Late, and after seeing Son of Man at the Dagenham Roundhouse, my thoughts on Man's 50th at the Half Moon, Putney. I agree with all that Jules wrote in his excellent review, so I'll just try to add a bit of additional colour. The band pulled out an ace for the album launch in 2015 by having BJ Cole on board, a legend and last seen with the Man family with Deke and the Helps at the Patti in 72. They have done it again by bringing Malcolm Morley back into the fold. For how long I wished that would happen, but had no realistic hope that would happen, given that he hadn't been playing with Ken and Richard for years. Opening with the first track on the first album, then moving into Sudden Life, was, as Deke might have said, as poignant as fuck. There seemed a real sense of occasion, they were as tight as anything, and no long fiddling about between numbers, a hallmark of the Manband. Josh on more lead vocal duties than on previous tours, all good. Josh stage left, Rob stage right ; one has a white tele with black scratch plate, the other a black tele with white scratch plate. I like to think that this is a very subtle nod to Deke. I hope so. James seemed to be having a lot of tuning issues with his, and after the switch to the jazzmaster ( I think) early on, he never switched back. Two new songs, Manor Farm ( because they rehearsed/ recorded at Manor House) and Holy Flame of Freedom. Then Malcolm took centre stage with his acoustic for Blown Away, which Man played when Malcolm was with them, and available in a great version on You Tube only, I think. Rob played it like the You Tube Man version, not the original Helps. Rob somehow managed to play Deke's constant wah wah rhythm and Micky's solos. Rob was working flat out all night long, seemingly playing Micky's AND Deke's parts, as Jules noted, I think. Then Josh moved onto keys to sing a new one of his; "too much too soon ". You know, there were years in the 80s when Man didn't play any new songs from one year to the next, they were atrophying - this is all good. For the encore of Many are called, Josh and James came out first and built up the song on their guitars - that was a really nice touch. It was a fabulous gig, the band had a real sense of occasion. The audience loved it. Negatives? Malcolm's keys could have been higher in the mix, but I see from Allan Heron's review of Glasgow that this was fixed. I think there was an opportunity missed; No songs from Reanimated Memories, but if they had played Martin's "Ballad of Billy Lee" it linked straight back to Help Yourself who recorded it in 1973 but which wasn't released until the "5" album in the noughties. I would have dropped Chimes of Midnight for that. We had the " Big 5 ", also played by Son of Man last Saturday. Martin payed a fitting tribute to his ( almost lifelong) friend Deke, before playing Hard Way to Live as the last encore, which I don't think has featured in Man sets very often since the 76 tour. Interestingly, Son of Man played this too. It just shows you can't keep a good Leonard tune down...
