Manny Charlton, one of rock’n’roll’s premier guitarists and producers, was born in La Linea Spain on July 25th. As a child, his family relocated to Scotland where Manny fed his musical thirst with early American R&B and blues records. Later, with the emergence of what we now call rock’n’roll, Manny discovered and was influenced by the music of Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis Presley, to name a few. Other influences Manny cites were notable artists such as Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Ry Cooder,Dave Edmunds, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Lowell George of Little Feat fame.
In 1968, Manny joined a local Scottish group, at that time known as the Shadettes, featuring Dan McCafferty, Darrell Sweet, and Pete Agnew.The group played clubs in and around the U.K. and while recording their first album in London, renamed themselves to “Nazareth”. As we all know, the rest is rock’n’roll history!
From the day of their first major public appearance, at the Marquee Club in London, and with their first big break with the success of the single, “Broken Down Angel” from the “Razamanaz” album, Nazareth went on to sell millions and millions of records worldwide. Dubbed as one of the hardest workind bands throughout their career, touring the world over countless times, Nazareth became legendary and a household name to rock fans everywhere.
Manny played on a total of 25 Nazareth albums of which he produced 7 of them, not including several singles which have just recently surfaced for commercial sale. The most notable Nazareth albums Manny Charlton produced were, the most classic of all, “Hair Of The Dog”, as well as the kick-ass sounds of “Play’N’ The Game”, “Expect No Mercy” and “No Mean City”.
In 1990, Manny decided on a personal career choice of pursuing a solo career and devoting more time to production work. As a result, 1989’s “Snakes N Ladders” was Manny’s last studio endeavor with Nazareth. Since then, Manny has produced records for a host of bands, most notably,doing the pre-production work on Guns’N’ Roses debut classic, “Appetite For Destruction”. Also, he has continued to stockpile a number of original tunes he has recorded, as well as acquiring a taste for the art of guitar building.
Recently, in 1998, Manny and his wife relocated to Dallas, Texas where Manny set up shop and released “Drool”, his first solo effort since the departure from Nazareth. Manny wrote, played guitars, keyboards and bass as well as producing and engineering the tracks. The long awaited solo release by Manny was well worth the wait as “Drool” truly rules! Another Manny masterpiece without a doubt!
Also, Manny has newly formed “The Manny Charlton Band”, a group consisting of some serious Texas rockers with Manny handling guitar and production duties.
They have recently recorded an E.P. c.d. called “Taster”, consisting of two tracks, “Sweet Love” and “Maggot Eye”. Any true fan of in your face, kick-ass rock’n’roll will be truly inspired by this MCB debut recording. Awesome!
Manny also plans to follow up his solo debut “Drool” with another effort tentatively to be entitled “Bravado”. Manny will be playing all instruments as well as handling vocal duties and promises it to be a recording to satisfy any rock fans need for heavy guitar work! Can’t wait! He is currently writing the tracks for this project while playing shows in Texas and the southern states with MCB. Do not….I repeat…Do not miss achance to see these guys play live….you won’t be disappointed!!!
Source: www.geocities.com/mannycharlton
