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Legendary Manfred Mann’s Earth Band to Hit 21 German Stages this Year

Manfred Mann, the living legend, and his Earth Band will be performing in Germany like crazy. The 81-year-old South African and his group are obviously unstoppable. But Corona did manage to mess up their touring schedule several times.

Berlin, July 27th, 2020, update: May 5th, 2022 (The Berlin Spectator) — When a baby boy named Manfred Sepse Lubowitz was born in Johannesburg in 1940, nobody had the slightest clue he would found the first South African Rock band, become a global superstar a few years later, and that his career would last for so many decades.

Music in the Apartheid State

When Mann started spreading his music, South Africa was a racist state which discriminated, oppressed and even murdered its Black majority. For a musician of Jewish origin who was opposed to Apartheid, things were not easy either.

With a friend, he founded a band called The Vikings as early as 1959, when many of us were not even conceived. In 1961, he moved to England, where he began to write for the ‘Jazz News’. The pseudonym he used was Manfred Mann, which sounded far more catchy than Manfred Sepse Lubowitz.

Mann is a true musician. In Johannesburg, and under his birth name, he studied music at the University of the Witwatersrand while hitting Jazz club stages as a pianist at night. Much later, when he was a Rock star, the Jazz influence would stay with him anyway.

The Mighty Mann

Manfred Mann constantly ran bands, delivering “all that Jazz” and the Blues. With a group named after him, Manfred Mann, they scored several hits before the 1970s started, including “Mighty Quinn”, a tune anyone older than 40 would know well. Maybe even too well.

Mann disbanded the band in 1969, only to create a new one which would play experimental Jazz-Rock tunes. He was one of the pioneers of this genre, along with Santana, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago and a few other groups.

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band was founded in 1971. It stands for huge hits such as “Blinded by the Light”, “Spirits in the Night” or “Davy’s on the Road Again”. Mann always had some other groups on the side, but Manfred Mann’s Earth Band has been the main product in the past 50 years.

Raising Roofs in Germany

Manfred Mann himself, who turned 81 last year, will be performing on as many as 21 stages in Germany before this year is over, if the damned Corona virus lets him. The entire tour was already postponed three times.

The German leg of his tour is scheduled to start on May 22nd, 2022, in Nuremberg. This month, the band will also take apart venues in Augsburg and Aschaffenberg, before they reach Hamburg on June 3rd. Oldenburg, Bochum and Hagen are on the list. So is a town with the weird name Kirchheimbolanden in Rhineland-Palatinate. Koblenz, St. Ingbert and Neustadt an der Weinstrasse (original spelling: Weinstraße) will be covered.

Back in Fall

The bad news is that Manfred Mann and the guys will be leaving Germany on June 20th, but they are supposed to return in fall to continue their tour over here. Their plan is to perform in Wissen, Ahlen, Schmallenberg, Bitburg, Würzburg and Winterbach. Gigs in Karlsruhe, Aalen, Bensheim and Memmingen are supposed to conclude this year’s German tour. But Manfred Mann wouldn’t be Manfred Mann if he did not have gigs lined up in several other countries as well. Tickets for the German gigs are available here: eventim.de

Welcome to mainland Europe, Manfred!

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