Half Man, Half Biscuit

[ajsmith]

yeah, the humour on their first two eighties albums is a lot more sick and childish, there's a slightly more gentle humanist thread running through their post-reformastion LPs. (and HMHB must be the only band whose post reformation albums are quantibly better than their early ones)

[Goldentony]

They played some of the new album on the radio the other week, marvellous stuff. gonna have to get me tickets for the liverpool gig assuming it hasnt already sold out.

[mwude]

I'll see ya there!  Can't wait for it.  Curse these restless legs.   I think tickets are still available - £15 if you pay by cash at the box office.

[mwude]

The Liverpool gig was last night and very good it was too.  Plenty of Dukla Prague away kits on show & a couple of pairs of Joy Division Oven Gloves as well.  They're never going to be the tightest band in the world but the sheer fun of it all is overwhelming, like their cover of "I think we're alone now" giving Tiffany the Biccies treatment.  The crowd all chanting "There's only one John Peel" before the encore was lovely to hear as well.

Link to the inner sleeve that I mentioned before with all the letters (and even some replies to those letters) from the local papers.  I think this started as an idle thought about how many equine-based letters he could get printed and it just went on from there.

And here's Vatican Broadside - a short but sweet track.

[dot]

I heard joy division oven gloves last night, it was really good. I kept hearing of them but the name probably put me off, I thought it was a jokey name to disguise pretensions, but turns out they're a jokey band.

[Brutus Beefcake]

Which is the song that mentions playing a guerrila gig in the middle of a guerrila gig?

[splattermac]

Joy division oven gloves

[mwude]

Which is the song that mentions playing a guerrila gig in the middle of a guerrila gig?

Asparagus next left

[The Boston Crab]

I've finally got round to giving this the treatment it deserves. I must have listened to it about 5 times during a plane journey and it's been my toilet headphone music ever since. I like their use of traditional and borrowed tunes actually, especialy one that reminded me of my favourite 'hymn' from school assembly, the one that about the Grandfather clockbeing too tall for the shelf and daa da da daa da da daaa.

They really are brilliant and that's all I've got to say about that!

[splattermac]

Finally had a listen to the full album. Laughed at the Gouranga line because I'm always pleased to see the stuck on letters on the way into town or on the motorway overpasses in the area. Smirked way my way through the rest, miserable buggers but there are some quality lines in there.



Are Joy Division oven gloves part of their merchandising or is this just a dedicated fan?

There's a whore called 'depressed beyond tablets', a message to other biscuit fans perhaps and now it's finally decoded.

[butnut]

Isn't 'Depressed beyond tablets' from Brass Eye as well or am I imagining that?

[mwude]

Are Joy Division oven gloves part of their merchandising or is this just a dedicated fan?

Dedicated fan.  I think  the oven gloves are stage 1 of fandom, Dukla Prague away kit is stage 2, and snooker referee outfit complete with white gloves in order to do the 'Len Ganley stance' is the stage 3 full-on weirdo stalker level.

[smufflebob]

Been a fan of these since my older brother copied me DHSS on tape when I was young. Does anyone know who they're having a go at on 'Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo' off Achtung Bono?

[Jebus Sabes]

Been a fan of these since my older brother copied me DHSS on tape when I was young. Does anyone know who they're having a go at on 'Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo' off Achtung Bono?

Although I didn't know that, I looked it up here.

[splattermac]

ah, satori!

And the answer to the 'depressed beyond tablets' question. That's doubled my Chris Morris knowledge.

[Bigflood]

I was at an Art Brut gig last week and the lead singer made a reference to Pete Docherty having a shit arm and a bad tattoo, he's obviously a fan.  It also left me feeling unbearably smug because I knew what the reference was, making me instantly better than everyone else.

[smufflebob]

Been a fan of these since my older brother copied me DHSS on tape when I was young. Does anyone know who they're having a go at on 'Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo' off Achtung Bono?

(picture)
Although I didn't know that, I looked it up here.

Thanks for that, explains a lot.

[Caroline]

I was at an Art Brut gig last week and the lead singer made a reference to Pete Docherty having a shit arm and a bad tattoo, he's obviously a fan.  It also left me feeling unbearably smug because I knew what the reference was, making me instantly better than everyone else.

He's a big fan, he stole my copy of the new album from me.

The Dukla Prague away kit thing is great, I saw Jim Bob (ex Carter USM) play last month and there was a guy wearing one, just dying to be asked about it.

[Duffy]

http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/audio/

Looks like the HMHB Peel Sessions, which were previously freely available (apart from the released stuff), have been removed because of eBay twats like this.

[splattermac]

Don't suppose the fans* fancy recommending some tracks from the albums/singles in-between Back in the D.H.S.S, Back Again in the D.H.S.S, ACD and the new one? When I were a nipper (13/14) the older punk lads that me and my pals used to skate with introduced us to cider and HMHB and I fondly remember my tatty old C90s. Then they dropped off the face of the earth for me and I've come back to them much older, creak – groan. I'm disappointed to read that Art Brut are fans, I suddenly feel music hasn't gone very far, or I haven't, one of the two. Not that Brut are paradigms of originality but it sort of cheapens their music because it's nowhere near as witty as the biccies, is that what the fans call them? Do you know what the lead singer's favourite biscuit is or it is one of those hilarious music ironies where he's allergic to them much like the drummer from ZZ Top is allergic to beards?

What am I talking about, they are cheaper than Panda cola already!

*the best kind have mp3 hosting knowledge

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I wish they'd release the Peel/Kershaw sessions in a nice box - anyone know why they haven't? I prefer those versions in some cases, and of course there's at least one exclusive track in each session.

Also, I'm not convinced that the material is safe in the BBC's archive.

And I still can't believe no one's done a lyrics site.

[Melth]

And I still can't believe no one's done a lyrics site.

Nigel doesn't really care for people transcribing his lyrics, apparently, as they mostly seem to get them wrong.

http://www.hmhb.co.uk/
Take a look at the link at the bottom of the ACD section for details.

[Melth]

http://rapidshare.de/files/6730349/03_Epiphany.mp3.html

An atypical one to choose, I suppose, but brilliant in its way.

[phantom_power]

Been a fan of these since my older brother copied me DHSS on tape when I was young. Does anyone know who they're having a go at on 'Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo' off Achtung Bono?

(picture)
Although I didn't know that, I looked it up here.

Thanks for that, explains a lot.

although:

SHIT ARM, BAD TATTOO
"It isn't particularly about anyone specific....I have in mind slightly overweight bass players in local Punk (old
'skool')/Heavy Rock outfits who all seem to have flabby upper arms which is fine but not if you're going to get
y'self a 'Tat'.
"No-one specifically refers to the Book of Revelation(s) but there are plenty enough certainly who add that
superfluous 's' and often do it whilst pontificating, thus making them appear doubly idiotic. 'If you're going to
pontificate, don't manufacture brickbats for any possible counter attack' - that was said by either Andrey
Tarkovsky or Stuart Boam (ex-Middlesbrough) - I can't remember which."

[splattermac]

I think I've plateaued with Achtung Bono after about ten listens and I'm looking for something else of theirs to explore. I've been reading that Cammell Laird Social Club is better than Achtung Bono. What does that mean exactly (well duh!), are the fans saying A-B is a newer sound/song direction? Do the cab biccie fans rate this album? Also what Sex Pistols' track does Asparagus next left remind me of?

[ajsmith]

All Biscuti albums are kind of a playeau anyway, but here's how I'd descibe the ones inbetween the first and the last:

ACD: the 2nd and last 80s LP nice bright tunes and instrumentation on a lot of the tracks  compared to DHSS, though some of the humour on this one is quuite unbecominly sick  and mean-spirited compared to usual (check out carry on cremating)

Macintyre, treamore and Davitt; Sometihing of a classic, IMO, with ten fully-formed multipart Biscuit suites. "Outbreak of Vitas Geralitus", and "Hedly Veritiesque" in particular, more than stadn comparison with the Smiths or the Kinks in terms of being quintensially British sarcastic melodic poignant grim-pop. The last album to feature prominent use of keyboards (whihc lend a few track an almost Inspirasly hue here)

This Leaden Pall: kind of gone down in history thanks to the NME and it's  AMAZING album cover (one of their few to be any good at all) as the Biscuits Magnum opus, I don't find it particluarly better than the others, but nigel detects a "doom laden thread" running through it which you may be anble to detect yourself. Once again, more mature surreal collagations of aspects  of the British experience, probaly best exemplified in "4ad3dcd" and "Quality Janitor"

Some  calll  it GodCore: cheapo album recorded by a line-up change riddled group, this actually once again contains loadsa classics, such as the footballl track "Friday night and the gates are low" (a more direct and witty follow too the Fall's Kicker Conspiracy) and a ong spoken word number about watching a Focus tribute group.

Voyagge tot he Bottom of the Road: Probably the one to go for as a next buy: in spite of a pretty awful dirge of an opening track, it contaisn so many outriight biscuit classics that hit tghe nail on the head annd contain a slow-burning wit like "Bad Review" "Dead Men Don't need Season tickets" "CAMRA man" and the Noelrock satire "monmore hare's runnin"

Four Lads who shook the wirral: a strong opening (including the seminal classic "4 skinny indie Kids  and the Jenny Eclair-puncturing "You're hard" give wayt oa  seriesw of underwhelming folk tunes (from here on it, one folk tunes would become and increasingly core part of the Biscuits sound) allevated only by the wonderul 6.30  minute state of the nation rant "A country Practice"

Trouble Over Bridgewater: for my money, possibly the Biccies finest and certainly funniest and sharpest LP. More skit based and musically varied than usual."Look Dad no tunes" manages to slag off and romaticise post-rock no-hopers at the same times, while "Gubba Look-a like" and "the Ballad of climie Fisher" are two of there more exctignly strange excusions into pure whimsy

Cammel Laird Social Club:  not really a favourtie of mine, though the wordplay is as good as ever, by the point the tunes and overreliance of extant folk melodies is becoming a bit reprtivie. Still, the first 3 trcks are prettty strong, and there's another epic state of the nation rant as on "Four Lads" (not quite as good though)

[splattermac]

Thanks for the info. I'm undecided as what to go for next but the options look good for a multiple purchase :)

[Bigflood]

I was going to post links to these in one of the Youtube threads, but it looks like they've been taken down.  Good job I nabbed them while I could:  

http://rapidshare.de/files/23080451/HMHB.rar.html

Nowt special, just one clip of The Light at the End of the Tunnel (Is the Light of an Oncoming Train) and Fuckin' 'Ell, It's Fred Titmus live and the video for Its Cliched to be Cynical at Christmas.

You'll need FLV player http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/article/flv-player-updated

[Boing]

Fancy calling an album:
"Back In The D.H.S.S."
It's genius,but todays generation of dole-ites just wouldn't get it.Neither would working people,as that particular government department has now been renamed the D.S.S.
So if they're under say,thirty,they won't get it.'Cause it was renamed.That particular department.Funny.

[The Boston Crab]

That's ok because when it came out, it was relevant.

Fancy calling that movie 'Kafka' 'Kafka'! If you didn't know who Kafka was you probably wouldn't even be interested in the movie enough to pick it up!