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.
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303 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) has 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
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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 here.
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
Charles Exford
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
John
On wednesday (17th march 2010), Lammo, Riley & Co(e) re going to play all of the bands mentioned in “Irk the Purists”
Mar 15th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
The full rundown on the inaugural Festival of Irk is here, courtesy of Charles Exford Esq.
Mar 18th, 2010
Paul F
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/818390-bbc-6-music-fans-urged-to-buy-half-man-half-biscuit-track-to-save-station
Mar 22nd, 2010
Dave F.
Tonight in an episode of a drama on ITV Married, Single, Other (which is too bad, even with Ralf Little in it), an ambulance driving paramedic said that she had an overdose victim in the back; but not to worry as it was probably from Haliborange.
Mar 30th, 2010
Swanaldo
In posh persons’ magazine Exeter Living, a picture of a steam train with the caption “Time flies by when you’re the driver of a train, well according to Half Man, Half Biscuit anyway”
Apr 11th, 2010
Sandii
Is anyone watching The One Show right now, where they’re talking about Restless Leg Syndrome?
Apr 20th, 2010
Jase
Re: Fred Titmuss
There’s only one “s” in Titmus…………..
Apr 21st, 2010
Alan K
Did anyone else catch the small piece in the Independent on Saturday magazine? Its was an item called ‘Minor British Institutions’ and was all about HMHB; listing quite a lot of their songs and thanking them. It’s online here.
Apr 25th, 2010
Ricardo
Helen Chamberlain (again, see Colin’s post from December 9th) on Soccer AM today, “Even men with steel hearts love to see a dog on the pitch.” Over a clip of, er, a dog on the pitch.
May 15th, 2010
Godsy
Jonathan Meades – Abroad Again (2007) – Episode 4 – Heaven: Folkwoven In England, 20 minutes 14 seconds, a fair portion of “Time Flies By (When You’re A Driver Of A Train)” is played. Jonathan Meades and HMHB. Beautiful.
And here it is on YouTube – Ed
May 24th, 2010
Mark J
Just watchin the 20/20 cricket on sky -in the commentary box, David Lloyd mentioned Simon & Garfunkel to Nick Knight, Knight said he knew them but didn’t know any of their songs, Lloyd, quick as a flash, said ‘Trouble over Bridgewater’ was their best known work.
Jun 1st, 2010
Barney
Stumbled upon a World Cup blog (well WC at the moment but looking through the archives there’s also other stuff including lots of non-league football) which appears to be using HMHB lyrics as post titles.
It also seems to be trying to predict the games by seeing which national animal would win in a fight! Most strange.
Am I Supposed to be At Home
Jun 15th, 2010
Dave F.
Don’t know where else to put this general HMHB news, but Marc Riley’s just announced he’s trying to get them in for a session sometime in August.
Nigel usually seems to only do sessions when he has new songs, so hopefully an album is in the pipeline.
Jun 29th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Paddy Shennan in the Liverpool Echo gets a bit apologetic about a lyrics quote.
Jun 30th, 2010
Dave Betts
I’m glad it’s not just me and Mr B that like a bit of drizzle.
Jun 30th, 2010
tony of crosby
Mr Shennan, one of the 60 at the Radio Merseyside gig a couple of years ago. Top bloke.
Jun 30th, 2010
Paul F
As soon as I saw the theme of this week’s “Inventory” in the (peerless) Onion’s AV Club, I hoped it would include “Bad Review”. And it did. I suspect there will be much scratching of American heads:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/praise-then-crucify-25-antimusicjournalist-songs,42793/
Jul 6th, 2010
Third rate Les
“The jangly, jokey indie outfit—best known for its contribution to NME’s legendary C86 compilation in 1986″? What does that mean? Still, I suppose it makes a change from “best known for that song about Nerys Hughes”.
Still, I suppose I’m now slamming a review about songs about bad reviews about songs, which is getting a little confusing and postmodern.
Jul 7th, 2010
Charles Exford
Is it just me or does he not get the song at all ? It’s a piss-take of the _group_ writing that kind of letter to the music press surely ?
Jul 9th, 2010
Paul F
“…uses “Bad Review” almost as a parody of anti-journalist songs.”
I think if he hadn’t ruined it by including the word “almost” he could have been credited with “getting it”. Or maybe the “almost” refers to the difference being it’s a letter rather than a song.. although it IS a song…
Jul 12th, 2010
Norbert D
I know a couple of ex-music journalists, and while they’re always eager to point out how many of their former colleagues were indeed complete dickheads, they’re very fond of “Bad Review”. Along with “Used To Be In Evil Gazebo”, it’s probably as close as any song’s ever come to being pro-press, anti-musician.
Jul 13th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Top work Duncan Nisbet in When Saturday Comes’ “Weekly Howl”:
“What overpowering impulse is it that takes a chap from the Slough of Despond straight to Foam Party in three seconds, from Nation’s Shame to Hello Mum?”
You can see the quote here, a few paragraphs after a rather prophetic quote about Howard Webb.
Jul 14th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Nice piece in The Guardian on the fabulous Newport State Of Mind video pays due homage to HMHB.
Aug 2nd, 2010
Colin
Whilst watching the distinctly average Knight and Day(The latest Tom Cruise offerring) he utters the line “well they are loaded for bear”. it brightened up an otherwise dull and insipid afternoon.
Aug 16th, 2010
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
the opponents in tonight’s episode of Eggheads were named “Trouble Over Bridgewater” as a tribute to HMHB and as 3 of the team live there.
Sep 6th, 2010
Alan K
Live performance and more from Danny Kelly’s Under The Moon on YouTube.
Sep 15th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Twitter folks have been doing “fictitious HMHB albums” recently. A few good ideas in there.
Oct 1st, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Readers recommend songs about vegetables in The Guardian today mentions “Prac Veg at the Melkweg”. Only kidding.
Oct 1st, 2010
chedgzoy
An unlikely source, but the name on the front cover of everyone’s favourite (Johnny) Quango, the Audit Commission’s, latest report namechecks a certain Thomas Tallis, of ‘I went to a Wedding’ fame.
Oct 27th, 2010
chedgzoy
Should have put this in the PBRs section sorry
Oct 27th, 2010
Bonnevilleinbits
It’s a double PBR – statistics on Blue Badge abuse lurk within..
Oct 27th, 2010
chedgzoy
Can’t believe I failed to spot that – good work!
Oct 27th, 2010
warebloke
Just had a weekly cartoon from Iffyton t-shirts – noticed a mention “Turner Prize Judge” then right under “Christ That’s good” – emailed the site, they told me it was indeed a ref to If I Had Possession Over Pancake Day and that they are playing a version of it on Thursday, it’s on their gig guide.
Nov 12th, 2010
Sera_6969
Physical stutterer, Stephen Hendry reveals 10 year battle with the Yips… Alas, not the epic battle to free said HMHB single of all its cellophane and sticky plastic stickers…
Dec 9th, 2010
Paul F
Clearly this week’s Guardian Sports Blog compiler didn’t need much of an excuse to shoehorn in HMHB.
Dec 13th, 2010
Charles Exford
@ Paul
Yes, very shoe-horned indeed – it’s fairly clear that for whatever reason Dukla didn’t wear their away kit that night, and I’m not sure it was even their home kit either.
Strangely, around 15 years or so ago, Toffs used to sell the home shirt as the away shirt, based on research the sum total of which, according to their website, was to look in the Spurs programme for that night in 1962 and find a picture of what was in fact the home kit !
As Toffs only begain to sell this shirt in response to public demand based on the song, and as Our Lads weren’t even born in 1962 anyway, I hereby nominate this for the worst piece of football-kit-related research ever. And at over £30 a pop. They put it right fairly soon as many of you know and for most of the last 15 years they’ve made it clear which is the away shirt
http://www.toffs.com/icat/duklaprague/
Though the fact that the home shirt still isn’t really labelled as such and that Xmas presents are often bought by spouses may explain why you always see a couple of home shirts at gigs. Either that or they just want to be independent in their choice of clothes, thank you very much.
Confusingly, and I think just starting this season, Dukla seem to be playing their home matches in the gold that has always been the main colour of the away kit.
Dec 13th, 2010
Paul F
And a good excuse for reminding people of the UEFA Champions League Magazine article I flagged up on the official site 5 years ago.
http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/images/champions1.jpg
http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/images/champions2.jpg
Worth reading for the theory expounded by the author of Tor! that there was a subconscious Spurs fan in HMHB.
Dec 13th, 2010
Charles Exford
Glad you posted that again, Paul. I’m not sure I knew how to enlarge the article enough to read it properly 5 years ago !
Update for those who don’t know – since 2007 Dukla Praha have been back in the Czech 2nd division and back in their old stadium in Prague.
(can’t believe we haven’t been yet, though Mrs & Exford and I both went on separate pilgrimages to Pribram before were together !)
At the recent Preston gig I saw the only other Prague-bought DPA shirt I’ve ever seen apart from mine. The wearer said he’d bought it in the Sparta Prague shop about 10 years ago, same as me. And just like Toffs, the shop said they only had them in stock cos HMHB fans would ask for them (well, they said “British tourists”, but I knew they meant HMHB fans).
Dec 13th, 2010
Poolio
Not a subtle reference…
Spotted this on the techradar website… (a form of media..)
“You might also argue that unlimited data makes up for the lack of bundled Wi-Fi that you get with similar plans from O2, Vodafone and Orange. Then again, as Half Man Half Biscuit once sang, it’s clichéd to be cynical at Christmas. It’s a refreshing bit of clarity in an industry that often seems hell-bent on confusing people, and if I were thinking of buying an iPhone, Android or other smartphone Three would be looking very attractive today”
Do I get a prize?
Dec 16th, 2010
Charles Exford
On the bright side though Paul, today’s Lux Familiar draw means another trip to the sports shops of Prague in February, 10 years since we last played in Czech.
Good timing ‘cos a couple of seams went at the Holmfirth gig last night, one in the shirt and one somewhat more significantly in the shorts.
Dec 17th, 2010
Third Rate Les
HMHB get a mention in the current edition of Viz.
There’s an entry for “Titmuss paper” in the Profanisaurus, with the clarification that this refers to Abi, not Fred Titmuss (sic) of Half Man Half Biscuit fame.
As a stalwart purchaser of Viz I have to say the latest one, including the calendar, isn’t up to much, aside from the usual startling bleakness of The Drunken Bakers. Not as funny as it used to be…
Dec 21st, 2010
Bobby String
Well, for me it’s a bit like living in Wantage because you can’t get Viz in Johannesburg, but from my recollections it’s been “not as funny as it used to be” for quite some time now. Mind you, I always used to enjoy their adverts for sheds and their crap jokes.
Ô¿Ô
Dec 22nd, 2010
Charles Exford
12.21 to 12.29 approx on Radio 4 just now, “You and Yours”included a report about the current craze for grown-up Scalectrix at clubs like the one in Marple (100-foot track) which was featured. It belongs in this thread because the reporter included the words “dodgy transformer” without acknowledgement. The background music (which began about 1 minute into the report) was of course so predictable that I was alredy singing it before it came on. But the reporter/producer must be a real fan, as the track was reprised later on to end the report with the “-err” echo. Still no acknowledgement, though.
Dec 29th, 2010
Ricardo
First Drafts, in the latest* Private Eye, shows Ralph Vaughan Williams sitting at a piano, his sheet music headed: “Lark Descending.”
For those non-Private Eye readers among us, First Drafts is a regular cartoon consisting of a single frame in which a famous author or composer sits at their desk, upon which sits a piece of paper with some humorous twist on one of their works.
Favourites of mine include Hardy: “It was a wet day in the Wessex countryside – I won’t bore you with the details” and Shakespeare: “Lear divides up his kingdom among his three daughters with hilarious consequences.”
*not latest
Dec 30th, 2010
chedgzoy
Fantastic discussion during between renowned HMHB fan Bumble and Mike Atherton during the morning session of the Sydney test. Apparently Billy the trumpeter from the Barmy Army (kill, kill, kill, stab murder and dispatch) has learnt ‘Lord Hereford’s Knob,’ which prompted bumble to list some of his favourite songs, including ‘Golly Gosh it’s Fred Titmus’
‘Half Biscuit’ currently trending on twitter as a result
Jan 3rd, 2011
Groucho Merckx
Of questionable relevance, admittedly, but nice all the same to see the Dukla logo adorning the Slovakian biathlon team’s kit, most notably on the person of Anastasiya Kuzmina. I’m a Neuner and Domracheva fan myself, but nevertheless it raised a smile.
Jan 24th, 2011
Charles Exford
She must surely then be a member of the SK Dukla Banská Bystrica, which as an SK as opposed to an FK has all sorts of affiliated sports, as opposed to FK Dukla Praha. Their logo has white lettering of the word Dukla on the old red Czechoslovak army campaign badge, as opposed to Dukla Prague’s gold.
Just a guess of course, based on the fact that she isn’t Czech and she isn’t a footballer.
I didn’t google her, ‘cos the name “Grouch Merkx” alone (chapeau) had already taken up my entire week’s googling and internet stalking allowance, and well worth it it was too.
Jan 24th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Walsall manager Dean Smith is now officially the Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project’s favourite manager, and The Saddlers are now this site’s official team (along with Tranmere Rovers, of course). Anyone who likes a bit of Rod Steward (sic) is OK with us. Actually, it’s a shame that Dean is already sponsored by Walsall Carpets or we could have had a whip-round.
Feb 12th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Not so much “lyrics in the media”, but “the band name in the media”: apparently at a Wellcome Collection Symposium this afternoon called Drugs In Victorian Britain, speaker Michael Neve said, in a talk called Varieties of Experience: Drugs and self experimentation in the late 19th century, that Half Man Half Biscuit got their name from Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise by Havelock Ellis. This is according to a couple of tweeters who were there.
Feb 12th, 2011
Charles Exford
With all due respect for the excitement this seems to have engendered (and requesting your indulgence towards any posts I make during these dark depths of the Football League Show) ….
… but if comments on twitterface about facetious passing references to HMHB by lecturers trying to sound cool suddenly count as “the media” then we are surely scraping the biscuit barrel.
Obviously we don’t know exactly what this acerbic academic has said, but there’s surely no way he’s seriously suggested that the band’s name has anything to do with Ellis’ anecdote. I’m guessing he’s just bored with constant references to The Doors getting their name from the title of Huxley’s book about mescaline (and originally from Blake) and he’s made a tongue-in-cheek comment about imagining HMHB might have been similarly inspired by Ellis’ episode of hallucinatory-munchies-conflagration.
Mind you, it is not too far from the sort of misinformation that NB57 might on occasions be proud of. And it might also suggest an explanation for the latest hole that has appeared singed into Mrs Exford’s jeans, though she’s emphatically denied polishing off my mescal and the Mexican hobnobs I’d been saving for a special night.
Feb 13th, 2011
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
Wasn’t there a record label named Half Man Half Biscuit in the late 70′s/early 80′s?
Feb 15th, 2011
Toerag
There is a version of the Hitler/”Downfall” meme on YouTube where the source of Adolf’s anger is the failure of our lads to reach no.6 with JDOGs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ5_h3BPDL8
Here’s to Duritti Column spice racks!
Feb 18th, 2011
Charles Exford
SGD: Thanks for reminding us of the Half Man Half Biscuit record label, my learned Salopian friend. According to Gez’s site at least, the band name came before the label. And thanks to the wonders of YouTube we can go back and listen to the tracks the label put out.
The ‘official’ history on Gez’s site (presumably from the horse’s mouth) tells us that HMHB approached Birkenhead’s Skeleton Records with their first demo tape, but it doesn’t tell us the year. Skeleton was basically the local record shop/record exchange (and, from personal memory, what a fantastic treasure trove it was) but they put out a few records under various label names. In 1980 Skeleton had released two tracks by Attempted Moustache, featuring Simon Blackwell and Paul, two of the five original HMHB members. Skeleton said no to putting out HMHB, but asked if they could borrow Nigel’s band name for a record label to release some singles by Birkenhead punk band Instant Agony.
By the way, it’s perhaps also interesting that around the same time (c.1983) nearly half of HMHB’s original line-up, i.e. Nigel’s brother Simon plus Paul, after Attempted Moustache, were briefly in a band called the Bisquits. Had they temporarily quit the Biscuits at that time perhaps?
Feb 23rd, 2011
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
Once again mr Exford has popped up with the goods.
Just to confirm the dates “Think of England” entered the indie charts(aaah those were the days) 31/7/1982 and “Fashion Parade” 19/3/1983.
Feb 23rd, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
The April edition of Mojo comes with its usual giveaway CD, this one entitled ‘Panic: 15 tracks of riotous ’80s indie insurrection’. Somewhat incongruously track 6 is National Shite Day. Whilst I’m not complaining, I suspect that the ‘track selection coherence software’ has been tampered with. Probably by a junior employee.
Mar 12th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
Being in possession of said artefact, I did wonder that myself but I think the thread is that the songs are inspired by, not necessarily a document of, the 1980s activist thing.
Mar 13th, 2011
John Anderson
I can’t recall any 1980s activists taking to the streets to protest against rail replacement services, dismal TVM or a lack of pedestrain etiquette.
Mar 13th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
Like I (thought I) said, it was to do with the spirit of the thing, not necessarily specifics.
Mar 13th, 2011
Franco
I have recently tried sneaking in Biscuit references into my music reviews for Londonist.com (700k pageviews per month, 28k twitter “friends”).
Latest two references here and here.
Apr 15th, 2011
Charles Exford
Was discussing today’s Hillsborough tragedy anniversary and David Conn’s fine (as usual) article about it with a mate who expressed cautious optimism that the current inquiry would reveal the truth about the police/government/media conspiracy to cover up the responsibility.
Automatically I told him “your optimism strikes me like junk mail addressed to the dead”. He thought I was making a bit of a tasteless joke, so I had to explain why I thought the line had emerged from my data retrieval system at that moment, and why it was so poignant and moving to me in this context. I can’t explain exactly why here, but trust me, it is.
Justice for the 96, their families and friends.
Apr 15th, 2011
Charlie, E ...
Gooner media luvvy Eleanor Oldroyd trying to have it both ways on Fighting Talk this morning, citing Bob Wilson Anchorman during her tribute to the soporific ex-presenter but saying “I don’t agree with the song’s sentiments”. No surprise (but nonetheless slightly disappointing) to hear Colin Murray agree with her. After all he’s a man who regularly shared a studio with John Barnes.
Apr 23rd, 2011
Peter Gandy
Tonight’s Eastenders – about 20 minutes in:
Mo: Half Man Half Biscuit.
Julie: Are you sure?
Denise: Yeah, they were Zeno’s favourites. He played them all the time.
(Disclaimer: my daughter told me and I checked on iPlayer
However, I used to think that Nigel sang ‘Ian Beale is all my arse’ in On Reaching the Wensum.)
Ed’s note: see my comment a few places below.
Apr 26th, 2011
Toffo 78 Huyton
Cheers Peter. Thumbs up to the scriptwriters for that one.
Re- the LF Cup- do we have play-offs in place yet? We have play-offs this week at Evo-Stik/ Unibond/ Northern Premier League level so maybe a little bit of LF action just to whet the appetite…..cheers!
Apr 26th, 2011
Chris the Siteowner
I thought there were enough games coming up in the second stage without playoffs from the first…
Apr 26th, 2011
Toffo 78 Huyton
No probs Chris, second stage sounds good. Perhaps a bit like World Cup 82….looking fwd to it.
Apr 26th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
OK, regarding Peter’s (daughter’s) great EastEnders spottage (above), here’s the clip on YouTube… Scriptwriter is credited as Roy Boulter. And if you do a quick bit of Googling, you discover that Roy “was the drummer in the Liverpool based pop group The Farm (…who…) went on to write for …soap operas”…
Apr 26th, 2011
John Burscough
He also co-wrote the episode of Brookside in which HMHB were mentioned (Ep 2628 “Calling”; see ‘name-checks’ halfway down the page).
http://www.brooksidesoapbox.co.uk/guide_64.htm
And his manager while in The Farm was Kevin Sampson, who famously described Fred Titmus as “fiery Yorkshire pace legend” in the Guardian (see above).
Apr 27th, 2011
RudeDog
On last nights eastenders when Ben was sat at his laptop he was searching for ‘Nigel Blackwell’
Apr 27th, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
If the answer was ‘Half Man, Half Biscuit’ then what was the question?
My guess would be ‘Which 1990′s Liverpudlian Punk band famously turned down the chance to appear on The Tube, even though Channel Four offered to fly them there by helicopter, as the drummer’s footy faves Tranmere Town were playing that night?’
Apr 27th, 2011
John Anderson
I’m told HMHB and The Farm used to regularly play football against each other.
Apr 27th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
I really hope Roy Boulter has enough clout to introduce characters such as the notoriously hapless gardener Mr Galbraith, or a petty criminal known as Stringy Bob …
Apr 27th, 2011
Peter Gandy
Rudedog, that was a fantastic spot. Chapeau.
Apr 27th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
Oh, and did he manage to sneak a game of darts into the episode as well?
Apr 28th, 2011
Rich
There a mention of Twydale’s Lament on the BBC site today in an article about graffiti.
May 25th, 2011
CharlieW
Everytime I find one of these, someone else has already posted it. Well done, Rich, for being quicker than me.
May 25th, 2011
Bobby String
I see there was a mention of Uffington in there as well, but alas no wassail.
Ô¿Ô
May 25th, 2011
spoonunit
Heard Elvis McGonagall do some poetry on R4 which included the line ‘dance, dance, dance, dance, in your Joy Division Oven Gloves’ ! !
He’s also got a poem called ‘This land is our land’
Shomething Biscuity shurely…
May 29th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
Is Nigel’s BP advert to be found on YouTube or some such outlet? Or is it just another of his apocryphal tales? I don’t remember any BP advert from back then and I certainly wasn’t aware of Nigel’s involvement at the time.
It’s mentioned in a Guardian interview from 2001, the writer seems to have done his homework to an extent but not quite enough, as he seems satisfied as to the actual existence of It Ain’t Half Man, Mum, while he misquotes lyrics he obviously doesn’t know and seems to regard the rest of the band as session musicians.
Just curious.
May 30th, 2011
evil gazebo
It was real. And on quite a bit at the time. Quite marvellous. Afraid I don’t have a copy though.
Jun 1st, 2011
evil gazebo
On the subject of media, I’m not sure if this counts but I remember NME running an HMHB day for the launch of “Four Lads’. They surreptitiously inserted some free adverts on their website for the band and dedicated their bulletin board to the band.
Jun 1st, 2011
Dave Wiggins
In the new issue of ‘Viz’ (not as funny as it used to be, etc), Gilbert Ratchet’s grandpa has ‘restless legs’. That’s all.
Jun 8th, 2011
Third Rate Les
Not as funny as it used to be, and includes an article called “Man injured by falling chandelier” which I just don’t get at all. I just can’t tell what they’re getting at – really odd. Still, scrabbling to find some relevance here, er, it does mention Noel Edmonds.
Jun 8th, 2011
S.G.D A SHROPSHIRE LAD
http://blogs.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/06/10/five-great-british-oddballs/
Jun 10th, 2011
Dave Wiggins
Fair play to long-time Biscuit-championing journalist, Dave Kidd of ‘The (Sunday) People’. In his column, yesterday, Dave berated some sportsman or other (Lleyton Hewitt?) who “wears his baseball cap the wrong way ’round”.
Jun 27th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
If this is the same Dave Kidd who used to be at the Currant Bun, I used to know him when he was deputy sports ed of the Romford Recorder. Never knew he was a Biscuit Man though.
Jun 27th, 2011
John Anderson
It is the same Dave Kidd. He was in the Defector’s Weld before the gig having a drink with 5Live’s Nigel Adderley who’s also fan and knows the other Nigel through a mutual love of Tranmere Rovers.
Jun 27th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/26/glastonbury-2011-politcs-protests
Jun 29th, 2011
Hagerty F.
Didn’t know exactly where to post this, but here seems as good as any. I am currently undertaking a large-scale Half Man Half Biscuit project, which involves adding links to the HMHB wikipedia page on every single celebrity mentioned in songs’ own wikipedia page (Una Stubbs, John the Baptist etc.), each time referring to the band themselves by various snappy descriptions (indie grumblers, post-punk quartet, Tranmere enthusiasts etc.). You may wish to follow my progress, although currently I’m struggling to get through the first few tracks on Back In The DHSS…
Jun 30th, 2011
Paul F
I liked “Post-punk quibblers”.
Jun 30th, 2011
Shirley Dimensions
@Dave Wiggins Yes, you do (win £5).
Jun 30th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
I’ll offer up “bomb-heaving satirists” when you start to run out of ideas, if only because it rhymes with Chatteris.
If I recall correctly it was Q’s review of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road (which, bizarrely, considered their prospects of breaking America) which described them as “indie miserablists”.
Jun 30th, 2011
Bobby String
I’ve already added a link to this site from the Mary Ann Hobbs (or however you spell it) Wikipedia page so that’s one less for you to worry about when you eventually get round to Nove On The Sly.
Ô¿Ô
Jul 1st, 2011
Hagerty F.
Strangely, Ali Bongo is one of the few ‘celebrities’ to have already been added to by a Biscuit enthusiast…
Jul 2nd, 2011
S.G.D A SHROPSHIRE LAD
The light at the end of the media tunnel
Jul 2nd, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
“relentlessly sardonic indie perennials”
Hagerty F, store for future use.
Jul 3rd, 2011
Sandy Coloured Clown
Re:
Hagerty F’s request.
Just added to Phil Cool’s site for when you get to it, as ‘obstinately independent Wirral band’. Interestingly, there’s a decent section on Big Phil’s impression of Kendo Nagasaki…
Jul 4th, 2011
chedgzoy
I’ve noticed HMHB references in wikipedia relating to ‘Bullbarrrow Hill’ and ‘Fampton Comes Alive!’
Jul 4th, 2011
Mark Ashworth
On radio Five Live yesterday Mark Pougatch said ‘Time flies by when you’re the driver of a train, as they say’. They do Mark. Especially if they spent the ’80s listening to indie music.
Jul 4th, 2011
swanaldo
Do we need a separate section for the ‘Bikiepedia’ project?
Jul 4th, 2011
Emerging From Gorse
Never thought I’d see HMHB get a mention in my daily newspaper but, on page 83 of today’s Racing Post, sports betting editor Phi Agius writes:
“The world stopped turning for a nanosecond on Sunday as football fans across the globe marvelled at the rare but cherished sight of a dog on the pitch during Brazil’s Copa America clash against Venezuela.
“It wasn’t much of a dog, true, but then mangy brown ones are the best at this work and the canine intruder played his role superbly, earning countless TV and viral video appearances.
“The art of the dog on the pitch has been enshrined in music in the Half Man Half Biscuit song Even Men With Steel Hearts (Love To See A Dog On The Pitch), whose chorus adds: ‘It generates a warmth around the ground that augurs well for mankind; And that’s what life’s about.’ ”
Coincidentally, there’s a meeting at Uttoxeter later today. I can feel a placepot coming on….
Jul 5th, 2011
Pop Tart Mark
Placepot Uttoxeter down by 18.25
Assuming we were all on “Balladeer” in the first (cos it did have a VERY big nose).
Jul 5th, 2011
Hagerty F.
I’m afraid that Wikipedia and the powers that be have decided to remove most of my Half Man Half Biscuit references (I believe only Una Stubbs and Bobby Charlton remain). I therefore grudgingly accept that the system has beaten me, and resign from my post as Bicciepedia editor.
Jul 15th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
To add to the pragVEC theme, this month’s Mojo has a picture of them captioned ‘pragVEC not at the Melkweg’.
Jul 15th, 2011
S.G.D A SHROPSHIRE LAD
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/13/football-transfer-rumours-gary-cahill
Jul 21st, 2011
Dave Wiggins
Ben Shepherd, off of the telly, in this week’s ‘Mail on Sunday’, about his love for ‘Junior Kick Start’, as a boy.
Aug 8th, 2011
Swanaldo
Journo Caitlin Moran just tweeted ‘Everyone in “The Duchess” has hair like Brian May’.
Aug 25th, 2011
Dave Kirby
Clearly a fan at Empire somewhere. He mentioned “primitive creature of the heath” the other day, and a while ago he dropped hip hop chip shop into a story about Michael Haneke (rather well!).
Aug 28th, 2011
Dave Wiggins
Good spot Dave. One of my (probably deluded) proudest moments was using ‘standing forward of this notice’ in an issue of WSAG a good year or two before NB57 deployed the same line. As Mr B is a subscriber to the said fanzine, I immodestly put two and two together (and no doubt emerged with five. Still, I can but dream)…………
Aug 29th, 2011
gordo
I think it would have been impossible to write an article about Len Ganley without mentioning the “merseyside post-punk band” Half Man Half Biscuit
Aug 29th, 2011
Chris Quinn
The BBC put in a mention of “King of Hi Vis” today
Aug 30th, 2011
Tony Silvey
King of hi-vis lyrics in this BBC article about hi-vis vests.
Aug 30th, 2011
Alan k>
Tunes about big skies & girls eyes? God forbid!
Aug 30th, 2011
Charles Exford
Hope David Owens’ English teacher doesn’t suss where he copied his homework from.
Aug 31st, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Ummm. I stopped reading after “they’re back with a UK tour ….”
Aug 31st, 2011
Dave Kirby
Not strictly on message, but since nobody seems to have mentioned it before… This fella left his heart in Papworth General!
Sep 15th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Ah, it seems you still need the help of Basil Exposition to get Half Man Half Biscuit jokes into the mainstream.
Sep 28th, 2011
Paul F
OK – who’s responsible for the HMHB reference in the wikipedia entry for the Lesser Free Trade Hall? Good work.
Sep 28th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Well, not only is there another “Get Half Man Half Biscuit to Number One for Christmas” campaign going, but it would appear to have the active backing of the excellent Dr Brooke Magnanti (@belledejour_uk) no less, who’s tweeting about it enthusiastically. Not sure I’ve spotted her out moshing recently, but all celebrity supporters are always welcome. Go click that “Share” link, Facebookers.
Sep 29th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Judging by what’s happening on Twitter, I have a feeling I’m about to be put right as regards to casting doubt on the good doctor’s moshing record…
Sep 29th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Oh OK, as she’s obviously too modest to post it herself, here’s Belle de Jour’s account of an HMHB gig from Playing The Game (2008). Respect. And NSFW, of course.
Sep 29th, 2011
gordo
The Daily Telegraph opened a story about the SPL experimenting with Friday night football with a reference to HMHB without mentioning Friday Nights and The Gates Are Low
Oct 1st, 2011
gordo
a very recent tweet from belledejour_uk
“gingerbread man biscuit cutter obtained. To the shops in the next few days Half Man Half Biscuit biscuits imminent #hmhbxmas “
Oct 3rd, 2011
Dave Wiggins
Brian Moore’s Head Looks Uncannily Like London Planetarium just name-checked on The Football League Show.
Oct 9th, 2011
Paul Rodgers (Crimond)
and as per usual that annoying twot Clem got it wrong. We were called what Dave said, not Brian Moore’s Head Looks Uncannily Like THE London Planetarium like what Clem said.
And there’s no saying that BMH is dead. We ressurected it for one paper issue in 2008, if needs be we would do the same again.
Oct 9th, 2011
Dave Wiggins
I have a couple of back issues somewhere, from the early 90′s. A great read, indeed, Paul. Cap doffed, Sir.
Oct 9th, 2011
VILLAPETE
A programme on Radio 4 the other day about the Irish priest sex-abuse scandal mentioned that the Irish Prime Minister had ‘delivered a broadside to the Vatican’. The documentary’s scriptwriter surely slipped that in deliberately.
Oct 11th, 2011
SPENCER THE HALFWIT
The Big Brother spin-off programme (which I just discovered the missus watching in bed, behind a copy of the Times) appeared briefly to have the Achtung Bono cover, minus captions, on a screen in the background.
Oct 12th, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Man up, Spence. There’s worse things that you could have discovered the missus doing in bed. (Behind a copy of The Times or otherwise.)
Oct 13th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
This is quite beautiful. Micky (The Hoss) writes: “I thought you lot might like to see this – I have just finished a scale model of Leicester City’s old ground, Filbert Street, which as now gone on permanent display at the club’s current King Power Stadium. I wanted to sneak a little piece of HMHB in the model somewhere, so I did this! Thousands of people will see the model all the time…”
Truly a work of art. It made us cry like girls.
Oct 13th, 2011
s.g.d.
even men with steel hearts will love to see that advertising hoarding!
Oct 13th, 2011
Dave Wiggins
Spot-on that, Micky, lad.
Oct 14th, 2011
micky (the hoss)
Ha Ha, Cheers Chris, Nice One. We’ve got quite a HMHB posse in Leicester(shire), our football messageboard “Bentleys Roof” got a mention by NB at Leamington which was nice!!
If you’re bored check out my HMHB Vids at YouTube.
Oct 14th, 2011
Mr Larrington
Micky, that is made of 100% win!
Oct 14th, 2011
Paul Fenton
Here’s a gift of an article to comment on. Bottomless perdition indeed.
Oct 14th, 2011
SPENCER THE HALFWIT
Just noticed the the latest issue of Word also carries an article about the Inbetweeners movie headlined Half Men, Half Dipsticks.
Also the letters page of said magazine has, for several months now, titled all the letters with mish-mash headlines relating to their content, prompting one reader to comment that they all sound like Half Man Half Biscuit song titles (I’m thinking along the lines of Running Order Squabble Fest, Improv Workshop Mimeshow Gobshite).
Oct 16th, 2011
Jeff Buckley
Is Sir Alex a fan I wonder?? From tonights match on the BBC live text.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson on his side’s hard-fought win over Otelul: “I think in a lot of these away games, you have to work hard to get victory. They made life difficult for us. I was satisfied with the result. It was a long night and they had to be patient.” On Nemanja Vidic’s red card: “He’s raised his foot and, particularly in Europe, I can see why he’s given it but it was harsh. I shouldn’t think we’ll appeal.”
Oct 18th, 2011
iffy voice
Just before the kick of of the third and fourth place rugby world cup final this morning, Mark Saggers on Talksport said that “a Welsh victory against Australia in the southern hemisphere was as rare as hens’ teeth”. Didn’t make the room look any bigger though.
Oct 21st, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
The model Filbert Street project mentioned above now has its own website at Filbert Street in Miniature.
Oct 29th, 2011
andy
not really a lyric
more of an observation
on andy hamiltons search for the devil on bbc4
he repeatedly says
“book of revelationS”
Oct 31st, 2011
Joke Shop Excrement
Anybody seen this? Thoughts?
Margate? Nearly every weekend?
Nov 7th, 2011
Third rate Les in his Burberry fez
That’s an odd one – I saw that too.
Is there a fixture list we don’t know about?!
Nov 7th, 2011
John Burscough
Never mind Margate, nearly every weekend; The Telegraph??
Nov 7th, 2011
Chesneywold
That’s got to be someone taking Nigel’s name in vain. The attitude and the style are all wrong. Someone has obviously thought well Nigel writes funny letters, why not write a letter signed as him and throw in a few ‘jokes’ such as touring every weekend. Taint enough. Poor.
Nov 7th, 2011
Junior Ed (Wirral Globe)
Never mind Margate, nearly every weekend, The Telegraph …. what about the Xenophobia ????
We have written to the Torygraph online editorial staff assuring them that in all of his dozens of letters to us, Mr. Blackwell has never used his own name. I also included a sample of his handwriting and a selection of aliases used previously in his many missives: Nick Drake, Joel Garner, Ian Curtis, Henry Rollins, Maud Exford etc.
What goes around comes around I suppose.
Nov 7th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
The ever-reliable Andrew Harrison in The Word, December 2011.
Nov 7th, 2011
Third rate Les in his Burberry fez
Not so sure it’s really xenophobic – simple fact is it’s easier for foreign-registered vehicles to get away with small-ish speeding infringements.
On a related matter, the accident puts a melancholy tinge on the title “Trouble over Bridgwater”. I went on one of those AA driving courses a few months ago and they showed us a reconstruction of the very similar Hungerford accident. Never, ever stop in the hard shoulder if you can possibly avoid it, not even if you’ve witnessed a crash (and this is the only time you can ever use your phone while driving).
Nov 8th, 2011
Paul F
I’ve been on that course as well Les. Many years ago, but I remember the M4 crash reconstruction very well.
Nov 8th, 2011
Mr Galbraith
The xenophobia, humourless style, Margate domicile and the very thought of writing to the Torygraph are not in our hero’s idiom. And NB57 would never make the schoolboy error of referring to his native isle as ‘the’ Britain… Unless he’s had exposure from descending the Stiperstones. (Incidentally, Chris Hawkins played this on his 6 Music breakfast programme last Wednesday (I think). He said it reminded him of where he grew up. Well done, Chris. Turned my face into a sea of smiles as I blearily ate my sugar puffs at 6.30am!)
Nov 12th, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Regarding the Torygraph tosh, if you live by the sword, then I’m afraid you may well die by the sword. This one however (although old) is, I feel, more genuine.
http://www.movingtone.com/news/preview-half-man-half-biscuit
Apologies to those who have seen it before.
Nov 12th, 2011
Comedy Hypnotist
Regular readers might recall that Times Business Editor Ian King has a ‘bit of previous’ when it comes to sneaky HMHB references in his columns. So one might suspect he was listening to ‘Joy in Leeuwarden’ when he noted in today’s Business Commentary:
“Curious goings-on in Hungary where [...] Viktor Orbán’s Government bade a hearty Isten Hozta to an IMF task force”.
Nov 22nd, 2011
Kate W
A direct lyric quote in the Guardian today – in a Notes and Queries piece about bad rhymes:
Nov 23rd, 2011
Paul F
Kate – perhaps even the editor is on it as he has placed a quote from Bette Davies Eyes immediately above the HMHB example.
Nov 24th, 2011
John Byrne
Gratuitous and inappropriate – have a look at the caption on the second slide…
Nov 24th, 2011
John Anderson
A brief mention here.
Nov 25th, 2011
Charles Exford
John – thanks for that, you’ve made an old man very happy, as that piece brings together my favourite DJ. favourite bands & very favourite iconography from my favourite area of archaelogy.
In fact my only tattoo is this image from the British Museum, inscribed on my back. Now I know The Devourer is Mark E. Smith my inscription is truly complete!
Nov 25th, 2011
s.g.d.
Mention in an interview with Alex James…
Nov 27th, 2011
Paul F
Surprisingly comes across as less of a tool than normal in that interview. And not just because of the HMHB reference.
Nov 29th, 2011
John Burscough
Bit cheesy.
Nov 29th, 2011
SPENCER THE HALFWIT
Len Ganley Stance lyrics extensively quoted in this month’s Word, on the Best and Worst page. Basically uses the dance moves to describe planking.
Dec 5th, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
And just in case, like me, you didn’t have a clue what Spencer was on about, this site will shed some light.
http://www.planking.me/
“Keep your arms as rigid as a juggernaut
Clench your fists, point your knuckles straight ahead”.
Time for a new section perhaps Chris. Planking at sights mentioned on Stuart’s Half Map, Half Biscuit.
It gets a bit chilly planking on Lord Hereford’s Knob. (All of our planks look the same.)
Dec 5th, 2011
SPENCER THE HALFWIT
You could also possibly amend “Then try and pretend to look vertically dead” to “Then you find you’re actually horizontally dead”.
Dec 6th, 2011
J Buckley
A few indirect mentions on 5Live this morning!
Ed’s note: it was writer Mark Barrowcliffe. Chapeau, as many of our contributors here would say.
Dec 7th, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
I missed that by about 5 minutes this morning; a pity as it would have undoubtedly put a smile on my face and set me up nicely for the day. As is often the case with these oblique mentions in the media, the fun comes in noting just how high the references fly over the other contributor’s heads. Both quotes, which were casually tossed into a typical 5Live Breakfast conversation about nothing of any significance whatsoever, are currently hovering some distance over MediaCityUk, seeking clearance to land.
Dec 7th, 2011
PapaLazarou
Well spotted JB… Made me chuckle…
Dec 19th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
A mention of the band in Simon Pegg’s memoir “Nerd Do Well” (“a book that deliberately insults his fan base, I’m angry I bought it” – Amazon review). Apparently he was in a short-lived college band which “performed a few Half Man Half Biscuit numbers at the Edinburgh Fringe” – OK so far – but then ruins it by describing HMHB in a footnote as “Brilliant if short-lived eighties indie satirists”. Nerd done bad.
Dec 19th, 2011
Shirley Dimensions
Cheer up Chris…maybe NB57 will entwine an entire lyric around said Mr Pegg, thus massively increasing Simon’s chances of also being somewhat short in the lived department. Has anyone checked on Tommy Walsh recently by the way, there are sixteen empty milk bottles outside the eco house’s front door, are we sure he’s still with us?
Dec 19th, 2011
Mr Larrington
@Chris The Siteowner: I made this observation in October 2010 in the “Your PBRs” wossname. DKUATB
Ed’s Note. It’s late and I’m old, and there are seven and a half thousand comments on the site, and… and… (blows raspberry).
Dec 19th, 2011
Shirley Dimensions
Shirl’s note. It’s late and I’m old, and there are 350 ‘likes’ on Sex Pistols Archive, and…and…(flicks Vs in a Sid Vicious stylee).
Dec 20th, 2011
Mrs Gibson's
I’m not certain this is the right place to mention spottings in the media. There’s a magazine with an advert for the new SEAT in-car record turntable. 3 LP covers in the picture: Sgt Pepper’s, Thriller, and I’m sure I see the 3 rd one as This Leaden Pall. Nice.!
Jan 4th, 2012
Dave Wiggins
Things like this, ‘Mrs Gibson’s', excite me to a disproportionate extent. More details please.
Jan 4th, 2012
Charles Exford
Yes please Mrs G, must see that – do tell which mag! The only results I could find on Google were a SEAT company page on Facebook (google SEAT Highway Hi-fi), where the albums on display do include Sgt. Pepper, but apart from that it’s Lady Gaga & Amy Winehouse….and a brief mention in Mixmag online, where disappointingly no mark out of 5 is given and the stock vinyl on display looks like a random selection of old punk.
Old Pa Exford will be most unimpressed that SEAT have adopted the same brand name as the somewhat more space-saving stereo from the old Plymouth outside.
Jan 4th, 2012
Dave Wiggins
I don’t appear to be able to post a ‘link’, but online Swine Magazine has a short piece, by Nigel, on his top ten Snowdonia walks. Get on it now; as amusing as you knew it would be.
Jan 5th, 2012
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Link to Dave’s piece.
Jan 5th, 2012
J Buckley
Not all Snowdonia walks, Foel Fenlli after Moel Fammau is in the low cloud base [usually] of the Clwydian hills. So am I!
Jan 6th, 2012
Charles Exford
Nice one Dave. Here by the way is the sign he refers to outside Llangelynnin church.
Jan 6th, 2012
Dave Wiggins
J Buckley. Spotted. I realised afterwards, but knew that you fellows would clock my minor typo. Cheers (and to Charles and Vendor for the follow-up). I used to pen a few things for SWINE, but didn’t realise it was still functional.
Jan 6th, 2012
Mrs Gibson's
Page 17 of February’s Mojo has a little ‘Some Product’ section.
Caption ‘On its axis: Fabs, Jacko, in the boot.’. They neglect to mention the 3rd LP sleeve.
Jan 7th, 2012
SPENCER THE HALFWIT
This month’s Word includes on the letters page a chapeau to Nigel for his use of the word “tantamount”. Also Bad Wools and Eco House made it into the readers’ Festive Fifty. No doubt there are scattered references elsewhere, as anyone who has listened to the podcast over years will have noted that Andrew Harrison always tries to mention them at least twice whenever he’s on it.
Jan 9th, 2012
Paddy
Simon Mayo just this second has recited some of “For What is Chatteris”
!!! Could have knocked me down
Jan 13th, 2012
bobbybottler
you know that you’ve been on here too often when…..you hear Mayo and Kermode quoting “Chatteris” verbatim, and you feel compelled to get on here and let everyone know about it, and then you’re gutted because some other punter has got there first…
Jan 13th, 2012
Paddy
Sorry Bobbybottler. A complete fluke that I am working from home, something that I rarely ever do, with the radio on in the background. I was utterly stunned when he started quoting it, I think I may have started shaking a bit. What a great man.
Jan 13th, 2012
Jitsu.G
It’s about 1 hr 20 in for those listening again. Surely a phone call on Friday could see it being played on his all request radio 2 program
Jan 14th, 2012
andy
The first 10mins of the Radio 4 Extra drama “Elidor” was more or less all about a young girl’s quest for a Half Man Half Biscuit T-shirt. It’s just been repeated and is on iPlayer for the next few days.
Jan 15th, 2012
Chris The Siteowner
Very good. Interestingly, Alan Garner’s Elidor was written in 1962, so the original radio play and novel wouldn’t have mentioned the band. It began as a radio play, now lost, and was subsequently published as a novel. There was a TV adaptation in the 1990s (which I haven’t seen) that presumably introduced the HMHB reference – I found this discussion here mentioning it rather inconclusively. The current (new) radio production, which clearly attempts to be as up-to-date as possible (with references to mobile phones and broadband shoehorned into the first few minutes) retains the reference to the band, which seems as slightly awkward now as it appears to have been in the TV series. Why it should follow the TV series in that respect, rather than updating the reference to something more contemporary, or going back to whatever was in the original, I don’t know. However, it goes no further than the kids looking for an HMHB T-shirt, whereas it looks as if the TV series had more of a discussion on the band.
Jan 15th, 2012
RT17
I’ve just got off a Singapore Airlines flight where the first track on the ‘Rock City’ inflight radio channel was Tommy Walsh’s Eco House…
Jan 22nd, 2012
Roots Hall
Nice mention in Live magazine today by Dylan Jones editor of something called GQ whatever that is.Claims to have seen the band in Bath 1985 no less.
Jan 22nd, 2012
John Burscough
Marc Riley’s just played ‘Mr Cave’s A Window Cleaner Now’ from the Peel session on his R6M show (about 20 minutes in).
(First track was The Stooges’ ‘Search and Destroy’, which I would contend is the best programme opener of all time, with the possible exception of ‘Shake Some Action’.)
Jan 24th, 2012
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