The Trade Descriptions Act may yet demand Man be renamed Boy, since Josh Ace (son of still-serving bassist Martin) and George Jones (ditto now-retired guitarist Micky) currently hold down the six-string spots. But the band that formed in Swansea in 1968, as Wales’s answer to San Francisco’s Quicksilver Messenger Service, have stayed true to their roots.
It’s clearly Martin Ace’s hand on the tiller now, and he offers both the best and worst of Diamonds & Coal’s nine tracks. The diamond is Freedom Fries, a musing on the state of the post- 9/11 world, titled after America’s alternative name for chips when the French wimped out on Iraq. The clinker? Thank God It’s Not Miss Cathy, a sentimental childhood tale that would better belong in a set by former solo band the Flying Aces. The title track sees Josh and George firing up those twin guitars in an attempt to rekindle the sparks once created by Micky Jones and Deke Leonard, while drummer Bob Richards, a powerhouse throughout, makes his writing debut on the infuriatingly catchy All Alone. A work in progress in more ways than one, the new Man line-up has made its first mark. Watch this space.
