Photo Credit: Steven Smith
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About FRED MANDEL
Fred Mandel is a Canadian-born (Estevan, Saskatchewan / Toronto, Ontario) keyboard player and guitarist. He taught himself to play piano at 4 years old, and later guitar at 8. After moving to Toronto, he would start his early musical career gigging in local bands as a teenager.
Mandel began his professional touring career with Canadian bands Grant Smith & The Power, Lighthouse and Domenic Troiano. He made his first recording appearance with Domenic Troiano’s band, on the album “Burning at the Stake”. He then performed on Dick Wagner’s album, “Richard Wagner”, produced by Bob Ezrin. Dick, Alice Cooper’s musical director, invited Fred to join the Alice Cooper Band. Mandel toured and recorded with Alice Cooper for four years on keyboards, lead guitar, and subsequently as the musical director for the band. He was co-writer for many of the songs on Alice’s album “Flush the Fashion” and the follow-up album, “Special Forces”. Alice still performs Mandel’s composition “Pain”. His next major recording was on the 1979 Pink Floyd album “The Wall” where he played on the songs “In the Flesh” and “The Show”. In 1982 Mandel toured America and Japan with Queen supporting their album “Hot Space”. He also appeared with the band on their Saturday Night Live debut, performing the songs “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Under Pressure”. Over the next several years he would collaborate with the band on various projects, including the album “The Works”, Brian May’s side project “Star Fleet”, and Freddie Mercury's solo album “Mr. Bad Guy”. In 2014 Queen released “Queen Forever” which included Brian’s composition “Let Me In Your Heart Again” with the original band, Freddie Mercury on vocals, and Mandel on piano. In 1983 Mandel played to sold-out stadiums across America and Europe with Supertramp on the “Famous Last Words Tour”, the final gigs with the band’s original line-up. In 1984 Mandel joined the Elton John band where he remained through 1990. With Elton, Fred recorded 5 albums and toured the world from 1984-1990, including performing onstage at “Live Aid” in 1985, the “Night and Day” concert at Wembley Stadium and “Live In Australia” with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 2010 Mandel appeared on Jamey Johnson’s album, The Guitar Song, which reached #1 on the country charts and was later named #5 on Rolling Stone’s top albums of that year. Fred worked with legendary metal band Anthrax on their 2013 cover track “Smokin'” (originally by the band Boston). In 2017 he played on their cover of “Carry On Wayward Son”, (originally by the band Kansas), and performed it live with Anthrax on the Loudwire Awards. He continues to add his talents to projects of all types. Mandel was enlisted by Producer, Dave Cobb to accompany Jessica Chastain on the Oscar Winning soundtrack “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”. You can hear his keyboards on the single “Testify Or Say Goodbye” from the album “Heavy Fire” by the band Black Star Riders (aka. Thin Lizzy). You can also hear him on their subsequent albums “Another State Of Grace” and “Wrong Side Of Paradise”. In 2023 Brian May re-released the “Starfleet” album with a collectible box set. Mandel was one of the featured musicians on the original project alongside Edward Van Halen, Phil Chen, and Alan Gratzer. Fred was very happy to re-visit the memories of those past recordings with his friend and guitar player extraordinaire Brian May. Mandel has appeared live and on record with powerhouse vocalist, Pearl Aday. Since 2005 Fred has happily taken part in live performances and albums with the great Canadian Blues/Rock guitarist Philip Sayce including his latest release “The Wolves Are Coming”. Fred regards Philip as one of the greatest players in that genre. Other recent albums and songs Mandel has played on include:
Fred Mandel's debut solo album “Part-Time Rebel” released on May 3, 2024. |