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 Manfred Mann were an English rock band, formed in London and active between 1962 and 1969. The group were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two diffe ...

. He was born in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey. At the age of seven, his family moved to Scotland and then at the age of eleven, to Southampton, where he attended King Edward VI school.

Career

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. His tough flute soloing on hard

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

tracks, such as "Without You", prefigured the work of

Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist, acoustic guitarist and leader of the British rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist ...

with Jethro Tull five years later. 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 The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

. He was credited as a co-writer on Manfred Mann's early hit singles and contributed a few tracks to albums, including "The Abominable Snowmann" and "You're for Me". 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." By 1965, according to McGuinness, Vickers was already "recording with his own orchestra and looks like becoming a definite threat to Semprini". At the end of that year, he quit the band, although his first solo album, ''I Wish I Were a Group Again'', did not appear until 1968. In June 1967, Vickers conducted the orchestra for the live recording of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' " 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 In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

for records, television shows, and films. He composed "Pegasus", the theme from the cult ITV series ''

The Adventures of Don Quick ''The Adventures of Don Quick'' is a science fiction comedy television series that ran from October–December 1970, on ITV. Starring Ian Hendry and Ronald Lacey, six 50 minute episodes were made, shown in a 60-minute time slot. As of 2008, onl ...

'' in 1970. One of his most familiar TV compositions is "Jet Set", which was used as the theme music for the NBC game show ''

Jackpot Jackpot or Jackpot! may refer to: * A prize, such as a progressive jackpot * Gardena jackpots, a poker variant * Jackpot, Nevada, a community on the Nevada–Idaho state border Comics * Jackpot (comics), several comic book characters * ''Jackp ...

'' in 1974–75, 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 ''TWIBs iconic closing theme, "Gathering Crowds"; that was written by John Scott. His film work includes the scores to '' The Sandwich Man'' (1966), '' Press for Time'' (1966), ''

My Lover, My Son ''My Lover, My Son'' is a 1970 American-British coproduction drama film directed by John Newland. It tells the story of a mother played by Romy Schneider clinging to her maturing son. The film is based on Edward Grierson's 1952 novel '' Reputati ...

'' (1970), '' Please Sir!'' (1971), '' Dracula A.D. 1972'' (1972), ''

The Sex Thief ''The Sex Thief'' is a 1973 British sex comedy film starring David Warbeck, Diane Keen and Christopher Biggins. It was an early film credit for director Martin Campbell. The film was released in North America (in January 1976) as ''Her Family J ...

'' (1973), and the fantasy films '' At the Earth's Core'' (1976) and ''

Warlords of Atlantis ''Warlords of Atlantis'' (aka ''Warlords of the Deep'', though see below for further variant titles) is a 1978 British adventure science fiction film directed by Kevin Connor and starring Doug McClure, Peter Gilmore, Shane Rimmer, and Lea Brodie ...

'' (1978). Vickers was an early user of the

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

and found work outside his usual composing and arranging jobs as a programmer and performer of Moog equipment in the late 1960s, including teaching

how to use the Moog during recording sessions for the ''

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although '' Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly ...

'' album. He also founded the Baker Street Philharmonic, releasing singles, EPs, and four albums between 1969 and 1972. His instrumental piece "Visitation", composed and recorded in 1971, was used in the Polish television science series '' Sonda'', broadcast between 1977 and 1989. From 1992 to 1999, Vickers was a member of

the Manfreds The Manfreds is a British pop group, formed in 1991 as a reunion of former members of the 1960s pop group Manfred Mann, however without their eponymous founder Manfred Mann. History The original members of Manfred Mann, minus keyboard player Ma ...

, 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 The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B t ...

, flute, and occasionally

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

—in this ensemble. In some of the later hits, such as "

Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James "Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James" is a song written by songwriters Geoff Stephens and John Carter, recorded by English pop group Manfred Mann in 1966. Stephens and Carter, who were writers for a publishing company on Denmark Street, London, ...

", he reproduced woodwind parts that had been performed on the original studio versions by his successor in Manfred Mann,

Klaus Voormann Klaus Otto Wilhelm Voormann (born 29 April 1938) is a German artist, musician, and record producer. Voormann was the bassist for Manfred Mann from 1966 to 1969, and performed as a session musician on a host of recordings, including " You're So ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vickers, Mike English rock guitarists English rock saxophonists British male saxophonists Rock flautists English multi-instrumentalists Living people Musicians from Southampton British television composers Manfred Mann members British rhythm and blues boom musicians 1940 births 21st-century saxophonists English male guitarists The Manfreds members People educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton English blues musicians 21st-century flautists