half man half biscuit: classic or dud

It was fruit corners.

The cover was Electricity by OMD apparently.

half classic, half dud maybe?

why half dud?

Interviewing Brad Freidel on Football Focus, at the end the interviewer gives Brad some headphones, and asks him if knows the song.
And at a table nearby I heard a girl saying
To a tall balding guest
So you're Brad Friedel
I'm mildly impressed

from I went to a wedding. Motson later claimed to have never heard of HMHB. God help him if he suddenly has to say something about Tranmere or Dukla Prague.

Now look: What good's a blog when they be quoting lines from a song they're not offfering as a free download?

Ahem...

Our Alice is quite taken with "Paintball's coming home" (you know, "They got the whole world in their house ... to look at their conservatory") and was teaching it to the other kids on the flight back from Cyprus. I did tell her the 'other' version was much better, but as I can't find it, she is unmoved.

Anyway, who has the Andy Kershaw session version? The one with "Boxercise" and not the one with "Annie Lennox" ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex5WYA3pkUo

they made some real good friends
on henman hill

Latest live version has them giving an arm and a leg to be in the Top Gear audience.

Don't you just love songs that evolve!

http://www.joydivisionovengloves.com/

i bought this today, not realising it was a "save 6 music" facebook thing.

is there a facebook group i can join to hasten the demise of 6 music?

When I'm in the mood, an absolute classic.

Musically redundant but who needs to excel when you have lyrics like

"There’s a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets"

Still got it. And I live in a cul de sac so you weren't just passing

http://ichlugebullets.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/on-half-man-half-biscuit-joy-division-oven-gloves-and-the-save-6music-campaign/

Nicely put. And I haven't heard Epiphany before! Only have the first album and then 'Voyage...' onwards

From William, Chatteris, in the TMS inbox: "Alright Tom? Seems like it's all gone quiet on the correspondence front, but I have two things to type: a) most of us were laughing at whoever decided to seed Australia only 8th for this tournament, but so far they're living up to their billing with aplomb. b) where else apart from on commentary can you hear the word 'aplomb' being used?"

Right now, Australia vs Bangladesh BBC text commentary.

nice to see

"I wonder if Michael Clarke will turn to his left-arm occasionals"

Surely it MUST be National Shite Day.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tc663/Marc_Riley_Half_Man_Half_Biscuit_11_8_10/

Three nice new songs AND a confession of love for Van Der Graaf Generator! What more could I ask for?

Riley's a bit of a twat and he doesn't ask good questions. "Would you see yourselves as a comedy band?" Fuck's sake.

Also completely not OK with Joy Division Oven Gloves being the HMHB song.

All on Spotify! (Apart from the DHSS albums)

Ah man, how's Nigel gonna incorporate Spotify into a lyric

The same way he incorporated Marks and Spencers?

Alice still loves a singalong to "Paintball's coming home"

... "and whadya know, it's got its own website"

Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral and Saucy Haulage Ballads aren't there - pity about the latter as I haven't heard all of it yet (lol Blood On The Quad etc)

and pity about the former because people are gonna be denied some of their best songs

My mistake, I took a quick look and assumed they were all there. Still, better than nothing.

haha I'm not complaining - for a start I haven't heard This Leaden Pall or Some Call It Godcore yet

So apparently Richard Littlejohn is a HMHB fan.

A friend of mine had his copy of the Eno Collaboration CD lost by a former co-worker. He's desperate to get it back, and he doesn't believe in mp3s or anything, so if anyone has a copy they'd be willing to sell he'd be grateful. Realise that's kind of against-the-rules but "Get Kramer" is his favourite song and it is a matter of some importance for him.

New album on the way, btw: http://www.amazon.co.uk/90-Bisodol-Crimond/dp/B005HNZOZG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314871199&sr=8-2

this is really one for 'too much time on ILX' but I spent several actual minutes the other day trying to figure out how I could make a hybrid display name of that title and 'It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa'

^^lol

I pre-ordered this from Probe Plus last night, after learning about Stuckists in a Simon Reynolds book.

pre-ordered immediately. put off listening to them for years because of 'comedy band' tag. a fingerprint of specifically English despair, and hope. think my favourite sound of theirs, apart from their love songs, is their anger - Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not, Evening of Swing (Has Been Cancelled). Endlessly appealing. Yes, also funny, but not in an oppressive way.

and you can sing along to it while driving!

Excellent Taylor Parkes HMHB essay on the Quietus:

http://thequietus.com/articles/07060-half-man-half-biscuit-90-bisodol-crimond

http://thespace.org/items/e0000b24

http://louderthanwar.com/mid-80s-half-man-half-biscuit-song-told-the-truth-about-jimmy-savile/#.UJjjRsh-lh4.twitter

1. Westward Ho! Massive Letdown
2. This One’s For Now
3. Baguette Dilemma For The Booker Prize Guy
4. My Outstretched Arms
5. The Bain Of Constance
6. Theme Tune For Something Or Other
7. False Grit
8. Old Age Killed My Teenage Bride
9. Urge For Offal
10. Stuck Up A Hornbeam
11. Adam Boyle Has Cast Lad Rock Aside
12. The Unfortunate Gwatkin
13. Mileage Chart

:D

so this is really, really good. Any other listeners?

i think it's their worst album possibly ever :(

first four tracks are great, rest falls off a cliff, last two sorta pull it back but too little too late

'my outstretched arms' is the keeper. we discussed this on the OPO-line thread

I need to listen to it a bit more, but "Old Age Killed my Teenage Bride" was the stand-out first time round.

2. This One’s For Now
4. My Outstretched Arms
9. Urge For Offal
11. Adam Boyle Has Cast Lad Rock Aside

^all these are solid performers but... there don't really seem to be many funny lines, nor darkness/trenchant social commentary with which to plug the void

^otm.

http://porteliotfestival.com/whats-on/

imagine all of these sung consecutively in the voice of nigel blackwell to the sound of robust folk-rock

M. CRAFT YOGA SEVERED LIMB WORDS

(cheers tt for the heads-up)

Worth reading

http://www.bigissue.com/features/6652/half-man-half-biscuit-and-a-very-british-odyssey