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  • Get the CD album and the book for a bargain bundle price of £20.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Bumper Book of Mystery Stories via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      £20 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Packaged in a gorgeous deluxe cross-shaped digipak, with ten panels of beautiful artwork finely crafted by Sarah Joy (Random Panda) and with full album lyrics, credits and sleeve notes in a 24 page booklet. This is the version of the album you need to have!

    Pre order now for delivery on or around July the 7th
    Images show a mockup of the artwork.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Bumper Book of Mystery Stories via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      £12 GBP or more 

     

  • Book/Magazine

    CLIMB ABOARD THE GHOST TRAIN…

    …where each stop will bring you to a new, terrifying tall tale.

    Medical premonitions… vivid dreams… a musical instrument which renders its listeners catatonic… a curious invention capable of changing your thoughts… mysterious connections between the past and the future…

    The fourteen short stories within these pages have been lovingly crafted by the members of I Am The Manic Whale to accompany the Bumper Book Of Mystery Stories album. Some are inspired by folklore and historic events; others are so fantastical that they can surely only be true… together they form a brand new compendium of mind-bending mystery accompanied, of course, by just a small drop of humour.

    Join us - allow your very face to be startled and your mind befuddled at every engaging turn on a thrill ride where laughs, goosebumps, shudders - and perhaps the occasional nightmare - come fully guaranteed.

    200 page paperback book containing 16 short stories written by the band.

    -Not final artwork-     ... more
    ships out within 3 days

      £10 GBP or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt

    It's a lovely burgundy-coloured tee shirt with the album title logo emblazoned loudly across the front.
    You want one.
    YOU WANT ONE!

    Please note that our office team won't be able to post out tee shirts until Monday 7th of August due to holidays.
    ships out within 3 days

      £15 GBP

     

  • Chose a song that you like and a member of I Am The Manic Whale (to be allocated at random) will have a stab at recording you an acoustic style cover version of it. Song must be under 5 mins. We're not recreating all of Supper's Ready for you!

      £100 GBP or more 

     

  • One member of Manic Whale will chat with you on Zoom for up to 60 mins.
    If you like, we can offer you an instrumental lessons. Michael, Ben and John are all music teachers for realz.

      £100 GBP or more 

     

  • We will come to your house
    We will bring acoustic instruments (and keyboard)
    We will sing several songs
    We will go away again afterwards (we promise)
    If you are more than 100 miles away from London, could you drop us a message first?
    We might still be able to do the concert, but may need a bit more for travel costs.
    4 remaining

      £400 GBP or more 

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Bumper Snare Head of Mystery Stories PRE ORDER

    Grab one of the snare drum heads used on the actual recording or I Am The Manic Whale's Bumper Book of Mystery Stories. 2 available. We will all sign it for you.

    Sold Out

  • Bumper sticks of mystery stories - PRE ORDER

    Get your hands on a pair of Manic Whale drum sticks that were used to record the Bumper Book of Mystery Stories. We will attempt to sign them for you, though drum sticks are quite small.

    Sold Out

about

Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea was first published as a serial between 1869 and 1870 in the Magasin d'éducation et de récréation and has been captivating readers ever since. One of the first writers of what came to be known as science fiction, Verne’s portrait of the underwater world in which the characters are held captive is mysterious and exciting. Michael has been fascinated by submarines since his childhood and has a love of submarine stories; it’s something to do with the sense of isolation. We are extremely pumped to have Ryo Okumoto providing a very special guest keyboard appearance on this song. Ryo is rock and roll.

lyrics

i. The captain takes us down

Away from the world, away from the noise
The quiet, the dark, the joyous isolation
Leaving behind the land that has burned him
Leaving the system that took everything from him

Brooding beneath the waves, stewing under briny tides
His rage fermenting in the ocean depths and he just can’t forget

Belabouring there in self-imposed exile
Escaping terrestrial civilisation
Dwelling inside his darkest emotions
Shunning society as he roams the sea (roams the sea)

Absorbed in marine research (he must distract himself somehow)
Finding new worlds that none have seen
A voyage of science and discovery and exploration

The external lights have attracted a schooner
But he’ll take them on: the world’s best harpooner
Leads them a chase over leagues of wild water
They think they’re fighting an oversized narwhal

Drags them beneath the waves (we’re going to need a bigger boat)
They will surely be drowned
But just at the last moment they are pulled inside the metacular hull of a submarine

ii. A journey of discovery

At wonderful speed one hundred feet beneath the surface
The captain shows us round his ship (it’s all his own creation)
Although we’re prisoners something of the beauty of these sights
makes us feel quite free (electrically powered submarine)

The captain smiles “dive the boat, it’s time” he cries
Will we ever see the land again?

As we explore the long sunken vessels and coral formations
A crazed cetacean waves hello (hello)
Perhaps we will discover a giant sea-weevil or a new kind of zoophyte
Perchance we might find what became of Atlantis (transatlantic telegraph cable)

The captain speaks “set all of the controls due south”
“Let’s go where none have gone before”
The vessel dives and ploughs its way beneath the ice
We’re heading right down to the pole

iii Under the ice

We tried to tell him we don’t think we’ll get free
We tried to stop him but the ice refreezes behind us and now we’re stuck inside

(instrumental)

iv The Nautilus vs the giant cephalopod

(instrumental)

v. Escape from the maelstrom

We’ve escaped from the ice, escaped from a giant squid
Can there be anything left to escape from?
The captain has spied a war equipped vessel
From his own country and he’s going to take it down

The engines roar with power (there has to be another way)
We have set a collision course
Aiming for their hull we ram it at mighty speed

Timber and man dragged down (I don’t see how they can survive)
But the captain sinks deeper
Into his black despair as evil takes hold of him and embraces him

The captain cries “almighty God, enough, enough”
It’s time to take this to the depths
Into the maelstrom the submarine is slowly dragged
He’ll take us with him to our deaths

Time to be free from the madness of this maniac
We make a break for the escape
We launch the skiff and row with all the strength we have
Just as the nautilus is pulled inexorably down, down, down, down

credits

from Bumper Book of Mystery Stories, released July 7, 2023
Written by: Michael Whiteman
Ben Hartley: drums, percussion & vocals, Michael Whiteman: bass, bass pedals & lead vocals, David Addis: electric guitars & vocals, Ryo Okumoto: piano, Hammond organ & minimoog, John Murphy: additional keyboards & vocals

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I Am The Manic Whale Reading, UK

We are a progressive rock band from Reading & London, UK. 3rd album out now.

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