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maudlin
paul manning
"…I'm in love with a girl,
Who one day I will find,
She makes me whirl and twirl,
She makes me thoughtful and quiet…"
Though each Flem member could boast a legion of adoring female fans, it was Maudlin who became the band's leading sex symbol. As "the meaningful one", his moody poses graced a thousand magazine covers, and after he wrote 'The Hidden Lady', millions of girls starting hiding themselves all round the world, hoping they would be the one he found. Many are still waiting in their hideaways, still more have been lying there dead for years. But his reputation as the band's "King of Hearts" only deepened his real obsession: gambling. On tour he would devise endless new card games in which his trademark King of Hearts was always the top card, while the Queen of Hearts would always be "hidden" at the bottom of the pack. As his obsession increased, he would spend later Flem concerts keeping the bass drum and hi-hat supplying the beat, while he played out solo poker games on his snare drum. Unreleased footage of his memorable Filmore East drum solo reveals that it was actually an unexpected attack of rage at finding a winning flush on his bottom tom-tom. The end came when he was beaten at 'snap' by his cowbell. He walked off-stage laughing hysterically, and disappeared.
