What's New

Although it has been a while - apologies all around - we haven't been able to make any updates to the websites until now. It is with sadness that we recognize the passing of our friend and bandmate Frank Wyatt. Frank was so stellar at so many things and we send condolences to his family and especially to his wife Mindy.

Frank Gabriel Wyatt, of Felton, PA, passed away on Tuesday, January 10th, 2023 at the age of 68. He is survived by his wife, Mindy L. Wyatt (nee Tannenbaum); children, Jessica Summer and Crystal Wyatt; siblings, Shirley (Eugene) Meeks and Nick Lineberry; sister-in-law, Janice (late Allen) Pogach; grandchildren, Veldon Foil and Desirae Palmer. He was predeceased by his parents, Virginia and Robert Wyatt. Services at Sol Levinson's Chapel, 8900 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208, on Sunday, January 15th, 2023 at 12:00 pm. Interment United Hebrew Cemetery. Immediately following interment, the family will be hosting a luncheon and receiving at The Hilton Doubletree, 1726 Pikesville, MD. 21208. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be sent to H.O.P.E. (Help for Oncology Problems and Emotional Support), P.O. Box 279, Stewartstown, PA 17363, or the charity of your choice.

Frank will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him or happened to be graced by his presence. RIP Frank, you fought a long battle.

This is a very cool coffee table book. OK, we admit to being big fans of progressive wonders like Yes, ELP, Genesis, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Rush and - well - "HAPPY THE MAN" even got it's own chapter. While we share no interest in the sales of the book, we heartily endiorse it as a very nice gift. More at this link:

Great news! Esoteric/Cherry Red Records in the U.K. have struck a deal with Sony U.K. and will be releasing re-mastered versions of Happy the Man and Crafty Hands on October 29, 2012. These are the Ken Scott produced gems, which were originally released on Arista. Label boss Mark Powell has been working with Ben Wiseman and Paschal Byrne on the remastering - who have also re-mastered the entire Mike Oldfield catalogue for Universal - and their credits also include reissues for Camel, Caravan, The Moody Blues and Jack Bruce. They also worked with EMI on Peter Hammill, Steve Hillage and Steve Hackett. We are very excited to hear the new masters, and it's great that the Arista titles will get a new lease on life. Click on the names to see the sales one-sheets for Happy the Man, and Crafty Hands and click here to learn more about Esoteric Recordings and Cherry Red Records, and to place your order for either CD click here.

A new Happy the Man site has been launched recently by bassist Rick Kennell. The new site does not necessarily feature a band perspective, but is seen through the eyes of Rick. The "Official" site you are on now was created by Frank Waytt and has always focused pretty much on the current years and the Happy the Man reunion - which started in 1999. The other site is much more of a historical retrospective about Happy the Man, from 1974-to the present. You can visit the site by clicking on the graphic just above.

Everyone in the Happy the Man family has been deeply saddened by the loss of Fred Brown, after a heroic battle with cancer. Fred was an original member of the Happy the Man crew, providing logisitical support, stage technician services and generously volunteering his wisdom and experience whenever they were needed over the years. Fred is an automatic inductee into the "Happy the Man Hall of Fame" and words cannot express the full magnitude of his contributions. He will be sorely missed. We have not discovered a blog anywhere so far where individual tributes can be posted for Fred. Until or unless one materializes, feel free to use the Happy the Man guestbook for this purpose here, His obituary from Billboard Magazine appears below.

Entertainment attorney Frederick Brown passed away on Monday, August 29, 2011, in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer at age 56, according to an announcement from his family. Brown was a key member of the Warner Bros. Records business affairs department for more than 10 years, departing in 1999 to become Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for Music at MGM. He was most recently in private practice. Fred was born in San Francisco and served in the U.S. Army after graduating from high school. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He received his law degree from Yale University and started his legal career at the law firm of Irell and Manella. He was active in many music industry charitable and legal organizations, including serving as President of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA). He is survived by his wife Liz McNicoll and son Nico Brown. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 10th, 12:30 p.m. at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Church Of The Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90068 . In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made in honor of Fred to Tipitina's Foundation, which provides New Orleans public schools with musical instruments and preserves the musical cultures of Louisiana, www.tipitinasfoundation.org, 504-309-7934.

Our sincere and heartfelt thanks goes out to David Robin for including HAPPY THE MAN in his amazing Progressive Rock Documentary "ProgFilm". We truly appreciate the tremendous amount of effort he and his crew expended on the project - and what a spectacular musical cast it is! It's hard to remember the last time so many amazing prog musicians were all in one film - possibly never! Certainly a who's who of most of our heroes and influences along the way. The entire film was posted online, but we hear that copyright issues have forced the film to be taken down. If you can find it, check it out.

Back in late 1976 or early '77 a local TV Station in Washington D.C. won an Iris award for the "Best Locally Produced Musical Television Segment" in D.C. It happened to be a segment on Happy the Man, who had just released their first record. The band received a copy of the video, but unfortunately it was in a professional format that only television stations could play. When a copy was retrieved a number of years ago, the video was fine, but for some inexplicable reason the original soundtrack was missing. However, some crafty folks took a segment from "Death's Crown" and dubbed it over the video - then placed it on YouTube. It definitely had some nice vintage footage of the original Happy the Man, but the track has nothing to do with what is actually happening on the screen. It's still a lot of fun and it is here if you would like to see it:

We are not completely sure if it's a person or a bunch of persons, but someone-somewhere-somehow seems to have documented all or at least most of the HAPPY THE MAN's "live" performances - in most cases including the set lists! Pretty hard for us to believe - we are not even close to capable of that feat! See it here if you want to be amazed at the detail: Happy the Man Performances .

Well, we certainly seem to be on there alright, even have a few friends. The band members we have queried seem to be a little perplexed and in the dark about it though, because it is apparently a fan-owned site. It certainly appears that they are doing a respectable job with it! Thanks goes out to you from the band!

Once again not sure of the who-what-when or whys, but there is a pretty decent history of the band, its members and its varied activities and history here: Happy the Man on Wikopedia

Don't worry, all of the information in the original "What's New" section did not disappear, it simply moved - if you want to take a look at all the news from prior years please click here: WHAT'S NEW ARCHIVE