Titus writes:
Coming
up this Friday 22 December 2023, is the WTF is This Christmas Show, so
I am combining this blog with a little bit on Half Man Half Biscuit,
and then submitting some Christmas-y alternative Festive tunes for lex
to approve, and hopefully for you to enjoy (the reality is that you’ll
probably be opining “He’s finally lost it”)
Half
Man Half Biscuit were formed in 1984 ......in I like to say
Cheshire......but Birkenhead is probably classified as part of Liverpool
now, I know not. It’s The Wirral to most people. Anyway, I have
always loved their satirical, sarcastic, sometimes cynical style. The
core of the band were, and still are Nigel Blackwell and Neil Crossley.
At the time, Nigel did admit to having what many would describe as an
alternative lifestyle, but according to him , he was still “robbing
cars and playing football like normal people do”
They’ve
made 13 LP’s/EP’s (excluding compilations), and all of these, in my
opinion have great titles, particularly the excellent 2000 album
“Trouble over Bridgwater”. From their debut LP “Back in the DHSS”, they
released a single “The Trumpton Riots” which amazingly topped the
Indie Singles Chart in 1986, and even more amazingly, their second
single “Dickie Davies Eyes” did the same. The band then spilt for a
sabbatical of four years, before appearing at the Reading Festival in
1990. They did no less than TWELVE sessions for the John Peel Show, and
John enthusiastically praised them and played many of their tracks
before his death in 2004. One astonishing fact that has emerged, is
that they turned down a chance to appear on Channel 4 TV's “The Tube”
because Nigel’s favourite football team Tranmere Rovers were playing on
that particular night!
The
band have occasionally been augmented by a lady called Victoria Loop,
who has played bass, tenor horn & cornet, and she is known as “The
Fifth Biscuit”, which I believe is a parallel reference to Billy Preston
always being referred to as “The Fifth Beatle”. Blackwell has always
demonstrated his love of television, and the smaller British towns in
his writing, and also his distaste of many trends such as he referred
to in a track that lex has played before...... “Paintball’s coming
home” from the album “Voyage to the Bottom of the Road”. All in all, I
think it’s fair to say that Peel adored the band, and Nigel
Blackwell, like The Fall’s (the late) Mark E. Smith, was always
labelled “a genius” by many, many people from their fan base and from
the media. Perhaps fellow musician Eliza Carthy O.B.E. was spot on
when she championed the band for their “pathos disguised with wit and
sarcasm”, and also the cricket commentator that we never seem to hear
from these days – David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd – often made reference to HMHB’s
lyrics, which went completely “over the heads” of his
co-commentators! Incidentally, I’ll be writing more about the mighty
Fall next year.
My
three Christmas requests to lex are HMHB ‘s “All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit”, “It’s clichéd to be cynical at Christmas”
and The Fall’s “Hark the Herald Angels sing”. I hope you enjoy them,
and please seek out the discography of these 2 brilliant bands. Enjoy
Christmas and ATB for a good ‘24.