Mike Vickers
{{short description|English musician (born 1940)}}
{{About|the Manfred Mann guitarist, flautist and saxophonist|the United States Assistant Secretary of Defense|Michael G. Vickers|the Bishop of Colchester|Michael Vickers (bishop){{!}}Michael Vickers}}
{{BLP sources|date=July 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Mike Vickers
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| birth_name = Michael Graham Vickers
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1940|04|18|df=y}}
| birth_place = Staines-upon-Thames, England
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| occupations = Musician
| instruments = {{hlist|Guitar|flute|saxophone|Moog synthesizer}}
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| past_member_of = {{hlist|Manfred Mann|The Manfreds}}
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Michael Graham Vickers (born 18 April 1940) is an English musician who came to prominence as the guitarist, flautist, and saxophonist with the 1960s band Manfred Mann.
Early life
Vickers was born in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey. At the age of seven, his family moved to Scotland, and when he was eleven, to Southampton, where he attended King Edward VI School.{{Cite web|url=https://mikevickers.net/a-potted-biography/|title=A potted biography – Mike Vickers|date=18 January 2014 |access-date=26 April 2020}}
Career
=Manfred Mann=
Vickers originally played flute and saxophone, but with the increasing popularity of guitars in bands, it was decided that Manfred Mann should have a guitarist in their lineup. Vickers volunteered for this role, though he always preferred playing woodwind.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} His tough flute soloing on hard blues tracks, such as "Without You", prefigured the work of Ian Anderson with Jethro Tull five years later.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} As the group were all multi-instrumentalists, multi-tracking was used to allow Vickers to perform on guitar and woodwind on the same recordings, while drummer Mike Hugg similarly doubled on vibraphone.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}
He was credited as a co-writer on Manfred Mann's early hit singles{{Clarify|date=August 2021}} and contributed a few tracks to albums, including "The Abominable Snowmann" and "You're for Me".{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} In 1965, his bandmate Tom McGuinness described him as "the nicest one of the group…nice nearly all the time. But when he's nasty he just can't be nice about it." McGuinness added: "He collects saxophones – which we buy for him."Sleeve note, Mann Made, His Master's Voice 1911, 1965
By 1965, according to McGuinness, Vickers was already "recording with his own orchestra and looks like becoming a definite threat to Semprini".Sleeve note, Mann Made, His Master's Voice 1911, 1965
=Solo=
At the end of 1965, Vickers quit Manfred Mann, although his first solo album, I Wish I Were a Group Again, did not appear until 1968.{{cite book|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Virgin Books|date=1997|edition=First|isbn=0-7535-0149-X|page=461}} In June 1967, Vickers conducted the orchestra for the live recording of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love", which was shown on live TV across the world when communications satellite technology was celebrated by a worldwide linkup.
Vickers continued as a composer and arranger for records, television shows, and films. He composed "Pegasus", the theme from the cult ITV series The Adventures of Don Quick in 1970.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} One of his most familiar TV compositions is "Jet Set", which was used as the theme music for the NBC game show Jackpot in 1974–75,{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} and as opening music for the sports series This Week in Baseball from 1977, until the programme's end in 2011. However, he did not write TWIB's iconic closing theme, "Gathering Crowds"; that was written by John Scott.{{cite web|last=Foster|first=Jason|title=The inside story of how 'This Week in Baseball' got its iconic theme music|url=http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/this-week-in-baseball-theme-music-gathering-crowds-john-scott-composer-twib-mlb/p160luo17unx1k01dnguoyn23|website=Sporting News|publisher=Sporting News Media |date=4 August 2015 |access-date=4 April 2021}} His film work includes the scores to The Sandwich Man (1966), Press for Time (1966), My Lover, My Son (1970), Please Sir! (1971), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), The Sex Thief (1973), and the fantasy films At the Earth's Core (1976) and Warlords of Atlantis (1978).{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}
Vickers was an early user of the Moog synthesizer and found work outside his usual composing and arranging jobs as a programmer and performer of Moog equipment in the late 1960s, including teaching the Beatles how to use the Moog during recording sessions for the Abbey Road album.{{cite web | url=https://reverb.com/news/when-moog-arrived-in-the-uk | title=When Moog Arrived in the UK | date=9 July 2020 }}
He also founded the Baker Street Philharmonic, releasing singles, EPs, and four albums between 1969 and 1972.{{cite web |title=Mike Vickers |url=http://mikevickers.net/discography/ |website=Mike Vickers |accessdate=21 June 2018}} His instrumental piece "Visitation", composed and recorded in 1971, was used in the Polish television science series Sonda, broadcast between 1977 and 1989.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}
=The Manfreds=
From 1992 to 1999, Vickers was a member of the Manfreds, an amalgamation of 1960s Manfred Mann members and associates that featured both Paul Jones and his successor, Mike d'Abo, on vocals, the latter also playing keyboards. Vickers played only woodwind instruments—alto saxophone, flute, and occasionally recorder—in this ensemble. In some of the later hits, such as "Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James", he reproduced woodwind parts that had been performed on the original studio versions by his successor in Manfred Mann, Klaus Voormann.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}
Discography
=with Manfred Mann=
{{Main articles|Manfred Mann discography}}
- The Five Faces of Manfred Mann (1964)
- The Manfred Mann Album (1964)
- My Little Red Book of Winners! (1965)
- Mann Made (1965)
=Solo=
- Wish I Were a Group Again (1968)
=with the Manfreds=
- 5-4-3-2-1 (1998)
- Live (1999)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{wikiquote}}
- {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112235837/http://www.vinylvulture.co.uk/pages/mike_vickers.htm |date=12 January 2008 |title=Vinyl Vulture – Interview }}
- {{IMDb name|id=0896016}}
{{Manfred Mann}}
{{This Week in Baseball}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vickers, Mike}}
Category:20th-century English musicians
Category:21st-century English saxophonists
Category:21st-century British flautists
Category:English rock guitarists
Category:English rock saxophonists
Category:English male saxophonists
Category:English multi-instrumentalists
Category:Musicians from Southampton
Category:English television composers
Category:British rhythm and blues boom musicians
Category:English male guitarists
Category:People educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton
Category:English blues musicians