In 1984 Jackie Lee Man, Michael Jurischk & Franky Miller formed the Berlin newcomer band COUNTDOWN, that then in early 1985 fusioned with the Nr. 1 Metal band in the DDR, REGENBOGEN. The line up was Jackie Lee Man (voc), Andy Schwendemann (guit), Michael Juriscahk (guit), Christian Dallmann & Franky Miller (dr). At the end of 1985, Andy Schwendemann left the band.
Because the band was musically and optically searching for a more modern orientation, in 1986 they gave themselves the name PHARAO, with the line up of Jackie Lee Man (voc), Michael Jurischk (guit), Franky Miller (dr) & Christian Dallmann (b). They quickly played themselves into the hearts of the East German hard rock fans and it didn’t take long for their first radio chart success. At the end of 1986, PHARAO produced two songs in the German language „Reich der Finsternis“ & „Das Feuer der Liebe“. At the beginning of 1987 a PHARAO concert in Berlin was recorded and aired live on the state run TV programme DT64, which was a first for the DDR. At this time two ex FORMEL 1 members were playing in the band, Detlef Dutziak (b) & Michael Sündermann (guit), alongside Jackie Lee Man (voc), Michael Jurischk (git), Franky Miller (dr)
Due to socialist censoring always giving problems with the topics of the lyrics they wrote, the band decided in 1987 to write their songs in the English language which gave them other problems as then they were blacklisted and further radio recordings and albums were tabu. To counter this, they played their arses off performing about 400 gigs touring the eastern block until the middle of 1989, of which these were nearly always sold out. The highlight was in February 1988 where they played a gig alongside URIAH HEEP & KRUIZ in front of 12.000 fans in the East Berlin Seelenbinder-Sporthall. Through their constant live presence they won even more fans. The line up as of 1988 consisted of Jackie Lee Man (voc), Blacky Smith (guit), Franky Kube (bg), Franky Miller (dr)
In the middle of 1989 Jacky then fled the East into West Germany, here he won the band a record deal and got the rest of the band over. With this came in 1990 the album „BAD BOYS FROM EAST“, produced in Stuttgart with the line up being Jackie Lee Man (vocals), Franky Miller (dr), Blacky Smith (guit), Thor (bg). Through financial and legal problems with their record company, after a small tour of Germany alongside bands such as PINK CREAM, and a farewell concert in the Berlin House of Music, the band split at the end of 1991.
After a brief spell with SANVOISEN (1992) Jacky joined up with a new project alongside (guit) and Nicole Pade (bg), from the Berlin band TAROT, and his longtime PHARAO drummer Franky Miller. Quickly a new and progressive musical concept formed. Due to the still ongoing problems with the old PHARAO label, they named themselves RESISTENCE.
In the middle of 1993, RESISTENCE released the demo „FAHRENHEIT 451“ , that was mixed by Harris Jons in the Berlin Music Lab studio and earned good reviews from the worlds metal press. Many live gigs followed and in June 1995 they performed on the ARD programme Nachtschwärmer, which approximately 8 Million watched. In the autumn of 1995 Jacky produced the progressive metal CD „PAIN & PLEASURE“ also in the Berlin MUSIC LAB STUDIO, which received rave reviews from fanzines such as ROCK HARD and METAL HAMMER. Unfortunately their were differences in the band to which musical direction the band should take and they split at the end of 1996 with a farewell concert in the Halford club in Berlin.
In 1998 Jacky once again went on the search to find new musicians to aid him in realising his modern musical ideas for PHARAO. The line up at this time was: Alex Rock (dr) & Steve Rock (bg), plus Kai MacAuley (guit) & Jacky Lee Man (voc).
On the 25.12.99 PHARAO played well visited gig with the veterans from Formel 1 in HOF 23, Berlin in front of 500 fans. Unfortunately the project was put on hold for a year and half due to Jacky having a bad illness, this meant that the material for the CD VIRUS X which had been recorded in 1999/2000 could first be completed and released at the beginning of 2001. Unfortunately at this time the promising line up from PHARAO split once again.
In February 2003 Jacky decided to bring the band back to life and recruited the guitarists T.R.Yorg (guit) and Steven “Floyd” P (bg) two made Musicians from Berlin into the band.
The band played a few really successful shows in the eastern part of Germany.
In September 2004 PHARAO played their last gig at the „Concert for Peace“ at the Zitadelle in Berlin-Spandau, as Jackie was giving all his time to his career as a producer (e.g. Saxon, Doro, WOA-DVD 2004/2005).
In early 2006 the band once again sat down together and composed new songs including three brand new tracks LIAR, SEVEN SEAS & EVERY NIGHT AND DAY were recorded in Jacky’s audiosound-studio, Berlin in the summer of 2006.
At the Wacken Open Air 2006 PHARAO made a surprising come-back and played a well watched Live showcase for the gathered international press and released a pre-release CD of three of the new songs.
In the now presented Anthology Digipack there is a complete overview of the work of PHARAO, from the first German language demo in 1985, Radio productions in the DDR, Live tracks from 1987, to the 3 CD releases & diverse demos plus 3 new songs.
In Summer 2007 plays PHARAO also be going back on tour to play their live comeback shows on the Berlin Metal Rumble, 2 Shows on the legendary Wacken Open Air & as a support from SAXON in Elmshorn. In these Shows the band plays 3 new songs from the next album “Road to nowhere”