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
£20GBPor 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
£12GBPor 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.
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
£15GBP
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!
£100GBPor 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.
£100GBPor 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.
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
In November 1977 an enterprising practical joker took over the Southern Television news transmission from its Hanninngton transmitter. Before the days of digital broadcasts the transmitter was re-broadcasting an off-air signal received from another transmitter so that it was comparatively simple to replace it with an alternative broadcast from a more local transmitter. The interruption purported to be from an alien race encouraging humanity to improve itself. The perpetrator of this practical pleasantry has never been publicised. This song imagines the aliens were real and adds an element of existential threat, which was not in the original message, for the purposes of drama. We end our journey on the Ghost Train back where we started. We hope you enjoyed the ride!
lyrics
Speaking to you from beyond the stars
This is the voice of Ashatar Galactic High Command
All of those lights you’ve seen in the sky
Those were a sign: we bring you peace and wisdom from on high
Please listen close to our warning words
The course you’re on will soon wipe out all life upon your world
We know it might seem quite frightening
Come join with us, it’s time for mankind’s great awakening
It’s the dawning of the new age of aquarius
A time of great peace and revolution for your race
Keep your mind wide, the chance won’t come again
The dawning of the new age of aquarius
Stand up and face down the evil
Don’t be afraid of the weevil
This is the end of war’s long reign
You must step forward into a higher evolution plane
Now is the time to learn to love
Peace and goodwill will help extend your reach to stars above
We look to you to advance mankind
Come venture forth and leave your violent savage ways behind (we will return)
We will return in one earthly year (we’ll see the change)
We’ll see the change, or else we’ll cause you all to disappear
It’s the dawning of the new age of aquarius
A time of great peace and revolution for your race
Keep your mind wide, the chance won’t come again
The dawning of the new age of aquarius
Stand up and face down the evil
Don’t be afraid of space weevils
The people wait, but they wait in vain
They never hear from Ashatar Deep Space Command again
Do they still watch from far away?
Do they despair? As earth descends to deeper disarray
And all the while we continue invent
Yet more subtle ways to destroy ourselves
Ghost Train (part 5)
Now that you’ve heard these tales of such horror, you’ve come to the end of the ride
Now it is time to open the doors and see who has come out alive
Now you’ve encountered these harrowing questions that must have inverted your brain
Why did you ever decide to get on this train?
Come on down - you’re looking quite green, are you feeling okay?
Come on down - I’m sensing you don’t want to go round again
Clamber off - we took you to places your mind couldn’t bear
Stagger off - you’re a gibbering wreck, you’re wracked with despair
The end is nigh - but we saved the dreadfullest story ‘til last
The end is nigh - we can never change, never learn from the past
The end is nigh - when faced with extinction, don’t seem like we can...
The end is nigh - curb man’s inhumanity to fellow man
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, acoustic & electric 12-string guitars, David Addis: electric guitars & vocals, John Murphy: keyboards & vocals, Ella Lloyd: flute, Simon Whiteman: vocals
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supported by 79 fans who also own “We Interrupt This Broadcast…”
Absolutely hooked on this album from first listen. How rare is that with prog!??? Excellent songwriting and musicianship. Can’t wait to dive into the rest of the collection. Thomas Lock
