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Man Leeds New Roscoe 2008
Man reformed in the 1980s and continued to play with (as usual) continually changing line-ups throughout the 90s. The legendary guitarist and Man mainstay Micky Jones suffered a brain tumour in 2002, and was replaced in the band by his son George Jones.
The last time I had seen Man had been in 1976, and I figured I should make the effort to see them again. So when they announced a short tour in 2008, I decided to take the short drive to Leeds to catch their gig at the New Roscoe. The Roscoe is a pub venue on the outskirts of Leeds city centre, which features bands several nights a week. The Man band line up of 2008 featured Micky’s son George Jones on guitar; long standing member Martin Ace on bass and vocals; Martin’s son Josh Ace on guitar and vocals; 70s member Phil Ryan on keyboards; and Bob Richards on drums. I had a seat right in front of the stage, and I excited and looking forward to seeing Man again. I was quite nervous, not really knowing what to expect; I wasn’t disappointed. The set that night drew from right across the entire Man catalogue, reaching back to their first 1969 album, and the early single “Sudden Life”, which took me back. The song is very much of its time; very 60s, quite trippy/psych and yet George Jones brought a freshness to it. George’s guitar playing was simply excellent and the new line-up a credit to the Man band legacy. It was great to hear old favourites such as “Many are Called but Few Get up” and the encore “Bananas”. The set also featured quite a few tracks from the 2006 album “Diamonds and Coal” which I enjoyed, even though they were unfamiliar to me. No “Spunk Rock” which was disappointing; but hey you can’t expect to get everything you wish for. A great gig, which brought back so many fond memories and reminded me of how great the Man band were in the 70s.
Setlist: Love Your Life (1971); Something is Happening (1975); Diamonds and Coal (2006); All Alone (2006); Sudden Life (1969); Man of Misery (2006); Victim of Love (2000); Manillo (1971); Many are Called but Few Get up (1971); Freedom Fries (2006); Romain (1971); Shit on the World (AKA It Is As It Must Be; 1969). Encore: Bananas (1972)
When Micky Jones passed away in 2010 rock lost one of its greatest guitarists. Whenever I think of Man I picture Micky with his cherry red SG, playing Spunk Rock.
A split (which from reports was apparently quite bitter) occurred within the Man band camp shortly after the Leeds gig I saw in 2008. George Jones continued with his own band Son of Man, and Martin Ace has continued with the Man band name. Martin currently fronts a version of Man which features himself, Phil Ryan, his son Josh Ace; James Beck on guitar; and Rene Robrahn on drums. This line-up has just played some dates in Germany.
An annual Micky Jones memorial concert, organised by George, is held in December in Swansea. This year’s concert is the third and features the All Star Band (featuring George Jones), Deke Leonard’s Iceberg and guests.

Man Newcastle City Hall 1976
This Man tour was in support of their 11th studio album The Welsh Connection. The line-up had changed again with John McKenzie taking over on bass from Martin Ace, and Phil Ryan rejoining on keyboards. Stalwarts Deke Leonard and Micky Jones, and Terry Williams on drums made up the rest of the line-up for the tour. Support came from Australian singer/songwriter Glen Cardier. This was the last time I was to see the Man band for some 30 years, and the last time I experienced the great Micky Jones in concert. By the end of the year the band had split as a result of internal wranglings, playing their final gig in Slough on 16 December 1976. The band were quoted at the time as saying that they “would never, ever, be one of those bands who reformed in a futile attempt to recapture past glories”……However, they did reform in the 80s.
Set list: Let The Good Times Roll, 7171551, Hard Way To Die, Something Is Happening, The Welsh Connection, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, The Ride And The View, C’mon, Out Of Your Head, Born With A Future, Many Are Called But Few Get Up, Bananas. Encores; Romain, Spunk Rock. Thanks to Mitch for the setlist.
I saw Man once more, at a gig in Leeds at the New Roscoe pub venue a few years ago. I’ll write about that gig tomorrow.

Man Newcastle City Hall 1975
Note Mann spelt incorrectly on the ticket again 🙂
I remember this gig very well for two reasons. The first was because of the appearance of the late great exponent of West Coast psych guitar John Cipollina from Quicksilver Messenger Service, who joined Man for the entire UK tour. I was a big fan of the Quicksilver song “Fresh Air” and also a Man fan, so seeing Cipollina with the Man band was too good an opportunity to miss. The other reason I remember this gig was to do with the vantage point fro which we watched the show. I went along to the concert with one of my mates, and we ran into another guy I knew, who had a technician job at the City Hall, and was operating the lights that night. He took us way up into the roof, to a little room at the back of the hall, where he shone a massive spotlight down onto the stage. While he worked the spot light, we looked down on the band playing. The view wasn’t great actually, but it seemed fun, and pretty cool, at the time to be way up there with a spotlight guy. The combination of Man and Cipollina worked well that night with some great guitar work from both Micky Jones and from his west coast hero.
Support came from ‘A Band Called O’ who Mitch recalls: “went down very well with the City Hall audience. Their main set finished with the Humble Pie song Red Light Mama Red Hot and they came back for an encore.” I remember seeing Band Called O a couple of times; I think I may have seen them at Sunderland Poly. They were a pretty good live band. From Wikipedia: “A Band Called O were a band from Jersey. Originally known as “The Parlour Band”, playing progressive rock, they renamed to “A Band Called O” and later to “The O Band” for a further albums with UA. Despite issuing five albums, and being championed by John Peel, they had no chart success; but were a popular live act.”
Man Set list: 7171551, Hard Way To Die, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, Hard Way To Live, The Storm, Somebody’s Calling, Codine, Razorblades and Rattlesnakes, Many Are Called But Few Get Up, Bananas. Encore; Romain. No Spunk Rock! I must have been disappointed that night 😦 Buffy St Marie’s Codine and Babe I’m Gonna Leave You both featured in early Quicksilver setlists. I was secretly and niavely hoping that they would play “Fresh Air” but sadly it wasn’t to be.
The London gig was recorded and released as the Maximum Darkness album. The tour and the album both deservedly received rave reviews at the time. Andy Childs wrote in Zigzag in 1976: “Maximum Darkness was recorded live at the Roundhouse on May 26th and is probably the best live album we’re going to hear this year, not just for Cipollina’s frequent bursts of imaginative playing, but because of Man themselves who show up superbly – the best I’ve heard from them in a long time.”
I never did get to see Quicksilver Messenger Service, but I did get to see founder member David Freiberg sing “Fresh Air” with Jefferson Starship last year.
Many thanks to Mitch for the setlist.

Man Spring Tour 1974 Newcastle City Hall (note misspelling of Man on the ticket 🙂 )
Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics on the road
Come 1974 and Deke Leonard returned to Man, and they released their 9th album Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics. The small four sided tour programme for this tour has details of the planned set, commenting on every song. I don’t usually do this but I thought I’d reproduce the text from the programme below as it documents the Man band’s thoughts on each of the songs that they played on the tour.
“Terry: This is it. Another tour off on the road. Old faces, new faces. Old numbers, new numbers. Old gigs, new gigs. This is just a bit of info on some of the numbers we will be doing each night:
Spunk Rock: Old time favourite and stomper. This has been on record in many different disguises over the years. It first appeared on “Two ounces of plastic with a hole in the middle” then it became the 20 minute live track on the Greasy Truckers album. Then it sneaked its way into “Jam Up Jelly Tight” on the Back Into The Future album and its still going strong.
Bananas: “I like to eat bananas; ‘Cos they got no bones; I like marijuana; ‘Cos it gets me stoned”. What more can one say? Maybe one of the biggest favourites with audiences on our gigs in Britain today.
Romain: The good old shuffle. A story about a gig we had the misfortune to play in Belgium. Deke: This bastard of a cop picked in two young kids and Martin (Ace, that is) tried to help by pulling the cop’s head off – he nearly did. Terry: Romain was the cop’s name. Martin was badly beaten up and taken to gaol. We managed to get him out just in time for the gig by calling the Mayor of Ostend who just happened to be the promoter. When we eventually got home they landed us with a bill for 3 days pay because Romain was off sick. Now isn’t that a sad story? Micky: Not really – we never did pay!!!
C’mon: C’mon was caused by drugs. Deke: Extremely dangerous ones.
Blown Away: This is a song from the last Help Yourself album (return of K Whaley) and is a song about feeling desolate which is something most of us feel now and then. That’s all.
Hardway to live: ….is a song about what a hard way it is to live, and 7171/551 is a very private song, so I don’t want to tell you what it’s about.
Scotch Corner: …..is about a man we met who was on his way to the Lake District to commit suicide. He looked like a turtle. The place we met him was a transport cafe at Scotch Corner.
Four Day Louise: …..feels like its the kind of song we’ll play till we die, or split up, or something.
Taking the Easy Way Out Again: ….is about us. Something we try to do all the time.
The last three numbers are on the new album Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics.
Deke: If an unidentified number appears, do not panic – it’ll just be us having a jam. If any of the above numbers crumble it’ll give you the opportunity to study the effects of panic on the band’s faces. In this situation pretend nothing has happened……we’re going to have a lot of fun together. Have a good time. Luv. The Man Band”
The programme tells me that support came from Chris Darrow from the USA Kaleidoscope and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, although I can’t recall seeing him.
The line-up of the Man band for this tour was Micky Jones – Guitar, Vocals;
Deke Leonard – Guitar, Vocals; Malcolm Morley – Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals; Ken Whaley – Bass; Terry Williams – Drums, Vocals.
I remember that I went to this gig with a group of mates and that we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Favourites were Bananas, which we all went around singing afterwards, and of course Spunk Rock. I saw Man again a couple of months later in the summer of 74 at the pure hell which was the Buxton (endurance) Festival, where they played a great set on the Friday night prior to Mott the Hoople’s headlining appearance. I’ve included a scan of the page which features Man from the Buxton programme. I’ve blogged separately on the full horror of the Buxton experience. Thanks to John for the scan of his poster from the Rhinos tour.

Man in concert in 1972
I was a big fan of Welsh wizards Man in the 70s and saw them several times in concert. Trying to work out exactly which line-ups of the band I saw is a complex piece of historical research in itself. Suffice it to say that this band changed members like many others changed guitar strings. The one constant who was in every early Man line-up was, of course, the late great ace guitarist Micky Jones. Coming in close second was guitarist Deke Leonard, who left and rejoined a couple of times. Other regulars members of the Man family were Martin Ace, Terry Williams, Clive John and Phil Ryan. Martin Ace fronts a version of Man which plays to this day.
The first time I saw Man was at Newcastle City Hall on 21st June 1972, when they were featured on a bill headlined by the Flamin’ Groovies. I saw them again a couple of months later in August 1972 at the Reading Festival; sandwiched between jazz rock fusion band Solid Gold Cadillac and folky warbler Linda Lewis, way down on a weekend bill headlined by Ten Years After, Curved Air and The Faces. The line up of the band in the Summer of 1972 was Micky Jones (guitar, vocals), Will Youatt (bass, vocals), Clive John (guitar, vocals), Terry Williams (drums, vocals), and Phil Ryan (keyboards, vocals). My enduring memory from those gigs is of Micky playing the excellent “Spunk Rock” on his cherry red Gibson SG. Now the said “Spunk Rock” was a lengthy instrumental piece, with meandering psych-tinged guitar solos. The song would often run for some 20 or more minutes, but I never became bored with it. It was based around a central riff, which Micky would return to as the song progressed. In many ways Man were our Grateful Dead, with lengthy west-coast influenced guitar-based tunes. Very much a “head” band. Micky Jones is quoted at the time: “We may not be the best band in the world, but we sure smoke the most dope.” Other well known tracks from their early 70s gigs are “Many Are Called But Few Get Up” and “Daughter of the Fireplace”, both of which feature in Man sets to this day. I was also seriously into their early psych classic single “Sudden Life” which came out in 1969 and still sounds amazing today.
From the Reading 72 programme: “Man not Boyo. Man come from Swansea where their career nearly ended after a bundle with half a dozen local greasers. Personnel changes were necessary when the bass guitarist smashed his hand up and the lead guitarist came adrift from his motorbike”.
I also think I saw Deke Leonard in his own band Iceberg at Newcastle City Hall, as a support act. The album “Be Good to Yourself at Least Once a Day” was recorded during this Deke-less Man period, and features the classic tracks C’Mon and Bananas, both of which were to become live favourites. “I like to eat bananas; ‘Cos they got no bones; I like marijuana; ‘Cos it gets me stoned”.
I saw Man several more times over the next few years and will write about those gigs over the coming days.