Trad. Arr. Tunes
Dagenham Dave was the one who had the Bright Idea for this: a page where everyone can write whatever they like about the songs HMHB have covered live. With the exceptions of the few cover versions the band have committed to vinyl/tape/polycarbonate/MP3bits, we won’t be adding the lyrics here, so it’s your big chance to reminisce about that cover of Hallelujah you’re sure you vaguely remember them doing at the 1982 Orkney Folk Festival (or somewhere like that). Links to any songs posted online will be appreciated, I’m sure, and it’d be nice to make a definitive list of HMHB covers. So over to you.
Go on. Tweet a link to this page.
72 Letters Sent:
dagenham dave
Blimey that was quick! Cheers Chris.
I suggested this having recently become slightly obsessed with ‘Song to the Siren‘, you know the kind of thing when you feel the need to play the same song over and over and over. Only recently have I bothered to look into the original, despite being an 80/90s indie kid (adult) I wasn’t aware of it. I’ve now heard the original done by a number of artists and I still think Nigel’s version is best.
There is something very special about the delivery of the “was I a fox?” line. It connects with me in the same way that Mark E Smith does when he says the words ‘style magazine’ in Elastica’s ‘How I Wrote Elastica Man. It’s genius but I don’t know why….
Anyway, I’m off to play it again, and again……
Feb 18th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
There’s a good list of live cover songs on the Half Man Half Biscuit website. It includes:
Trail of the Lonesome Pine
Mr. Blue Sky
No Regrets
Novelty
24 Hours
Disorder
Match Of The Day theme tune
You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
Sunday Bloody Sunday
White Man In Hammersmith Palais
Transmission
Help Me Rhonda
King of the Hill theme tune
Wreck Of The Ol’ ’97
Statesboro Blues
Song From Under The Floorboards
Caroline
What Do I Get?
Feb 19th, 2010
dagenham dave
We can add ‘Apache’ to that list, played at Leamington Spa recently.
Feb 19th, 2010
Nigel E
Mae hen wlad fy nhadau (Welsh national anthem) was played in Cardiff on St Davids Day 2007 and then went straight into Help Me Rhonda (Rhondda valley) which I thought was a bit clever.
Feb 19th, 2010
Neil G
I Think We’re Alone Now at Sheffield Boardwalk. I wasn’t there, sadly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mluCZBGtjW8
Nice recording. It says that it’s a cover of a Tiffany song but the original was by Tommy James and the Shondells. They made some great records. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkMFLUXTEwM
Feb 19th, 2010
Stuart
you can add a ‘cover’ of Ivor Cutler’s ‘Glasgow Dreamer’ to the list, from the last show at the Arches. For those too young to remember the tune, it lasts around 10 seconds and goes, a cappella: “Glasgow, Glasgow, where are you? 224* from my door”
*I forget the exact mileage quoted by Nigel, from Central Station to his house
Feb 19th, 2010
Ben
I think we’re alone now – Tiffany, and someone else originally, think this has had a couple of run outs.
Also Holiday in Cambodia by Dead Kennedy’s @ The Astoria in about 2000 my first Biscuits gig.
Feb 19th, 2010
Rusty Spanner
Exellent version of The Hollies ‘The Air That I Breathe’ at the last Manchester gig, to a very appreciative crowd. Remember turning round to my partner during the intro and patronisingly informing her that we were to be treated to ‘Creep’ by Radiohead. Oh, the shame. In my defence they do sound pretty similar.
Feb 19th, 2010
Charles Exford
I wonder, as I did at the time, how many of the audience realised there was an Albert Hammond cover in the house.
Feb 19th, 2010
John Anderson
“I Think We’re Alone Now” was originally by The Rubinoos..
Feb 20th, 2010
Peter Gandy
Electricity by OMD last lime they played the Forum in Kentish Town.
Ben, the Astoria was the first time I saw them live too. Neil played lead guitar on Holiday in Cambodia if I remember correctly.
Feb 20th, 2010
Neil G
John Anderson,
The Rubinoos released ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ in 1977, ten years after Tommy James and the Shondells.
Feb 20th, 2010
Dave F.
Goodnight Irene, the Bristol Rovers terrace tune, or are you including Peel tracks as recorded Chris?
Feb 21st, 2010
dj
magazine – shot by both sides
v.u. – sunday morning
Feb 21st, 2010
John Anderson
Neil G
Never knew that. Cheers for putting me straight.
Feb 22nd, 2010
Charles Exford
Reminded by this thread of a couple of storming live versions of “Song From Under the Floorboards”, I started wondering if I’d imagined a brilliant
rendition of the equally immense “Shot By Both Sides”, but no, the memories were real – the last time they played the Junction Cambridge in fact. The Lads do tend to play the Manchester post-punk stuff with especial brilliance, and “Container Drivers” went down particularly well in its home city in Jan ’07 I think.
Can’t quite remember if I’ve sen them do “Another Girl, Another Planet” or not, but I notice they did do it at Edinburgh ’04.
And has anyone mentioned “His Latest Flame”, which has been rolled out at least twice ?
Feb 22nd, 2010
Hedley Verity
AGAP was played at Sheffield in 2004, I didn’t know they had played it again. Here Comes Your Man (Derby 2006) and what Do I Get? (Manchester 03) was two other personal faves.
Feb 27th, 2010
San Luis Obispo
Rusty Spanner – Radiohead pay royalities to The Hollies each time they perform ‘Creep’. There was some court case malarkey.
‘King Of Rome’, ‘I’m Throwing Rice (At The Girl That I Love)’, and ‘Transmission’ are some obvious HMHB covers that spring to mind. I’d love to hear the Match Of The Day theme one, mind.
Buenas suerte; adios.
Mar 1st, 2010
Rusty Spanner
Ah, cheers Luis, just thought I was having a ‘senior moment’.
Mar 1st, 2010
Mr Graham Burgess
I saw them do a gig at The Brook in Southampton around the time of “Trouble Over Bridgwater”, I think, and they performed a copy of “Witchita Lineman”, written by Jimmy Webb and made famous by Glen Campbell.
Mar 1st, 2010
Ben
@ San Luis Obispo (I’ve been there by the way!) The song was written by Albert Hammond (not a bootleg either) and Mike Hazlewood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Air_That_I_Breathe
Mar 1st, 2010
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
The Southampton gig was in May 1999,I am sure that Nigel also recently sang “I am the linesman at Notts County”
s.g.d.
Mar 2nd, 2010
John Anderson
He sang that line at the last Cambridge gig. He also, memorably, sang “why, it’s Tomasz Radzinski” duing Outbreak Of Vitas Gerulaitis.
Mar 4th, 2010
Ben
We should have a thread for Nigel’s own spurious ‘spotteds’ in the audience.
I’ve heard Cornelius Lysert (5 Live Racing correspondent) and “ladies and gents….The Princess Royal!” amongst others.
Mar 5th, 2010
Neil G
Barbed Wire Love – Stiff Little Fingers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI1YKU7EXaM Ulverston – 17/4/2008
Mar 5th, 2010
Blackout
Anyone else remember they did the old country standard “You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me, Lucille” at Manchester Academy 3 (I think, may have been Academy 2) sometime around 2002.
Mar 5th, 2010
San Luis Obispo
Ben – I stand duly corrected. And I’ll be scratching SLO off my Big List Of Pseudonyms. And won’t even bother to note that it’s Lysaght by way of bitter retribution… He’s an Evertonian, donchaknow.
“I shot a man in Tesco… just to watch him die” another mini-cover that springs to mind. Off to giggle about Tomasz Radzinksi and Tweet about Joy Division Oven Gloves for another few hours.
Tara.
Mar 5th, 2010
Gez
The full set of covers is cleverly hidden on the ‘Radio’ page on the website these days – the ‘Livesongs’ link above is a bit out of date (and shouldn’t have been on the site).
http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/Peel.htm#covers
Note: Thanks Gez; the link has now been amended – Chris
Mar 17th, 2010
Al Bundy
Yeah, I seem to remember them doing a cover of ….fine time to leave me Lucille. Manchester about then.
Mar 18th, 2010
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
At Roadwater and Bath they did what appeared to be a cover version of The Saints’ cover version of Elvis Presley’s Kissin’ Cousins.
s.g.d.
Mar 21st, 2010
PaulLobster
The Damned’s Love Song in Aberdeen a couple of years back.
Mar 24th, 2010
Lynd
Last night in Cambridge: The Shadows’ “Apache”.
Mar 25th, 2010
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
River Deep Mountain High tonight in Shrewsbury.
I hope everyone made it there in time.
Mar 26th, 2010
Alan. K
“Apache” & “River Deep…” last night in a full house in Shrewsbury.
Mar 26th, 2010
smithsocksimon
Shepherd’s Bush, 21 Dec 2006, they played What’s My Name? in memory of Joe Strummer, who died on 22 Dec 2002.
Mar 26th, 2010
TWO FAT FEET
Never one to worry about being several months late, the first time I heard the “was I a fox?” line I wondered whether it was delivered thus in honour of Martin Tyler.
Apr 6th, 2010
smithsocksimon
And there is the cover of Legend In My Time that they did for John Peel’s 60th birthday. It was pressed onto an acetate with The Fall (Job Search I think) on the other side, only one copy ever made AFAIK.
Apr 7th, 2010
Charles Exford
Sorry, I feel like I’m scoring against my own team, but first and foremost I’m a pedant so I stick the open goals away and worry about it afterwards.
65th birthday.
Apr 8th, 2010
Neil G
“Charles Exford: 65th birthday.”
Is that a euphemism?
Apr 8th, 2010
king tubbs
Recently in Bath (I think) Nigel broke into an a capella version of Dark Side of the Street, a Dan Penn classic famously best recorded by James Carr. He only got three or four lines in before proclaiming that this was a flash back to his other role as a tribute act.
Apr 19th, 2010
BrumBiscuit
Nigel E, that Point gig in Cardiff was really memorable. St David’s Day, Brains beers beforehand and a drive to Budapest the day after. Shame the Point’s closed down. ‘Twas a great venue.
The Welsh National Anthem/Help me Rhonda songs are on YouTube. Not exactly HD, but then neither are HMHB – and all the better for it.
Apr 21st, 2010
madmic1967
Have heard all the usual covers but my favorite was way back in 1995/96 at the Phillibuster and Firkin in Darlington. A crappy pub (now a “Flares”) in a crappy town. Eye opener of a gig as I hadn’t seen them for some years. Brilliant. Loads of banter, and ad-libs during broken strings. Encore included a blinding version of Transmission which gave a perfect end to a perfect night.
Jun 20th, 2010
Mr Bigjobs
Rubber Bullets (10CC) at Cheese and Grain, Frome, 2007
Jul 21st, 2010
Dave F.
Two lines of a hymn, ‘Am I A Soldier of the Cross?’ by Isaac Watts mixed in with Uffington Wassail at the Queen Elisabeth Hall ’99
http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bwatts4.html
Jul 28th, 2010
dj
at glasgow arches last year, the jesus and mary chain’s a taste of cindy
Sep 9th, 2010
Ricardo
Managed to celebrate the Silver Jubilee by finding a HMHB song I’d never heard before. Their version of King of Rome was recently posted on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjzddQQLIv4
Accompanied by a nice picture of Dukla Prague (wearing their home kit) including the legendary Josef Masopust.
Oct 8th, 2010
Jonathan
Covered Gorky’s Zygotic Mynky’s ‘Patio Song’ at Holmfirth the other night. One to add to the list of cover versions.
Dec 19th, 2010
Danny
They covered The Who`s I`m A Boy at the Live lounge Durham
25/11/2010
Jan 24th, 2011
theautistformerlyknownasflinch
Holidays in Cambodia on Thursday night was amazing, suddenly everything made sense. There were plenty of iPhones aloft – has anyone found it posted online?
Feb 19th, 2011
Neil G
Links to a few of the songs mentioned above. The first one is particularly good.
Transmission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pzjA2Tj5NM
The Welsh National Anthem/Help me Rhonda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdOJziRZXIM
Help me Rhonda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hujce9-lQ0w&feature=related
Kissin’ Cousins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tdhsr7rgP8
Electricity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIvrq8UObXA
Mar 3rd, 2011
Neil G
Readers might be interested in David Wainwright’s Feet, which was recorded for a children’s album. Not a cover version but fun.
Mar 3rd, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
…and which we do have on the site…
Mar 4th, 2011
Neil G
True, Chris, but no longer available on Spotify, as I have shown on the other page.
Mar 4th, 2011
Shirley Dimensions
I need some help in deciphering the lyrics of a track entitled ‘Why Can’t You Be Yourself For A Change?’ by the ‘mostly ignored by a spectacularly large number of people including the other two cat owners who expressed a preference albeit not for Whiskas, a good proportion of those remaining who didn’t but still had a cat anyway and all the cats’ lo-fi late eighties to early nineties, sometimes had a drummer but not that often really, indie popsters ‘The Losers’. Rather than blatantly using Chris’ excellent HMHB site selfishly, and with scant regard for its intended purpose and only to blatantly attempt to recruit volunteers with proven track records in this specialised field, who quite simply will not be deterred nor beaten down when faced with a particularly nasty ‘Bert hears bells / is it wanking in the zeitgeist?’ type offering, I’d like to mention that I probably once asked the band if they liked HMHB and they probably said yes (or no). Probably.
Mar 4th, 2011
Shirley Dimensions
I apologise for the blatant use of the word ‘blatant’ twice in succession in the above volunteer adver…errr…in the above ‘topical and relevant point concerning the excellent HMHB’
Mar 4th, 2011
Charlie
I wonder how many punters noticed that tonight’s wonderful cover of the Blondie classic ‘Dreaming’ was embellished by a topical one-word adaptation:
“I don’t want to live on Anglesey.
Pleasure’s real or is it fantasy?”
More recollections from a cracking gig in another thread tomorrow. Well I suppose it’s already tomorrow but you know what I mean. Night night.
Apr 29th, 2011
Gregg Z
I’m fairly certain I’d be a willing candidate for ‘live organ transplants’ in exchange for someone uncovering HMHB covering ‘Container Drivers’.
Just enjoyed using the words ‘uncovering’ and ‘covering’ in such close proximity.
Jul 8th, 2011
argieuk
for Container Drivers try http://tarquinlive.blogspot.com/2011/03/half-man-half-biscuit-manchester.html about 90 mins in
No live organs needed though Gregg Z
Jul 9th, 2011
Gregg Z
Superb, ArgieUK. Many thanks–you’re one of the world’s finest gentlemen.
Jul 9th, 2011
Jim Wickham
This is a wonderful website – thank you! I can waste hours in here, and frequently do, since discovering it a couple of months back.
I only saw HMHB once – at Glastonbury in ’86. Shortly thereafter I moved to Australia, famous as a non-venue for HMHB gigs, inter alia.
Anyway, what I came to say was that I can’t find a reference here to the one cover version (that I know of) performed by HMHB – I refer to “The King of Rome”, in a session with Andy Kershaw a few years ago.
I reckon The HMHB version is an absolute doozie, and knocks spots off both the original by Dave Sudbury (I think?), and June Tabor’s excellent cover.
That’s all I came to say – keep up the good work…
Sep 1st, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Re: The King of Rome
The story is told here;
http://www.derbyphotos.co.uk/features/kingofrome/
Plus a link to the original version.
Sep 1st, 2011
Jim Wickham
Vendor – thanks for the link. I’d found lots of relevant stuff via Wikipedia, but I’d missed the tribute page.
Sep 3rd, 2011
Steve G
The one and only cover without compare is …. What’s My Name at Shepherds Bush ~ basically co-inciding with anniversary of Joe Strummer’s death … made me tingle
Oct 15th, 2011
One Skinny Indie Kid
The Air That I Breathe by The Hollies was a poignant cover at the Aberdeen Lemon Tree back in May ’09.
Wish I was at the Shepherds Bush Empire to witness the Holiday in Cambodia cover. The youtube footage is incredible sound quality wise.
Oct 28th, 2011
dagenham Dave
HMHB get a mention and a YouTube link in today’s Guardian in an article about the various versions of ‘Song to the Siren’.
Nov 18th, 2011
Charles Exford
“nothing ever matched Song to the Siren’s knee-buckling beauty”
Bollocks. Almost that whole first album was exquisite, though it always seemed more symphonic than, errm, song-based.
Not sure I’d want to listen to it now though. Would bring the whole mid-eighties crashing back*
* oh wait a minute the government has already done that, so I mght as well go and dig out a cassette.
Nov 18th, 2011
Paul F
“Shambolic”. Like it’s a bad thing.
Nov 18th, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
24 covers and not one of them a patch on the original, although Nigel comes closest with the “was you a hare, was I a fox? line. Fantastic delivery. Segue into Vatican always makes me smile too.
Shambolic? Shambolic? Peter Cook was shambolic, Vivian Stanshall was shambolic, Ludwig Wittgenstein was shambolic. When mixed in equal measure with talent it produces genius. Mock not the shambolic for they will be capturing the zeitgeist.
Nov 18th, 2011
Duchess of Westminster
That’s outstanding. Sort of sea shanty style. The sudden break into VB is a musical embarrassed cough.
Bryan Ferry gives it a good go too. Shame about all the synth stuff.
I’m a Plant-a-holic so this version is the one for me.
Nov 18th, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrum's Conscience
Err Vendor, you haven’t listened to all 24 covers so how can you say ‘not one of them a patch on the original’?
Why don’t you just say that you love the original and like the Biccies version muchly and leave it at that?
Nov 18th, 2011
Steve G
Ah yes ….. Holidays In Cambodia was good .. but nowhere near as poignant as Whats My Name ~ Come on it is without compare
Dec 9th, 2011
Lotte
I saw HMHB in Manchester last night and they did a cover of Tragedy by the Bee Gees. Better than the original, I’d say. And they threw in a snippet of gratuitous Joy Division.
Dec 18th, 2011
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