#eddie howell

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today - March 5th, 1976

Eddie Howell "The Man From Manhattan" 7" single released

Freddie Mercury: producer/piano/bvs

Brian May: guitar

Excerpts from an interview

Jacky Gunn-Smith - Official International Queen Fan Club

Eddie Howell’s ‘Man From Manhattan‘ is one of the best known and best loved of all Queen’s collaborations.

Recorded in mid January 1976 at Sarm East Studios in London, the song was produced by Freddie Mercury, who also played piano and sang backing vocals on the track and featured Brian May on guitar. The record is so reminiscent of “A Night At The Opera” in both instrumentation and mood, that many fans regard it as virtually an “Opera” out-take. When it was launched as a single on Warner Bros records in 1976, it became a turntable hit in the UK and looked set to chart until music industry bureaucracy halted it in it’s tracks.

Birmingham born Eddie Howell began his professional career in the late 60’s, when Chrysalis music picked up on his songwriting demos and introduced him to an independent record producer, who in turn licensed his first single “Easy Street”, as a one-off deal to Parlophone in 1969.

Working as a songwriter throughout the early 70’s, Eddie’s next venture into recording came in 1975 when he signed to Warner Bros records as an artist. thursdaysHe released two singles, “Long Story” and “Can’t get over you”, and his debut LP “The Eddie Howell Gramophone Record”, which featured members of “Brand X” and guitarist Gary Moore.

The album was launched at a promotional gig at Thursday’s club in Kensington. Eddie’s band included Phil Collins on congas, Jack Lancaster on saxophone and Robin Lumley on keyboards. Explains Eddie, ”In the audience that night was Freddie Mercury who had been brought along to the gig by my manager David Minns. It was there that he first heard “Man From Manhattan”, which was a newly written song included in the set. After the gig we met and he was very complimentary about the song and offered to produce it. I remember we all went down to ‘The Elephant on the River’ to celebrate”.

Enthused by the prospect of his first foray into production, Freddie wasted little time in getting started. ”I gave him a two track guitar/vocal demo of the song” recalls Eddie, ”and a couple of days later he called and said let’s get going. Studio time was booked at Sarm East Studios and true to form, Freddie quickly took control of the sessions; ”He did lots of pre-production work on the song’s structure and the harmony arrangements”, reveals Ed. ” He had a mini cassette recorder loaded with ideas for the track, backing vocals and answering phrases”.

”We took a week to record the song”, remembers Eddie, ”which was a long time in those days, but because of Freddie’s involvement, Warners gave us a blank cheque. The sessions were quite intense, there was never a lull. Brian came in to play hismikestone2 guitar parts and the musical rapport between him and Freddie was plain to see, they were on the same page. One day, a hand-held spinning bell-cymbal in the key of ‘D’ was required by Freddie for one ping at the end of the track and the studio didn’t have one, so a runner was dispatched to scour the streets of London in search of one. The session was adjourned for half a day while we waited down at the Shazam Indian restaurant in Brick Lane for the bell to arrive. It eventually arrived and took about a minute to record, it must have been the most expensive ping ever recorded”.

On the final day of recording, a trio of Warner Bros top brass flew in from California and made a beeline for Sarm East studios to meet Freddie. Recalls Eddie, ”They probably thought the red carpet would be rolled out as they were paying for the recording sessions, but instead they were kept waiting in reception for about four hours. When they were eventually granted an audience, the charm offensive was full onlongstory3 and it was all smiles and bonhomie. At the end of the session, after the final playback, Freddie turned to me and said, ‘If this isn’t a hit, sue Warner Bros ‘ ”.

The finished article obviously had a heavy Queen influence with the presence of Freddie and Brian on the track, but ”Man from Manhattan” was far from a tribute to Queen. ”I wrote the song after my first trip to Manhattan in late 74”, reveals Eddie, ”I was reading ‘The Godfather Papers’ by Mario Puzo and the song was about those mafia characters who lead a double life. Musically, I had ‘Dead End Street’, by the Kinks in mind, complete with trombones and a walking double-bass”.

Prior to the ban, ”Manhattan” made top 50 in the UK, top 20 in Australia, Belgium and South Africa and top 5 in Holland, but sadly, as a consequence of the ban, it was never released in America or many of the world’s other major territories.

When it was issued as a single in 1976, Warner’s publicity department played up the Queen connection as much as they could, and “Manhattan” rapidly became a turntable hit in the UK. The record received heavy rotation on the airwaves – particularly in Europe where it became a big hit. Then, just when it looked set to climb the charts in the UK, the Musicians Union mysteriously discovered that Jerome Rimson, the American bassist hired by Freddie for the sessions, had been working in Britain without a permit. This obliged them to place a ban on any and all further UK media exposure due to his ‘Illegally’ recorded playing. A decision which effectively killed off the record.

Having recently regained the rights to his back catalogue recorded during his time with the label, Eddie is now releasing the tracks digitally. ”Man from Manhattan” is first up, more to follow…

(source: https://manfrommanhattan.wordpress.com/)

📸 Pic: Freddie Mercury and Eddie Howell in control room

[debdarkpetal]

[uracowgirlikeme]

Eddie when Buck started dating Tommy

[eddies-spaghetti]

i’m begging d & p to make dalien nonbinary

@danielhowell @amazingphil

[izzysbeans]

just to understand, do you like aus, or are you a "canon compliant" person?

[crayolascribblz]

I didnt know if I should post this on my dan and phil sideblog or if I should post it here but I'm just gonna put it here bc it's silly :3 a doodle while I'm in-between doodling ocs

[upsidedownbronco]

Go get yourself something nice from my sh0p!

30% off this week until Valentine's Day!

[killershushikk]

I’m sorry I have to know

[buckbeforeyou]

a nun Eddie Diaz would love

[thefomodefinition]

first Eddie/rg made me a mustache lover and now Dan is making me rethink mullets???

[zackbyychocolate]

Dear reader,

Welcome to my blog, I’m Zack (she/they)!

WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK BABY! 🤠🩵

I can’t believe I have a tumblr phan account again after not having one for several years—I’m glad to be back.

D+P are super nostalgic to me, so getting this new content from them has put me back into the swing of things lol

I’ve always been a fan though (since I was like 12…….I’m 23 now), but I strayed away from the phandom a couple years back and deleted my old phan tumblr account, which I miss a lot!

I had quite a few followers on that old account but cannot for the life of me remember the name of it lol. I really wish I knew what witty username I had—it was probably some sort of really old DNP reference bahahahahhaha

Anyways, expect to see lots of DNP, some steddie, and good omens! ヽ(^。^)ノ

ps- I would love to be friends with you! Hmu!! 🫶🏻

Best,

Zack 🩵

[oatmilk-vampire]

Things I'm currently into (i literally can't think about anything else. They are consuming me)

Steve Harrington /(Joe Keery/Djo)

Eddie Munson /(Joseph Quinn)

Steddie

Dan and Phil

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Lisa Frankenstein

The Bear

Aliens

Cryptids

Lyres

Writing

If you're bored Please consider dm-ing me about any of the above or just sharing your posts to me, I will reblog

[nxcroflesh]

some years ago i made a load of kindred: the embraced memes out of dril tweets and i think now is the time to bring them back. you're welcome

[kwebtv]

Series Premiere

Bourbon Street Beat - The Taste of Ashes - ABC - October 5, 1959

Crime Drama

Running Time: 60 minutes

Written by Charles Hoffman and Al C. Ward

Produced by Harry Tatelman

Directed By Leslie H. Martinson

Stars:

Richard Long as Rex Randolph

Andrew Duggan as Cal Calhoun

Arlene Howell as Melody Lee Mercer

Van Williams as Kenny Madison

Joanna Moore as Karen Delastone

Fredd Wayne as Lt. Fontaine

Karl Weber as Ira Groat

Eddie Cole as "The Baron"

Isobel Elsom as Serena Delastone

Jean Byron as Martha Delastone

Jean Allison as Linda Jelkins

David Leland as Hawkins

Kelton Garwood as Beauregard O'Hanlon

Danielle Aubry as Marie

[stopthefeeling]

I did not sleep last night because I'm so excited to see A View From The Bridge today like I am not in the slightest bit a theatre nerd except for this one play. I've got two copies of it, I'm currently listening to my playlist that reminds me of it and I'm definitely going to reread the copy I'm bringing to get signed by the cast on the train into London despite last reading it a week and a half ago. Its just so messy and soapy and fucked up and scratches a very specific itch in my soul and I've been wanting to see it live for 10 years but I've never found a production I could get to from where I've lived so this is such a long time coming and I'm so so excited to finally see it performed.

[upsidedownbronco]

Fun little sh0p update!

From Dan & Phil to Loki to Stranger Things, check it out below 👇🏽

Remember these are PREORDER items and will take longer to ship out!

(more items coming soon!)

https://upsidedownbronco.etsy.com