The "fledging Rock Star" Years
Dubbed a virtuoso rock drummer by a Philadelphia-area newspaper, self-taught Manor also became competent enough at songwriting, synthesizer, various percussion instruments, harmonica, vocals and electric bass to perform each discipline onstage; and wrote three articles for Modern Drummer magazine. He also performed in a public demonstration with synthesizer inventor Dr. Robert Moog.
Stately is one of the "Sigma Kids," a group of about a dozen David Bowie devotees who kept a ten-day vigil outside the studio and band’s hotel during the recording of Young Americans rewarded afterwards with an exclusive listening party hosted by Bowie, a move so unprecedented, it was documented in Rolling Stone magazine. In 2007, a special CD/DVD re-release of the album features Manor visible in four photos in the enclosed booklet. Photos from the event also appear in books about Bowie and the original supermodel, Gia, as well as on the SWM website ‘Photos’ archive.
Inspired by the Sigma experience to try his own hand as front man, Manor assembled a short-lived band, recruiting bassist Gail Ann Dorsey who, ironically enough, now regularly tours with Bowie.
In the latter half of the Seventies, Stately became deeply immersed in the emerging punk rock music scene. He was a regular and occasional performer at Philadelphia’s Hot Club, and frequented NYC venues such as CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, regularly sleeping on the couch of future recording-engineer superstar Bob Clearmountain while in New York. Manor was also slated to drum behind former Sex Pistol Sid Vicious on the Philly date of the latter’s aborted "solo tour."
Read more about this topic: Stately Wayne Manor
Famous quotes containing the words rock, star and/or years:
“When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and even to dance the waltz and foxtrot. But how many of us can dance, or have even heard of the gombe sugu, the mangala, nyang’umumi, kiduo, or lele mama?”
—Julius K. Nyerere (b. 1922)
“The Star that bids the Shepherd fold,
Now the top of Heav’n doth hold,
And the gilded Car of Day,
His glowing Axle doth allay
In the steep Atlantick stream,”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Could it be that those who were reared in the postwar years really were spoiled, as we used to hear? Did a child-centered generation, raised in depression and war, produce a self-centered generation that resents children and parenthood?”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)