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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

This song was inspired by an old book John owned as a child, The Giant Book Of Fantastic Facts (publisher unknown). Along with the Dream Fortune story, the book also contained a tale of a boy who had a mysterious insight into ancient world history, somehow possessing knowledge of things and people from eras he could never have seen or known. We have attempted to give the story a more human element by telling it from the perspective of the boy’s frightened but obliging father.

lyrics

It’s true that no-one’s boy is ever only just a boy but you had a wisdom even so
And no-one’s time is only ever theirs alone but you knew so much of long ago
(It should all have been so innocent)


Could it be no-one’s life is only ever just their own?
You were so excited on that day by ancient Roman digs
It was just as though your eye saw pathways into worlds gone by
But I couldn’t ever work out just how


(If they never led us to the old place would you even know the things that you knew?)


Through your life (who is the wonderboy?)
Gateways into worlds gone by (coming to us through time?)
That nobody would have known about now (coming to us through time)
Nothing I (who is the innocent?)
Could do about the way you cried (born with an ancient mind?)
Begged me to take you away from the past you


All but forgotten, family island stroll
Hearing the story, tapping along the hollow walls you give a name
(Is this some macabre game?)


No-one’s seen behind that cave (David don’t you dare)
Tell me why be so insistent? David don’t you dare


(You knew who was in that cave) David were you there?
(How come you were so insistent?)
How could you have known all the signs on the tiles for your brothers’ names
And the walls lived behind the exhibits of ancient graves all this time bore your code


It should all have been so pure and new
But your eye (who is the wonderboy?)
Saw pathways into worlds gone by (coming to us through time?)
And we could have never worked out just how (coming to us through time)
Through your life (who is the innocent?)
Gateways into former times (brought here with history’s mind?)
That nobody could have known all about now (brought here with history’s mind)
Nothing I (who is the wonderboy?)
Could do about the way you cried (come here to us through time?)
When I couldn’t tell what made you cry out from your mind
Pathways into worlds gone by that nobody could have found out about


It’s true that no-one’s boy is ever only just a boy
But mine had a story even so

credits

from Bumper Book of Mystery Stories, released July 7, 2023
Written by: John Murphy
Ben Hartley: drums & percussion, Michael Whiteman: bass, bass pedals & lead vocals, John Murphy: keyboards, vocals & acoustic guitar, David Addis: electric guitars & acoustic guitar, Sally Minear: 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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