OFF: Man

[Henderson Keith]

Man - Basel, Switzerland (Kaserne, Parterre) - 10 Nov. 2002

Well, ironically, it's all because of Lemmy that I learned of this gig.
(Ironic 'cause Man were Hawkwind's most common touring mates back when Lemmy
was aboard.)  Motörhead had just finished christening the newly-refurbished
'Reithalle' theatre inside the Kaserne in (Klein)Basel on the banks of the
River Rhein.  That show was Friday night to a sold-out audience of 1,200 or
so and was as usual a blinder.  Upon exit of that show, I then noticed the
"MAN" poster on a utility pole promixal to the building, and so there I was
again at the Kaserne just two days later, on a Sunday night that turned out
to be a little too long for my tastes (me being on a 'normal' working
schedule these days).  The gig was advertised with a sole time-listing of
20:00, which sadly turned out to be the 'Door' time, the music intended to
start at 21:00 (9 o'clock in more familiar terms).  That would have been
just fine...the scraggly-looking bunch of us in the front foyer section of
the Parterre 'club' enjoying a few aperitifs (Hmmm...why only Heineken on
draft, whereas the Feldschlosschen brewery is just a stone's throw away?!)
while we could hear the soundcheck coming from the larger room behind the
big sliding door.  "Yeah, that sounds like Man to me."

But then 21:00 came, and we all funnelled into the actual 'music room,'
perhaps 120 strong ready for some live action.  An opening act was expected,
but I couldn't overhear anything but puzzlement from those around the Man
merchandising table as to just who this was supposed to be.  So then 40
minutes of precious time had come and gone (other folks were restless too,
not just me!), and *finally* one dude (that I'd seen earlier in the bar)
comes out and saunters up onto the stage and straps on a guitar and plays
some useless jangly stuff.  Later, he would turn on a drum machine (which
was awful) and play with that for some time, and eventually got two other
buddies to join him on drums and saxophone.  Around then, the music started
to resemble something of mild interest, but by then, I was already rueing
the day this particular individual was ever born, as I knew that Man was
going to go on stage way later than the 10:00 stage time I had seen posted
in the bar (again, that would have been ok...Lemmy had walked on at that
same time Friday, and I got to my train on time without missing anything
significant).  So anyway, I did learn the name of this opening act, but I'm
not going to tell you who it was for fear of doing something to promote this
person's "music."  'Cause I think he was entirely responsible for the lack
of 'perfect Swiss timing' on this night.

Man's stage manager guy came partially to the rescue by quickly shooing them
and their gear off the stage (he grabbing stuff and carrying it off himself
at one point).  And so it was a short turn-around and Deke Leonard and crew
stepped up at 10:40 to begin.  Of course, the stuff I was most interested in
was going to be at the end, and the last train home was (sigh) 11:48.
However, I had discovered in the Basel train station itself that one final
late train departs at 12:30 and goes east *almost* all the way back to Baden
(ending one stop short in Brugg, which of course is why it never appears on
the online schedule when putting 'Baden' in the destination field).  Well,
ok, I can walk from Brugg though it's quite some ways (6 km).  Anyway, so I
decide I will stay as long as I possibly can, which still wasn't quite long
enough...but at least I made it to the encore instead of leaving right in
the middle of the set!

OK...Micky Jones isn't quite so healthy these days, so the five-piece Man
band this night featured one George Jones on guitar, the surname not being
purely coincidence.  Of course, this is Micky's son.  Keyboardist Phil Ryan,
who has seemingly come and gone recently from the lineup, was also not there
replaced by Gareth Thorrington once more.  The standard Leonard (guitar,
vocals), Martin Ace (bass, vocals), and Bob Richards (drums) triumvirate
completed the picture.  Deke is looking his age I should say, and now bears
a remarkable resemblance to comedian George Carlin.  Most of the first part
of the show is to promote the latest releases of course, so we hear four
tracks from the 2000 studio release "Endangered Species."  The highlight
from among these was the 10-minute opener "Conflict of Interest" which was
part of the live set starting a number of years ago when it was known as "Do
It."  We got our first taste of George's guitar work, which was not only
more 'modern-styled' than what Dad would have played, it was also quite
good.  And not really out-of-place either, if that's what you were thinking
I meant - he's a talented kid who always kept himself well within the scope
of the whole-band-concept-thing.  After this tune, Deke took a moment to
compliment the Swiss obsession with cleanliness...in the process slagging
Germany as always being 'so dirty' (where they'd just spent the previous
week or so touring).  He went on to tell about his recent experience in
Liverpool when he'd mistakenly ended up in the Basel cheering section during
the Champions League football match against the Reds.  (Lucky for him he
didn't stay in Basel for just two more days and thereby have had to
experience the Reds' humiliation at the hands of the 'Rot-Blau' once more as
FC Basel eliminated them from the competition by way of a torrid 3-0 first
half performance.)

Well ok, on they went - "Manillo," an old bluesy-stomp number reborn worked
nicely with Deke being in particularly 'sultry' voice, for lack of a better
word.  "I Always Thought the Walrus was Protected," a song that only
appeared on the recent ltd. ed. "Undrugged" CD, was a 'surfier' blues number
of Ace's.  "Face to Face" saw Thorrington get a chance to do some more work,
offering a kind of lazy, squealy synth solo, that in one sense was quite
'cosmic' but also *much* different than Ryan's more fluid style (with lots
of runs and stuff).  So Thorrington definitely has an interesting and unique
style, but unlike George, I don't think he fit in quite as well as a
'replacement' part.
Deke switched to his 'bulls-eye' black and white Gibson for "The Ride and
the View" (1976 vintage), where he turned it up a notch with lethal slide
action.  Martin took over lead vocal duties next with "Stuck Behind the
Popemobile" which ended with a cool extended march-like outtro.

I was already past my turn-around time for safe arrival home and sure enough
the jammin' oldies were just to begin.  The first of these was a tune that
is *very* familiar (I still have it in my head a week later as I write this
review), but I haven't been able to come up with the title.  I'm pretty sure
it was offered as an instrumental and I just can't put a name to the music
(without my Man CDs with me in Europe at the moment!).  Anyway, it was a
great slab of psychedelic jamming with Deke and George tag-teaming it in
good form.  They wrapped it up with a shorter hard-edged blues number that I
didn't recognize and then took a break for the inevitable encore.  I think
Gareth started up first with a strange synth-swashing intro (again, quite
interesting and more appropriate this time!) and then slowly the rhythm
section of Ace and Richards started in on what turned out to be "Spunk Rock"
with George screaming out the vocals pretty aggressively.  I hung on as long
as I could - they made it through the entire first 'cut' of the actual song
and so I heard maybe the first 6 or 7 minutes before I had to leave.
Presumably they went on at least another 10 minutes or so...and who knows,
maybe they even hung around for more?  ("Bananas" is usually their
swansong.)  In any case, I left having enjoyed myself but terribly bitter at
the nature of public transportation, false advertising, (again) that damn
guy from the opener, and anything else I could think of!  Oh yeah, and then
I forgot that I didn't know the way from Brugg to my home on foot
(especially in the dark with no moon visible) and got terribly lost
(Gebenstorf!  How the hell did I end up here?!) and so I got like 3 hours of
sleep before work the next morning.

Setlist:
Conflict of Interest/Do It
Love isn't Love
Manillo
I Always Thought the Walrus was Protected
Face to Face
The Ride and the View
Stuck Behind the Popemobile
? (10-min. old classic instrumental)
? (short up-tempo bluesy number)
----
Spunk Rock