Oh what a frightening world it can be. Then suddenly, the most unexpected source quotes Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics at you, and all is right again. Gratuitous, inappropriate, calculated or amusingly impromptu: if you read or hear any Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics being broadcast or quoted in print, embarrass or applaud the author in the box below. Double marks (to them) if they don’t explain what they’re doing.
Click here to receive free notification by email of future additions to the Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project | Click here to get them on Twitter
Quick code to link to this page from your site:
<a href="http://www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/hmhb-lyrics-quoted-media/">HMHB Lyrics Quoted in the Media</a>
Note from Chris The Siteowner:
I tend to act on lyric corrections usually only when somebody backs up an initial suggestion. If a correction doesn't get a seconder, I usually let it go (unless it's so obviously the right thing to do). However, if you feel strongly that I shouldn't have ignored a suggestion, feel free to re-post your comment and ask for some support!
Note: the first three Half Man Half Biscuit albums have some crossover of tracks - see here for details
Design: Grid Focus by Derek Punsalan, 5thirtyone.com
Go on. Tweet a link to this page.
116 Letters Sent:
Chris The Siteowner
Simon Mayo Show, Radio 5 Live, 3 October 2008
Mark Kermode (starting to rant): “…that’s the whole point of Roger Corman movies, is that it lingers on the violence. I mean, it’s the whole thing about what’s ‘Jaws’ if not a Roger Corman movie with a budget, well, what’s ‘Death Race’ if not a Roger Corman movie with a budget, but without the lingering violence? I don’t want that thank you very much”
Mayo: “What’s Chatteris if you’re not there?”
Kermode (missing it completely): “Yes.”
Oct 9th, 2008
Chris The Siteowner
David Lloyd, skysports.com, 8 October 2008
“Last Sunday I did a Desert Island Discs-style programme on Radio Kent with Roger Day, who got me on the show to play ten of my favourite songs. It went really well, apart from the fact they didn’t play my two favourites: ‘No Bulbs’ by The Fall and ‘Lord Hereford’s Knob’ by Half Man Half Biscuit. Apparently they couldn’t find them, which is a poor effort when they’re readily available on iTunes.”
Oct 9th, 2008
RobJ
Bumble has been rather prolific in bringing HMHB to the masses. I think the official site quotes him from a live match on Sky Sports describing Geraint Jones’s wicket-kepping attire as “Joy Division Oven Gloves”
Oct 9th, 2008
Petrovic
Simon Mayo again: slipped a deadpan “Dean Friedman” into a discussion of pianos/Burn After Reading in this week’s Kermode reviews. No reaction from Kermode.
Oct 19th, 2008
Neil G
Very good article in the Times today about the link between sport and music. There is a ‘top 40′ of songs associated with music. Bob Dylan comes top with ‘Hurricane’. I’d go along with that. HMHB get two mentions in the top 40 – I Was A Teenage Armchair Honved Fan at number 36 and Bob Wilson Anchorman at number 10. Dukla Prague gets a mention in the body of the text (although the full title of the song is not given, a dreadful oversight) but, alas does not get to its rightful place at number 2 in the chart. Inexplicably, it gets nowhere at all. I think everyone should send the Times an e-mail threatening not to buy their paper any more until they print an apology.
Anyway, here’s the link.
Oct 20th, 2008
Neil G
Oops, mistake there. It should be songs associated with sport, not songs associated with music. Most songs are associated with music in some small way, I suppose, however bad they may be.
Oct 20th, 2008
Rob
Thanks for the link Neil, I’m going to write to them and ask them if they’ve heard of Fred Titmus.
Away from HMHB, I’m sure that they could have found room for The Pogues.
Oct 20th, 2008
Dave F.
Cheers Neil
As well as the omission of DPAK, they left out completely The Hitchers who’s song Strachan is one that epitomizes the anguish of football/relationships. They also did one called ‘4:30… Two Down’.
Oct 20th, 2008
Blue Badge Abuser
I’ve just posted on the Times website, suggesting their researcher for the article be sacked!
Oct 21st, 2008
Blue Badge Abuser
I’m outraged. The Times Online website has not posted my comment…
Oct 22nd, 2008
Neil G
I’ve been thinking about these sport songs for a while and one kept coming into my mind – Night Game by Paul Simon from Still Crazy After All These Years. It is one of the most beautiful songs I know and it’s about baseball, or at least it takes baseball as its base, if you like. If you don’t know it, have a listen. Here are the words, if that’s allowed.
There were two men down
And the score was tied
In the bottom of the eighth
When the pitcher died
And they laid his spikes
On the pitcher’s mound
And his uniform was torn
And his number was left on the ground
Then the night turned cold
Colder than the moon
The stars were white as bones
The stadium was old
Older than the screams
Older than the teams
There were three men down
And the season lost
And the tarpaulin was rolled
Upon the winter frost
This song makes me cry. And I don’t know the first thing about baseball.
Oct 23rd, 2008
Ben G H
If you go to the ‘Don’t Read This, Read That’ section on this website you’ll find a Guardian article by somebody called Kevin Sampson. In the piece he mentions the song “Fuckin’ Hell! It’s Fred Titmuss, and he describes him as ‘Firey Yorkshire Pace Legend’. Mr Sampson is clearly confusing Fred Titmuss (6 toed former Middlesex and Surrey spin bowler) with ‘Firey Yorkshire Pace Legend – Fred (‘I’ll see thee’) Trueman! Classic Guardian mistake!
Oct 24th, 2008
Ben G H
Oh, and another thing. I really did see Fred Titmuss once. In Hemel Hempstead. I may not have said ‘Fuckin Ell, it’s Fred Titmuss. It would probably have been. ‘Is that? Yes it is – look – it’s Fred Titmuss. Fancy that!’ or something along those lines! This was in 1982 I hasten to add. Before the song was released!
Funny that!
Oct 24th, 2008
dj
kevin sampson is a liverpool based writer who i think used to be the farm’s manager. he has written several books the most memorable being awaydays which is about football casuals and powder which is a bout a rock band. wouldn’t really expect him to know much about cricket to be fair
Oct 25th, 2008
Dave Wiggins
Great site this. Remember that woman from ‘Casualty’ or ‘Holby City’ moaning on, I think, Dick and Dom one Saturday morning, that her local store didn’t sell any Half Man Half Biscuit? Or – a more prosaic one this – some high falutin’ businessman, on the Euston to Lime Street train, quoting ‘Time Flies By’ (but, criminally, attributing it to Attila the Stockbroker). I was forced to interject.
Yeah, I know I’m off the point here, but whatever . . . .
Oct 26th, 2008
Ben G H
Fair enough – but I would expect him to know that the gurning baldie whose head Benny Hill was given to slapping was in fact John ‘Jackie’ Wright and not Bob Todd!
Oct 27th, 2008
Dave Wiggins
The Liverpool Echo’s Paddy Shennan is fantastic at getting HMHB references in most of his articles. As, indeed, is the Everton fanzine When Skies are Grey (this month saw a line that read, “yeah, okay, so I had a Kojak, but by Christ it was trendy at the time”).
Oct 30th, 2008
Ben
Wiggins! You shameless self-publicist!
Hawksbee and Jacobs (the only thing worth listening to) on Talksport, introduced an interview today with some bloke who’d written a book about Subbuteo, with the inevitable couple of verses of AIWFCIADPAK.
Oct 30th, 2008
s.g.d.,a Shropshire lad
Has anyone mentioned that HMHB are on a listening post in the football museum in Preston? I think that it’s Friday Night and the Gates are Low.
Nov 2nd, 2008
Paul F
Kevin Sampson is an acquaintance of Nigel’s. Nigel gets a mention in Sampson’s book relating a year in the life of a Liverpool fan (1997-98 I think) when Sampson (talking to John Barnes) tries to take the credit for a spectacular goal scored by Nigel in a charity match. Good book, well worth a read (as is most of Sampson’s stuff).
My own (small) contribution to HMHB in print is a letter to the Guardian quoting from “The Light at the End of the Tunnel” in response to a senior Met officer bemoaning the prevalence of cocaine at middle class dinner parties.
Nov 12th, 2008
Giles Pattison
December edition of Word, page108, caption to a picture of Annika Line Trost reads “Careful now, that swan could break your arm”. (She is seated next to said swan, and by the look of her knee they have already partaken in a bit of biffo)
Nov 12th, 2008
simon smith
And on page 84 of the same journal?
Nov 14th, 2008
Evilnick
Not sure exactly when this was originally broadcast but I’m sure I heard references in both Newcastle kids show Byker Grove “Got any Half Man Half Biscuit, man?” and in Mum’s favourite soap opera Coronation Street when a younger but still eerily vampiric Steve McDonald sang a few lines to one of the earlier songs.
Nov 14th, 2008
Hoagy
They were indeed mentioned on Byker Grove and here’s the YouTube link to prove it – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=usyn9sBFMHo
Nov 15th, 2008
Chris The Siteowner
Fantastic. And – as YouTube always manages to do – this led me to something I’d never seen before: No Regrets with Margi Clarke. What was the story behind that?
Nov 15th, 2008
s.g.d.,a Shropshire lad
Phil Jupitus was naming bands on “Arumental” and said “Half Man Half Biscuit” when a picture of Peter Stringfellow( i think,I didn’t spin ’round quick enough) was shown.
s.g.d.
Nov 17th, 2008
Richard
Football focus (29/11/08) have just interviewed Brad Friedel, and played of course ‘I went to a wedding…’
None of the presenters know the band which is a bit disappointing; they should have had Bumble as a special guest.
Nov 29th, 2008
RobJ
I heard that Brad Friedel was mildly impressed and was looking forward to telling his wife.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Fredorrarci
I don’t know if this counts, as it’s merely a report of some HMHB lyrics being quoted, and I don’t know if there’s a statute of limitations on this, but…
This is from an interview with Eddie Argos in the Guardian last year, talking about a conversation with Liam Gallagher:
“I said to him, ‘Us supporting you is like Half Man Half Biscuit supporting U2,’ and he goes, ‘Half Man Half Biscuit? Noel used to play them all the time.’ Then he sang me a bit of Trumpton Riots. I thought, Christ, this is strange, Liam Gallagher is singing Trumpton Riots by Half Man Half Biscuit to me.” A deafening laugh. “It was brilliant.”
Dec 4th, 2008
Fredorrarci
Here is the Brad Friedel/Football Focus thing.
Dec 6th, 2008
Petrovic
Eddie Argos is on record as being a HMHB fan – have a look at this. Moreover I’m pretty sure I saw him at the Forum gig last month.
Dec 6th, 2008
Jan
You did indeed see him there. And I was with him!
Dec 12th, 2008
Daryl
Re: Brad Friedel incident
Perhaps someone should play ‘Lock up Your Mountain Bikes’ to Garth Crooks?
Dec 14th, 2008
Chris The Siteowner
Kudos to Ian King of The Times today for shoehorning in a big HMHB reference into a story about kids’ names:
The vogue in recent years has been for names such as Fred or Archie – which, as the indie-rock group Half Man Half Biscuit memorably pointed out, boast “cheeky but loveable working class scamp connotations”.
The Biscuits, incidentally, warn middle-class mums to avoid such names – “unless you really do have plans for him to spend his life at William Hill’s waiting for them to weigh in at Newton Abbot”.
Jan 7th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Well, we tried: National Shite Day made number 18 and Blue Badge Abuser made number 27 in Word magazine’s Festive Fifty. Not that impressive really for one of the few magazines which regularly covers the band.
Jan 7th, 2009
YeltzDoc
I shoehorned one into Hawksbee and Jacobs on ShoutSh1te yesterday. They were asking for words that are only ever used with football connotations and I predictably managed to get – “Apart from on commentary, where else on earth can you hear the word ‘aplomb’ being used?” – read out verbatim by PH.
Jan 7th, 2009
Simon
A lengthy quote from Breaking News in The Times, no less.
I can practically guarantee that the writer never tried to spell out an interviewee’s laugh.
Thanks for the site.
Jan 8th, 2009
s.g.d.,a Shropshire lad
…going worldwide for one small mention…
Jan 9th, 2009
Charles Exford
Ha, “stuff like Half Man Half Biscuit”, eh ? They obviously have some great little unknown bands hidden away in South Africa.
Jan 9th, 2009
San Luis Obispo
A little tenuous/frivolous this – but – I can’t believe no-one’s mentioned Baroness Vadera and her “Green shoots of recovery” slip…
Admittedly, it did take me the best part of a day running the quote over in my under-employed mind, but eventually it stuck:
“The fearsome hollow boom of the older boys in the deep end.
The green shoots of recovery shrivelled up in harsh tomorrows.
Left to pick dry sticks and mumble to myself;
A melancholic emblem of parish cruelty…”
Her Bad Review was perhaps fitting, then. ‘hem.
Jan 16th, 2009
Paul F
Congratulations to Fredorrarci by the way (whose name is effectively a HMHB quote I suppose) for his part in highlighting a Times sports journalist with less than thorough research skills
Jan 16th, 2009
Rob
Fredorrarci’s handle reminds me of Adam Federici, Reading’s goalkeeper. Anyway, ‘Cammell Laird Social Club’ gets a mention in this month’s When Saturday Comes.
Jan 17th, 2009
Fredorrarci
Thanks, Paul. Modesty forbids me from turning this entire sentence into a link to the original piece, so I won’t.
Jan 19th, 2009
Fredorrarci
And yes, the name is a very lame bastardisation of a HMHB lyric. I reek of cheeky but loveable working class scamp connotations, me.
Jan 19th, 2009
Lee
This one is a bit vague, shortly after the new album was released last summer I was stuck in traffic and trying to avoid all the usual on the radio ended up listening to radio four, the announcer introduced the next item about forensic evidence and policing and said something like, “now what do you do on discovering a body before csi:ambleside or whoever turn up”. dont know who he was sorry.
Jan 19th, 2009
Charles Exford
OK then, I just wanted the honour of having my little bit of verse appear somewhere on this brilliant site.
Graham Poll appears to be everywhere in the media at the moment, and I must reluctantly admit he is actually proving to be bloody good at it. We should never forget his incompetence in 2006 though, and I just thought I’d share a tribute (to Mr. Blackwell, rather than Mr. Poll) which I performed on Five Live the day after the Australia Croatia “3 yellows make a red” game.
Graham Poll’s Alphabet
A is for Australians, so friendly to me
B is for Being Britain’s Biggest-name Referee
C is for Counting Cards and Cursing Croatians
D is for Diving – AKA simulation
E is EVERYTHING, which thanks to ME this game had
F is for Fourth Official – his night was just as bad !
G is for Ghost writer – I’m going to need one
H is my Hero – Clive Thomas I’m modelled on
I is for Intentional, which handball needs to be
And for Invisible, which it often is to me
J is the Jet Plane that I’m leaving on
K is for K.O-ed, my final hopes, GONE !
L, of Course is for Letting the game Flow
& L is the fine LINE to Losing Control
M is for Mark Viduka, and our mutual admiration
N is non-verbal, I don’t speak Croatian
O is for my forthcoming Optician’s appointment
Pre-booked, 10th July, pass me the Ointment
P is for being Pushed, isn’t that a Red card ?
Maybe, but showing 2 cards at once is so hard.
Q is for Questioning my parentage, and decisions
R is for Rugby tackles in unsighted positions
S is for Sepp Blatter, such a tactful fellow
and T is for a groundbreaking Triple Yellow
U is Unclear. Unrepentant. Unconsoleable
V is for Video Refs, to make things controllable.
W is the World Cup Final Whistler. Woe is me !
and X is for being an X-referee
X is also the Xmas card lists I won’t be on
Like ex-Yugoslavia my name is …. gone
and Y are the former Yugoslavians, Yelling at me,
and Z is Zagreb, where I’ll never again referee
Or Zeljko, Ozzie keeper, another comedy act.
Or Zlatko, the Croatian boss, like me – sacked.
Jan 26th, 2009
Ben
For those of you (wisely) not dicking around with Facebook, you may like to see – from the “HMHB Appreciation Society” group on there – that Dean ‘Yes that one’ Friedman posted a whole song about Nigel Blackwell. The full background story is here.
Feb 11th, 2009
Richard
Observer – letters in the Sport section, they asked for the official best football songs ever. Two HMHB entries printed, The referees alphabet and Bob Wilson – Anchorman. You can send further entries to the.agenda@observer.co.uk.
As one of the readers noted HMHB could fill an album with football songs. My favourite? I was a teenage armchair Honved fan.
Feb 16th, 2009
Billy Hubble
Respectable mention for HMHB on cricinfo.com dating back to 2006:
F***ing Hell, It’s Fred Titmus – Half Man Half Biscuit
Once described as the “most authentic British band since The Clash”, Half Man, Half Biscuit was a sharp-witted four-piece rock band from Birkenhead, in the Wirral. A by-product of Thatcher’s Britain, the band announced itself in 1986 with the album “Back in the DHSS”, which was recorded for just 30 pounds and yet sold more than 200,000 copies. According to Nigel Blackwell, the lead singer, guitarist and surreally talented writer, “one of my fantasies was to have a load of folk shouting something ridiculous like ‘F**king Hell, it’s Fred Titmus!’ back at the stage as a counterblast to all those rock acts whose audience would hold their lighters aloft during some Godforsaken dross concerning ‘a girl no longer with us due to flagrant disregard of the speed limit by persons unknown’. Much more fun thought I to have ‘em shouting the name of a Middlesex spin bowler. Certainly more believable anyway, I think.” Other songs by HMHB included “Hedley Verity-esque,” and “Christian Rock Concert”, which included a reference to Wendy Wimbush, the legendary former Test Match Special scorer … playing on a spacehopper …
Feb 21st, 2009
Dave Wiggins
Some wag persists in writing to the Liverpool Echo, pretending (?) to be a senior citizen who is fed up of things like drive-by shoutings, bus drivers who pull away too quickly, and youths with japanese fighting dogs. He also bemoaned the demise of ‘fine chandlers’, recently. If you read this site, mate, I salute you, whoever you are.
Mar 13th, 2009
Poolio
Feb 18th, 2009
Page 19 Manchester Metro:
Best things in life:
At long last someone has created a Google map of every place ever mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit Song.
Mar 17th, 2009
nigel (no, not that one)
‘All I Want for Christmas Is a Dukla Prague Away Kit’ made an appearance in The Guardian’s 1000 songs everyone must hear – party songs.
Can’t quite see how it’s a party song, but musn’t grumble
Mar 23rd, 2009
Paul F
Another Guardian “list”:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/apr/01/andy-bull-cricket-music-songs
Apr 1st, 2009
pjdoyle
This is from the Irish Independent (13/02/09).
I would have added it sooner, but just discovered this website today.
http://i43.tinypic.com/zpsnm.jpg
May 4th, 2009
Ben
On Ken Bruce’s show today he was having a bit of back and forth with the traffic reporter (for once not the hideous harridan Lynn Bowles); he quizzed her on whether she’d discovered the joy of writing on a banana, I could have crashed my car when 5 minutes later he read out someones text “I understand Half Man Half Biscuit sang about writing on the sole of your slipper with a biro”
Ken Bruce and HMHB – That can cause a rip in the space/time continuum
May 13th, 2009
Gary Parkinson
I edit football website FourFourTwo.com and we recently had a themed week about music and football. Someone suggested we run a blog on songs mentioning football. Fine, said I, filing it – but there’s a band of such towering genius that they require their own blog on the topic.
So I wrote that, too.
May 19th, 2009
Paul F
No lyrics – but a good picture:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2009/may/18/post-punk-liverpool?picture=347510464
May 19th, 2009
Neil G
Gary,
Great articles.
May 19th, 2009
Ben
Great read Gary – more Brentford stuff in the ‘Planet Football’ section too please.
May 19th, 2009
Charles Exford
Great article Gary, really enjoyed that, spreads the word nicely & helps the lads shift some product units too no doubt.
[in no way a criticism, but do we detect that you perhaps haven't got the 'Saucy Haulage Ballads' EP in your collection, with its top togger references in at least 3 songs, culminating in the majestic 'foot up in Europe' song-within-a-song ? ]
May 21st, 2009
Chesney wold
Just wanted to say that’s an excellent article Gary. I’ve been a Biscuits fan for 20 years but that made me re-evaluate how fantastic they really are and I’ll be highlighting it to some of my less HMHB enthusiastic (because it’s too much effort) friends to show them what is actually what. Great stuff.
May 29th, 2009
grilly
there appears to be a game called ’squid yes! not so octopus’. i think this is wonderful. http://tigsource.com/articles/2009/05/19/squid-yes-not-so-octopus-squid-harder
Jun 3rd, 2009
Dave Wiggins
Great stuff, Gary, and there are probably even more references (as Chesney Wold indicated above). The link is now sweeping my office and beyond.
Jun 11th, 2009
Paul F
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jun/18/classic-youtube-tiger-woods
Some good stuff in this week’s Guardian youtube round-up.
Jun 23rd, 2009
Matthew
No more than a passing mention but the oblique reference is deliberate and possibly the first HMHB reference in a Times business comment:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6201851.ece
Jul 13th, 2009
Dave F.
Just listening to recording of the Radcliffe & Maconie from the 18th of June where regular TV/Radio reviewer Noddy Holder was talking about a program about comedy acts.
They each chose a favourite of theirs from the genre. Maconie chose Running Order Squabble Fest.
It was preceded by them quoting lyrics/song title (surprisingly Maconie many from the recent album).
Noddy seemed jubilant at them being selected – “lyrically they are just superb”.
They wanted to use Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus in an up coming Cricket themed show, but were felt unable to do so for obvious reasons
Jul 13th, 2009
Paul F
Fantastic work by Ian King in The Times! Thanks for highlighting Matthew.
Jul 14th, 2009
Paul F
Regarding The Times piece – I suspect some poor TimesOnline moderator is now getting inundated with comments to review which seem to make no sense whatsoever – such as my “Well they have to pay for the golf weekend somehow”.
Jul 14th, 2009
Ricardo
From Mike Atherton’s column in The Times today, “Wasn’t it noticeable how quick the bowlers were in the World Twenty20, when the light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t that of an oncoming train?” Has he been rifling through Bumble’s record collection?
Jul 30th, 2009
Billy Hubble
youtube video off the best of David Lloyd (Skysports commentator)
Mention at 6 mins 15 seconds for HMHB…Apparantly it can get quite quiet in the commentary box…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XDnOtU3r2k
Aug 7th, 2009
SIMON FORAN
From Andrew (working from home), TMS inbox: “There’s a Half Man Half Biscuit song which rhymes Lech Walesa with Marks and Spencer. Mike Gatting looks at bit like Lech.”
Also:
From Matt, TMS inbox: “I’d imagine that when you were looking for the correct spelling of ‘Leaden’ the reason Half man Half Biscuit came up was because of the classic album of theirs called ‘This Leaden Pall’. In my opinion their finest work.”
Above can be found here
Aug 21st, 2009
SIMON FORAN
Page last updated at 09:10 GMT, Friday, 21 August 2009 10:10 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Live Ashes – England v Australia
Live video scorecard – England v Australia
Fifth Ashes Test, The Oval, day two:
LIVE TEXT COMMENTARY (all times BST)
No need to reload page, content below updates automatically. More info
e-mail tms@bbc.co.uk (with ‘For Mark Mitchener’ in the subject), text 81111 (with “CRICKET” as first word) or use 606 (Not all comments can be used)
By Mark Mitchener
AUSTRALIA FIRST INNINGS
And again :
1405:Sun is shining over The Oval. The weather is sweet yeah. Makes you wanna move your dancing feet.
From kinkster, via text on 81111: “On the subject of Half Man Half Biscuit they opened a recent set with one of their more famous songs about Fred Titmus. I think we could make good use of his skills right now.”
Aug 21st, 2009
Helen
Mike McCahill reviewing ‘Antichrist’, the new film from Lars Von Trier in the Sunday Telegraph Magazine (26.07.09); “Gainsbourg wan, bereft, depressed beyond tablets…”
Sep 19th, 2009
simon smith
Three weeks of Danny Baker`s new Saturday morning show and two separate HMHB references already. I`ll have to pore over the recording to extract the precise wording. I know what you buggers are like
Sep 22nd, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Ooh please, I’m a couple of weeks behind on the podcasts. Funny, I can’t imagine a broadcaster more likely – in theory – to be a fan of HMHB than Baker, and yet I can’t ever recall him having mentioned them.
Sep 22nd, 2009
Dave
I remember Danny Baker on Radio 5 in the morning years ago mentioning A Lilac Harry Quinn, raving about the rhyme ‘I didn’t need much time convincing her, baby I’m from the Wirral peninsula’. I’m not sure if he might have actually played the track.
Sep 24th, 2009
chesneywold
just thought i’d say that i know m mccahill and he is indeed a massive hmhb fan…the sly dog, wonder if he’s put any more out there.
Oct 7th, 2009
chesneywold
oo and i’ve just remembered that something technical or other on shooting stars, i guess digital effects or something, was by a company called half man half pixel. Good pun i reckon.
Oct 7th, 2009
Trev
I know Ian King well from when he was city editor at the sun where I edit the racing. Top bloke. We used to have hmhb conversations to the general bemusement of those around us – except charlie wyett the football writer who is another fan
Oct 10th, 2009
chesneywold
is this an appropriate place to ask for a job trev? I’ve just been made redundant and i’ve done a bit of work for the racing post.
Oct 10th, 2009
John Anderson
I know Dave Kidd another Sun football writer is also a fan. So is Nigel Adderley the BBC 5 Live commentator who collapsed at West Ham last week but is now thankfully on the mend. He’s a Tranmere fanatic who knows Nigel Blackwell and introduced me to him after the Mean Fiddler gig a few years ago. Sky News sports presenter Chris Skudder also likes them.
Oct 11th, 2009
Richard
Guardian letters 10 October”
‘Liverpool gave us the Beatles, but the Wirral gave us HMHB’
Oct 11th, 2009
Mr Larrington
“Material World” on R4 yesterday; Quentin Cooper is discussing SCIENCE, or rather the lack thereof, in SCIENCE-fiction, with a couple of scientists and posited that perhaps the public can get all the SCIENCE it needs from sources such as “Silent Witness and CSI: Ambleside”.
Were it not for the fact the the M11 was, as usual, corked up tighter than a cat’s bum, a helplessly giggling Mr Larrington would probably have been found buried in the armco.
Note from Chris: Greatest find ever. I found this almost too hard to believe. But he’s right, you know – check it out. Is there a Quentin Cooper appreciation page?
Oct 30th, 2009
Ben
On Marc Riley’s 6 Music Show last night, he had a band called ‘The Hornblower Brothers’ in who cited HMHB as an influence. Asked what their favourite album was they said ‘CSI-Ambleside’ which unfortunately marked them down as newbies in my book.
Oct 30th, 2009
Al
CSI Ambleside was Marc Rileys favourite not The Hornblower Brothers!
Nov 2nd, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Bless ‘em, The Guardian got a reference on to the front page today…
Nov 6th, 2009
Mr Larrington
Outstanding!
Nov 6th, 2009
s.g.d. a ShropshireLad
The latest issue of When Saturday Comes quotes from “Friday Night and the Gates are Low”, it is in an article about Tranmere so only to be expected.
Nov 11th, 2009
Richard Parker
Another HMHB reference (well not exactly, but knowing he is a fan I’m sure we all know what he meant!) on the Danny Baker show this week (Sat 14th Nov).
“Irrational turn-ons, I don’t know what it is, but there is something deeply satisfying about this, bordering on the erotic, a biro on the sole of a plimsole”
Nov 16th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
“…raising awareness of awareness itself…”
The Onion seems to have been listening to Breaking News
Nov 19th, 2009
Paul F
I saw that as well Chris, and that’s what I thought!
Nov 20th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Not exactly “lyrics in the media”, but worth highlighting the blurb on the Cambridge Junction website to accompany the forthcoming gig:
Named after a little known Tarkovsky film, this brass-tinged five piece from Rhosesmor have recently toured with the likes of Chris Rea and Patti Boulaye as well as being the subjects of a documentary on cable channel E! Entertainment entitled In Transit.
Never knowingly in tune, Half Man Half Biscuit are performing various dates around Salop in order to promote their latest album What Dread this Upon the Spume?
Nov 20th, 2009
Dave Kidd
You’ll all have to start reading The People, I’ve mentioned the Biscuits three or four times in my column. And besides, we need the readers.
I’m sitting here surfing aimlessly so as to avoid watching ‘I’m A Celebrity’ with my missus, and find out that Trev who I worked with for many years is also a big HMHB fan and I never knew. The Sun newsroom was a hotbed of Biscuit fans, it seems. Ian King mentioned the Biscuits in the Currant Bun in his time there too. Trev, Charlie Wyett isn’t a fan, it was me, pal!
Nov 20th, 2009
Bobby Chariot
Lewd acts? That’s my restless leg syndrome, says doctor in indecency courts case.
The above headline appeared in the South Wales Echo on 21st November 2009.
“A children’s doctor says his restless legs and his habit of keeping a hankie on his lap in case he sneezes might have given schoolgirls the wrong idea that he was performing lewd acts on himself …….. He said he had had a habit of jiggling his legs aound since he was a child – a problem since diagnosed as restless legs syndrome – and if he was sitting there with his hands on his lap, his arms would have been moving too.”
The full report can be read at:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/2009/11/20/children-s-doctor-rubbishes-lewd-acts-claim-91466-25217359/
Nov 22nd, 2009
Dave Wiggins
Dave Kidd – I love your ‘People’ column, mate! Can I also be the first to mention Helen Chamberlain quoting from ‘Even Men With Steel Hearts’ on Soccer AM, 5 December?
Dec 6th, 2009
Colin
Brief mention on Soccer Am by Helen Chamberlain on HMHB “Even men with steel hearts love to see a dog on the pitch” before showing a clip of a cat at a La Liga game.. tenuous i know but hey it brightened up my sat morn
Dec 7th, 2009
simon smith
Perhaps an attempt to curry favour after NB`s `Wilf Rostron` stand `slur` in live renditions of `Paintball…`
Dec 11th, 2009
simon smith
Sorry, that should read `Luther Grosvenor` stand. He was a member of `Bev Bevan`s Mott The Hoople`.
Dec 11th, 2009
Michael
Radio Four’s Today programme played an excerpt from
“Even men with steel hearts love to see a dog on the pitch” this morning, and also mentioned “The Referee’s Alphabet” and “Mathematically Safe”, during an article by Gideon Coe on sporting songs.
It can be heard here (starting at 2.48)
Dec 30th, 2009
Mr Larrington
My friend Sir Hugh of Hugh pointed me at Mr. J. Nash’s partly excellent piece of Webby SCIENCE, where I found this:
http://orsomething.co.uk/160/14-unfortunate-spin-offs/
Number 11.
Jan 8th, 2010
Richard Parker
Again Simon Mayo, on his new Radio 2 drivetime show last week was doing a feature on restless leg syndrome; he was interviewing a doctor about it, and quoted the classic song from Acthung Bono, asking if “a milky drink and Sudafed would actually sort you out”. Apparently it might, according to the doctor!
Mr Mayo is indeed a fan.
Note: Podcast is available in the usual places if you want to hear the actual conversation. It’s mentioned on his blog too
Jan 26th, 2010
Petrovic
Dunno whether this counts, but Gideon Coe played some Tallulah Gosh in his show last night.
Jan 28th, 2010
Charles Exford
I think it hardly even counts if Gideon’s bibble mentions HMHB, never mind mere passing mentions of the bands that HMHB mention.
But anyway, for what it’s worth, upon today’s announcement of the demise of Salinger, Coe apparently asked tonight which HMHB song mentions ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and was informed by listener “Viv, half asleep in Leeds” that it was “Ordinary to Enschede“.
Jan 29th, 2010
GREASBY SHARK
Tenuous, I know, but did anyone else see the article in today’s Guardian on Restless Leg Syndrome??
Feb 9th, 2010
YeltzDoc
A bit of unlikely sarcasm (I think), in today’s “Instant Expert” section in The Times’s Playlist section –
“What to say about….
The new album by Babybird
Apparently Johnny Depp thinks Babybird is an underrated national treasure. So what? Brad Pitt is a massive Half Man Half Biscuit fan but you don’t hear him banging on about it.”
Very good. I suspect the writer of the piece, Ben Machell, is a fan, especially with his use of the phrase, “national treasure”.
Ben, we salute you.
Feb 27th, 2010
Paul F
Another reference from Mr Mayo. He read out a “tweet” the other day saying “You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead”, properly attributing it to Laurel and Hardy, but given his history I’m sure he picked that one to read out because of its HMHB relevance.
Mar 5th, 2010
Mr Larrington
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/816133-joy-division-oven-gloves-sparks-fresh-calls-to-save-6-music
Mar 5th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
For those of us obsessed with Twitter, today has been the greatest day ever. Just take a look. I never thought I’d see that.
If you’re reading this in the future (what’s it like? Is everyone wearing shiny white suits and stuff?) then this next link might not show much, but today, it looks like magic:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=joy%20division%20oven%20gloves
Mar 5th, 2010
Richard Parker
Half Man Half Biscuit’s Joy Division Oven Gloves is the number one trending topic on Twitter in London, after being played by Gideon Coe on BBC6 music this morning
Also Dean Friedman is on twitter and has just posted the following “How many times do I have to say this, I never even met Nigel Blackwell’s mum!”
Richard
Mar 5th, 2010
Exxo
You’re not Richard ‘Harvey’ Parker from Co. Durham aged about 47 are you?
[I wouldn't normally ask that just from your name, but I used to share a flat and a copy of The Trumpton Riots EP with said character ...plus last time I asked someone on an HMHB mailing list if they were someone I last saw 20-odd years ago, it turned out they were]
Mar 5th, 2010
Richard Parker
No its not me, I’m 39 and from Essex, sorry.
Mar 5th, 2010
Dave F.
Mr. Larrington, Could you post the text of that Metro article here please?
Both Firefox & IE are playing silly buggers with me & only displaying the (huge) amount of advertising.
Ta
Mar 6th, 2010
Mr Larrington
@Dave F:
‘Joy Division Oven Gloves’ sparks fresh Twitter calls to Save 6 Music
Half Man Half Biscuit’s track ‘Joy Divison Oven Gloves’ has rallied Twitter users into fresh calls to save BBC 6 Music after Gideon Coe played the song on his morning radio show.
The recent campaign to save the stricken 6 Music radio station has taken an comical turn this morning after Joy Division Oven Gloves appears to have become the song of choice for protesters.
Fighting against the BBC decision to close both 6 Music and The Asian Network, users on Twitter have bombarded the microblogging site with tweets relating to the song by relatively unknown act Half Man Half Biscuit.
The search term “Joy Division Oven Gloves” went to the top of the Twitter’s UK trending list this morning as a result of the campaign.
The song was played this morning by Gideon Coe on his 6 Music radio show, and has instantly become a hit with listeners and users across the world.
Half Man Half Biscuit has produced such classic tracks as “Seal Clubbing” and “All I want for Christmas is a Dulka (sic) Prague away kit” though top of the YouTube charts seems to be “Paintball’s coming home”.
The BBC announced on Tuesday that they would be closing 6 Music as part of a £600m money saving directive, designed to promote “high quality content and distribution by 2013″.
Mar 8th, 2010
Rowan
Andrew Collings mentioned Running Order Squabble Fest on his 6 music Saturday show, not last Saturday, but the one before. In his excitement he misquotes it as “…half past twelve? half past twelve?”, but I think he gets points for trying. It gave my heart a lift, that’s for sure. Podcast no longer available, sadly
Mar 9th, 2010
Swanaldo
There’s still plenty of time to let the BBC know what you think re: 6Music.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consultations/departments/bbc/bbc-strategy-review/consultation/consult_view
(Quite frankly, any radio station that plays Joy Division Oven Gloves at five to nine in the morning is a bit special and must be saved at all costs. I actually pogo-ed gleefully into my colleague when they played it.)
Mar 10th, 2010
Charles Exford
Hear, hear. Apart from anything else we need an outlet for any new sessions in future. As a proportion of air-time I reckon Gideon Coe gives far more attention to HMHB even than Peel did and this must continue.
A direct e-mail to srconsultation@bbc.co.uk is the route they have been plugging on air.
I bet someone would have asked Nige to “get involved” in do a worthy Guy Garvey (?) style protest voiceover, if Geoff hadn’t been in Morocco. Not that I reckon Nigel would have wanted to “get involved”.
But LETTERS MUST BE SENT. It’s what it’s all about.
Mar 10th, 2010
Add Your Bit: