This sounds like a class rant: the politics of Half Man Half Biscuit
Ed’s note: this article replaces an original which the author says was “factually incorrect, hard to read, terribly long-winded and sounds like I’m trying to pick a fight with an argument that no-one’s actually made.” The first comments on the page relate to the original article, which has now been retired.
Third Rate Les In His Burberry Fez writes:
My first encounter with Half Man Half Biscuit, Trumpton Riots, seemed like a committed political statement, coming as it did in the midst of Thatcher’s 80s, an era whose harshly polarised politics had an element of dangerous anarchy which until very recently seemed forgotten. There’s a lot of harsh imagery and language – unemployment “spreading like pneumonia”, CS gas, flying bricks, plans to assassinate the mayor, and nail bombs. At the same time however, you need to remember that this is about Trumpton – Windy Miller was an extremely dozy, slow-moving character, not someone likely to smash down a door – and that the revolution is also a failure. Still, it’s a clever, subversive, angry song, and jumping around to it at gigs these days always feels like a throwback to the heady anarchy of the demonstrations, moshpits and football crowds of the time.
So are Half Man Half Biscuit a “political” band? There’s certainly plenty of social comment, sometimes quite sour. There’s a lot of poking fun and perhaps genuine dislike of dull, comfortable middle class values. NB57 has a real moan at people who call Glastonbury “Glasto”, go skiing, giggle at Ann Summers and own Volvos (all in one song), or who know where things are at B & Q, or have personalised number plates. I think it’s easy to over-state this though; it’s “not the worst crime”, and a lot of these things aren’t political as such – a “saxophone in the corner” worldview isn’t really a question of politics.
Going through their albums chronologically shows some quite interesting variations in the level of political comment through the years. Here’s a quick summary:
1985 – The Tories fall behind Labour in polls. Riots in Handsworth, Brixton and Broadwater Farm. Heysel. Kenilworth Road. Bradford fire. Meanwhile, “Back In The DHSS” is released. There’s a complete absence of political comment apart from that title, which (as well as being a Beatles joke) seems to suggest thoughts on unemployment. Perhaps the only political reference is naming Lech Walesa, and then only to rhyme, entirely out of context, with Marks and Spencers.
1987 – Neil Kinnock whittles down Thatcher’s majority to just over 100 seats. The IRA blow up a Remembrance Day ceremony. Reagan makes his “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech, and the first Intifada starts. Meanwhile, HMHB release “Back Again In The DHSS”, which has Trumpton Riots on it.
1988- Scargill retains leadership of the NUM. Lawson cuts income tax. Unemployment down, house prices way up. Gazza joins Spurs. Thatcher visits Gdansk and draws ridicule for pressing for its freedom. Lawrie Sanchez. Van Basten. Meanwhile, HMHB release ACD. The nearest it comes to political comment is to a song owing a lot to the brilliant George Orwell, in the shape of “Arthur’s Farm”, a bizarre twist on Animal Farm but one which really doesn’t seem to have a particular political angle. Aside from that there’s certainly some frustration (poor old Rod Hull), and I suppose if you include Fergie as “politics”, you could argue there’s an anti-royalist sentiment to the Palace Spokesman line there.
1991 – Thatcher’s gone, and the poll tax with her (oh, and the Soviet Union too). The first Gulf War tempers statements about the end of history. The Premiership is announced, and Gazza breaks his knee. Interest rates hit 17% and my dad’s decision to leave the north, travel south and buy a tiny house looks unwise. Meanwhile, HMHB release McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt, there’s a brief mention of the “mayoral frown” in the opening song, and then the political theme picks up a bit in Prag Vec at the Melkweg, which starts with a memorable unemployment re-working of Yellow Submarine – “lived a man who went to work”, messing about on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme. This is a theme picked up in “A Lilac Harry Quinn” – “if God had meant for us to work/ Then I’m sure he would have given us jobs”. Both of these, however, are observations about unemployed life, not directly about politics. There’s also a memorable piss-take of bands affecting to address serious themes in their music in the song “Girlfriend’s Finished With Him” – “You’ll find frailty, beauty, sex as art/and something or other about dolphins”.
1993 – The Tories are unexpectedly still in power, just about, and the economy is growing a little. Charles and Di split up. The UK suffers its first Bosnia casualty. The Warrington and Bishopsgate IRA bombs. James Bulger. The National gets cancelled. Unemployment up, the BNP win council seats. Ronald Koeman. Man Yoo. All in all, a National Shite Year. Meanwhile, HMHB reflect the times with This Leaden Pall, which has a song called “Turned up, clocked on, laid off”, a melancholy reflection on unemployment, as is “Floreat Inertia”. A good deal more reflective and serious than the previous album.
1995 – The Year Of The Miracle, as Blackburn Rovers win the league. Blair is Labour leader. Sarajevo besieged. Major fighting for political control. Princess Di whinges to Bashir (yawn). Meanwhile, HMHB release Some Call It Godcore, which has another song mocking the whole notion of songs about politics, in this case “Song For Europe”, full of crass statements of the kind that might have won the Eurovision for West Germany in the 80s. “Sponsoring the Moshpits” is a bit of a dig at commercialism (although the clubs are at least saved), but that’s about it for politics for another album.
1997 – the year of Blair’s Labour landslide. Things Can Only Get Better. Princess Di dies, uncovering depths of press hypocrisy which we’d previously only guessed at. Hong Kong given up. Scotland votes for its own parliament. The Kyoto agreement is signed. Meanwhile, HMHB release Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road, which has a pattern repeated in the following album, with a sudden, more serious political comment at the end of an otherwise light-hearted song; “Bad Review” ends in a verse of startling, beautiful bleakness referring to “the green shoots of recovery shrivelled up in harsh tomorrows”. There’s then a bit of sharp social piss-taking in “Song of Encouragement for the Orme Ascent”, “ITMA” and “He Who Would Valium Take” – I wince at that one as I have a mate whose husband quotes Chubby Brown at her quite a bit – and then above all the social piss-take to end all social piss-takes, “Paintball’s Coming Home”. We had the whole world to see our new conservatory then too, I think.
1998 – Things mostly still seem to be Getting Better. The Millennium Dome is under way. The Good Friday agreement is signed in Norn Iron. Beckham sent off. Meanwhile, HMHB release their most political album of all, Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral. “You’re hard” starts with a wonderful piss-take of various celebs, all of a sudden the final verse asks “Is this New Labour, Mr. Blair? Should anyone need me, I’ll be over there”. A gently-stated but still quite powerful bit of disillusionment. And on the very next song, “On Reaching The Wensum”, there’s then the comment “New Deal is all my arse”, again a surprise thrown in near the end of a song about other trivia. Then in “A Country Practice” there’s a direct criticism of money wasted on millennium celebrations, followed by an actual mention of the T-word, “Thatcher, that girl who made a wreck out of me” and labelled him an “idle layabout”. There’s also a mention of signing on at the Job Club in “Soft Verges”, and a simple little rant at things he doesn’t like which avoid politics altogether in “Turn A Blind Eye”; it takes the Pastor Niemoller comment from the Nazi period and turns it round to point out that actually some people do deserve to be carried off. It’s apolitical, but unsettlingly so.
2000 – the world’s computers continue to function. A new George Bush is in power. May Day riots about, er, something. Livingston elected mayor of London. Shearer beats Germany. Redgrave. Meanwhile, HMHB release Trouble Over Bridgewater, which has little mention of politics at all. There are balding senators in Gubba Lookalikes, King Alfred in Emerging From Gorse, and that’s about it.
2002 – Blair is back in power. The War on Terror has begun. Coal mining ends in Scotland. The Golden Jubilee. Bali bombings. Meanwhile, HMHB have a bit of comment about Britain’s lost industrial heritage in the very title of new album Cammell Laird Social Club, asking the interesting question as to why social clubs in Cuba are trendy and interesting when ones in Britain’s own industrial heartland aren’t, echoed in the song’s opening lines about Notting Hill. In the same album there’s also an interesting theme in San Antonio suggesting an aversion to official meddling from the State with a nice little rant about Spokesmen telling us what to think. In the same song is a little reference to the kind of politics of parish halls also seen later in “We Built This Village” and a number of others – a reference to strife over a town’s twin-town status. There’s even a reference to Ken Livingstone near the end of the album, but not in any kind of political context. Then there’s “Breaking News”, where they rattle off a list of things which annoy them, directed across all sorts of levels of society – council estate vicious dog-owners, leftie drama teachers, people who drop litter, and posh people giving their kids working class names.
2003 – the Iraq war begins. A big dumb Brit tries to blow up a bomb in his shoe. The UK’s largest-ever demonstration turns out to object to Saddam’s removal. Some rugby players win a big game in Australia. Meanwhile, HMHB release a half-album Saucy Haulage Ballads, which has a song which directs some pretty violent thoughts at Cambridge students, but then finishes with the claim that while this may sound like a class rant, it’s “really because I am the landlord of the pub that gets the cemetery trade”. An unconvincing argument, given that it’s clearly an act of furious revenge that he’s perpetrating from the belltower, not a commercial ploy. It still defuses the anger though, turning it into, somehow, a light-hearted song about mass murder.
2005 – Blair is re-elected, joining Bush back in power. There’s a new Pope too. Live-8 campaigns. Bombings in London, and more attempted 2 weeks later. Arsenal fail to match Blackburn’s unique feat of three straight FA Cup wins. Riots in Birmingham. The Ashes. Meanwhile, HMHB release Achtung Bono, which doesn’t have a lot of political or social comment aside from a rant mentioned above in Corgi Registered Friends, although it has another little angry dig at unpleasant officialdom in “Bogus Official” and it visits the world of Framley Examiner-style small-town politics in “We Built This Village” and in “What is Chatteris?”.
2008 – Gordon Brown is in power, sort of. As is Barack Obama. The world’s banks turn out to have been run by overpaid fuckwits all along. Terminal 5 too. Boris Johnson beats Livingston. Joey Barton sentenced. Woolworths disappears. Meanwhile HMHB release some gentle social comment in “CSI: Ambleside”. Christening party arseholes, people who park in blue badge spaces, embittered divorced parents. In particular there’s the furious rant of “National Shite Day” at inconsiderate pedestrians, Primark FM and Phil Cool, but interestingly the only overtly political reference (the Mugabe government and the children of the Calcutta railways) is actually when he’s trying (and failing) to put his trivial moans into perspective. There’s also the achingly lovely Lord Hereford’s Knob about a maiden driven by “the chattering classes” from Hebden Bridge.
2011 – David Cameron is in power, sort of. The world’s countries, as well as banks, turn out to have been run by overpaid fuckwits all along. The US gets Bin Laden at last. The Ashes are won again. Meanwhile HMHB release 90 Bisodol (Crimond), a dark tale of suicides, murders and unspeakable deeds, but still lacking in much by way of politics. There’s a good deal of ranting, but directed at Soccer AM guests, crap pub bands and idiotic terminology that sticks in the craw.
Well, so what? First of all, many of the released are in odd-numbered years, presumably to avoid international football championships. It’s also striking how many of the specific political references all cropped up at the same time, and were aimed at New Labour at a time when many were still in the stage of heady optimism. Before that though there’s certainly a reflection of the general political and social situation even if not explicit – it’s quite eerie looking back at what a grim year 1993 was when Leaden Pall came out, something that had passed me by personally as I got married and had a great time that year. Mainly though, what strikes me is how universally appealing the songs are, regardless of your political outlook. Even if you do know where things are at B&Q, own a Bonneville in bits, or have a fondness for Gok Wan, it’s impossible not to smile.
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42 Letters Sent:Jump to latest »
DC
Since when has ACD been the second album? – the 2 similarly titled DHSS albums are different albums…..
Dec 6th, 2010
Third Rate Les
Oh yeah. Never mind.
Dec 7th, 2010
Matthew
To 3rd rate Les I say your article is at the very least, 2nd rate. Good effort mate.
To DC I simply say, behave yourself. In a friendly manner of course.
Dec 8th, 2010
Mr Galbraith
I’ve only ever considered the New Labour line in You’re hard to be HMHB’s one truly political comment. At a time when people were waking up to the deceit of Blairism, it’s hard hitting stuff. The Thatcher reference lets the old bag off very lightly, I’ve always thought.
Tommy Walsh’s Eco-House mentions Lib Dems and Tories going to Cropredy and Cornbury respectively, but I’m not at all sure what this means. Possibly an allusion to Mssrs Clegg and Cameron pretending to be something they’re not? (Clegg a Tory in disguise and the uber posh Cameron masquerading as an ordinary middle-class type of bloke?) Even if I’m right, it’s hardly a call to revolution.
Nigel should stick to his strengths and continue to dig out inconsiderate pedestrians, Johnny Cash newbies and fantasise about jumping off the roof of Dignitas. Leave the politics to Billy Bragg and Green Day…
Dec 12th, 2010
VILLAPETE
The most political thing that springs to my mind is in A Country Practice. It is briefly mentioned by Les in his piece above, but I find the lyrics particularly hard-hitting:
“She died with her telly on, eighty-seven and confused
With not enough hospital beds ‘cos all the money’s been used
On the end of the century party preparations
And they reckon that the last thing she saw in her life was
Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican
Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican”
Dec 17th, 2010
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Nice work Third Rate Les. I’ve always felt since the mid 80s that social comment permeates the lyrics of NB57 like Penicillium roqueforti permeates coagulated milk protein.
Take Back in the DHSS for example, which I first heard on a badly recorded cassette, whilst living on £23 a week (rent £15 a week) with Mrs Vendor and a large Alsation to feed. No money, no prospects, no future. – We mean it Maaaan. It was the following lyrics which struck a chord with me, rather than the clever, witty, jokey stuff that everyone else I knew seemed to see in the band.
Unemployment’s rising in the Chigley end of town
And it’s spreading like pneumonia
Doesn’t look like going down.
In debt I owe someone a fiver
Maybe I should try my hand at drag.
I saw the wheels of nihilism rolling my way
And now I live life in the bus lane.
Frank was going through a state of depression in his bedroom.
They all went down the Social and they claimed their Supplementary.
Now he’s working in a job with a future
He hands me my Giro every two weeks.
As the other great mid 80s social commentator said;
And if you have five seconds to spare
Then I’ll tell you the story of my life.
Don’t really need to Moz, the above lyrics sum up the life of many of us in those days.
Dec 21st, 2010
Simon
“Every Saturday I get the Chigley skins
And they always smash my windows ‘cos the home side always wins
Yeah, time flies by when you’re a driver of a train
Gonna get me syringes out and crank up once again”
That could be added to the Back in the DHSS themes of unemployment in that it could help in perpetuating violence and drug usage. I’m probably clutching at straws but the driver of the train goes out of Trumpton where the riots failed so perhaps they just want to forget it by going stoned out of their brains.
Simon
Jan 4th, 2011
Dunrovin
Do you have a lot of time on yer hands?
Jan 7th, 2011
philip price
definitely third rate article,which seems to promote the idea that HMHB aren’t political,of course they are.In many songs such as “Evening of swing has been cancelled” “paintballs coming home” and “all i want for xmas is a dukla prague away kit” nigel laments the proto-bourgoise lifestyles imposed on us by Thatcherism and Blairism.
It’s quite clear that Nigel is at the very least wary of the middle classes,and that in itself is a political statement evocative of the mid 80′s struggle.I havent seen him writing a song attacking left wingers….
Feb 8th, 2011
BoBo
Waaaaaaayyyyy tooo interlechewell for me mate. Fucking dipstick..
Feb 20th, 2011
Neil G
@PHILIP PRICE
I never noticed this section until now, hence the delay in replying. I have to say that I agree with Les, for the most part. I don’t think Nigel’s writing betrays any strong political bias. The examples that you give – Evening of Swing, Painballs Coming Home and All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit – are, I think, rants against things that Nigel dislikes personally. I don’t think they are politically motivated in any way, unless you take the extreme view that everything is political.
It is a long time since Trumpton Riots, which could be viewed as a political statement. Since it has not been followed up by anything remotely similar in the last twenty five years, I can only assume that Nigel was using familiar, gentle characters in unfamiliar, unexpected, violent ways in order to make fun, much like Armstrong and Miller’s World War 2 RAF pilots using modern streetspeak. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTmuteEFQjs
“It’s quite clear that Nigel is at the very least wary of the middle classes,and that in itself is a political statement evocative of the mid 80′s struggle.” That is one of the weakest, most pathetic arguments I have ever heard. I’d go as far as to say that it’s fourth rate.
Mar 5th, 2011
Florida Biscuit
Back in the day when I heard my first HMHB song on John Peel I did not consider them political as there were many other more overtly political bands around. Listening to the songs I found myself nodding approvingly at their scathing, witting attacks on popular culture. I could relate to the anomie and wished the lads lived near me so we could have played Striker in the loft.
Mar 11th, 2011
fremsley
“Turned up, clocked on, laid off” encapsulates the difficulties with HMHB and politics. From the title to the penultimate verse, it’s a journey through the private hell of being on the middle-aged scrap-heap, a simmering song of lament. Then, in the last verse, it’s straight back to 1986 and warm feelings from acknowledging childhood icons. Just like the end of ‘Blood on the Quad’, it is completely out of place. Being a fan I make obvious allowances, but if you played the song to anyone else they’d simply say “What’s this shit all about?” I presume this was the plan.
Neil really doesn’t want any song to become an anthem, does he?
Apr 4th, 2011
Tumshie
I think the article makes the mistake, common enough, of seeing politics as being concerned only with political parties and elections.
To me it seems odd to think that commentaries on class and class differences, on being unemployed and bored, can be anything other than political. Just because they aren’t ranting, are very funny and are great musically besides all that doesn’t stop the songs being political.
To take a song about table football for example and end on a couple of lines about a secure job being in dealing with the unemployed and the fact that a transformer for a skaletrix is what the singer feels he can aspire to is a very political statement. And also a very funny song.
I hope the songs remain as political as they have always been. Politics is about how we live our everyday lives, not just the behaviour of the twats in power.
Apr 26th, 2011
Third Rate Les
As Orwell nicely pointed out, if you define the right-wing as “that which is not desirable”, then of course you can argue against it for as long as you like. So yes, if you define “left wing” as everything that isn’t annoying, pretentious or unfair, then their songs are political, but it’s a pointless, meaningless definition, and I can only assume you also never saw Soviet-era eastern Europe up close.
I also know plenty of lefties who drive Volvos and go to Kitzbuehel in December. My wife’s a proper French communist from a proper council estate (we used to sing the Internationale together) and she buys soup in cartons, not in tins (much to my fury). The lifestyle and the politics are two entirely different things. I’d argue that the worldview in which there should be a saxophone in the corner is as likely to be a groovily left-wing one.
Paintball’s Coming Home as a a shout of political fury against “proto- bourgeois lifestyle”? Hmmm…
May 15th, 2011
The Black Rat
Pehaps HMHB should write a song about people who over-analyise song lyrics.
Aug 30th, 2011
Reforse
I think HMHB would be distraught to be thought of as non political
Oct 1st, 2011
Third Rate Les
My original article (which all the comments above refer to) was terrible. It was factually incorrect, hard to read, terribly long-winded and sounded like I was trying to pick a fight with an argument that no-one had ever actually made. I agree with the negative comments above entirely. The replacement which you see now just sets some of the political references against what was going on in the world at the time, which will hopefully atone for this (I certaintly found it interesting to research).
Article replaced at the author’s request – Ed
Oct 2nd, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
On a related topic, NB57 appeared on BBC Radio Merseyside’s “Pure Musical Sensations” last night, discussing protest songs with Roger Hill. Fascinating insight into his record collection, but although Roger says: “You’ve spent your career making a long protest against the banality of entertainment”, NB57 uses the opportunity to reiterate that he’s in no way a protest singer.
It’s on iPlayer here until 9 October, starting at 33′ 45″. Thanks to Gez for the heads-up.
Oct 3rd, 2011
Charles Exford
Thanks Chris – an hour and five minutes of truly compulsive listening (don’t be fooled, folks, by the fact that the iPlayer gives an end time of 1:00:00. Nigel is on from 00:33:00 till about 1:38:00).
Mrs E. says she has a programme that can ‘rip’ these things too. Errm, yippee. I think.
Oct 3rd, 2011
John Burscough
What he said.
Oct 5th, 2011
Charles Exford
No need for Mrs. E to rip anything in the end, after somebody on the Yahoo list helpfully posted this mp3
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V8RF7IP0
Anyway, @ Les, judging by interview remarks, etc, the average song is written anything from 1-3 years before release, so yes it’s clear that NB57 hardly ever refers to contemporary events, but there’s almost no point in comparing an album with the actual events parallel to its release.
For example, you refer to the current government being the background for the current album . But it’s on record that 8 of the 12 songs were written by the time that government had been in power just 3 months, written presumably over the previous two and a half years since CSI was ready in early 2008.
(I’ll cite that as an example of what I mean but it might also be a fascinating exception because, almost unprecedentedly, there is an intriguing reference to Tories and Lib Dems on Tommy Walsh, first performed within 3 months of the Con-Dem coalition).
I’ve been meaning to pick a couple of small holes in the original article for the last 10 months, but wasn’t sure how to do it and at the same time avoid making too many assumptions. “Good effort with the new one – fewer holes and gives me a clearer idea of what I’d like to say. I’ll be back!”
Oct 5th, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Thanx 4 the upload link Exxo. My chief ripper has buggered off to University and try as I might last night I couldn’t hack beyond iPlayer’s paranoia. Need to listen to stuff like this whilst I’m walking the hound and my laptop just won’t fit in my inside pocket.
Oct 5th, 2011
Third Rate Les
I’m looking forward to the comments Exxo! The political background isn’t really to suggest a direct infuence on the music (although I can see it looks like that). I just find it interesting to set the release dates in the context of what else was going on at the time. And some of them are relevant – 1993 wasn’t just a Leaden Pall kind of year, it followed a couple of them (it’s why I mentioned the previous year’s shocking general election).
Oct 5th, 2011
Steve Kean is Alive,Why?
Third Rate Les,
Just wondering if you too suffered Twosh circa ’87 – just a (QEGS)educated guess based on the Rovers related comments/German tube map?
Recall many happy afternoons on the Blackburn End in those simpler times – think we may have celebrated Garners quadruple vs Sunderland together shortly after returning from the Hadamar German exchange trip?
Anyway may be barking up the wrong tree completely so I’ll stop reminiscing now – L’enfer c’est les Dingles!
Oct 18th, 2011
STEVE KEAN IS ALIVE,WHY?
Sorry might have irked some purists by omitting the word ‘endless’ between ‘suffered’ & ‘Twosh’ – a no Rosette situation for Mr Espley for sure.
Oct 19th, 2011
Third rate Les in his Burberry fez
Steve Kean – ahhh, Garner’s quadruple against Sunderland! Hadamar! Twosh! That’s good sleuthing. Although I spose German/HMHB/Full Members Cup 87 experts aren’t that many.
Oct 19th, 2011
Third Rate Les
So can we have a separate “Twosh / Hadamar / Blackburn Rovers / Peppermint Place” thread then? No, I spose not.
It’s, er, sort of relevant because of course Blackburn are, with Tranmere, two of the four league “Rovers” teams.
Oct 19th, 2011
STEVE KEAN IS ALIVE,WHY?
just you and me then pete? fmc semi final vs chelsea as memorable to me as wembley 92 or anfield 95 – recent seasons are the ones i have trouble with-probably cos i can’t be arsed any more with the not so beautiful game. No more heroes anymore – oh for a Garner, Sellars or Hendry amonst the current crop of overpaid mercenary no marks currently propping up the league. Exiled in Glarster so no one gives a toss about football here which is a blessing. try to get to the midlands gigs when i can – fact i think i may have seen you at leamington in 2010 but only on way out – do you have a D P away kit perchance? maybe see you at Bilston if you are going? sorry to turn thread into friends reunited – enjoyed your article btw. been a fan since purchasing dhss again in blackburn dixons on cassette – said cassette is still in my current hifi 25 years later so hmhb have been a constant in a world full of change. Unlike almost anything else in life they seem to get better with age.
Oct 20th, 2011
STEVE KEAN IS ALIVE,WHY?
sorry fmc semi final obviously not that memorable as you will of course have spotted my deliberate mistake – chelsea were our quater final opponents and ipswich were the semi-finalists. for some reason the chelsea game stays with me better – probably cos they hard that narky blert Speedie up front. whatever became of him after he left the Bridge?
Oct 20th, 2011
Stu
I was brought up in a very left-leaning socialist household. An impressionable teenager during the winter of discontent, I rebelled strongly against the views of my family and became an ardent Thatcherite (note the past tense). Years later, well into my 20s, I realised she was completely mad (even if I still wonder what would have happened to Britain under prime minister Scargill) and have ever since considered myself as close to the centre politically as it is possible to get. I’ve existed on both sides of the extremes, can see the good and bad in both, and like the middle ground.
I say this to qualify my bland remark that in the 25+ years that I’ve been listening to HMHB, I have never heard a single line in a single song that I honestly thought was political.
Love the article, thank you. Trips down Memory Lane get more and more interesting as time flies by, wholly regardless of whether or not one is driving a train!
Nov 1st, 2011
Third rate Les in his Burberry fez
Chelsea was indeed the quarter, and is also the one I really remember too – singing “Keeley’s gonna get ya” at Speedie (which he promptly did) and then singing some appalingly racist anti-Scots song at him too (to the tune of “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail”), which was funny as Don McKay was in the crowd about to take over and lead us to glory. The semi was good with a great pitch invasion over those red iron fences but I don’t remember any of it apart from whistling for the last ten minutes.
I went to every leg of the FMC too – there was one against Oxford and it was so foggy you couldn’t actually see the goal at the Darwen end, you just heard every time Vince O’Keefe let in another soft one. I can’t really be bothered with it much these days although I try and take my old man once or twice a season.
I do indeed have a DPAK with my name on the back and the number 40 (a present from Jeff Dreadnought, of these parts) so it was probably me. Look forward to seeing you again!
Nov 1st, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
The comments on this thread appear to be taking part in a game of HMHB tennis where a volley of ‘they’re not political’ is met by a lob of ‘they bloody well are you know’, interspersed by audience murmurings and mutterings, not always with their minds on the game. (I particularly like comment 10 by Bobo, where is he these days?)
Anyway, to return Stu’s latest forehand down the line ‘I have never heard a single line in a single song that I honestly thought was political’, I offer a two handed backhand. What about Split Single with Happy Lounge Labelmates? A critique of the English class system if ever I heard one. The privilege of the Barbour wearing, book launch attending, gite borrowing classes compared to the poverty of living on state benefits where support and empathy are in short supply. Don’t miss the irony of I ‘blew’ my giro on debts and essentials or the anger of ‘I asked for water, they sent me a final demand’. If those are not political statements then I’m not sure what are. Perhaps if Billy Bragg had sung them then we’d be happier with the label ‘political’?
Nov 1st, 2011
Third rate Les in his Burberry fez
There are two counters to that, Vendor:
One, that when he’s making wry observations about people, are they really “critiques”? I’d argue that making fun of people in Barbours is no more a critique than making fun of people who like their hand-held pumps. Why is that “political”?
Secondly, what exactly is “political” about that wonderful line about giros? We all know what it’s like to be skint, and what it’s like to get harangued by utilities. Claiming it as a protest song is just not right.
So you’re essentially saying that complaining about crapness in life is a political statement. As George Orwell said, you don’t get far combatting fascism by simply defining it as “that which is not desirable”.
Nov 1st, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Nice backhand slice Les. However, I don’t think the last verse is just complaining about crapness at all. It references some typical broadsides aimed at the (non)-working class by unsympathetic Daily Mail reader types. That people on benefits waste their government handouts when in actual fact most are spent on the necessities of life and that the absolute basics which all humanity should be entitled to as a right often comes with strings attached or at a price. I’m not claiming that it’s a protest song (Alternative Ulster it ain’t), but I do consider its sentiments to be political.
Nov 1st, 2011
Third rate Les in his Burberry fez
Nice volley there Vendor.
Personally I don’t see that objecting to poverty is a political viewpoint; my own objections to socialism are precisely from seeing it generate the kind of grim despair described so well here.
However, you make your shot well and it’s clear that these are sentiments more likely to be expressed by a lefty than a Daily Mail reader (although Mrs Les is a Mail-reading Communist). You overstate your case though by claiming the “final demand” line as a campaign for entitlement to free water utilities. Hawkeye gives it “in” as it just nicked the baseline.
Nov 2nd, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Deuce?
Nov 2nd, 2011
John Burscough
New balls please.
Nov 3rd, 2011
Flipper the Guinea Gap Dolphin
These balls are taking a long time; that’s three months now. A Halex Three-Star would have been much quicker.
Feb 9th, 2012
John Kelly
A really poignant lyric is :
“She died with her telly on, eighty-seven and confused
With not enough hospital beds ‘cos all the money’s been used
On the end of the century party preparations
And they reckon that the last thing she saw in her life was
Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican
Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican”
This really strikes a chord with me, about the demise of family life in Great Britain today.
Feb 25th, 2012
SPENCER THE HALFWIT
I saw it not so much as a comment on the modern family, more as a comment on the irony that millions of pounds are spent on something which is less than urgent when the same government will have been bleating about how short of money they were for the likes of the NHS. Unfortunately as the appropriate technology improves, events that attract that sort of activity will only become bigger and more spectacular, and, even in relative terms, more expensive. After all, I can’t imagine that the organisers of any Olympics, or Presidential inauguration, or royal event, would be prepared for theirs to be less memorable than the last one. It’s been more than ten years since that lyric and it’s only going to become more relevant.
Feb 25th, 2012
Third Rate Les
Governments of all political persuasions have been pissing away public money on self-aggrandising grand works since governments have existed. It’s what they do. I agree that one is a political statement, if anything directed at New Labour at a time when they were still very popular and spending public money at record rates.
Feb 25th, 2012
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