Attack of the Grey Lantern (Live at the Ritz) Paul Draper

• 1 The Chad Who Loved Me (Live at the Ritz) 05:07
• 2 Mansun's Only Love Song (Live at the Ritz) 05:52
• 3 Taxloss (Live at the Ritz) 07:13
• 4 You, Who Do You Hate? (Live at the Ritz) 03:04
• 5 Wide Open Space (Live at the Ritz) 04:57
• 6 Stripper Vicar (Live at the Ritz) 03:55
• 7 Disgusting (Live at the Ritz) 05:28
• 8 She Makes My Nose Bleed (Live at the Ritz) 04:06
• 9 Naked Twister (Live at the Ritz) 04:47
• 10 Egg Shaped Fred (Live at the Ritz) 04:10
• 11 Dark Mavis (Live at the Ritz) 08:43
• 12 An Open Letter to the Lyrical Trainspotter (Live at the Ritz) 04:32
• Total Runtime 01:01:54

Info for Attack of the Grey Lantern (Live at the Ritz)

2022 marks the 25 year anniversary of the release of Mansun's debut, the iconic #1 album Attack of the Grey Lantern. The much-loved and experimental piece of music is at the heart of fervent cult following for the British group. To celebrate, Kscope presents Paul Draper’s 2018 performance of the album in full.

Back in 2017, the dedicated Mansun fanbase started a petition that called for frontman Paul Draper to release his debut solo album Spooky Action. An online poll was then launched, and fans cast thousands of votes to choose Attack of the Grey Lantern as the album for Draper to play in full on tour in February / March 2018.

Paul Draper's 14-date Spring '18 tour followed Spooky Action entering at #19 in the UK album charts, a US tour with label mate Steven Wilson, and helped to celebrate one of the most favoured British albums from the late Britpop era. The album has also since been remastered and released in deluxe format by Kscope, re-entering the UK album charts at #28 in June 2018.

The success of Spooky Action led to Draper working on its follow up, 2022’s Cult Leader Tactics - a poignant album containing his finest songwriting since the bands’ imperial phase.

The Live at the Ritz album captures Draper's energetic stage presence, his fantastic band and classic Mansun tracks such as "Wide Open Space", "Taxloss" and "Disgusting", performed to a rapturous crowd in Manchester. The reaction to Paul Draper's latest output reveals how relevant Mansun's music is to a growing crowd of followers.

Paul Draper

Paul Draper
Playing smart hard rock with an ambitious outlook that found room for prog and glam influences, Mansun were a surprise success story on the British rock scene of the '90s. Draper was born in Liverpool, England on September 26, 1970, and began playing guitar when he was 15. Draper was attending Thames Polytechnic when he met Steve Heaton and Carlton Hibbert. The three formed a band called Grind; they released a 12" single, "Thought" b/w "The Dying Man," in 1991, but it wasn't a hit and the group soon split up. However, Draper and Hibbert would cross paths again when they joined forces with Dominic Chad, Stove King, and Mark Swinnerton to form Grey Lantern in 1995. Within months, the group had changed its name to Manson, and they independently released a debut single, "Take It Easy Chicken," that had several major labels bidding for their services. After signing with Parlophone, Manson became Mansun, reportedly due to threatened legal action from Charles Manson.

In early 1997, Mansun released their debut album, Attack of the Grey Lantern, which quickly rose to number one on the U.K. album chart (knocking Brit-pop heroes Blur out of the top spot), and the cult heroes became bona fide rock stars, at least in England. After Mansun's eclectic and ambitious second album, Six (1999), was a commercial disappointment, the band streamlined its sound on 2000's Little Kix. While working on their fourth album, Draper was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as bowenoid malignancy. Draper responded well to chemotherapy, but by the time he was healthy enough to return to work on the project, Mansun had broken up and the album was scrapped. (With Draper's participation, some of the tracks from the unfinished fourth album appeared on the 2004 box set Kleptomania.)

After Mansun announced their breakup in 2003, Draper initially maintained a low profile in the music business. He co-wrote and co-produced a 2006 single for Skin, vocalist with Skunk Anansie, and returned to the producer's chair for "Greyhounds in the Slips," a digital single released by The Joy Formidable. Draper also spent several years working with singer and composer Catherine A.D. on a project called The Anchoress, with their first single appearing in 2014. In 2013, during a radio interview, Draper announced he had recorded demos for a possible solo album and that he might make them available to fans if they were interested. The response was strong, and several fans went so far as to create social media pages lobbying for the release of Draper's recordings. In 2014, Draper appeared at a Mansun fan convention, and those in attendance heard a new track from him, "Feeling My Heart Run Slow." Two years later, Draper announced that he had signed with Kscope Records, and that he would be bringing out his first solo release, EP One, in June 2016. He returned in the summer of 2017 with his first full-length effort, Spooky Action, recorded with Catherine AD (The Anchoress) and longtime Mansun collaborator P-Dub. Draper embarked on a nationwide tour in support of the album, featuring Catherine AD as part of the live ensemble.

This album contains no booklet.