Mike d'Abo

Michael David d'Abo (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of Manfred Mann from 1966 to their dissolution in 1969, and as the composer of the songs "Handbags and Gladrags" and "Build Me Up Buttercup", the latter of which was a hit for The Foundations. With Manfred Mann, d'Abo achieved six top twenty hits on the UK Singles Chart including "Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James", "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown" and the chart topper "Mighty Quinn". Early years D'Abo was born in Betchworth, Surrey, the son of Dorothy Primrose (née Harbord) and Edward Nassau Nicolai d'Abo, a London stockbroker. His d'Abo heritage is via the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies; his maternal line includes Edward Harbord, 3rd Baron Suffield (1781–1835).. He was educated at Wellesley House Prep School in Kent, then at Harrow School and Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is , and has eyes "that honestly seem to change from blue to brown to green, depending on the light" (Pete Goodman, music journalist). D'Abo's original intention at Cambridge was to read theology and become a priest but, faced with "everything to learn" (not least Classical Greek and Hebrew), and a disconnect between the "strange, impractical philosophy" he was being taught and his idealism about "bringing comfort to people" and spreading "understanding in the world," he "became wholly disillusioned" (Rave, November 1966). He switched to economics, also unsuccessfully, and left Cambridge with "a first class jazz collection" but without completing his studies. A Band of Angels His musical career began while he was still at Harrow School. He had minor success with a group of Old Harrovians, A Band of Angels, that had their own comic strip in a UK pop music weekly, Fab 208. A Band of Angels did not make the big time and d'Abo later reflected on what had gone wrong for them: "We weren't right for each other. We weren't a group. They didn't want me to be too outstanding, a thing that happens naturally in most groups.... Also we looked old-fashioned when we started. I knew I looked wrong but I didn't want to change, I looked like me and what I am. It is just lucky that fashion now agrees with me" (Rave, November 1966). Manfred Mann In July 1966, after leaving A Band of Angels, D’Abo joined Manfred Mann, an established chart-topping group, as a replacement for lead singer Paul Jones, who was leaving to start a solo career.