Firstly, an important heads up. The Voiceprint label is doing an amazing job in preserving all sorts of obscure footage from the late 1960s and early 1970s for posterity. Their website Voiceprint Records website tells you all you need to know about what is perhaps the most diligent Progressive Rock labour of love this writer's ever come across.
Ons of their latest DVD releases is MAN'S 'Tapes of the Unexpected'. Coming to it, I must confess to relatively scant knowledge of the much-feted Welsh band's oeuvre. I do know they were heavily influenced by the acid-fried San Francisco sound (they even worked briefly with Quicksilver Messenger Service's legendary John Cipollina) and recorded 'Live at the Padget Rooms, Penarth' – a staple '70s live album. Oh, their drummer Terry Williams also later appeared with Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds in Rockpile. But that's about all I can offer as a starter for ten.
With this in mind, 'Tapes of the Unexpected' acts as a useful – and surprisingly economical – introduction to what Man were about. I had preconceived ideas about lengthy, widdly guitar excess, but the five tracks here clock in at a sensible 25 minutes in total and – with the exception of the trippy, drone-rock interlude in 'Will the Christians Wait Five Minutes' - this is mostly a look at the more acceptable face of Prog. Hell, if you've ever been moved by the grittier likes of The Groundhogs, you'll be pretty comfortable hangin' out in this territory.
As with many of Voiceprint's DVD releases, we must be hugely thankful for the diligence and enthusiasm displayed by the German television archive. Typically, while many of the more experimental acts of the late '60s and early '70s struggled to bother the commercial scorers in their native Blighty, the less fad-conscious German music fans were happy to give British touring bands a chance and offer them studio time when they passed through Hamburg or Bremen.
The first couple of tracks are taken from a Hamburg-filmed, 1969 Beat Club performance. They're in black and white and there are lots of hippy chicks in the crowd and crappy, 'futuristic' late '60s TV FX. Despite the 'great, maan' aspect of the audience, Man rock with fire in their bellies. '2.30 Definitely' finds Martin Ace blowin' a mean, Brian Jones-style harp over the band's rough-arsed R'n'B, while 'Brother Arnold's Red & White Striped Tent' may proffer a title redolent of Canterbury scene whimsy, but its' sonic soundtrack is tough and blues-y, with some fine, Gregg Allman-style organ playing from Clive John helping to light its' spark.
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By the time of the third track, 'Daughter of the Fireplace', Man's ever-shifting line-up had altered again. Terry Williams had taken over the drum stool and his rock-steady attack powers the band through a rumbling, punky three-minute number more akin to a Welsh MC5 than anything from the West Coast scene. The aforementioned 'Will the Christians Wait Five Minutes' is the one detour into noodle-dom, but the plot's retrieved by the closing 'Angel Easy' from late 1971. This one again catches Man on the cusp of change, as twin frontmen Ace and Deke Leonard would shortly be gone, but again the song is performed with gusto, verve and only a minimum of showmanship.
As a child of Punk, I've stupidly ignored bands like Man for too long. Yes, the early '70s had its' laughable excesses and I still believe the whole 'Year Zero' aspect of Punk was a healthy thing. As is its' wont, though, history finds footage like this throwing new light on some of the long-forgotten footsoldiers who were actually fighting a good fight for Rock on their own terms. It's time we listened up and gave them a hand out of the trenches at last.
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