Running Order Squabble Fest ticks all the boxes and qualifies as an undisputed Half Man Half Biscuit classic. Brief, hilarious, good riff, modified football chant, embarrassing to its unsuspecting targets …what’s not to like?
See lyrics to Running Order Squabble Fest
Kendo Nagasaki
I thought it was ‘Hey Jason, they ain’t got no dry ice’.
Scans better.
16 November 2011
Paul F
Does it?
16 November 2011
Dave Wiggins
Kendo. Not to be picky, but I can’t see how that ‘ain’t’ could make it scan better? Clearly, “hey Jason they’ve got no dry ice”.
16 November 2011
Hagerty F.
I always thought it was “they ain’t got no dry ice”, but on listening again it’s clearly “they’ve got no dry ice”
16 November 2011
Tangerine Wizard.
I always hear it as Listen square as in un hip instead of squire.
17 June 2012
Android, Eyes Rolling
I’ve always heard it as “square” as well.
18 June 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
“Sound man, sound man (two … one, two … two … one)”. I’ve always thought this inept chuntering one of the funniest ideas in the song. However you transcribe it, the BV surely ought to be added to the lyric.
+1 “squire”. I don’t think NB’s ever called the 24-hour garage bloke that, yet, but correct me if I’m wrong. (In pre-internet days, there was a little program you could install on someone else’s machine, where it would insert itself into the printer interrupt on startup, and occasionally change “.” to “, squire.”. If you’ve ever signed a business letter without a final read-through, cringe along with me.)
I’d like to open a debate about “Five k”. (1) In computer usage 1k = 1000 and 1K = 1024, but in general usage 1K = 1000. Should it be ‘K’? (2) Was there ever a band called 5K or Five Kay or the like which merited NB having a pop at them?
4 August 2012
Chigley Skin
I always presumed five k (i.e. five grand) was what them lot who can’t even play their instruments were getting paid for their appearance, thus provoking further disharmony and antics in the green room.
4 August 2012
John Burscough
I can’t see that anyone’s mentioned it yet, so I will: there’s a Chas ‘n’ Dave reference after their namecheck, “I don’t care, I don’t care” being the first part of the chorus of their ‘The Sideboard Song’. All together now: “I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care if he comes round here.I’ve got my beer in the sideboard here, let Mother sort it out if he comes round here.”
22 October 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
Chapeau, @John. You needn’t reveal how you found the reference.
22 October 2012
Charles Exford
Quite a well known C&D song I thought – don’t forget they were on the radio and all that all the time when most of us were teenagers and had no alternative Mike. Follow up to Gertcha, 1979, got airplay but didn’t chart cos it was even more shite than therir other stuff, so they just more or less re-hashed the same tune as ‘Rabbit’ a few months later.
22 October 2012
BrumBiscuit
I used to hate C&D with the same venom I now reserve for Alan Titchmarsh.
23 October 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
A source in The Department Of The Bleedin’ Obvious writes:- @Charles, not well-known to me, I either have never heard the song or have blotted it from memory. Not that I plan to look for it. And do you think my 27-year old mate would have got the reference? Those of us who were working or who weren’t born at the time need these things pointing out.
@Brumbiscuit, good choices.
23 October 2012
John Burscough
Not a big fan of C ‘n’ D (C ‘n’ D? CND?) myself. Tori Amos, on the other hand, is – her version of their “That’s What I Like Mick (The Sandwich Song)” is one of the most bizarre covers ever committed. Hearing the classically-trained North Carolina songstress singing “Liquorice pipes and baggy suits, Glenn Hoddle scoring a goal” can change your view of the Universe irreversibly.
24 October 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
@John, I’ve just listened to Tori Amos and feel that my life has changed irretrievably. I particularly liked the bit about Durby China.
24 October 2012
That Swan
Could the ’5K’ refer to the power of the sound system? That’s always been my interpretation.
25 October 2012