Man from Delmonte: the most criminally underrated band of all time?

I bought a live cassette of this band back in 1990/91. At first I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I soon grew to like it. Then my friend borrowed and never gave it back. After this I kind of forget about them. The other day for some reason I remembered them and checked them out on Youtube. And suddenly, "fuck! I LOVE this band." Suddenly they were better than almost everything else around at the time. I looked them up on Wikipedia and was sad to read the following line, "However, they attained little commercial or critical success."

I did see the following comments on Youtube though, which cheered me up:

Played loads of gigs with TMFD with Raintree County. They were by far the best band from Manchester during all that Madchester thing. I feel privileged to have been on the same stage as them...

Anyone got a copy of Water In My Eyes? Still one of my favourite songs...ah happy days in Manchester

Yeah. One of the best gigs I've ever been to. You can see me squashed against the stage in one of the photos in the initial cassette version of the live recording. Hot ain't the word for that night!!

i loved this band. big noise was the soundtrack to the best summer of my life. i have so much affection for this brilliant, underated group.

My first gig playing for Raintree County was supporting TMFD at Legends in Warrington - the place was utterly packed out! We played with them loads of times after that in Manchester - they were an incredible band. Forget the Roses or the Mondays, the Man from Delmonte were THE band that summed up all that Madchester Summer thing to me...

Remember dancing like mad at the Hacienda when MfD played live, best times of my life!!

Used to love these guys - what a time and what a superb findway back in about 88/89 owe my then girlfriend for uncovering them for me - cheers Deb whereever you ended up !

Danced and danced and danced, and trust me, I'm no dancer, oh for those days

Went to see them a few times at The International - we bounced about like loons til we were soaked through to the skin. I bloody loved those gigs - AMAZING!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZIeIXpGbUA

What do you think? Do you already know of them or are they new to you? Do you think they deserved more success or at least to be better known?

I heard he only says yes to the best.

Judging by the response, most of you have never heard of them and those that have don't RATE them.

Followed them a little bit back when they were together. eg. saw them live a couple of times, recorded the Peel session, didn't ever buy a record by them. They were quite popular in the indie scene of the time, particularly with the kind of girls who were into the post-Postcard scene bands like Brilliant Corners, Go-Betweens, Chesterfields or Del Amitri (before they went RAWK). Couple of friends of mine really loved them. Good songs I remember and nice springy guitars sounds.

all I can remember about them was the video for Water In My Eyes which got played on the Chart Show a couple of times, featuring a baby harmonica solo. Seen their name mentioned a few times recently due to Jon Ronson being their manager.

To answer the first post's question I think their level of success at the time was quite appropriate. There was quite a lot of that kind of thing around at the time and they were moderately popular. They got signed to labels, had radio sessions and airplay for their singles. On TV a couple of times I think. The fact that they are forgotten or ignored nowadays seems normal - that was a quarter of a century ago and it's not like anyone is rushing to reissue the first Del Amitri album either.

Del Amitri? How dare you.

I'm talking about the original line-up of Del Amitri who released one album then split up and didn't do anything for four years at which point they re-emerged sounding quite different. At first they were certainly playing in a style influenced by Orange Juice, Monochrome Set, Go-Betweens etc. Listen, if you like the Man From Delmonte then go check out Del Amitri by Del Amitri.