Guitarist Deke Leonard had amicably gone solo the previous year, taking Man's Martin Ace with him. And though their new band Iceberg, was officially the opening act for a rejigged parent band, an interchange of personnel was almost inevitable: new Man bassist Will Youatt substituted for Ace when he put his back out (which with his extravagant on and off-stage lifestyle he was apt to do at any time). Needless to say Will knew the whole set note for note, having watched from the wings on previous dates.
And, on occasion, the evening might end up with one giant jam, the BBC didn't manage to broadcast that, on radio or TV, but we've managed to approximate it with the next best thing: 'Romain", a traditional Man encore number, played by the Leonard-Jones-Ace-Williams line up of the previous year - which, in appropriately precise fashion, equals two members of the 1973's Man with two members of Iceberg!
If that's a bonus, then the debut of Deke's solo material on CD - and indeed the first live Iceberg ever issued - has to be even better news for Welsh rock aficionados. Leonard was only to spend 18 months away from the band, rejoining shortly after this recording, and in that time recorded two albums, 'Iceberg' and the charting 'Kamikaze'. The material here features three tracks from the former and one from the later, played by the line-up of Leonard, Ace, guitarist Brian Breeze and drummer Dave Charles.
Charles and Leonard had earlier played together in Help Yourself, while Breeze, whose fluid style was the ideal counterpoint to Deke's destinctively abrasive axework, had a pedigree which stretched from the Corncrackers through the Shel Talmy-produced Untamed to Cream lyricist Pete Brown's Piblokto! He'd also turned down an audition for John Mayalls Bluesbreakers, but that's another story...
Iceberg's hard-rock edge contrasted markedly with the mellow, keyboard based Man they supported: 'Razorblade And Rattlesnake' was the classic opening track from the band eponymous debut album, while '7171 551' and 'A Hard Way To Live' (Deke's signature turn) also graced that album and quickly made their way into Man's repertoire when Leonard rejoined them. 'In Search of Sarah...' had yet to be released when it was recorded here, but would soon prove one of Kamikaze's standouts.
According to legend '7171 551' is supposedly 'Papa Nes' (ex-Monkee Mike Nesmith, a Leonard hero) spelled out an onld fashioned letter-and-number telephone dial, while 'In Search Of Sarah And 26 Horses' has a tale of it's own to tell. 'The song didn't have a title,' Leonard explains, 'and a girl called Sarah Cheesewright came up in conversation. Brian said you don't know anyone called Sarah Cheesewright! Her father was the head brewer at Buckley's...she's a professor of mathematics now.' Which is eminently suitable, because Deke added her name to a book he'd been reading, Portrait Of The Artist And 26 Horses, to give the once anonymous song one helluva title! Since Iceberg were supporting Thin Lizzy in Ireland at the time, you can put it all down to an overdose of Guiness...
Back with the main attraction, previously-mentioned bassist Will Youatt was one of three new faces alongside stalwarts Micky Jones (guitar) and Terry Williams (drums); the others were ex-Eyes Of Blue keyboardist Phil Ryan and Alan 'Tweke' Lewis, a long-time fan of the band who'd stepped up from the audience via Wild Turkey with aplomb and guitar liks a-plenty. 'Some nights were unbelievable,' comments Lewis of this period. 'We took our audiences to places they didn't know where...'
The songs featured here, recorded (as was the Iceberg set) at the Golders Green Hippodrome on 27th October 1973, originally came from the 'Be Good To Yourself At Least Once A Day' album. The stirring 'C'mon' - lyrics courtesy of Youatt, music by Jones - had been reprised that June with the help of the Gwalia Male Voice Choir (and appeared in that form on the live 'Back Into The Future' album, released the very month of this performance), while 'Bananas' combines an innocuous enough title with some slightly unusual lyrics in praise of herbal tobacco. The entire performance was introduced by DJ Andy 'The Living Jukebox' Dunkley, a big Man fan himself who accompanied the band on the infamous '1999 Party Tour', their foray to America supporting Hawkwind the following year.
The Ryan-Lewis-Youatt line-up failed to see 1973 out, and it was a different band again that made the first of two further Radio 1 appearances in 1975, a performance since bootlegged as 'Brazilian Cucumber Meets Deke's New Nose'. To bring Man's broadcast history up to date, a set at the Reading Festival in 1983 was broadcast in part on the Friday Rock Show and issued by the Raw Fruit label a decade later.
Returning to the set in hand, we round things off with 'Romain', a track from Man's first In Concert in early 1972 when they supported Bell and Arc; together with a marathon 'Spunk Rock', it made up a half-hour set. The latter is sadly unsalvageable from a distored master tape, but happily the skilled sound technicians at SRT have rescued its companion. Unlike 'Spunk Rock', a version of which appeared on the 'Greasy Truckers Party' album, no live 'Romain' of similar vintage has appeared anywhere before...so we've thrown chronology to the winds and added it to the hour from the following year as a 'previously recorded encore'!
Yet, as Tina Turner might say, what's time got to do with it? All this music is two decades old now, but still remains as potent as when it was performed and recorded. Man have always been at their best live, which is why they've survived to celebrate their 25th anniversary: go see them now, but enjoy this blast from the past first.
Michael Heatley, 1993
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