Occasionally I’ve come across a decent article about Half Man Half Biscuit which I’d never discovered before. You may well have done the same. Anyway, here’s your chance to give the article a small but perfectly-formed little piece of publicity. Feel free to add one you’ve written yourself. (Note: Don’t worry if you don’t know the code to make links work, I’ll tidy it up.)
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<a href="http://www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/half-decent-articles-about-hmhb/">Half Decent Articles about HMHB</a>
Note: the first three Half Man Half Biscuit albums have some crossover of tracks - see here for details
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36 Letters Sent:
Chris The Siteowner
I’ll kick things off with An Illustrated Guide To… Half Man Half Biscuit on Sweeping The Nation…
May 2nd, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
…Kevin Sampson’s Taking The Biscuit from The Guardian…
May 2nd, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
…Mike Wade’s fantastic blog entry Dean Friedman bites the Biscuits…
May 2nd, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
…the 2005 career retrospective Half Man Half Biscuit on Spank The Monkey…
May 2nd, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
…and Kicking Against The Pricks!: An Interview with Half Man Half Biscuit by Roger Holland on Popmatters
May 2nd, 2009
Dave F.
Hi Chris
Aren’t these all linked on Gez’s site?
In your first link it claims only two TV appearances. Is that right?
I can think of three at the moment:
OGWT.
Tube
a Saturday morning football show (I forget it’s name)
Any others?
May 3rd, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
By “Gez’s site” do you mean http://www.hmhb.co.uk? If so, I’m sure these articles (and many more) are indeed linked to from there, but I started this page so that people can add to the list, which you can’t do on the otherwise admirable hmhb.co.uk. Also, the articles will all be listed on one page – finding them on hmhb.co.uk is a rather daunting prospect.
May 4th, 2009
A J Smith
They famously didn’t actually appear on The Tube though, since they refused a helicopter to speed them away in time to catch Trammere Rovers (or Nigel did anyway). The Football show they were on was Under The Moon. I’m pretty sure that and Whistle Test remain the only 2 TV performances, although the Dickie Davies Eyes video made it to the Chart Show at least once.
May 9th, 2009
Paul F
I remember that Chart Show edition! The camera focuses on what appears to be a “Romany bint in a field with her paints” but as “she” looks up you see it’s a Dickie-Davies lookalike.
May 9th, 2009
simon smith
There was the late night ITV live gig filmed at Manchester Academy in 1990 (may have been shown in 1991) with an appearance by Margi Clarke.With Simon Blackwell`s horrid jumper, and tonsure and facefuzz of a 50 year old man, holding sway the original line up played `Our Tune`, `A Lilac Harry Quinn`, `Nerys Hughes/AIWFCIADPAK`, Dickie Davies`, `No Rugrats` and perhaps `Trumpton Riots` (I`ll have to watch it and check)
May 10th, 2009
Dave F.
No idea why I would have typed The Tube, knowing full well they didn’t play. (Doh!)
I guess I’m thinking of the show you mention Simon, but the HMHB Myspace page lists it as a Granada production so it may not have been shown down here in the West country. If that’s the case, I’m not sure how I would have seen it? It’s also got a fuller set list (down near the bottom).
May 10th, 2009
Richard
This appeared in the Daily Telegraph last year:
Like Dr Rowan Williams, Half Man Half Biscuit have enriched our culture
Possibly the only time that comparison has ever been made?
May 15th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Great work Gary Parkinson for the finest catalogue of HMHB football references I’ve yet seen on Four-Four-Two’s website.
May 19th, 2009
Dave F.
For those who aren’t on the Yahoo group:
Irvine Welsh talks about HMHB …and plays JDOG. His bit starts about 00:50.
Jul 14th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Great one from Cult Cargo which hasn’t been acknowledged yet.
Jul 14th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Why Half Man Half Biscuit are wholly terrific in the Guardian’s Music Blog: “Witty and dry, sardonic yet never cynical, the lyrics of Half Man Half Biscuit are an undiscovered treasure trove. It’s time this great Birkenhead band got their due”
Jul 24th, 2009
Ian in Colorado
The Guardian again comes through, this time from a reader at 11:55am.
Aug 1st, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Nice page-long interview with Nigel in Word Magazine’s September 2009 issue, in a feature listing the magazine’s “Cult Heroes”. It’s the issue with beardy Robert Wyatt on the front.
Aug 12th, 2009
Peter Gandy
Chris,
I’ve only just noticed the spine of that issue: “There’s a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets”
Oct 5th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
I found what must be one of the first ever national press articles about the band in an old NME I picked up on eBay. It’s the one with that photo. And here it is.
Oct 24th, 2009
PaulLobster
The Sunday Post dated 14/02/2010 featured an article about the Lakes or wherever, and mentions Ambleside and (David) Wainwrights bitter. Further on in the Oor Wullie weekly, Vicky Leandros gets a mention or two, but they mention Corfu as opposed to Kos?
A great read that had me chuckling to myself.
Also has a decent sport section and TV bit which no-doubt had a handfull of other “Celebs” and “A-Lister” thrown in just for good measure.
I wonder if the editor re-alised what he had put into print.
Feb 16th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
As a follow-up to the NME article (above), the mighty eBay has now provided me with an issue of Sounds from a few months later (April 1986) which had the band as their colour centre spread, no less. You want to see it? Aw, go on then:
Full colour spread (now there’s a photo)
Cleaned-up article scan – you may need to zoom in with your browser (“Hairy Diana” anyone?)
Mar 3rd, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
And from the same April 1986 issue of Sounds, a live review (the band presumably had to play down in London to get one) from a gig at the ICA.
Mar 3rd, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Just found this nice interview with Andy Kershaw broadcast from the Brampton Festival in 2006.
May 18th, 2010
Alan K
Just found these on YouTube, only uploaded this week, from 1991 and 1985.
Video 1
Video 2
Ed’s note: brilliant! The first is a TV session featuring “A Lilac Harry Quinn” and “Our Tune”. The second is a “North West Tonight” report on the band from 1985 which seems to have been squashed but is worth the effort.
Jul 18th, 2010
dagenham dave
Good interview with Nigel in the latest Record Collector about ‘Back in the DHSS”.
My favourite quotes being:
“I tried to write lyrics on relationships and love but they ended up sounding like a load of bollocks”
and on their appeal…”My wife thinks the way I sing is also part of it. She describes it as someone shouting one long letter of complaint to the local council, which I suppose it is really”
Jan 5th, 2011
James Dodd
Hello,
I recently interviewed Nigel for Bido Lito! Magazine.
Ta very much.
Ed’s Note: the online version is now here.
Jan 25th, 2011
Hillary Clinton and Terry Nutkin
Nice illustration. Haven’t heard the Pam Ferris line before so we’ll file it under ‘F’.
Jan 25th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Not online unless you’re a subscriber to the magazine, but The Word magazine this month (May 2011 issue) has a decent and quite extensive article on Geoff Davies, Probe and Probe Plus.
Update: OK, as it’s a few months after the issue, I’m sure the magazine won’t mind us putting a scan of the article online.
Apr 14th, 2011
Fredorrarci
And here’s an interview with Geoff Probe at The Quietus, where there is soon to be an article by Taylor Parkes on HMHB. If his piece on The Fall last year is anything to go by, it’s something to look forward to.
Apr 16th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
In show three of “a six programme history of novelty records” by Carlos Slazenger on Resonance FM in 2010, there’s a chat with Geoff Davies which is worth a listen. Don’t worry, the presenter isn’t classing Half Man Half Biscuit as a novelty act, and takes great pains to point out that HMHB “put humour and satire in music without being a comedy band”.
Apr 28th, 2011
Dave Wiggins
Not sure if this review from Buzz magazine has been posted before or should be on the gigs page!
Ed’s note: here would indeed be the right place – the piece seems more like an article than a gig review to me.
Sep 7th, 2011
Ben Granger
Here is the above mentioned article by Taylor Parkes on The Quietus – superb, probably the best thing I’ve ever read on them.
Sep 30th, 2011
Ben Granger
And here’s my own effort from Spike Magazine back in 2005, tied to coincide with Achtung Bono.
Sep 30th, 2011
Rubber Faced Irritant
A fantastic Quietus article worthy of arguably the best website covering new music. But I do feel the need to take issue with the assertion that Excavating Rita features a “grief crazed Betterware salesman”. Given that this character is only able to visit the grave whilst on leave from a secure unit, this sounds implausible (unless it is referring to a previous occupation). Unpalatable as it seems, I think the reference to Betterware is in relation to a means of preventing decomposition or, perish the thought, a method of taking away body parts for consumption.
Oct 1st, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
I’m not sure if the 1991 TV appearance mentioned above and which is now on YouTube, ever got a link, so here it is:
Granada TV “The New Sessions” (Part 1) with A Lilac Harry Quinn, Our Tune
Granada TV “The New Sessions” (Part 2) with Prag Vec at the Melkweg, Dickie Davies Eyes
Granada TV “The New Sessions” (Part 3) with All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit, I Hate Nerys Hughes (From the Heart), No Regrets
(All clips uploaded by jimmod123)
Dec 19th, 2011
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