Manchester Theatre News & Reviews

How do you do?... The Man from Delmonte

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In the second of our new How Do You Do? series of interviews, which aims to introduce the stars of the Manchester music scene to a wider audience, we catch up with The Man from Delmonte frontman Mike West ahead of their eagerly anticpated comeback shows at Band on the Wall and Manchester Academy.

Formed in Manchester in 1986, they recorded some of the most iconic songs of the Madchester era, selling out the city's most popular venues on a regular basis - such as The Boardwalk and Manchester International - without actually hitting the UK Top 40; earning them the moniker "Manchester's best kept secret."

34 years since splitting up in 1991, the original line-up of Mike West, Sheila Seal, Martin Vincent and Howard Goody are set to reunite for the first time!

How do you do, The Man from Delmonte?...

First up, where are you all from?

Sheila is from Edinburgh, Martin from Stoke-on-Trent, Howard, I think, is from somewhere in Derbyshire, and I was born in Sydney, Australia. But of course we were all living in Manchester when we met.

Are you Reds or Blues?

I lived in Gorton and then Longsight, so I guess it has to be Blues.

And how do you like your Vimto?

Never drank Vimto much. Had a bad Diet Coke addiction for many years, I’m ashamed to admit.

When you’re at the chippy, what do you call chips on bread?

Chip Butty, though in Longsight everyone called them Barms as I remember. Butty is just more fun to say.

What is your favourite place in Manchester?

Manchester has changed so much, I get lost there, but Johnny Roadhouse is still there on Oxford Road. Johnny Roadhouse Junior used to get all the instruments that had been stolen from my rehearsal room or house. He’d give them right back to me, even when he’d paid out cash for them. He was so good to me. I go there every time I’m in Manchester to buy guitar or banjo strings. I also have a soft spot for Afflecks Palace, just because I worked there selling T Shirts for Edward Barton.

And who would you crown King and Queen of Manchester?

I actually think Edward Barton would make a very fine King. A wonderful artist, longtime Hulme resident, a smart and whimsical man. Yes, I would crown Edward Barton.

So take us back to those Thatcherite days of 1986. How did you meet and do you ever reminisce about that time in Manchester today?

I think about Manchester a lot, especially now, getting back together with the band. I moved to Gorton from Reading in 1985. I didn’t know a soul. I volunteered at an artist run gallery on Deansgate, The Castlefield Gallery, just to get out of my lonely flat above a wool shop on Mount Road. Sheila ran that gallery. She was learning bass guitar and getting together with Martin to play, but they didn’t have anything to play except covers. I said I wrote songs, so they invited me along. We decided we should form a band. We needed a drummer. Someone said “Howard played drums in school”. Turns out he was (and still is) a great drummer.

I’ll never forget our first sold out show at the Boardwalk. It was so unexpected. I remember walking to the gig, when I noticed crowds of kids were all walking the same direction. Then I realised they were coming to our show!

Normally we ask where the name came from, however anybody of a certain vintage would understand where you picked yours. Did it ever land you in trouble with the corporate suits?

Yeah, Del Monte Fruit Corporation invited us for a meeting in London. We were thinking perhaps they were going to offer us an endorsement (which we would’ve turned down of course!). Instead they threatened us, saying we were undermining their very valuable advertising campaign. They wrote one threatening letter. We wrote back saying we didn’t market fruit, we made music, and that was the end of it.

It’s fair to say, that you are one of the best kept secrets of the Madchester era, popular in the city and on the indie charts but often overlooked in the overall conversation by those who were not around in 1989. Has this irked you, or were you glad not to get pigeon-holed?

Historians overlook lots of stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into their narrative. It doesn’t bother me at all. There were so many good and interesting bands and only a small handful of them have been enshrined in the rock’n’roll story. That’s normal.

The band achieved so much more than I ever thought I was personally capable of. I didn’t even think I was a musician at the time.

The Man from Delmonte started me on a 40 year career (so far) as a professional touring musician, record producer, songwriter and engineer. I have so much to be grateful for to the band, to Manchester, to the whole inspiring scene that lit a fire in me that still burns today.

How influential has being from Manchester been on your sound?

I remember seeing the Stone Roses play Manchester University around 1986 (my memory for dates is pretty bad). I thought they were unbelievably good.

I’d go to see a different band play the Boardwalk and The International on Anson Road every week, sometimes twice a week. Gigs were cheap back then (sometimes Gareth at The International would let local musicians in for free) and the bands were amazing.

A year or two later, The Man from Delmonte were playing with James, The Happy Mondays, The Inspiral Carpets. There was so much music in that town, so many great players and songwriters. It was a very inspiring time.

The two most important cities in the world for me have been Manchester, and then New Orleans.

You were once managed by Jon Ronson. How did that come about? And are you still friends to this day?

When we met Jon, he was entertainment secretary at University of London. He booked the band there, we became friends and at some point we asked if he would manage the band. He said yes and he moved to Manchester.

Jon is a lovely man, a great writer of course and was a very good friend to me in those years. He worked hard for us. And yes, we’ve stayed in touch.

Is there any Manchester musician you dream of collaborating with?

I used to share a house with Saul Davies, back when he first joined James. He’s a phenomenal musician. I haven’t seen him since James’ first US tour… a long long time ago. But I think it would fun to collaborate with him on an instrumental record, with me on the banjo and him on guitar and fiddle. You never know, it could happen..

It’s been 34 years since you all played together, yet your comeback concert at Band on The Wall sold out in minutes leading to an extra date at the Academy, showing the local love for the band has never gone away. Were you surprised at the reaction to the news you are to reunite?

We did not expect this at all. I thought maybe 100 old friends might show up and that would be fun enough. Now it’s starting to look like we might even sell out the Academy in April. A complete surprise.

You’ve been quite active in the music industry since splitting in 1990 and your careers have taken you in rather eclectic directions. Where would you say that your sound is at, at the moment? What are you working on presently? And any chance of new material as a band?

I’ve been touring for 20 years with a country duo called Truckstop Honeymoon, now I’m playing solo shows and also collaborating with a Canadian songwriter called Nick Broster (we just put out an album as “Broster & West”). I also work as a record producer at my recording studio in Wales (I produce a lot of Welsh language folk, country and rock artists).

Sheila plays with a really cool Klezmer band in Manchester and also does music in schools.

Martin has a band called De Kunst, that I think will be playing again more.

Howard has been playing with some country bands. It’s funny that both Howard and I became country musicians!

We are talking about recording an EP of Man from Delmonte songs. There’s a lot of material that was never recorded and released. But we are also playing some new material and that seems to be working too. So maybe we’ll actually be putting out some new songs soon. It’s just been so much fun getting back playing with this band, it seems like we should do some more with it.

What can fans expect at your Band on the Wall (26th Feb) and Academy (12th April) gigs?

Well, we played a secret warm up gig at a church in Wales last week and it felt great. Yes we are all 35 years older, but the unabashed, joyful pop energy is still there.

We were playing for an audience that didn’t know us, but all those infectious “lalalas” worked their simple magic and people seemed to love it. So I think we are all feeling pretty good about playing these shows. Looking forward to singing these songs for everyone.