Manley in 1968
Vic Manley (14 October 1940 - 2 December 1976) was a Brunanter singer and actor who had a short-lived but highly praised career. Manley grew up in a farm near Chester. His father's death in 1949 prompted his mother to sell the farm and move to the city to look for work. Manley formed a rock and roll band while at school and was the singer. He found success as a musician with a solo career in 1964, performing twist and yeye and later rock songs.
Career[]
Music career[]
Manley formed a beat group in 1957, while in college, along with a few classmates, called The Engineers. They broke up around 1960, but performed at least one concert in 1961. In 1963, he auditioned for Vogue Brunant and in 1964, Manley released an EP with ye-ye pop and twist songs, aptly named The Engineers. While fairly successful, with songs like "The Little Girl" and "The Engineers' Twist", it was negatively reviewed. He had little control over the songs and the production and he had no creative input. The success of the EP allowed him to go on tour, while at the same time having more credibility to propose his own music.
Vogue Brunant wanted him to release a follow-up EP of pop songs to build on The Engineers, but he refused to continue with pop music and instead, he began writing his own work. Vogue thus released a live EP of pop/rock and roll covers from his concert periods, Vic Manley Live, released in April 1965.
Edgar Delatour and Victor Manley (right)
Together with Edgar Delatour, he worked on several songs from 1966, recording and releasing a single of "Me, Me, Me, Me" backed with "What they do in New York" in August 1966, much more rock-inspired, but highly successful. Critics were largely more positive, but with many still seeing a pop singer behind the voice.
That year, his release prompted him to begin work on a new album of music, striving more towards rock and away from the <<cheap pop hits>>, as he described it. Vic Manley, the first of his self-titled albums was released in August 1967 to great fanfare. He was compared to Frenchman Jacques Dutronc and brought him much praise from his music, something his early hits could not.
A concert tour in 1968 saw him perform throughout Brunant; Koningstad, Grijzestad, Brunantstad, Donderstad and Rosetown, followed up by concerts in France and Germany. Through the end of 1968 and 1969, he worked on a subsequent self-titled album, again another successful release
Acting career[]
He began acting in 1965, with a minor role in the film Corpse Robbers Inc. as a background artist. His first major acting role was in Mystery Beach, alongside Anna Lindbergs, in 1969. He acted in the TV series Inspector 64 from 1969-1975 and took the lead role in the short lived series Deputy Sheriff in the early 1970s.
In 1972, he married singer Jayne Bell, but by then, he had begun to drink excessively and to use drugs. Despite this, they were the most talked about couple of the year and appeared in many celebrity magazines. In 1974, the couple had a baby boy called Victor Jr. In 1976, Manley died of a drug overdose, at the age of 36.
Discography[]
- Vic Manley (1967)
- Vic Manley (1969)
- Vic Manley (1970)
Filmography[]
- Corpse Robbers Inc. (1965)
- Mystery Beach (1969)
- Inspector 64 (1969-1975)
- Deputy Sheriff (1973-1975)