It's thirty-five years since The Man From Delmonte departed the world without a single studio album to their name, but a trail of wonderful EPs and thrilling live shows continued to live on in the memories of those fortunate enough to have caught this off-kilter four-piece who flitted around the outskirts of the Madchester explosion despite being an ill fit to the hedonistic flower-power of the time. Whilst most of the big names of that time split and reformed, The Man From Delmonte coming back really only existed in the heads of a few fans who'd set up a Facebook tribute group. Led by Iain Lee, the momentum gathered pace, front man Mike West's kids started to research their Dad's band and slowly the seeds were sown for one of the most unlikely reunions of recent times. Five-hundred people crammed into The Band On The Wall on Wednesday night to relive their teenage years to the sound of gender-fluid, confused songs about being twenty-two and being in love with everyone.
Before we get to the main event, we're treated to The Mudd Club, a trio that features Sadie and Julian, Mike's two kids. Nepotism might well be alive, but in this case it's a welcome introduction to a great band who look and sound right at home on The Band On The Wall stage. Songs about tattoos and dyeing hair might not resonate lyrically with many of the crowd, but the way they're couched in wonderfully crafted rock songs and delivered with precision and energy certainly does.
Edward Barton is a legend, now eighty-five, his appearance is a rare outing for someone who goes back all the way with The Man From Delmonte and other Manchester bands of that era. His songs about Urmston Scaffolding, tooting horns and fucking and fighting in Hulme might not be your traditional fayre, but his humour and beautiful nature has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.
The reason everyone's gathered tonight though is the return of The Man From Delmonte. There's tears of joy, tears of remembrance and simply the warmest happiest atmosphere there will be for a gig in a very long time as Jon Ronson, their former manager, introduces them with a tale of how they seduced a bunch of Nazi skinheads in Cambridge within ten seconds of starting to play. There's no need to win over anyone tonight though, The Band On The Wall is full of love from those who saw them back in the day and those who were just a little too late.
They start with Water In My Eyes backed by a chorus of five hundred voices. Seeing Mike, Sheila, Martin and Howard on stage again makes those heady days of the Green Room, International 2 and other venues around town feel like yesterday. The songs still have that mystical immediacy to them that recalls every word to the brain and then to the mouth. There might not be the hedonistic chaos of youth surrounding them anymore, nor the perpetual stage invasions, but the magic is still there. Mike comments later that he was worried about picking up the guitar, after twenty-one albums under his own name or with his band Truckstop Honeymoon, and remembering the songs but they just flooded back to him and around the room five hundred heads nod in agreement.
All the big songs are present and correct from the EPs - Australia Fair, My Love Is A Like A Gift You Can't Return, Like A Millionaire, The Good Things In Life, Drive Drive Drive, Take Me To The Country, Waiting For Anne, the list is a long one - and are loaded to the front of the set. The set does later reveal many of the songs the band never put down on vinyl or cassette as the band dissolved. Mathematically Speaking, Stop, Pink, Ave Maria and Lebanese American Man give a tantalising glimpse of what could have been had the band continued into the 1990s.
Half way through the night Mike muses on Gorton being a preserved relic of abject poverty from the days when he lived there and performs a beautiful Ugly Part Of Town, a Truckstop Honeymoon song that should feel out of place, but somehow captures the spirit of the evening. Neighbourhood, a song from Mike and Sheila's short-lived post-Delmonte band also makes an appearance, slipping into the middle of Pink and they finish with another Truckstop Honeymoon song, Billy The Kid, albeit one that references the band in it.
The encore starts with Iain Lee being invited up on stage and then, as was tradition back in the day, the stage fills up with members of the audience and that one moment captures perfectly the connection between the band and their fans. The Man From Delmonte might not have been the biggest band of their era, but these weird, confused songs about infatuation, love, life and its ups and downs spoke to people in a way that their more illustrious contemporaries couldn't. In a world that's rapidly going to shit everything was forgotten for an hour and three quarters as we were transported back in time to better days.
The Man From Delmonte Facebook group can be found here and their store can be found here where you can buy their retrospective 2CD compilation of released studio and live material.
They play Waterfoot Horse And Bamboo (February 27), Manchester Academy 2 (April 12) and London 229 Club (25).
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