Half Man Half Biscuit

Half Man Half Biscuit

Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit, October 2008
Background information
Origin Birkenhead, Merseyside, England
Genres Indie rock, post punk, indie folk
Years active 1984–1986, 1990–present
Labels Probe Plus
Associated acts Attempted Moustache
Website www.hmhb.co.uk
Members Nigel Blackwell
Neil Crossley
Ken Hancock
Carl Henry
Past members Simon Blackwell
David Lloyd
Paul Wright
Carl Alty
Ian Jackson

Half Man Half Biscuit (often HMHB) are a British rock band from Birkenhead, Merseyside, active since the mid-1980s, known for satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs. The group comprises Nigel Blackwell (lead vocals, guitar), Neil Crossley (bass, vocals), Ken Hancock (lead guitar), and Carl Henry (drums), occasionally augmented by a brass player. Throughout their career, they have recorded for Probe Plus records.

History

Half Man Half Biscuit were formed by two friends from Birkenhead, Neil Crossley (previously with local punk band Venom) and singer, guitarist and songwriter Nigel Blackwell (previously with Split Gut and North of Watford) 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.[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 Album 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 British independent chart in 1986, and they went on to perform at Glastonbury Festival.[4] They were post-punk, similar to Josef K or The Fall. The second single, "Dickie Davies Eyes", also topped the indie chart.[4] In late 1986, the band split up, giving as reason "musical similarities".[6] The album ACD, 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". 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), this line-up remaining to this day. Since reforming, the band have produced an album every two or three years.

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 band played live more infrequently. Half Man Half Biscuit turned down the chance to appear on The Tube, as Tranmere Rovers were playing that night, even though Channel Four offered to fly them by helicopter to the game. Blackwell has been a fan of the team since "sometime after the Coventry City cup win in 1968".[10](this is either an error or possibly a joke - Coventry City didn't win any cup in 1968 - although they did win the FA cup in 1987)

The band's styles parody popular genres, while their lyrics allude to UK popular culture and geography. Blackwell often refers to Wirral and to North Wales, often in the context of hillwalking in Snowdonia; he also appears fond of Shropshire, East Anglia, The West Country, and Oxfordshire) and British or international football. Sylvia Plath, Thomas Hardy, and the Bible are referenced in his lyrics.

As the 1990s progressed, Blackwell's love of blues and folk became more apparent. In 2002, Andy Kershaw dubbed them "the most authentic English folk group since The Clash". Bassist Crossley's tastes include late 1970s and early 1980s new wave or post-punk bands, and during live sets HMHB have performed covers of acts as diverse as Joy Division, Magazine, Tim Buckley, The Beach Boys, Tommy James and the Shondells and Ike and Tina Turner.

In 2001, Blackwell provided the voiceover for a BP television advert.[11]

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.[12][13] The song reached No. 56[14] on 11 April 2010: this was their first ever UK Top 75 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.

Victoria Loop has played live several times with the band on tenor horn, cornet and bass guitar. She is affectionately known as 'The 5th Biscuit'.[15]

Reception

Andy Kershaw has described Half Man Half Biscuit as "England's greatest folk band"[16] 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".[17] Eliza Carthy praised the band for their "pathos disguised with wit and sarcasm", describing Blackwell as a "genius".[18] Journalist Ben Myers has described Blackwell's lyrics as "the antithesis of most rock songs, and iconoclastic in their total avoidance of cliche".[19]

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).[20]

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." [21]

English writer Julie Burchill has praised their "supremely clever and funny lyrics", and described the band as "punk with a sense of humour and a sense of perspective".[22]

References to Half Man Half Biscuit can be found on episodes of Brookside, Hollyoaks and Byker Grove, as well as an episode of Football Focus and the BBC serial Elidor.

Discography

Studio albums

Year Album UK Indie
1985 Back in the DHSS 60 1[23]
1987 Back Again in the DHSS 59 2[23]
1989 ACD – –
1991 McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt – –
1993 This Leaden Pall – –
1995 Some Call It Godcore – –
1997 Voyage to the Bottom of the Road – –
1998 Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral – –
2000 Trouble Over Bridgwater – –
2002 Cammell Laird Social Club – –
2005 Achtung Bono – –
2008 CSI:Ambleside – –
2011 90 Bisodol (Crimond) 85 14
2014 Urge for Offal 68 13[24]
2016 And Some Fell on Stony Ground - -

And Some Fell on Stony Ground (Probe 73) is a compilation album of previously-released but difficult-to-find tracks, namely:[25][26][27]

Extended plays

Year Title UK Indie
1986 The Trumpton Riots (12" EP) 82 1
1988 The Peel Sessions – 18
1996 Eno Collaboration (EP) – –
2001 Editor's Recommendation – –
2003 Saucy Haulage Ballads – –

Singles

Year Title UK Indie
1986 "The Trumpton Riots" 82 1
1986 "Dickie Davies Eyes" 86 1
1990 "Let's Not" – –
1991 "No Regrets" – –
1999 "Look Dad No Tunes" – –

Charting album tracks

Year Track UK Indie
2010 "Joy Division Oven Gloves" 56 3

Miscellaneous tracks

References

  1. 1 2 "A Brief History of HMHB". Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  2. ↑ Kendal, Mark (2004) "Britain's Greatest Living Rock And Roll Satirist", The Word, Unknown Issue, p. 42-46
  3. 1 2 Strong, Martin C. (1999) The Great Alternative & Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN 0-86241-913-1
  4. 1 2 3 Lazell, Barry (1997) Indie Hits 1980-1989, Cherry Red Books, ISBN 0-9517206-9-4
  5. ↑ McCready, John (1985) "Tough Cookies", New Musical Express, 14 December 1985, p. 11
  6. ↑ Hooper, Mark (13 November 2014). "Split decisions". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  7. ↑ Ellen, Mark (2006). The Old Grey Whistle Test Vol. 3 (DVD). BBC Video.
  8. ↑ "Keeping It Peel – Half Man Half Biscuit". BBC Radio 1. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  9. 1 2 H is for... Half Man Half Biscuit on YouTube linked from "John Peel's Record Archive". John Peel Archive. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  10. ↑ Give Us An ‘R’ interview. – Tranmere Rovers fanzine issue 52.
  11. ↑ Sampson, Kevin (21 July 2001). "Taking the Biscuit". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
  12. ↑ Plunkett, John (7 April 2010). "Campaign to save 6 Music takes the Biscuit". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  13. ↑ "6 Music Campaigners Aim to Get Half Man Half Biscuit in the Charts". Spinner. 23 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  14. ↑ "Singles Top 40 from the Official UK Charts Company". Theofficialcharts.com. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  15. ↑ http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/guest/index.htm
  16. ↑ Wade's World. "Dean Friedman bites the Biscuits".
  17. ↑ Dodd, James. Half Man Half Biscuit. Bidi Lito!. Issue No. 8. February 2011. P. 14.
  18. ↑ Hughes, Rob (June 2008). "The Stars That Fame Forgot. Half Man Half Biscuit" (PDF). Uncut. p. 22. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  19. ↑ Myers, Ben (23 July 2009). "Why Half Man Half Biscuit are wholly terrific". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  20. ↑ "Probe Plus Bands – Half Man Half Biscuit". Probe Plus. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  21. ↑ Du Noyer, Paul (8 November 2007) [2002]. Liverpool – Wondrous Place: From the Cavern to the Capital of Culture. London: Virgin Books. p. 204. ISBN 978-0753512692.
  22. ↑ Burchill, Julie (3 March 2016). "How Half Man Half Biscuit have forged a career mocking middle-class idiocy". New Statesman. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  23. 1 2 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 240. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  24. ↑ "UK Top 40 Indie Albums Chart", BBC, 26 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014
  25. ↑ Wright, Matthew (17 October 2016). "CD: Half Man Half Biscuit - And Some Fell On Stony Ground". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  26. ↑ Bryan, Jon (22 October 2016). "Reissue: Half Man Half Biscuit – And Some Fell on Stony Ground". backseatmafia.com. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  27. ↑ "Half Man Half Biscuit to Release Rarities Compilation 'And Some Fell On Stony Ground'". Retrieved 5 November 2016.
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