Half Man Half Biscuit
- Thread starter D'wards
- Start date
Lazy Llama
Suburban robots that monitor reality
Saw HMHB at the Bull & Gate; their first London gig, I think.
In 1990, not that long after the borders opened up, I went to Czechoslovakia on tour with a couple of bands from Leicester. (I was part of the entourage/lugging gear, living in a couple of campervans/sleeping on floors).
Everyone on the tour wanted to get a Dukla Prague away kit, but we were persuaded by the locals that Sparta Prague were the team to go for because Dukla was the army team.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
You went all that way?
big eejit
She looks like Alan Gilzean
I was 17 when Back in the DHSS came out. I loved it. It was a perfect album for the time. But somehow I lost touch with HMHB.
Two years ago my son bought me their latest album, Urge for Offal, on a hunch that I may like them, after he read a review of it.
They're now my new favourite band. I saw them play Bristol earlier this year. There isn't a day goes by when I don't have their tunes and lyrics stuck in my head.
Brilliant tunes, brilliant lyrics, and utterly humane. Nigel Blackwell is a sodding genius.
Home Page
Two years ago my son bought me their latest album, Urge for Offal, on a hunch that I may like them, after he read a review of it.
They're now my new favourite band. I saw them play Bristol earlier this year. There isn't a day goes by when I don't have their tunes and lyrics stuck in my head.
Brilliant tunes, brilliant lyrics, and utterly humane. Nigel Blackwell is a sodding genius.
Home Page
TheHoodedClaw
acknowledging ur soup leg
"If I were a linesman,
I would execute defenders who applauded my offsides"
I would execute defenders who applauded my offsides"
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
The rule used to be that you couldn't be (predominantly) funny and good. HMHB changed that. Not many followed. But you didn't have to be the barron knights or pastiches of any other bands to put funny stuff at the center of your writing after.
And they mapped the w/c experience across 3 decades with uncanny cultural...involvement.
And they mapped the w/c experience across 3 decades with uncanny cultural...involvement.
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Cammell Laird Social Club is my personal favourite but there's loads of gems
D'wards
IT'S YOUR DECISION DANIEL
Flight of the Conchords are the only other band I can think of that successfully pulls it off.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Check the bass on Uffington Wassail. That's why they were never a comedy band,
catinthehat
Failed VK = Replicant
The only conversation about business or marketing we ever have is when I have my bi annual idea that now is the time to market Joy Division Oven Gloves working on the fact that the original HMHB demographic were unlikely to purchase oven gloves for lifestyle reasons but are now in a segment that just might do.
Orangesanlemons
Inamorati Anonymous
Only saw them once, ages ago, at one of the last Duchess of York gigs in Leeds. Very boisterous.
"And if I get to heaven’s gate, I’ll doubtless have to wait
While St Peter investigates the inevitable asterisk.
The inside of a Halex Three-Star table-tennis ball
Smells much like you’d expect it to."
I love this (Surging Out Of Convalesce), but it doesn't look like much on paper. HMHB lyrics don't really work without the music & NB's delivery. You keep having to explain to people why you think they're so good, instead of it being obvious. They're a brilliant band, & need playing loudly.
I also admire them for steadfastly ignoring Julie Burchill's self-trumpeted fandom & blatant attempts to get a mention in a song.
"And if I get to heaven’s gate, I’ll doubtless have to wait
While St Peter investigates the inevitable asterisk.
The inside of a Halex Three-Star table-tennis ball
Smells much like you’d expect it to."
I love this (Surging Out Of Convalesce), but it doesn't look like much on paper. HMHB lyrics don't really work without the music & NB's delivery. You keep having to explain to people why you think they're so good, instead of it being obvious. They're a brilliant band, & need playing loudly.
I also admire them for steadfastly ignoring Julie Burchill's self-trumpeted fandom & blatant attempts to get a mention in a song.
They're already available. The half of the audience that weren't wearing a dukla Prague away kit when I last saw them were sporting joy division oven gloves.
big eejit
She looks like Alan Gilzean
I think the lyrics stand up well on their own, but Nigel's delivery does bring out the humour in them.
If you look up 'deadpan' in the Oxford English Dictionary it says 'See Nigel Blackwell's delivery of the line "Play one the drummer knows" in Rock n Roll is full of bad wools.
catinthehat
Failed VK = Replicant
Typical. Its like that night I invented pies and woke up to find they already exist.
craigxcraig
Prefers 'cxc'
Love HMHB - been playing the album 90 Bisodol lots lately, all tracks are excellent 
billy_bob
Air of bewilderment model's own
Love HMHB - been playing the album 90 Bisodol lots lately, all tracks are excellent
You haven't had a bellyful of Tommy Walsh's eco-house yet then?
josef1878
Well-Known Member
HMHB aren't usually ideal running music so I usually skip them when they come up on shuffle when I'm out jogging, but I discovered the other day that Bastard Son of Dean Friedman's the perfect tempo.
Supercalifragilistic-Baruschio-Munchen-Gladbach...
They mocked me in my mocks and embroidered in my socks the bastard son of Dean Friedman
krtek a houby
Saoirse don Phalaistín!
She stayed with me until she moved to Notting Hill
She said it was the place she needs to be
Where the cocaine is fair trade, and frequently displayed
Is the Buena Vista Social Club CD
I thought she’d be back in three weeks and we’d go wandering the Peaks
Sojourn in my Uncle Joe’s ashram
For when you’re in Matlock Bath you don’t need Sylvia Plath
Not while they’ve got Mrs. Gibson’s Jam
Alas I’m brooding alone by the runnel
While she’s in Capri with her swain
And the light at the end of the tunnel
Is the light of an oncoming train
She said it was the place she needs to be
Where the cocaine is fair trade, and frequently displayed
Is the Buena Vista Social Club CD
I thought she’d be back in three weeks and we’d go wandering the Peaks
Sojourn in my Uncle Joe’s ashram
For when you’re in Matlock Bath you don’t need Sylvia Plath
Not while they’ve got Mrs. Gibson’s Jam
Alas I’m brooding alone by the runnel
While she’s in Capri with her swain
And the light at the end of the tunnel
Is the light of an oncoming train
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