Half Man Half Biscuit | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Birkenhead, Merseyside, England |
Genres | Indie rock, post-punk |
Years active | 1984–1986, 1990–present |
Labels | Probe Plus, R. M. Qualtrough |
Members |
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Past members |
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Website | www |
Half Man Half Biscuit are an English rock band, formed in 1984 in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell, bassist and singer Neil Crossley, drummer Carl Henry, and guitarist Karl Benson.
The band parodies popular genres, while their lyrics allude to UK popular culture and geography. Within a long career, their best-known songs include "The Trumpton Riots" (1986) and "For What Is Chatteris" (2005).
Half Man Half Biscuit were formed by two friends from Birkenhead, Neil Crossley and singer, guitarist and songwriter Nigel Blackwell who was (in his own words) at the time "still robbing cars and playing football like normal people do". [1] In 1979, Blackwell was editing a football fanzine (Left For Wakeley Gage ); he met Crossley when he went to see the latter's band play. [2] In 1984, when Half Man Half Biscuit were formed, Crossley moved to bass and the two were joined by Nigel's brother Simon Blackwell (lead guitar) and his friend Paul Wright (drums), both previously with a group called Attempted Moustache, presumably named after the album by Loudon Wainwright III. [3] The quartet started to rehearse in the Liverpool-based Vulcan Studios, where they soon turned a five-piece, with David Lloyd now on keyboards. [1]
Their debut album, 1985's Back in the DHSS , topped the UK Indie Chart and reached number 60 in the UK Albums Chart. [3] [4] Its title was a play on The Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." and also a reference to the DHSS, the government department that dealt with the unemployed, Nigel Blackwell having been on unemployment benefits since 1979. [5] The band's first single, "The Trumpton Riots", topped the UK Indies Singles Chart in 1986, and they went on to perform at Glastonbury Festival. [4] The second single, "Dickie Davies Eyes", also topped the indie chart. [4] In late 1986, the band split up, giving as a reason "musical similarities". [6] The album Back Again in the DHSS, containing previously issued, unreleased and live tracks, followed.
The band reformed in 1990, with a performance at the Reading Festival following, and a new single, "Let's Not", issued before the year was out, followed in 1991 by a collaboration with Margi Clarke on a version of Edith Piaf's "No Regrets". Half Man Half Biscuit were championed by DJ John Peel, [7] [8] [9] for whom they recorded twelve sessions, and it was on his programme in 1990 that the band announced their return. The third album was McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt, released in October 1991. By the time This Leaden Pall was released in 1993, Wright and Lloyd had left the band, with Carl Alty joining on drums. Simon Blackwell left the following year, with Ian S. Jackson joining. Jackson (who later joined Rooney) and Alty (who joined Joyrider) departed in 1996, to be replaced by Ken Hancock (guitar) and Carl Henry (drums).
In April 2010, the band's song "Joy Division Oven Gloves" from their 2005 album Achtung Bono was the subject of a Facebook campaign to get it to No. 6 on the chart for 12 April 2010, in response to the rumoured closure of the indie-supporting radio station BBC 6 Music. [10] [11] The song reached No. 56 [12] on 11 April 2010: this was their first UK Singles Chart appearance. It also reached No. 3 in the Official Independent Singles chart the same week, and was No. 1 in the HMV UK Digital Downloads Top 40 Tracks on 16 April, knocking Ultravox's song "Vienna" off the top spot – itself part of a separate Facebook campaign the previous week.
Andy Kershaw described Half Man Half Biscuit as "One of England's most amazing bands" [13] and "the most authentic British folk band since The Clash". James Dodd on Bido Lito! praised (as many others did) Blackwell's "uncanny way of chronicling two of his greatest passions in life: television and small-town England". [14] Eliza Carthy praised the band for their "pathos disguised with wit and sarcasm", describing Blackwell as a "genius". [15] Journalist Ben Myers has described Blackwell's lyrics as "the antithesis of most rock songs, and iconoclastic in their total avoidance of cliche". [16]
Geoff Davies of Probe Plus recalled that after hearing a test pressing of Back in the D.H.S.S, John Peel said "Geoff, what's this, I've just played the first side of this, what is it, tell me, it's just fantastic and all". [9] Other famous Peel quotes about the band include "I've said it before, a national treasure, there's no question about it. When I die, I want them to be buried with me." (14 August 1996) and "In a decently ordered society, members of Half Man Half Biscuit would be routinely carried shoulder high through the streets of every city they visited" (10 July 1997). [17]
According to music writer Paul Du Noyer: "The genius of Half Man Half Biscuit is that they took just enough of Scouse culture to give themselves an edge, but kept their distance too. From their Wirral bastion they issue occasional dispatches of wry hilarity and downbeat, satirical bite. The songs of their leader, Nigel Blackwell, suggest a very real world of people too educated to be on the dole but too luckless or lazy to be anywhere else. They take a witty revenge on the drivel of popular culture, without denying their fascination with it. They seem flintily incorruptible, and scan the London music media with a mocking eye for cant." [18] English writer Julie Burchill praised their "supremely clever and funny lyrics", and described the band as "punk with a sense of humour and a sense of perspective". [19]
References to Half Man Half Biscuit can be found on episodes of EastEnders , [20] Brookside , Hollyoaks , Men Behaving Badly and Byker Grove , as well as an episode of Football Focus and the BBC serial Elidor. The cricket commentator David 'Bumble' Lloyd often makes reference to songs and lyrics in commentaries, often completely lost on other commentators working with him. [21]
Trumpton is a British stop-motion children's television series from the producers of Camberwick Green. First shown on the BBC from January to March 1967, it was the second series in the Trumptonshire trilogy, which comprised Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley. Like the other two series, Trumpton continued to be repeated well into the 1980s as a part of the BBC's children's schedules.
PragVEC was a post-punk band from London formed in 1978. The band name was a contraction of the two words "pragmatism" and "vector", chosen at random.
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Crispy Ambulance are an English post-punk band, formed in Manchester in late-1977 by Keith Darbyshire (bass), Robert Davenport (guitar), Alan Hempsall (vocals), and Gary Madeley (drums). They had been inspired by the Sex Pistols' second gig in the Lesser Free Trade Hall, in addition to the bands Magazine and Hawkwind.
Achtung Bono is the tenth album by UK indie rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released in 2005.
Saucy Haulage Ballads is an extended play CD released by the Birkenhead-based British group Half Man Half Biscuit in August 2003. A reviewer in Stylus Magazine remarked: "Saucy Haulage Ballads may only be a six-track EP, but it contains more ideas, insight and moments than most bands could manage in an entire career."
It's Immaterial are an English indie pop band from Liverpool, England, formed in 1980. They are best known for their 1986 single "Driving Away from Home ", which reached number 18 on the UK Singles Chart.
Back in the DHSS is the first album released by the UK rock band Half Man Half Biscuit (HMHB), in 1985.
McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt was released in 1991 by British rock band Half Man Half Biscuit as their third original album. It was the first album released after the band had reformed in 1990.
This Leaden Pall is the fourth album by the English rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released in 1993.
Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral is the seventh album by Wirral-based UK rock band Half Man Half Biscuit (HMHB), released in June 1998.
Back Again in the DHSS is the second album by UK rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released in 1987.
"Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera'" is a 1967 single by Keith West, produced by Mark Wirtz. It was a big hit in Europe, peaking at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The single was part of a bigger "A Teenage Opera" project. The song was written by Wirtz and West, credited as "Philwit / Hopkins".
CSI:Ambleside is the eleventh album by Wirral-based UK rock band Half Man Half Biscuit (HMHB), released in April 2008.
The Trumpton Riots EP is a 1986 12" 45½rpm [sic] vinyl EP by the English indie band, Half Man Half Biscuit. The original release (TRUMP1) comprised the first four tracks listed below. A re-release later that year (TRUMX1) also included the fifth one.
90 Bisodol (Crimond) is the twelfth studio album by UK rock band Half Man Half Biscuit. It was released on 26 September 2011 by Probe Plus.
"Look Dad No Tunes" is a 1999 CD single by Birkenhead indie band Half Man Half Biscuit, released by Probe Plus Records, for whom they have always recorded.
Urge for Offal is the thirteenth album by UK Wirral-based rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released 20 October 2014 on Probe Plus Records. The album reached #68 on the UK album chart.
Eno Collaboration is a 1996 EP released in both vinyl and CD formats by the indie band Half Man Half Biscuit. It comprises the following tracks:
"Let's Not" is a single released in 1990 on vinyl and CD by the Wirral-based British band Half Man Half Biscuit. It was their first release after reforming as a four-piece, the original band having been a five-piece. It was released as a 7-inch single with "Our Tune" on the B-side, and as a 12-inch single and CD single with the extra track "Ordinary to Enschede".