by Bruce EderEssentially an offshoot of Manfred Mann's 1966 Instrumental Asylum EP, this is every bit as enjoyable (if not quite as interesting) as those sides. Mike Vickers' goal long before he joined Manfred Mann was to be a conductor, arranger, and composer, and also to work in a jazz idiom. I Wish I Were a Group Again was his first solo venture after exiting Manfred Mann in late 1965, and he took full advantage of his first opportunity to arrange and compose a full-length body of music. The jazz elements are on the decidedly light side, but this is still a fine album -- kind of a breezy, big-band version of mid-'60s rock. Included are Vickers' arrangements of "Matthew & Son," "On a Carousel," "Waterloo Sunset," "Monday Monday," "Sunshine Superman," "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear," "Daydream," and two songs associated with the post-Mike Vickers Manfreds, "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James" and "Pretty Flamingo." Astonishingly, even these last two hold up very nicely. There are no performance credits here, but Vickers likely played the saxes and clarinets, as well as the guitars. A muted chorus handles some lyrics to surprisingly good effect, as when it carries the words of "Sunshine Superman" behind a pounding, detuned upright piano. The familiar Manfred Mann vibraphone sound is here as well, and it's quite likely that Mike Hugg -- who would've been under contract to Fontana at the time, and thus not able to use his own name -- is playing on this album. Surprisingly, Vickers only contributes three originals, of which the most notable are the heavy sax workout "Puff Adder" and his expanded version of "On the Brink," a track he wrote for the BBC. I Wish I Were a Group Again" has its slight, silly, and flaccid moments -- several of them, in fact -- but it's such a fun record that it's difficult to focus on those shortcomings, and it's certain to please listeners for whom the classic Manfred Mann sound was seldom bettered. The 1999 EMI CD reissue recreates the original cover art and boasts 24-bit digital sound and very carefully applied noise reduction, for glittering clarity.