The Man from Delmonte (band)
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox musical artist The Man from Delmonte are an independent band from Manchester, England, formed in the mid-1980s.
History
Band members included Mike West (vocals and acoustic guitar), Sheila Seal (bass), Martin Vincent (guitar and harmonica), and Howard Goody (drums).<ref name="Lazell">Template:Cite book</ref>
The band members had little in common with most Manchester bands. Goody was a graduate of Winchester School of Art. Vincent had been an art critic and painter. Seal, a Glaswegian, was a classically trained musician who had run an art gallery. West, who wrote the songs, was the Australian-born son of the author Morris West.<ref name="louderthanwar">Template:Cite news</ref>
The band played many gigs at the Boardwalk club, in Manchester, where they recorded their Big Noise live album in 1989.
They took their name from a series of 1980s television advertisements for Del Monte fruit juices, featuring the "man from Del Monte". In these, the man would visit villages to sample their fruit juices, to see if they were good enough to be included in his company's drinks. The tagline, shouted jubilantly by a villager on approval was, "The man from Del Monte, he say 'Yes!Template:'".<ref name="Strong">Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, Template:ISBN, p. 406</ref>
At one point they were managed by journalist Jon Ronson.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite tweet</ref>
After they split up in 1990, some members continued as Surfurbia.<ref name="Strong" /> West moved to New Orleans to pursue a solo career in the early 1990s.
The band reformed in 2024 to play gigs in the UK in February and April 2025.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="louderthanwar"/>
Discography
Chart placings shown are from the UK Indie Chart.<ref name="Lazell" />
Singles
- "Drive, Drive, Drive" (Ugly Man, 1987)
- "Water in My Eyes" (Ugly Man, 1987)
- "Will Nobody Save Louise" (Ugly Man, 1988) (#13)
- Monday Morning After EP (Bop Cassettes, 1989)
- "Big Noise" (Bop Cassettes, 1989) (#20)
- "My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return" (Bop Cassettes, 1989) (#13)
Albums
- Catholic Boys on Mobilettes (Bop Cassettes, 1989) – compilation
- Big Noise (Bop Cassettes, 1989)
- Big Noise (Vinyl Japan, 2000) – reissue
- The Good Things in Life (Vinyl Japan, 1999) – compilation