Tom Mansi & The Icebreakers New Single and Tour

• 6th Feb 2008

There can be little more surreal, as a working musician searching for your break, than finding yourself sitting on a private jet with Slash and Perry Farrell, en route to Las Vegas where you open the Revolution Lounge of the Mirage Hotel playing in hippy folk-hero Donovan’s band, along with his mate, movie director David Lynch, who had tagged along on the bill to give lectures on transcendental meditation and world peace of course.

Consigning the New Age aspects firmly to distant memory, Tom Mansi did take something of the Lynch soundtrack spirit to his debut album with The Icebreakers.

Entitled ‘Love On The Rails’, Tom Mansi & The Icebreakers release their debut album on Kartel on 21st April. In February, they take to the road with Kartel labelmate Son Of Dave, previewing the delights of ‘Love On The Rails’, and the two should compliment each other live perfectly. Where Son Of Dave provide a one-man band to blow your mind, Tom Mansi & The Icebreakers centre their unique take on rock n’ roll, country and blues around the steadfast double-bass and, in the words of Time Out recently, “put on quite a show” to boot.

Tom Mansi & The Icebreakers, featuring James Johnston on drums, Paul ‘The Iceman’ White on guitar and Alain Man on keyboards, produced the album themselves at Shock and Awe, a North London studio owned by Johnston and White, with only sound engineer Stevan Krakovic for company. They raised some of the money for the album recording by hiring out the studio to Barnet college every week and teaching a music production course in between recording sessions.

‘Love On The Rails’ offers a collection of Mansi memoirs, defining moments from the last few years, each track it’s own high definition story. The track ‘Holly’, for example, dates from when Tom played upright bass in a tiny fringe theatre, and was inspired by a softly-spoken, prozac-laced cabaret star (Holly), who pleaded a sore-throat to cancel the opening night of her one-woman musical after her alleged lesbian lover ran off with her husband! When ‘Holly’ was released from the album as a taster in November 07, Mark Radcliffe on Radio 2 saw a significant new talent emerge and made the track his Record Of The Week. Listen to the track on their Myspace:link.

Born on the same day that Charles Mingus died, it seemed preordained that Tom Mansi would make his living through playing the double bass. The band spent their formative years touring the smokiest booze pits, and that feeling of movement, the sofa-surfing life on the road, permeates through the album, hence the title. None more so than on their next single release, ‘Who Dunnit’, out on 17rd March to coincide with the Son Of Dave tour. A second single, ‘Trucking Along’, out on April 14th, precedes the album by a week. Tour dates to follow:

Thurs 7th Feb – London, The Scala – supporting Big Strides

Sat 9th Feb – Manchester, The Taurus (acoustic)

Mon 11th Feb – Big Chill House, Kings Cross, London

Wed 13th Feb – Reading, Boiler Room

Sat 16th Feb – Bath, The Moles

Sun 17th Feb – London, The Swan

Thurs 21st Feb – London, Madame Jo Jo’s – supporting Son Of Dave

Fri 22nd Feb – London, 93 Feet East (TBC)

Thurs 28th Feb – Newcastle, The Cluny – supporting Son Of Dave

Fri 29th Feb – Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire – supporting Son Of Dave

Sat 1st Mar – Glasgow, King Tuts Wah Wah Hut – supporting Son Of Dave

Sun 2nd Mar – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club – supporting Son Of Dave

Wed 5th Mar – Oxford, Jericho – supporting Son Of Dave

Thurs 6th Mar – Liverpool, Barfly – supporting Son Of Dave

Fri 7th Mar – Cardiff, The Hawthorne – supporting Son Of Dave

Sat 8th Mar – Bristol, Thelka – supporting Son Of Dave

Sun 30th Mar – London, The Swan

Fri 11th April – London, The Paradise Bar (TBC)