Monday, May 28, 2007
The Man from Delmonte, He Say....
The Man From Delmonte - My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return
The Man From Delmonte - Drive Drive Drive
The Man From Delmonte - Big Noise
Right, so flash back with me (LOST-style) to a few months ago...It's bedtime at Spoilt Victorian Mansion and Simon's just showing me how to hook-up my iPod to the bedroom stereo, except that I've cocked it up as usual and set the bloody thing to 'shuffle'. For the next half-hour, then, we endure the first 10 seconds of what must be every single song on the player because NO SIR I CANNOT POSSIBLY GO TO BED WITHOUT LISTENING TO THE MAN FROM DELMONTE.
Right, so flash back with me again (LOST-style optional) to 1987. Not a lot of jolly stuff happened in 1987 - the dusky seaside sparrow became officially and completely extinct, the Kings Cross fire killed over 30 people in London, and Prozac was released onto the US pharmaceutical market. However, in Manchester, the Man from Del Monte was saying "Yes, yes yes (Mike West start band) yes!" and so The Man from Delmonte was formed.
It's a bit hard to describe The Man from Delmonte and if you conjure up your typical image of an 80s band from Manchester your head will be filled, and rightly so, with thoughts of dour faced men in duffel coats, not harmonicas, banjos and yes, the joys of living (think of a slightly more polished Waterboys).
"My Love is Like A Gift You Can't Return" is my favorite Man from Delmonte song, and one of my favorite songs of all time. It has the loveliest, catchiest boy-girl choruses in all of pop-dom (thanks Mike and Sheila) and if you're nursing a broken heart, nothing will do you more good than screwing up your courage and shouting "Don't pay me off with your pity!" and then (possibly) sliding around in yer socks on a slick floor. Yes, indeed.
There's only a handful of material available from the band, and some of it is going for quite a lot on Ebay and the like (so, if you have a vinyl copy of Big Noise and you need to make some quick cash, now's the time), but they've appeared on several compilations (This is Manchester, The Sound of Leamington Spa, which is how I first head them), so it's probably best to check a charity shop near you.
Buy - The Man From Delmonte on eBay
Visit - Mike West
Visit - The Sound of Leamington Spa
Elizabeth. x