6Music Session, 11 August 2010
BBC 6Music Session on Marc Riley’s show. Your thoughts below.
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111 Letters Sent:
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
…played 3 new tracks –
Tommy Walsh’s Eco House
R.S.V.P.
Left Lyrics in the Practice Room
and also Joy Division Oven Gloves.
New album might be ready by Christmas.
Nigel reliably informed us that when Michael Jackson’s body went for an autopsy, he was wearing a Half Man Half Biscuit teeshirt.
R.S.V.P. is an instant classic – pure poetry.
Aug 12th, 2010
jim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-t3atbBmE4
Aug 12th, 2010
H Quinn
Another track from the session called “L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres” is on Gideon Coe’s 6Music show.
Available on iPlayer – starts at 2:52:44
Aug 12th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
Cheers Jim
‘Tommy Walsh’s Eco House’ is a belter!
Back to back Cadfael
Ross Kemp on Watership Down
Are we living in ‘the last days’?
My life coach died in a car crash
Plummeted his mother into hopeless despair
She hangs about the (?)
I never know what to say to her
‘Have you seen Tommy Walsh’s Eco House’?
Brilliant! (just covertly listening at work). Anyone got the full lyrics to the session yet?
Aug 12th, 2010
Germ
Thanks for the link Jim,missed last nights session cos of a bunch of overpaid fops in England shirts
Enjoyed the RSVP line:
“If what’s in the punchbowl seems lethal
it’s because it’s two thirds anti-freeze”
Aug 12th, 2010
Peter Gandy
This is my attempt Shirley:
Back to back Cadfael
Ross Kemp on Watership Down
Are we… living in the last days?
My life coach died in a car crash
Plummeted his mother into hopeless despair
She hangs about the lone walk, I never know what to say to her
Have you seen Tommy Walsh’s Eco House?
I’m at the mercy of the local scold
She knows, I know she knows about the ? on the (nine dart?)
I should have listened to Pop Tart Mark and had the head dissolved in acid by a Belgian clean up team
I’ve taken ninety Bisodol
I’ve had a bellyful of Tommy Walsh’s Eco House
A tisket, a tasket, a Pashley with a basket
Behold Hermione, Little Miss Poundbury
I used to hanker after her one days would marry her
Before the ground floor flat West Highland Terrier
Kathleen Ferrier tickets in the post
All damn Lib Dems done gone to Cropredy
Tories to Cornbury
As for me I’ll take the TGV to Zurich and jump off the roof of Dignitas
Leave a note saying, “Here lies the bloke, the only bloke in Harpurhey who wasn’t at the Lesser free Trade Hall y’all”
Think on when you’re ? the zeitgeist or widening the Motorway
Aug 12th, 2010
Ricardo
Good work, PG. I couldn’t get “Bisodol”, “lone walk” or “Cropredy” at all.
I think it’s “…hanker after her when days were merrier”, though.
Aug 12th, 2010
Peter Gandy
Makes more sense Ricardo.
Aug 12th, 2010
Barry
Did anyone manage to rip it to mp3 by any chance?
Aug 12th, 2010
steam engine
loved the line ‘what dread upon this spume’…….its whetting the appetite for bilston/preston…..
Aug 12th, 2010
jim
here’s the download link for the session
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=43Y1GKYF
Aug 12th, 2010
Barry
Thanks a million
Aug 12th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
Top work Peter Gandy! I’m just listening now at home which is much easier than at work! Picked up this missing bit so far: -
‘She knows I know she knows about the bothy on the Knoydart’
I’ll see if I can fill in any more blanks. It’s a lot easier once there’s a good solid framework so thanks
Aug 12th, 2010
nickinko
Good work Jim!
Aug 12th, 2010
jim
here’s the extra track from gideon coe
L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres
download… http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0JJUBGIN
youtube…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGzegfmggqs
Aug 12th, 2010
Lee
Gideon Coe played another track they recorded earlier, just before midnight last night, I just caught a mention of it on the hand over, thought I might have misheard because it wasn’t mentioned again for about two hours. But I dutifully stayed glued to the computer way past my bed time – and he did. It was called ‘L’Enfer C’est Les Autres’ (Hell is other people).
P.S. loved the Sabbath riffing on ‘Left lyrics…’
Aug 12th, 2010
Norbert D
I think we’d all like to hear that, Lee.
Good session – would have been nice to hear one of their more musically unusual songs (in the tradition of “Country Practice”, “Footprints”, “Problem Chimp” etc), but the temptation with a session, and especially a live one, is to go with the stompers, I suppose.
“Tommy Walsh’s Eco House” is bloody great, isn’t it?
Aug 12th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
@Norbert D. I need weening off it already! It is as you say ‘bloody great’ had me in stitches. I’m going to have to stop playing it to eat something! Tomorrow at work I’m going to ask if anyone has seen said programme
I haven’t as it goes, though I have caught ‘Challenge Tommy’ on QUEST. It’s quite sort of comforting in the same way ‘One Man And His Dog’ was. I vote for a future ‘Tommy Walsh And His Dog’ series. Anyone got the lyric re zeitgeist (assuming it is ‘zeitgeist’ before ‘widening the motorways’…can’t make it out).
Aug 12th, 2010
Toerag
RSVP
On the bleakest day autumn could muster
In a church to to which they’ll not return
I thought back to a time I could trust her
To a time when there wasn’t John Byrne
And in a cruel twist of fate which so often
Occurs in tales such as this
I found myself catering reception
And there were urges I had to resist
Not least because John Byrne is much fitter
And the straightener to him holds no fears
And if the chocolate in the fountain tastes bitter
It’s because its been laced with my tears
Celebrations were well underway when,
Her father prayed silence and spoke,
He said: “It’s not like I’m losing a daughter…”
As violently starting to choke
And in a gesture which said “I’m fast fading,
Could someone dial 999?”
He valiantly toasted my capers
In that which he thought to be wine
It was gone half past ten before folks cottoned on
By which time I’d landed in Wick
So if what’s in the fondue’s to die for
It’s got nothing to do with the cheese
And if whats in the punchbowl seems lethal
It’s because its two thirds anti-freeze.
Great set – looking forward to Bilston!
Aug 12th, 2010
Richard Lovell
Splendid, less than 24 hours later and we have lyrics and a download.
Good show chaps
Aug 12th, 2010
Another Alterego
RSVP (a first bash)
On the bleakest day autumn could muster
In a church to which they’ll not return
I thought back to a time when I could trust her
To a time when there wasn’t John Byrne
And in cruel twist of fate, which so often
Occurs in tales such as this
I found myself catering reception
And there were urges I had to resist
Not least ‘cos John Byrne is much fitter
And a straightener to him holds no fears
So if the chocolate in the fountain tastes bitter
It’s because it’s been laced with my tears
Celebrations were well underway when
Her father prayed silence and spoke
He said, “It’s not like I’m losing daughter”
As violently starting to choke
And in gesture which said I’m fast-fading
Could somebody dial 999
He valiantly toasted my capers
And that which he thought to be wine
It was gone half past ten before folk cottoned on
By which time I’d landed in Wick
So if what in the fondue’s to die for
It’s got nothing to do with the cheese
And if what’s in the punchbowl seems lethal
It’s because it’s two-thirds antifreeze.
Aug 12th, 2010
Toerag
Left Lyrics In The Practice Room (Very much a 1st attempt!)
Demon feet (?) Leave your tomb
Seek out the virgin womb
Hey Chris from Future Doom
You left your lyrics in the practice room.
Cackling hag astride the broom
What dread this upon the spume?
Hey Chris I understand your gloom
But come on man ah you’re from Ilfracombe.
Did you leave them in a soda (?)
When the band do practice eight till ten
Read them and perhaps you’ll say
We’ve got to meet this catch a day.
Oh Black Sabbath bam balam
Oh Black Sabbath bam balam
You look up to Oranjiboom (?)
Your Georgian (?) sounds like Marti Poom (?)
Dr Desperate I presume,
You left these in the waiting room
How much more can I exhume?
How much more can you consume?
Oh Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me
Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me
Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me
The light.
Not at all sure in a few places – feel free to correct, amend etc
I really must get out more!
Aug 12th, 2010
Lee
I think it’s ‘demon fiend, leave your tomb’ and ‘did you leave them there so that when….’
Couldn’t get the first to lines of the last verse either
Aug 12th, 2010
Lee
L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres
Some people don’t know how to walk on the pavement these days
but it can’t be that difficult there’s hardly a whole host of ways
here they come, loves young dream
arm in arm approaching me
now I’m not asking for your smiles
I’m just asking for a bit of single file
but it’s not forthcoming so I have to assume
that this narrow path belongs to you
and therefore you must be the Duke of Westminster and his good lady wife
so I’ll tell you what I’ll just walk in the road
how about I just walk in the road
you stay as you are and I’ll just walk in the road
Ah, I feel I’ve been cornered by a bloke who’s just discovered Johnny Cash
he’s pissed and he’s boring and he’s telling me all about the man in black
it seems the best stuff? purchased at the superstore
is undisputedly the perfect score
for a weekend in Riga with heavy drinking rugby pals
And I reckon him to be the type of driver to beckon me
across the road with an index finger, when at the kerb I linger
he should not presume my intention
he should invite me with an outstretched palm
after all I could be reading the grid?
or standing aside for the Duke and his wife
either way I’ll not simply walk in the road
for you, I’ll cross in my own good time
when I feel there’s nothing in the outside lane to knock me over
I keep a wristwatch on this arm of mine
I keep my flies wide open all the time
and i shot a men in tesco
just to watch him die.
shades of shite day there in the lyrics
Aug 12th, 2010
Ricardo
By glorious serendipity, the morning after this session aired, the Today Programme had a piece on mainland Britain’s most remote pub.
Aug 13th, 2010
Norbert D
“Demon feet (?) leave your tomb
Seek out the virgin womb”
Hey, Chris from Future Doom
You left your lyrics in the practice room
“Cackling hag astride the broom
What dread this upon the spume?”
Hey Chris I understand your gloom
But come on, man up, you’re from Ilfracombe!
Did you leave them there so that when
The band who practice eight till ten
Read them and perhaps then say
“We’ve got to meet this cat today”?
Oh Black Sabbath bam balam
Oh Black Sabbath bam balam
You (?) Oranjeboom
Your jaw juts out like Martin Poom
Dr Desperate, I presume
You left these in the waiting room
How much more can I exhume?
How much more can you consume?
Oh Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me
Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me
Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me
The light (tonight?)
The Oranjeboom line sounds almost like a fluff, can’t make head nor tail of it. Sounds most like “You look young due to Oranjeboom”, but I strongly doubt that’s it.
Aug 13th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Can I just say “ta” to everyone who’s contributing here? I’m out of the country at the moment and only getting on the site sporadically …and this is great stuff. Apologies if the normal edits aren’t getting done as promptly as usual!
Aug 13th, 2010
Another alterego
Missing bits
Tommy Walsh: my best guess for the zeitgeist line is “Think on when you’re whitening the zeitgeist …” but the tricky word could be waggling, or something else entirely. What can one do to the zeitgeist?
Left lyrics: the orangeboom line is a real struggle. I agree with Norbert that the line starts “You look good” but it then goes a tad indecipherable. Something like “due to t’rangeboom”. But that doesn’t seem right.
L’Enfer: the Johnny Cash album is the ‘Best of’ purchased at the superstore.
Aug 13th, 2010
Ben
“I shot a man in Tesco just to watch him die”
That’s been knocking around for ages, between song banter at gigs etc.
Aug 13th, 2010
Lee
Another alterego – ‘best of’ makes much more sense. also it should have been ‘I’m just looking for some single file’
Aug 13th, 2010
Lee
I heard it as ‘walking the zeitgeist’.
Aug 13th, 2010
Peter Gandy
Isn’t it great when we have new lyrics to decipher?
@Shirley Dimensions – great spot on bothy on the Knoydart. All my walking being done in the Lake District and Snowdonia I had never heard of it.
@ Another Alterego and Lee – my first thoughts were waggling the zeitgeist but didn’t go with it as it made no sense (not that that necessarily matters). I still don’t think it’s whitening or walking; how about wakening?
Aug 13th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
Just a theory at the moment, but I think it might be ‘Wankeling the zeitgeist’ as in ‘bunging a Wankel combustion engine on it’ to enhance it?! I’ve found a few obscure references to ‘wankeling’ on motor sites and am trying to find a definitive usage of it! It would kind of tie in with motorways and it does sound like ‘wankeling’. This theory could however, be total wank(eling)
Aug 13th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK-giVrhtIk
MG Wankeling (apparently!)
Aug 13th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
Yeah it works
I’ve convinced myself! As in ‘think on about the ecosystem when you’re bunging excessive engine upgrades on things or eating up the natural landscape by widening motorways’. I rest my case your honour! (is it definitely ‘zeitgeist’ by the way? Am kind of 75-80% convinced it’s ‘zeitgeist’ but there’s a shadow of doubt!).
Aug 13th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
ps I’m off to William Hill to slap a fiver on a Tommy Walsh Christmas number one entitled ‘Nigel Blackwell’s Ordinary House’. I’ll shut up now…nurse!!
Aug 13th, 2010
Norbert D
I thought at first it might be “while you’re wanking in the zeitgeist”, but… that’s just downright stupid. Does sound like it though. “Wankeling” is a good call, but it doesn’t quite sound like it to me. Not that this means it’s wrong…
Oh, and it’s “all dem Lib Dems done gone to Cropredy”. Which I’ve just used as my latest Facebook update, sadly enough.
Aug 13th, 2010
Peter Gandy
I’m not a petrol head so I’m probably not best placed to comment on wankeling, but isn’t a wankel a rotary engine rather than one with pistons? and if so, it doesn’t seem to be the sort of upgrade that people would do to soup up cars and incur Nigel’s wrath.
Besides, it doesn’t sound, to my ears anyway like wankeling. I hear a ning sound at the end; in fact I hear it as wakning, which isn’t a even word – not with various alternative spellings – on urban dictionary.
Long shot coming up though. What if it is wakning, with the n and k deliberately in the wrong order, as a comment on Trevor Beattie’s puerile FCUK campaign?
Oh, and good call on dem Lib Dems.
Aug 13th, 2010
Peter Gandy
Scrub the first paragraph, I’ve just seen the you tube clip posted. What a wankeler indeed.
Aug 13th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
@Peter Gandy. Am sticking with it at the moment but certainly swayable (see below).
@Norbert D Even sadlier I might update mine to Wankeling (or sadlier still, wanking in) the zeitgeist! Yeah I hear ‘all dem’ too and did initially hear ‘wanking in’ also, but thought it a bit ‘throwaway’ for an NB57 line which led me to wonder ‘is there a word wankeling?’ So I’m sticking with ‘wankeling’ for now as my front runner, as it seems to fit the general ‘think on’ eco sentiments expressed shortly thereafter, but let’s just say with Blu Tack as opposed to No More Nails. It may well be my ears willing it to be, in much the same way as shroud defenders (not the back four of Shroud FC if there is one) go ‘no it’s definitely Jesus’ image on that 15th century cloth thing’. We might have to call on a higher power with ‘contacts’. Where is EXXO anyway…is he on that ‘Adult Half Man Half Biscuit Greenland Cruise’ with Chris as advertised in ‘Teenage Eskimo’?
Aug 13th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
note to self : do some bloody work.
Aug 13th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
hmmm I think between you two you’ve convinced me to let go of my theory. Just listened to that segment a few more times on YouTube. Yeah, actually it comes across more like ‘waknin in the zeitgeist’ or ‘waknining the zeitgeist’ (as a sound) doesn’t it? I’ve got despondent now and even watched ‘How To Crate Train A Dog’ top right of Jim’s post to cheer myself up. It’s really good.
Aug 13th, 2010
Ricardo
The coda at the end of Left Lyrics in the Practise Room is the latest of NB57’s many nods to old blues/gospel standards. Let Your Light Shine On Me was recorded by many artists, most notably Blind Willie Johnson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-PrIS318V0
Aug 13th, 2010
jim
new link for sessions includes all 5 tracks
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1BSQRRQU
is there any hmhb bootleg traders out there??? got a fair few to trade or if you ask me nicely i usually give them away!!
here’s what i got…
jodies liverpool 1985
chelsmford 1986
leeds 1986
liverpool transworld festival gardens 1986
liverpool system 1986
birmingham powerhouse 1986
reading festival 1990
mean fiddler 1992
festival hall 1998
manchester university 2000 soundcheck
manchester university 2000 (2cd)
leeds 2000 (2cd)
edinburgh 2003 (2cd)
brampton 2006
unreleased live lp 2006
radio 6 session 2009
radio merseyside concert 2009
glasgow arches 2009
cheers
jim
Aug 13th, 2010
Dave F.
Hi Jim
Is your radio 6 ’09 actually this one:
http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/Peel.htm#8jan08
If so, I’d love a copy of that. Would you be willing to send it to Gez so he can host it & let everyone who missed that one, grab a copy?
Was the ’06 live LP actually a planned release? What’s the quality like?
Aug 13th, 2010
Dave F.
From the London Forum ’08. The intro to Shit Arm Bad Tattoo:
“I wrote this song outside Tommy Walsh’s Eco-House…”
So he had the title for at least about two years
Aug 13th, 2010
Norbert D
Cheers for the link, Jim. You’ve got every HMHB show that I’ve got, plus a fair few more – I’m presuming you’ve also got the legendary Roadwater show from ’09, but didn’t include it because it’s linked on this site anyway (at the top of the page)?
If you get no luck trading – since you may well have every Biscuits boot currently in circulation – there’s a particular forum and a particular torrent site where you’d be made very welcome indeed, I reckon, if you wanted to share the wealth. Don’t know if it’s OK to put the links here, so I won’t, but if you shove up an email address someone will be able to help.
Dave F: I don’t know the story behind this “live LP” (someone might) but the recording going around is 18 tracks, I think from different gigs going by the sound, and it’s good quality – soundboard recordings rather than Rolling Stones Mobile Studio but clearer than most live tapes. Not all the performances are the best to be honest (e.g. a really sluggish version of “CORGI Registered Friends”) but there’s some fine stuff on it. Great version of “Footprints” (“The Lord replied: ‘YOU STUPID, STUPID BASTARD’”).
Aug 13th, 2010
Peter Gandy
And at the same gig Nigel introduced Evil Gazebo with, “This song is about my Life Coach dying in a car crash.” so some lyrics as well as the title.
Aug 13th, 2010
jim
here’s a track from the unreleased live lp
hallelujah/vatican broadside
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AAX7V4HN
from liverpool 2005 i think?
complete track list
the light at the end of the tunnel
****in’ ell its fred titmus
corgi registered friends
monmore hare’s running
if i had possisson over pancake day
running order squabble fest
restless legs
turned up clocked off laid off
for what is chatariss
99% of gargoyles
hallelujah/vatican broadside
shit arm bad tatoo
paintballs coming home
tending the wrong grave for 23 years
all i want for xmas….
letters sent
footprints(the lord replied you stupid stupid *******!!!!)
venus in flares
will post the lot tomorrow
re the 6 music session 09 will edit the tracks as they have the interviews with them at the minute
you can mail me on strictly808rhythm@yahoo.co.uk
cheers
jim
Aug 13th, 2010
Norbert D
Just seen my comments to Jim in a more sober light and realised that he probably knows this stuff already and I must sound like a patronising clot. Oh well.
Aug 14th, 2010
jim
norbert send us a mail regarding forum/torrent site if there’s anything on my list you want let us know and i’ll send them over to you
cheers
jim
Aug 14th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
Don’t suppose anyone recorded Sheffield Dec 09? I have two souvenirs from the gig. A crap, blurred photo of Ken and Nigel and glasses that no longer fit properly. Specsavers should sponsor the moshpit.
Aug 14th, 2010
Treadmore
Jim,
The Forum, London, Oct 2008 is missing off your list but seeded at the torrent site
Aug 14th, 2010
jim
here’s the 6 music session 2009
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7MCUYPYG
and the unreleased? live lp
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YX5CDI1G
cheers treadmore i think i know which one you mean!
cheers
jim
Aug 14th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Hi All
A couple of bits of housekeeping: if you post a comment with two or more links, it gets held for moderation (more than one link is a characteristic of spam comments). So post them singly or bear with me, they may take a day to appear.
I can’t see any problem with posting links to live recordings etc., but I will delete links to downloads of material which can be purchased. The least we can all do for a band as great as this is to buy their studio material.
Aug 15th, 2010
steam engine
agreed …the links are great but I would gladly part with £11, put it in Uncle Geoff’s till at the newly situated Probe Records and remain a HMHB completist …and so say all of us!
Aug 15th, 2010
jim
thanks for the info chris i did wonder what was going on! would it be best to send you some bootlegs and you can host them on your site??
found a few more bootlegs not on my list here’s dickie davies eyes from glastonbury 1986 with slightly different lyrics when i get chance i’ll rip the entire cassette
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y63P3FO7
cheers
jim
Aug 15th, 2010
Exxo
Got home from footie in time for most of this brilliant session, but why can’t I find the “Eco House” track on the i-player ? What time did they play it ?
And then if anyone could fill us in on the background, who is Tommy Walsh, etc. ?
Nigel’s contemporary telly references always make me feel inadequate and out-of-touch.
Aug 15th, 2010
Mr Galbraith
I’ve managed to find mp3 versions of the Marc Riley session but when I tried the link for ‘L’Enfer…’ to download it had been deleted from the linked site (violating terms etc). I’d love to have it on mp3 format to put in iToons n’all, anyone any ideas how to get it? Good to be able to listen to it at all as I missed it on the night, but being in Quicktime it’s all too fleeting!
Exxo – Tommy Walsh is that idiot builder who gained fame on some property refurb prog or other, possibly to an eco-friendly agenda, but I wouldn’t know as I never watch sh*te like that. Was on a weight loss show a few years back and admitted to drinking a bottle of Bailey’s a day – yes, a day and cut down after he was told it would kill him. A couple of years ago was demonstrating perfectly how NOT to lift heavy objects on an ad for van insurance, whilst wearing a fully-laden utility belt – the man really is a pillock! I hope that helps…
Have to say that all four tracks are stormingly good – the next album will be a belter!
Aug 15th, 2010
dagenham dave
Exxo – it was the first track played, I heard it on the iPlayer so it should be on there.
According to various interweb sites Tommy Walsh is a ‘celebrity builder’. Is there such a thing? Can anyone name another one?
He found ‘fame’ in BBCs ‘Ground Force’, a makeover programme that is no doubt responsible for the dozens of similar cack programmes found on daytime TV.
Aug 15th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Tommy Walsh’s Eco House was a TV show made 2-3 years back. I guess it’s just a representative show for the whole property and building genre. Interestingly, Tommy Walsh will have what’s been a surprisingly rare honour since the first couple of albums of being namechecked in full in an HMHB song title, joining the likes of Bob Wilson, Brian May, Eno and Vitas Gerulitas.
Aug 15th, 2010
Mr Galbraith
Ta for that Chris. I’ve never heard of Discovery Real Time channel, probably explaining why so few people got the joke when Nigel mentioned TWEH at the Forum gig 2 years ago. I started to watch the Youtube footage link but then I felt the urge to tear out my own eyeballs to spare me further suffering…
Aug 15th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
@Dagenham Dave I put forward that ‘Bob’ is a celebrity builder. Can’t think of any others at the mo. (I refuse to accept ‘Craig’ the original Big Brother winner and Avid Merrion stooge, as he was a chippy I think).
@Exxo Don’t feel too down about your lack of contemporary media personality awareness skills. You are in possession of facts that most are not. I for one will now be referring to the ‘this is how it’s done Mr Wilson’ beak-nosed ITV legend as Jim Germantown.
Has anyone got the TWEH ‘pre motorway-widening’ lyric yet? ‘Waggling’, ‘Wankeling’, ‘whitening’, ‘wanking / walking waking in’ the list goes on! I’m not convinced it’s even ‘zeitgeist either sounds like ‘(something) gates’? Please God let this be cracked soon. I can’t bear another ‘Bert hears bells’ wait. I might offer a reward. How about a pack of Revels and some Space Raiders? I thought I had it sussed with ‘Wankeling’ until Norbert D and Peter Gandy spoiled it all by convincing me otherwise by cunning usage of ‘probably being correct’ and ‘cold hard facts’ 
Anyway, back to important matters
Aug 15th, 2010
Germ
I think Shirley “Probably works in an all night garage” as she has easy access to Revels and Space Raiders
Aug 15th, 2010
Exxo
Thanks for the info’ folks. I can picture him now off of Ground Force.
Anyway, it turns out it was cunningly hidden as first track on the show at 7pm, the last place I was looking for it, and well worth the wait too.
Whitening ? Wakening ?
But don’t worry Shirley, someone will nail it soon enough, it won’t be another Bert/Transit full of Keith. After all, it’s not like it’s Neil singing or anything.
Aug 15th, 2010
Nelson Umbongo N'danga O'Reilly
Is it possible that with it being live he simply forgot the lyric entirely at that point?
If this were the case I’d hazard to suggest that the line could be ‘while you’re capturing the zeitgeist, they’re widening the motorway’.
Great site by the way.
Aug 15th, 2010
dagenham dave
Listening to it for the umpteenth time I’m now not even sure it’s ‘zeitgeist’…..
Aug 15th, 2010
John Anderson
I’m hearing it as dyke-gate rather than zeitgeist but, there again, the preceding verb sounds like whack-ning to me.
Equally unhelpfully the second line of verse two appears to be “boffy on the noin dart” as far as I can tell.
Aug 16th, 2010
John Anderson
I can’t work out the Oranjeboom bit on Left Lyrics but I’m pretty sure the following line is “your jaw juts out like Marti Poom.”
Aug 16th, 2010
Norbert D
It’s “bothy on the knoydart”, as mentioned above – it’s rock-climbing jargon, I believe. See also the reference to “a Pashley with a basket”, which non-cyclists might not clock.
I’m another one who’s now hearing something other than “zeitgeist” in that last line (something “gates”?). But the fact that we all heard “zeitgeist” at first makes me think it might actually be that, and we could just be over-listening to a sloppy pronunciation. I mean, I’m ten years younger than Nigel and I can’t sing that song at that speed without mangling half the lines… then again, I’m still on the fags.
Aug 16th, 2010
Colin
bothy on the knoydart………rock climbing speak indeed.
Knoydart is the last wilderness in the uk on the west coast of Scotland and a bothy is a hut/croft for walkers to relax and take shelter from the inclement weather conditions that prevail in the above areas.
Aug 16th, 2010
dagenham dave
for those who didn’t know (and I didn’t) Poundbury is the new town near Dorchester built according to the architectural gospel of Prince Charles.
Aug 16th, 2010
Neil G
Regarding ‘Left Lyrics In The Practice Room’, the chords just after ‘Black Sabbath bam balam’ are taken from the track called Black Sabbath on the album called Black Sabbath, by the band called, of course, Black Sabbath. (I know I could have sneaked the word ‘eponymous’ in there but where else but in record reviews do you hear the word ‘eponymous’ being used?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akt3awj_Ah8 Warning! Heavy, heavy, heavy.
Aug 16th, 2010
Rob
“Your jaw juts out like Martin Poom” is of course a reference to the mega-chinned ex-Derby County Estonian goal keeper Mart Poom
(his name is actually just Mart – which isn’t short for Martin, so a slight mistake there)
In RSVP they play a bar of Wagner’s Bridal Chorus – followed by a bar of Chopin’s Funeral March
I definitely hear “waggling the zeitgeist”
Aug 17th, 2010
Toerag
In “Left Lyrics” the “Catch a day” may reference a section of Richard Thompson’s (name checked by Nigel during on stage banter) website called “Catch of the day”where a daily news item is displayed.
http://www.richardthompson-music.com/Catch.asp
Aug 17th, 2010
Tonto's Expanding Waist Band
Re: “Catch a day”… I keep hearing that line “We’ve got to meet that cat today” as in Chris, misunderstood genius of Future Doom…
Aug 17th, 2010
Dave F.
@Jim
Thanks very much for the links. it help fill a couple of gaps in my collection.
I can remember so little about the ’86 gig; only the deathly silence of the quiet before the storm that was about to unleash itself on the festival.
Regarding ‘Left Lyrics In The Practice Room’ I agree with Norbert D except I think it’s ‘the night’ instead of ‘the light’ for the last line.
As everyone else, I’m not sure about the Oranjiboom line. I hear it as Ranji boom. But who knows?
Aug 17th, 2010
Tonto's Expanding Waist Band
Eh, “this cat” more like…
Aug 17th, 2010
Dave F.
A couple of others
From L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres:
I’m just looking for some single file
& I agree that it’s:
I used to hanker after her when days were merrier
I hear “We’ve got to meet that cat today” as well
Is the lone walk an actual place or just metaphorical?
Aug 17th, 2010
Another Alterego
Might the ‘lone walk’ be the ‘Long Walk’ in Windsor Great Park?
Revisiting the zeitgeist, some new and entirely incompatible theories:
1. The line might have been fluffed when sung live on the broadcast. What if the ‘wi’ from widening the motorway had been mistakenly Singh in place of the first syllable of the word before zeitgeist?
Aug 18th, 2010
Another Alterego
Might the ‘lone walk’ be ‘The Long Walk’ in Windsor Great Park?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Great_Park
Aug 18th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
I’ve just put TWEH on YouTube and sent Tommy the link on Facebook. (I know Jim’s got it up already but didn’t want to ‘get his link into trouble’ should Tommy have a hissy fit as celebs are prone to do). I await TW’s probable complete non response with interest. I was going to ask him his thoughts on the ongoing ‘waggling zeitgeist’ saga, but thought that was pushing it.
.
Aug 18th, 2010
Charles Exford
I’m sure the lyric is “The Long Walk”, and it could be any Long Walk, as hundreds of stately homes and estates have them, but Alterego it’s not a bad shout that the association of ideas might be inspired at least in part by the Long Walk at Windsor, as that one is supposed to be haunted.
Then again I always used to think that “Epiphany”, with it’s “Top Acre” and “Keeper’s Cottage”, must have ben set somewhere exotic, but it turns out to have been inspired by the countryside of the good old Wirral Peninsula. Albeit the posh bits.
Meanwhile I’d like to throw in a speculative “wagoning the Zeitgeist”, perhaps as in jumping on the pop-cultural bandwagon.
Aug 19th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
@ Exxo I have pondered ‘wagoning’ too, in fact I’m fast running out of words beginning with the letter ‘w’ that fit. I’m coming to the conclusion that whatever it is has already been suggested and NB57 probably slightly ‘mis-delivers’ it. Sonically it comes across as ‘whackning in the zyte gates’ to me after approximately 324 listens (as has been mentioned too). I can only think of ‘side gates’ (as in next to garage at front of a residence) and ‘slide gates’ (those motorised driveway access ones). I suppose “whitening the ‘either of those types of gates’” could work but doesn’t really do it for me. Perhaps we’re all getting too artsy and it is in fact ‘wanking in the zeitgeist’. At least I draw solace in the fact that it will be revealed unlike (probably) Jack The Ripper (unless anyone on here has a theory?…No…let’s not go there). Meanwhile do I get a DP away top and if so do I get ‘Dimensions’ on the back? This is occupying my thoughts of late.
Aug 19th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
@Charles rather ^ (and Exxo if interested
)
Aug 19th, 2010
Charles Exford
Errm, I am he and he is me and we are the walnuts. Everyone needs a diminutive and Exford has a couple (ooh Mrs.)
But “misdelivers” I cannot hold with. Nigel is not Neil. Next you’ll be telling me he mispronounces “Birkenhead” in the chatty bit – no, it’s just accent I reckon, which is why my best bet is “wagoning” (how I wish we could write in phonetic alphabet at times on here – it would be so helpful (Chris can you fix it?).
Anyway our man will have been singing in the studio from freshly hand-written lyrics, so though stumbling & garbling still often happens in such circumstances, IMHO it makes accent a slightly more likely theory (it’s my native accent too BTW). And, as has been pointed out, he is singing mighty darn fast.
Ah, it’s great that these once-seemingly-endless debates have started up again now that the new material has been unveiled.
Aug 19th, 2010
Peter Gandy
Didn’t the Liverpool Daily Post name someone from the Wirral as Jack the Ripper a couple of years ago? I like the William Gull theory the best, but then I’m always one for a conspiracy involving the Royal family.
Anyway, back to TWEH: I’m still going with lone walk after considering Long Walk during the initial listens. I could be wrong of course, and often am, but it would fit with being alone after losing a son.
Aug 19th, 2010
Peter Gandy
I got the wrong side of the Mersey. It was James Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton merchant; and a couple of years ago was 1994. How time flies – and I’m not even the driver of a train.
Aug 19th, 2010
Peter Gandy
Exxo, your wagoning the zeitgeist theory works for me. That’s what I will sing until somebody proves different.
Aug 20th, 2010
Shirley Dimensions
@ Peter Gandy Yeah I’d go with ‘lone walk’, as you say it fits with the ‘loss of son’. Not going with Maybrick though. Fake diary. First x number of pages ripped out. Lesson one in how to fake a Victorian diary. Find a half-complete one and remove written on pages
I’m going with Tumblety on the Ripper front! Anyway back to HMHB or we’ll get scolded by Chris…’it’s not a bloody free-for-all…’ etc 
I’ve got a very vague memory of seeing HMHB at Hull Poly. circa 1994. Anyone know the date at all. Just sort of compiling a ‘who I saw when’ list which I shall bury and hope 2256′s equivalent of Baldrick digs up. I once sat next to the red haired hairy one from Time Team in an hotel in Birmingham. Beat that! 
Aug 20th, 2010
jim
have put some youtube vids of leeds 97 on my channel
http://il.youtube.com/user/jimmod123
will post a few bootlegs over the weekend if anyone has any preference of shows let us know the list is somewhere in the comments above
jim
Aug 20th, 2010
Markos
Who is the John (Jon) Byrne mentioned in RSVP? Is it Jon Byrne, the singer/songwriter/social commentator from Barrow-in-Furness, John Byrne the comic book illustrator, John Byrne the Scottish painter, John Byrne the footballer or some other geezer who happens to be called John (Jon) Byrne? Whoever it is it’s a great song.
Aug 22nd, 2010
Third Rate Les
I’m loving “l’enfer c’est les autres”
Listen Mr Sartre you tiresome midget, you didn’t need all that boring dialogue; the absurdity of the human condition is illustrated so much more succinctly with a few choice observations about pedestrian ettiquette.
Aug 22nd, 2010
Norbert D
“bothy on the knoydart………rock climbing speak indeed.”
Oh, OK. Where the hell did I get “rock climbing” from then? Must have been working too hard lately. I should have known this really, one of my best mates is well into the walking scene.
“I’m going with Tumblety on the Ripper front!”
Me too!
“Who is the John (Jon) Byrne mentioned in RSVP?”
Good point. Surprised that’s the first mention. Maybe it’s the late Johnny Byrne who co-wrote “Groupie” with Jenny Fabian, or Johnny Byrne who wrote a couple of Doctor Who stories in the early 80s? Nah, I don’t think so either. Considering the short-story nature of the song, my guess is that it’s just a generic character name rather than a reference to anyone in particular.
Aug 22nd, 2010
Charlie Davidson
It could be John Byrne, singer of early ’80s Liverpool band The Cherry Boys, famed for their “Kardomah Cafe” single. Their drummer Howie later became the second “Stez Stix” in The Macc Lads, with a parallel career as “Eddie Shit”.
Then again, it probably isn’t.
Aug 22nd, 2010
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Who is the Jon Byrne mentioned in RSVP?
I’m hoping that it’s Jon Byrne, the singer/songwriter/social commentator from Barrow-in-Furness. Saw him supporting The Smiths Indeed a few years ago. He has a future in tortured artist circles, stamping out the rhythm with his foot whilst howling songs along similar themes to nursing injured buzzards back to health inside dead children’s wardrobes. Didn’t strike me as particularly fit however, in any sense of the word.
Aug 22nd, 2010
Ben
My first thought would be for the journeyman footballer John Byrne, I’d be amazed if Nigel hadn’t seen him in the flesh at Prenton Park playing for pretty much any of his clubs, bar Le Harve.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byrne_(Irish_footballer)
Aug 22nd, 2010
Markos
Jon Byrne, the singer/songwriter/social commentator from Barrow-in-Furness. Is he particularly fit? Make your own mind up!
http://www.myspace.com/jonbyrnemusic
http://www.facebook.com/jonbyrneandthevictims
Aug 22nd, 2010
azza
http://www.myspace.com/jonbyrnemusic
Aug 23rd, 2010
harry powell
here’s all the tunes plus yaps
http://bongheights.blogspot.com/2010/08/mark-riley-session-11th-august-2010.html
Aug 25th, 2010
Ricardo
Interestingly*, Kathleen Ferrier played at the opening night of the Free Trade Hall in 1951, some 25 years before all the blokes in Harpurhey bar one crammed into the upstairs room with 140,000 others to see Slaughter & the Dogs.
*or not
Aug 26th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
I so want to see a photo of the last bothy on the Knoydart at Half Man Half Biscuit Towns. Anyone off to the Highlands?
Aug 26th, 2010
Dave F.
Well Chris, I’m not an expert on the area, but there appears to be a selection:
http://su-web2.nottingham.ac.uk/~pineappl/pmwiki2/pmwiki.php?n=Main.KnoydartBothies
Take your pick.
Aug 26th, 2010
Markos
Anyone got anymore on the John (Jon) Byrne connection in RSVP?
Aug 31st, 2010
Chief Exec
I guess we’re not going to figure it out for certain but I reckon the footballer fits the song best.
Wife runs off with a footballer… ex-husband is reduced to this sort of vengeance as he clearly couldn’t take him in a fight.
Sep 1st, 2010
Dave F.
Being the type of person to run a mile from anything resembling a fight, I was unaware of what a ‘straightener’ was until I saw a TV program about the recorded messages of that tw*t Raoul Moat.
Supposedly it’s a type of modern day duel when there’s a disagreement (about what, I’m not sure). The protagonists are meant to meet up and have fisticuffs, after which the problem has been ‘straightened’ out.
Sep 1st, 2010
Charles Exford
I’m with Norbert on this one. I think John Byrne is a generic figure like what you get in folksongs whose protagonists are either generic or so long-forgotten that they have become generic. I bet that a fair few of us here have followed the only tangible clue of “Wick” and have been furiously googling for Orcadian folk songs, or Kirkwall wedding poisoning news stories, featuring a character called John Byrne, and inevitably drawing a blank, just like we did with Phyllis Triggs, Duff Leg Bryn or Stringy Bob before …..[No ? Just me then ? Fair enough. ]
Just as Lord Hereford’s Knob aims at the hundreds of generic “As I walked out one morning/evening etc” songs that have been written over the last 500 years, and succeeds in being the funniest and best one of them we’ve ever seen or heard, so this one sets its sights on the hundreds of “The False Bride”/ “My Auld Sheen” songs which have been sung over a similar period, and has no trouble of course being the funniest ever one of those as well. Incidentally, many variations this trad arr. theme mention the jilted lover pouring wine for the bride at her wedding to another bloke ( though none I have read go as far as a poisoning).
If you try to think of a single-syllable first name & surname to rhyme with “return”, John Byrne is as good and as generic as anything you come up with…. but at the same time there are a fair few interesting John Byrnes out there and that may have made a generic name into an intriguing and irresistible choice for the writer.
In the improbable eventuality that one particular John Byrne _did_ run off with NB57’s sweetheart in a dream or something, then my money’s on the interesting Scottish writer/director/painter, him with the interesting beard and the interesting relationship history. I can find links in his biography with Findhorn (see Eno Collaboration thread), near where he lives in Nairn (see Multitude), but not with Wick or any of the islands further North though.
As for “landing in Wick”, of course this being a trad arr. type theme I at first had visions of our fugitive mass-poisoner on a storm-tossed ferry across the Pentland Firth. But then I realised Wick doesn’t have a ferry port. Too shallow it seems. Either he had his own speedboat standing by, or his landing in Wick must be by air, which then of course means it doesn’t have to be a flight from the Orkneys, but the song could be set on another island group, Orkney of course still being the most likely.
None of the John Byrne footballers seem remotely likely to be involved in a wedding in those parts, even a fantasy one laced with lashings of ethylene glycol.
You can tell I’ve got other stuff I really ought to be doing, can’t you ?
Sep 1st, 2010
Chief Exec
Ultimately it doesn’t matter who John Byrne(s) is… until such time as it is confirmed by Nigel himself.
For me, a large part of a HMHB song is the setting Nigel creates and the visualisation that you can get from his words. RSVP, to me, is John Budgie Byrne the former England international. He’s short(ish) and squat and has simply taken the narrator’s good lady because of his modest fame. Of course it can be something else to others.
‘Landing’ in Wick… doesn’t necessarily have to mean by air or sea. You can land anywhere once you are there. We know he got there by just after 10.30 pm and the catering would have been provided a few hours before so the options for the location of the reception remain pretty open for me.
Sep 2nd, 2010
Exxo
Bloody hell. It’s not “autumn” at all. It’s “Ollerton”, or such-like place name.
Bigger the stereo, clearer it gets. Tonight we listened on an empty auditorium PA.
Which makes me realsie how bloody good ” Tommy Walsh” is gonna sound in the mosh.
Cannae wait.
Sep 2nd, 2010
Exxo
…and then this morning, upon discovering the slowing-down options on the VLC media player, I would like to offer the following:
CHRIS:
…a definite “come on, man up, you’re from I-Ilfracombe” (either he garbles it, or he wants to emphasise the fact that it starts with the word “ill” ?)
…a more tentative “you look drugged (at first I thought drunk, but Chris is trying to look like he’s on the hard stuff) due t’ ranjeboom”
TOMMY:
…still fairly sure it’s “long walk”, still think “wagoning” is the best bet.
JOHN:
Funny, but slowing down the first line doesn’t help clarify “Ollerton” any further – sheer roundedness of the sound seems to bring that out better.
(R.I.P. my CD-slowy-down machine at work, long live the VLC media player slowy-down control, soon to become feared no doubt as the-harbinger-of-a-mutitude-of-mothers-of-all-cans-of-worms)
Sep 3rd, 2010
Mac
Why do I feel I’ll be getting my lighter out to wave along to RSVP at future gigs?
Sep 6th, 2010
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