PULSE - music and more, with Simon Donohue

A SONG which refers to a 1967 story from the Lancashire Evening Telegraph is included on the record which has been voted the best-ever album.

The Beatles' LP Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band topped the Top 100 album list compiled from the votes of customers at HMV record stores throughout the country.

Among tracks on the album is A Day In The Life, which contains the words "4,000 Holes In Blackburn, Lancashire".

The lyric refers to a story which appeared in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph about the state of the roads in the town.

The top three albums were Sergeant Pepper, The Stone Roses debut album and Revolver, also by The Beatles.

Hello neighbours! Tour guests find Chumba are chums from 'next door'

A MUSICIAN from Rossendale unwittingly followed his chart-topping East Lancashire neighbours on a tour of the United States.

Manbreak, featuring drummer Stuart Carswell, of Helmshore Road, Haslingden, have just returned to the UK after playing a two-week tour of North America with Chumbawamba, the hit band containing four Burnley-born members. Amazingly, the two groups didn't even realise they were from the same part of the world.

Stuart was this week rehearsing with Manbreak's new guitarist in Liverpool, where the band is based. Tour manager John Sparks, 27, who also lives in Helmshore Road, told Pulse: "It was really strange because we were talking to Alice Nutter (of Chumbawamba) and she asked us where we came from. "Stuart and me told her we came from Rossendale, not expecting her to know where it was. Then she said she used to work on a check-out at Asda in Rawtenstall and on a Bacup market stall."

Manbreak play a hip-hop style brand of political pop which is very different to Chumbawamba's music but shares a similar cynical viewpoint.

John - known as Sparky - added: "Chumbawamba really liked Manbreak.

"They are very into the music and have a similar political stance.

"Chumbawamba are very open to giving bands they like a break."

Ironically, Manbreak are signed to One Little Indian, the label which Chumbawamba left before signing to EMI.

Their next single Round And Round - taken from the recently-released album Come And See - is soon to be released in Britain and in America, where it is hoped that radio audiences will lap it up.

Speaking of the American audiences, John said: "There was a really strange mix of people at the gigs.

"Chumbawamba are very big over there at the moment and so there were parents with their children as well as students and 12 and 13-year-old kids."

Despite their music gaining little recognition in England at the moment, Manbreak have been impressing audiences and critics in the US.

One journalist who had interviewed the Beatles at their very last American gig - at Shea Stadium - insisted on talking to the band after a gig in Cleveland.

"She was about 70 years old and said that she rated Manbreak alongside the Beatles as two of her favourite Liverpool bands," said John.

They also have an unusual claim to fame in that their manager is the wife of Black Sabbath member Geezer Butler, a woman who co-manages Black Sabbath with lead singer Ozzy Osbourne's wife. Manbreak have no immediate plans to play live in the UK but a number of festival appearances are expected, so watch this space.

Grapes of wrath

BLACK Grape are not splitting up and Hyndburn-born drummer Ged Lynch will continue to work with them, say record company sources.

The denial comes after reports in the music papers and on television that frontman Shaun Ryder had split with all but one of the band.

The story followed after an alleged backstage bust-up between Ryder and tour manager Tony Murray, who also manages Manmade, the group formed by Black Grape members Kermit and Carl "Psycho" McCarthy.

A spokesman for the band slammed the rumours that Kermit and Psycho had left: "We have spoken to the management and have not found any truth in the story. We don't know where it came from.

"The band will continue and Ged Lynch will carry on playing with them."

Ged Lynch has played with the group since they were formed and has also worked with John Bon Jovi and Electronic.

Along with rapper Kermit, he was also a member of the Ruthless Rap Assassins.

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