RIP Micky Mann

A friend died the other day and I mourned his passing, Micky Mann, sound engineer and ex-EOD, though not for very long, he thought it "dangerous." Whatev, I remember asking him at the Duke of York on Grays Inn Road, now the hideously anemic Clerk & Well, what some song sounded like. He replied, "Like a manta ray, hovering about 50 meters above the floor. A deep red." Thanks, fella, now we know. What a great guy, here's an obit:

A talented sound engineer and producer from Aberdeen who toured the world with various famous faces has died at the age of 65.

Mickey Mann was born in June 1960 and raised in the Kennethmont area, attending the Gordon Schools as a child.

His mother’s side of the family were from Huntly, while his dad grew up in Torry.

At age 16, Mickey started working at Royal Cornhill Hospital where he met two psychiatric nurses, Colin Angus and Will Sinnott, who would ultimately change his life.

The duo went on to form electronic dance band The Shamen in 1985 and invited Mickey to join them on tour. This is where he discovered his “ear” for music and started his career as Mr Mann.

“He walked into it with no training,” his sister Jane Mann told The Press and Journal.

“He was a natural talent, Mickey had an ear for being a sound engineer and a producer.”

Mickey Mann toured the world

Mickey lived and worked in Aberdeen for several years in the 70s and 80s – and then went on to tour the world.

“He worked his way up,” Jane said. “After a few months in the army at 15 he went on to work at Cornhill.

“He worked his way round different wards at the hospital, but mainly with psychiatric patients.

“Mickey always cared about people.”

He remained generous throughout his music career, even helping a band he met in the pub record their first album for free.

“He got on with everybody,” Jane added.

Mickey took on the role of manager for The Shamen, best known for hit song Ebeneezer Goode, and booked Orbital as their support act for a gig.

He went on to become their “third member” and worked with the electronic music duo, featuring brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, for 20 years.

Decades working as Mr Mr Mann

Mickey’s music career spanned decades and involved him working as a producer, manager and songwriter.

At one stage, he was considered the “third best sound engineer in the world”.

“He worked with so many artists and bands,” his sister Jane said.

“And he was always off somewhere, I remember him calling me from Prince’s house in the US once.

“Mickey worked with Kylie, toured with Nirvana for six months and Moby for years, and he was on Top of the Pops.

“He would have had thousands of stories to share.”

In more recent years, Mickey has battled a number of illnesses which forced him to step away from music.

He suffered a heart attack on June 3 and died in hospital in London on June 9.

 

I tell you, he was one of a kind. Rest in peace, Micky,

LSP

Beat The Drum

What kind of countryman are you, so-called LSP? All you do is post creepy photos of Barbie dolls dressed up like wimmyn priests.

Hey, I get your dissatisfaction. So to put things straight I put a couple of rods in the pickup and headed for water. Intuition and experience said try the other side of the dam, and that's exactly what happened. 

It was deserted and the river flowed clear. So clear, in fact, that you could see that there weren't any fish apart from a small posse of Carp, guarding the spillway entrance to the once mighty Brazos. Therein lies another tale, but undaunted I set up on the empty grid of the pier and cast off with worms and carp bait.

Within seconds something was tugging at the juicy worm/strawberry dough bait combo. Nice, then out pulled the line  with that steady, mindless-hunger, piscine determination and I snapped the rod up to set the hook. Action! 

Only to pull the hook up through empty water. What was this, a fish without parts that didn't occupy space? No, just a Gar who sensibly dropped the enticing strawberry chummed worm.

Knowing that persistence in the face of adversity is key, I cast off again, expecting nothing but hoping for everything. And there it was, a tug, a dive and fish on in the form of a voracious little Black Drum. I hauled him in.

Next, a decent sized Bluegill; up you come, predator, and back you go to fight again another day. And this little menace was followed by another Drum. Then something big hit the line. 

BOOM. One minute you're waiting there on the pier, looking out over Texas and the fabled Brazos, and the next? Something's charged into the hook like a Trump Train on full loco. Rod double, drag out, fast and furious action. Then up came the fish.

It was a big 'un too, no foolin', and a larger  adversary hit the line at the end of the expedition. Big action from a big fish, which annoyingly snapped the 12Ib test as I brought it up, defeated. 

Then it was time to head back to the Compound, under the light of a shining moon.

Fish on,

LSP