotes to share with us mr. Mandel? (no matter which artists, just live on the road stories..)

[dustyvalentino]

Thank you so much for coming to talk to us Mr Mandel.

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.

I went to see Bryan Adams live a few years back and it was a great show. So , any hits that I'd forgotten about to be honest (I mean that in a good way).

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

[tommym]

Glad to have you on board,  welcome! 

(BTW, I like some songs by Bryan Adams,... sorry if it gave out the impression of a snide remark, just a personal feeling)

Thanks for explaining, vgonis. You're right - Everything I Do (not my favorite BA song either, but I grew to like the 'don't tell me' section, and also when I saw, night after night, how it meant so much to many people in the audience) but like many 'big' hits, it was way overplayed, you're so right. I had to even play it with the local band at my sister's wedding!! Oh well   I had many favorite Dire Straits songs back then, but I really liked the words to Industrial Disease, some of the orchestral parts I had to play on Private Investigations, and my string part on Romeo and Juliet's bridge into Love Over Gold - I had a small hand in inventing that! I really liked Love over Gold too, and R&J, I think I know the girl whom it's about; Solid Rock was a lot of fun, Terry was such a great drummer to play along with, and I kind of got to start that one with him.

[tommym]

Tommy, welcome!
Adams, Bryan also had Danny Cummings in his band!

We appreciate a lot any source of knowledge about our favourite era of Dire Straits.

Thank you jbaent! Yes it was really cool reconnecting with Danny Cummings when Bryan A. did our Unplugged concert and tour to support it. Oh wait, I think that was when I first met Danny, because we were in Straits at different times?
 Rather than re-edit that old book, I'll be happy to just answer any questions that I can here, it's a whole new century now, and it's 15 years old already! wow.

[tommym]

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.