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Fred Mandel was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan and moved to Toronto at age 11. He started playing piano at 4 years old and guitar at 8. Fred played in local original bands until his first professional gig at 20 years old with Grant Smith. He went on to tour with Lighthouse and then joined the Domenic Troiano Band and played on Domenic’s album “Burning At The Stake”. He worked on Dick Wagner’s solo album in Toronto with Bob Ezrin producing. Dick was Alice Cooper’s musical director and co-writer. As a result of that project Fred was offered the keyboard position with Alice Cooper in 1977. He worked with Alice for 4 years and ended up being musical director for Alice’s band. Fred switched to lead guitar for his last tour with the band. Alice and Fred co-wrote most of the songs for Cooper’s album “Flush The Fashion” and 2 more for the follow up “Special Forces”. He then recorded with Cheap Trick and went on to work with producer Bob Ezrin and Pink Floyd playing a few tracks of B3 organ on “The Wall”. In 1982 Fred toured America and Japan with Queen. He also played on their album “ The Works” featuring “Radio Gaga” and “I Want To Break Free“ where Mandel played the synthesizer solo. Fred went on to work on Freddie Mercury’s solo album “Mr. Bad Guy” and Brian May’s album “Starfleet” featuring Eddie Van Halen. In 1983 Mandel toured America and Europe with Supertramp. Mandel joined the Elton John band in 1984. He did all the tours until 1990 and recorded 5 albums with Elton. Fred also played Live Aid in London with Elton in 1985. After the Elton years Mandel has gone on to play on albums from rock to country with Jamey Johnson (#1 country The Guitar Song), The Oak Ridge Boys, Chris Stapleton, Anthrax, Black Star Riders (#1 UK rock and metal charts Jan.2023) and Pearl. Fred has also worked extensively live and recorded with the great guitarist Philip Sayce, also from Toronto. Fred is currently working on a solo project.