“I’LL tell you the truth,” Manfreds lead guitarist Tom McGuinness says,“The first time I ever played bass guitar was the first time I walked on stage with Manfred Mann. The confidence of youth! You could do anything!”

The Manfreds will play a concert at Newport Riverfront later this month which coincides with the 50th anniversary reissue of Manfred Mann’s debut albumThe Five Faces of Manfred Mann. However Tom’s statement seems quite a revelation formyself having previously witnessed him perform on several occasions as part of the reformed Manfreds and The Blues Band. His confidence as a musician, which has seen him famously play a guitar on his shoulders is legend.

He is of course known as The Manfreds lead guitarist now, but back in December 1963 when he joined Manfred Mann he was employed to play bass.

Prior to joining the group Tomhad been playing with London- based band The Roosters alongside Eric Clapton, but after gigs ran out Clapton left to join The Yardbirds. Tomthen learned fromfriend and Manfred Mann lead singer Paul Jones that Manfred Mann was looking for a new bass player. “I’d been playing guitar 6 years in little local bands not getting anywhere,” says Tom.

“When I was offered the job with Manfred Mann on bass guitar I thought well it’s got two left strings what can be hard about that?”

“The audition was a joke,” remembers Tom. “They were doing a gig at the St JohnAmbulance hall in Chigwell where I was secretly taken in backstage by Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg while Paul Jones and Mike Vickers were keeping the other bass player, Dave Richmond, occupied in another room.

“ I didn’t have to play a note. Dave Richmond who I was replacing was a jazz player with immense technique but he found it very limiting playing R and B. He put in a lot more notes than they wanted and when they asked, ‘do you promise to play simply?’ I could say with all honesty never having played bass guitar I would play as simple as they wanted.”

Tomdidn’t find out he was an official Manfred until a note was dropped through his letterbox at 2am the following morning saying: “… Be at the Ealing club in West London you’ve got the gig!”

So I walked on stage was handed a bass guitar and that was it.”

Tom admits that he was never a dedicated bass player.

“I tried to do it as well as I could. I was in company with some very good musicians I had to live up to their standards but I always wanted to get back to lead guitar.”

At the time of Tomjoining Manfred Mann the bands debut single 54321 had already been recorded, it was released in early 1964 and reached Number Five. It was quickly followed by their second single Do Wah Diddy Diddy “Having a hit record for the first time was the big thing, but then getting to number one was amazing,” says Tom.

The success was to continue for the next six years, with Manfred Mann having no less than 17 UK chart entries which included three number one hits. The popular press even touted them as serious contenders for replacing The Beatles as Britain’s top band, “There was all this rubbish that we replaced the Beatles at number one and it was like “Manfreds smash Beatles fromtop spot”, laughs Tom, “Somebody had to take over, their sales were going down our sales were going up it could have been Ken Dodd it could have been anything. It just happened to be us.”

The band also released their first albumat this time, “With the success of 54321, EMI wanted an albumso we went in and recorded the live act and that albumcame out and that was The Five Faces of Manfred Mann.”

The original album with several track substitutions also did well in America back in 1964.

“None of our albums in America were released in the same format. EMI did the same thing with the Beatles.

EMI had a strange policy of not controlling the stuff when it went out overseas but luckily Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Sha La La and Pretty Flamingo were all big hits over there.”

Fans will get to hear tracks off the UK and US release of The Five Faces of Manfred Mann when The Manfreds consisting of Tom along with Paul Jones, Mike Hugg, Rob Townsend, Marcus Cliffe and Simon Currie take to the stage of Newport Riverfront later this month.

They’ll be playing tracks from the album and all the big hits. The Manfreds are at the Riverfront on September 28. Call 01633 656757 for ticket details.