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MANSUN formed in the summer of 1995. The band were originally named Grey Lantern, (which was supposed to sound like Pink Floyd) but then renamed themselves "A Man Called Sun". This was later shortened to Mansun after the discovery of another band called "A Man Called Adam" which was thought to be too similar to their own name. The band's first release has the name spelt as Manson. Legal action was apparently threatened by Charles Manson's estate, as his name was patented for merchandising rights. This early brush with controversy set the tone for the band's rise to fame, often shrouded in controversy and always chaotic.
The band, all members in their early 20s, was formed by Paul Edward Draper, Dominic Chad and Stove King, friends from the city of Chester in the North of England, about 15 miles outside of Liverpool. Draper hailed from the Wavertree area of Liverpool, King from Ellesmere Port on the outskirts of Merseyside and Chad from Cheltenham, the birthplace of his spiritual mentor Brian Jones. By coincidence the three all resided in the Chester area although none were actually born there. The only native Cestrian in the band is Andie Rathbone who hails from the Blacon area of the city, which is supposed to be the single biggest council housing development in Western Europe. Rathbone did not want to join the group to start with as he originally thought the band were going to play "Britpop shite" as he once put it. Dominic Chad ended up living in Chester after being ejected from a degree in Russian and French at Bangor University, North Wales. He worked at Bangor's Fat Cat pub in the evenings and after he left college took up a job as bar manager of the newly opened Fat Cat in Chester.
Paul came to the city via another Welsh connection, he moved from Liverpool to Deeside, a Welsh industrial town only a few miles from Chester. He and Stove, friends from a mutual interest in graphic design, used to be frequently found in the Fat Cat pub, drinks supplied courtesy of Chad and it was here that the band began. The band were all friends after leaving school when Paul attended Art College and Stove attended the Liverpool Graphic Arts College.
Paul and Chad were in various school bands but nothing serious and drifted into jobs while always threatening to form a serious group. Stove had never picked up an instrument before Mansun. Andie had played the drums since he was a young child.
Like all great groups the band freely admitted in later interviews to not being able to play a note when they first formed, and chose their name (quite a few names actually) before even picking up an instrument in anger. Stove bought a second hand bass specifically to learn how to play so he could be in the group, fortunately he never went the way of Stuart Sutcliffe. Paul had played acoustic guitar and had written songs from the age of eleven, but neither he nor Chad had played in a professional group before. In interviews the group have stated on many occasions they wanted to form a group simply to get out of Chester - this would explain why their desire was much greater than their talent in these early days.
The three rehearsed at Crash Rehearsal Studios in Liverpool on a Sunday to relieve the boredom of working during the week. A sampler provided breakbeats and a drummer was not to be found with the embryonic Mansun. The breakbeats can be heard on nearly all of Mansun's early recordings. The band then recorded a 4-track demo at a local studio, which cost them £150 and took a full day to record. This demo consisted of Take it easy Chicken, Skin Up Pin Up, Moronica and She Makes My Nose Bleed and can be found occasionally as a bootleg. These demos are the same recordings as the commercial releases but the band played them to no one, they had refused to ever send tapes round to anyone at this point.
Other Links to Mansun Sites Rating *****
Mansun - Official Website ***
Come.to/Mansun ****