The Man From Delmonte's unexpected reunion continued apace on Saturday night with a sold-out show at Academy 2 in Manchester. Thirty-five years on from their split they brought memories of misspent youth flooding back with a glorious seventy-five minute set.
The Mudd Club open up the evening and prove that nepotism can sometimes be a very good thing indeed. Fronted by Mike West's step-daughter Sadie and with son Julian behind the drumkit, they deliver a forty-five minute set of grunge-influenced rock mostly taken from their Give Me A Thrill and Bottle Blonde albums that goes down very well with the crowd. Highlights include a breathless Friday Night On A Monday Morning and opener New Tattoo.
Manchester as the eighties turned into the nineties was a very different place to the growing metropolis it’s becoming now. Darker, greyer and without the double-edged sword of foreign investment it was suffering like many of its great Northern city counterparts from the managed decline Thatcher had decreed for the non-compliant strongholds of opposition to many of the policies that scorched the landscape here for decades to come.
The bright light was the music. The celebrated holy trinity of the Roses, Mondays and Carpets, the more cerebral James who provided The Man From Delmonte with early opportunities and a raft of bands that climbed on the gravy train put on by London-based majors as part of the Madchester feeding frenzy. The Man From Delmonte refused to be placed in that box of easy categorisation. Led by a sexually ambigous Australian born Manchester raised front man Mike West singing songs of wrestling with his own sexuality and identity, the four-piece stood out a mile from the crowd. A set of EPs and a live album were released on Ugly Man Records and Bop before they dissolved without ever reaching the heights they deserved, their stubborness to conform stopping their big sold-out gigs turning them into chart regulars. But people never forgot their favourite band whose name evoked memories of canned fruit to those not in on the secret.
A reunion never felt on the cards. West moved to the US and performed for two decades as Truckstop Honeymoon, the other three - Sheila Seal, Martin Vincent and Howard Goody - returned to normal life. A Facebook group set up in their honour shared demos and old bootlegs as well as memories of misspent youth, Mike’s children started to discover this long-lost part of their father’s past and slowly pieces fell into place, connections were made and with the persistence of broadcaster Iain Lee and several others who simply wouldn’t take no for an answer, the most important Manchester reformation of the year fell into place.
And what glorious moments it has given us. This sold out Academy 2 show followed an instant sell-out at Band On The Wall and an intimate show at the Horse And Bamboo in Waterfoot. Tonight’s the biggest and most ambitious show of the reunion and the sold-out signs were posted weeks in advance. The anticipation and excitement in the room was palpable as just before half past nine Iain Lee introduced them as the greatest band in the world. For the next seventy-five minutes no other one mattered.
The magical thing about The Man From Delmonte was their imperfect perfection. There’s false starts, songs played in the wrong key where Mike commends the others for covering for him, old favourites as well as unreleased songs such as an unheard demo Believe Me and changes to the setlist. The likes of final song Will Nobody Save Louise, My Love Is Like A Gift You Can’t Return, Sun Serious and Drive Drive Drive have those still with spring in their knees bouncing around whilst the less familiar still sees some mouthing every word. Pink, Stop and Mathematically Speaking might not have seen the light of day at the time and only subsequently on latter day Japanese compilations or in that Facebook group, but they're as key a part of the Delmonte canon.
Mike’s still fascinating and engaging, telling us that when he picked up his guitar to play these songs for the first time in thirty years the memories of all the people, places and events that formed them came flooding back - whilst joking that Howard and Sheila didn’t need any recollecting the songs. At that moment any separation between band and audience left the room. There’s a beautiful moment where Mike’s son Julian joins them on harmonica at the end of The Good Things In Life. The beaming smiles of Sheila, Martin and Howard as they survey the response in front of them, their smiles and laughs at Mike’s off-the-cuff anecdotes are a million miles from the forced for-the-money reunions that are ten a penny these 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 London 229 Club (April 25) and Preston Popfest (August 9).
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