Showing posts with label Half Man Half Biscuit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Half Man Half Biscuit. Show all posts

Sunday, 8 August 2021

More Dreams and The Accidental Button Press


Yesterday I got my new contact lenses and there was a letter saying which lens went in which eye, which I duly followed. After giving my eyes hydration via and eye bath I put the lens in my left eye and it was very blurry but thought it will settle down. I prepared the right eye one but the left eye was still blurry , it wasn't going to settle down. Then I swapped the lens in my left eye to my right eye and I could see perfectly immediately. The letter had got the lenses the wrong way round , so now my sight is perfect.

I had a really odd dream , our work team were having a meeting in a classroom on the corner of the West Road and Clayton Street (it's a cake shop in reality so that might say something). There was my team and a Facebook friend Les who shares a love of Greek Mythology as demonstrated by this story

Ola by boss was writing in chalk on a blackboard and I was having real difficulty seeing , took my glasses off , no difference , but still had contact lenses in. Then walked out and visited a couple of record shops with another friend Sarah , who's birthday party I attended a couple of weeks back. Now there's only one record shop in that direction , Beyond Vinyl , although Vinyl Guru is the other direction  but there are the Amnesty Bookshop and Kazbats Den. I didn't buy anything and told Sarah that I needed to get back to work.

I then woke, washed , showered , and when I picked up my phone , the Marvin Gaye song "We Can Make It Baby" came on via YouTube. I have never heard before , it is quite good , but a sort of end to the dream sequence.

Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit in one of his songs wrote that and unusual thing in a dream would be going for a loaf of bread. in the song "San Antonio Foam Party" but all the lyrics are here and they are a literary treasure trove.


Saturday, 6 March 2021

Hair Like Gareth Ainsworth Blues

 Gareth Ainsworth is one of the most noticeable EFL managers because of his hair. He is also an absolutely wonderful person , a great manager loved my his team and fans and is a great and entertaining TV pundit as well. I chose the title because it made me think of "Hair Like Brian May Blues" by Half Man Half Biscuit and the title could definitely be a Nigel Blackwell song.

Gareth Ainsworth - Rock Star Manager

Gareth Ainsworth's team Wycombe Wanderers were promoted to the championship for the first time in their history, but despite their passion and entertaining football they are bottom of the league looking favourites for relegation. However Gareth won't fear for his job because of what he has done for the club. There are clubs with more money and resources languishing in League One and Two . Wycombe are sensible enough to realise that continuity can benefit the club.

Chris Wilder - Sheffield Steel

Sheffield United in the Premiership are in a similar position, but with a great guy , Chris Wilder , in charge. They overachieved last season, challenging for a European place, but this season looks like likely relegation. Their fans and the club will keep Chris Wilder because he brought them up from League One without spending a fortune and again he is a great speaker and obviously a good manager. Too many times clubs just cut  their manager off and go for someone off the England second rate mangers like West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle United.

So you know what the song is that I am going to share , but as I write this I am listening to and original album series box featuring five Paul Butterfield albums , which is rather excellent.


Wednesday, 12 August 2020

With The Possible Exception of Being Garth Crooks - #AnimalAugust #9


Every time I wash a sieve the Half Man Half Biscuit song "Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes"  from "Look Dad, No Tunes" comes to mind:


"There is surely nothing worse than washing sieves

There is surely nothing worse than washing sieves

With the possible exception

Of being Garth Crooks

There is surely nothing worse than washing sieves"

Possibly very true but what Garth Crooks has done to incur Nigel Blackwell's ire , I haven't a clue.

Today is very hot and clammy but foggy. I went to Morrison's but wearing the mask can feel a bit claustrophobic , but we are in a different world now until a vaccine is found for COVID-19 . The mask is annoying the alternative is frightening.

Talking of claustrophobia , which I suffer from slightly, that is the feeling that I am getting in "The Lost" by Jonathan Aycliffe , being trapped but frightened of what might happen, ironically I'm enjoying it , and saw parallels in "The Revenant" in the cold, snow , and forest settings , although one is in North America and the other is in Romania. Leonardo Dicaprio's fight with the cear is stunning, and Tom Hardy play s a great villain.

Keeping with Half Man Half Biscuit for #AnimalAugust we will go with "King of Rome" which is about a pigeon , and one of their covers but not officially available digitally. Here is a list of their covers. Luckily for everyone it is on Youtube and you can listen to it on this post.

Saturday, 27 April 2019

#AprilSongs #27 Saturday Night's (Alright for Fighting)


I originally was going to choose "Book of Saturday" by King Crimson for this but I had got it mixed up with "The Great Deceiver" (this is an acoustic reinterpretation and is rather good but you get the idea) from "Starless and Bible Black" ( What a wonderful and perfect description of dark night from "Under Milkwood" by Dylan Thomas) but the two songs could not be more different, the former in my opinion being fairly insipid while the latter is a brass assault and brilliant album opener. They are both on Youtube so you can check them out.

So then I though well "Saturday Night's (Alright for Fighting)" is one of Elton John's best and maybe a little obvious, but has some great lyrics and one of my favourite couplets:

"I'm a juvenile product of the working class 
Whose best friend floats in the bottom of a glass"

I've found an excellent 1984 live take which shows how good Elton John can be. This is the final #AprilSongs Saturday song and the whole sequence will be complete on the first of May.

Last I night I went to see Half Man Half Biscuit at The Boiler Shop and it was an amazing gig at a great venue. I managed to meet two people who I knew but had forgotten. The first was Clare (I don't know if that is the correct spelling as there are so many ways to spell the name)  from the Glamorous Owl (and if you want to partake in one of their excellent ring making workshops you get 20% off on the site) and I managed to compound my ignorance by not realising she had the names of the band on her T Shirt. She was with Victoria (who now lives in Liverpool) and a very affable Anarchist who I have probably seen at the Black Bull.

The other person was someone I have worked with, but it must be at least fifteen years back, but he recognised me but we had about two minutes at the bar.

Anyway have an enjoyable Saturday, I am off to Edinburgh.

Thursday, 25 April 2019

#AprilSongs #26 Black Friday


This is early because tomorrow morning I need go and get some milk, go to the Post Office Depot to pick up "All Good Clean Fun" on vinyl, then post a "Best of" Sandie Shaw to fulfil a Discogs order (I notice that a new one on Amazon will set you back £143 maybe the buyer saw this), then go to work, and afterwards go to the Boiler Shop to see Half Man Half Biscuit.

So for the #AprilSongs sequence I'm closing Friday with Steely Dan's "Black Friday", the opening song from "Katy Lied" which featured a Katydid on the cover. Steely Dan took their name from a Steam Powered Sex Toy in William Burroughs "The Naked Lunch". I only recently found out that "Black Friday" was when businesses finally hit paydirt and went into profit for the financial year supposedly, though it may have once been true, I doubt it happens today.

So this is my third post today although it's an early installment for tomorrow so I will now leave you to enjoy some classic live Steely Dan.

Sunday, 24 March 2019

Quietly Strange


Today has been weird, I've not felt like doing anything or even doing something which requires little interaction from me liking watching a film or catch up TV.

Earlier today I walked to Aldi (only about half a mile) got a few things then walked back (Stagecoach buses don't run that way on a Sunday) then realised I'd left my hat (it had looked like rain, so I put it in my bag, took it out when I packed it, and left it on the ledge), so phoned their customer service and they had it, so I walked back again and got it. That did mean I got some steps in and only need to do another 25K to hit this months target.

The weather has generally been good but cold, but when I got back, I just couldn't bring myself to engage with anything. On the plus side I was resting both my body and my brain, but it felt slightly weird just not actually doing anything and not wanting to do anything.

Hopefully tomorrow I will feel more motivated, but this afternoon has been just traveling in neutral. I did post my review of last night's Trash Shack gig here. so that was one positive thing , and it was a great night. I've also just ordered tickets for The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing and the Cluny 2 on Easter Sunday, and Half Man Half Biscuit at The Boiler Shop the following Friday, so I suppose today has not been a totally idle day.


Thursday, 28 February 2019

Do I Have To Cut My Hedge?


It's the last day of February, and it's misty and foogy and soon it'll be garden maintenance time. Half Man Half Biscuit are playing The Boiler Shop in Newcastle so that is one of my favourite bands playing at one of my favourite venues. It's similar to the excellent Wylam Brewery on Exhibition Park is being a very impressive building in a great location and a wonderful place for a gig.

At  The Wylam Brewery gig I was chatting with the guy selling the merchandise (got myself a 12" copy of "Dickie Davies' Eyes") and he told me how they nearly drove into the lake as the walk through Exhibition Park to the building is not exactly well lit.

Obviously the thought of having to trim my hedge coincides with the titel of the new album, which causes everyone who sees  and hears it varying degrees of mirth to eventual hysterical laughter. Whne I originally listened to the album I thought th einstruments were given too much prominence but on subsequent listens, it has just grown on me, and sort of encouraged to redelve back into the back catalogue and realise there are so many absolute gems from Nigel's pen that I have forgotten or completely missed.

You cannot finish listening to a Half Man Half Biscuit album and fail to have a smile on your face, and then want at least a little more. I was going to put a link on here re the genesis of Half Man Half Biscuit in The Guardian but when I did a google search it came back with this huge list. There is this on the lyric project page about half decent articles on the ban, so fill your boots and have a quick gander.

I'll just share "Everytime a Bell Rings" from the latest album (and you know the title) , now go and get your fvcking hedge cut !!

Wednesday, 20 February 2019

Sing Hosanna, the Jazz Snobs are all going home


After giving up on "Second Coming " by The Stone Roses ("Love Spreads" is ok), I picked out "Some Call It Godcore" by Half Man Half Biscuit. My first thought was hey I've had this for so long and never listened to it, I don't know any of the songs, so wrong for someone who considers himself a Half Man Half Biscuit fan.

The opener "Sensitive Outsider" is excellent and seemed vaguely familiar , but I felt the over emphasised Jews / Jaws Harp detracted from the song though it does eventually fade. "Fretwork Homework" confirmed I had never listened to the album (Shame on Me, but I did buy it) and it is an excellent second song.

The "Faithlift" hit me, I thought I know this, so darkly funny and a brilliant refrain, in keeping with the vaguely religious parody cover and name, and yes I did know it and memories started to resurface. "Even Me With Steel Hearts" love to see a dog on the pitch, and yes I definitely know this wonderful album, it's just buried deeper that most others. Anyway you will know that the title of this post comes from the excellent "Faithlift" funny and barbed like most of Nigel's writing.

When you hear "(Seen by me mates coming out of a) Styx Gig" there is no doubt that this, while not a top division Half Man Half Biscuit album it's still excellent and better than The Stone Roses "Second Coming" though that's a bit Chalk and Baking Powder, the chalk does have lasting substance.

The finale monologue of "Tour Jacket (With eEtachable Sleeves)" is absolute top knotch Biscuitry, and in fact the album is (like all their stuff) brilliant and it is top disvision , maybe mid table Premiership sort of Watford or Leicester City, it cantains more than a few diamonds.

So that's my opinion of "Some Call It Godcore", well worth an extended revisit if you haven't listened to it recently.


Monday, 28 January 2019

I Can Put A Tennis Raquet Up Against My Face And Prentend That I'm Kendo Nagasaki


It's a line from my favourite song on the Half Man Half Biscuit album "McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt" which was the name of three retired footballers called on to save a Football team in the "Golden Gordon" episode of Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns". The song is "Everything's AOR" and will of course accompany this post.

It's my dad's 84th birthday and the older someone gets it's more difficult to get birthday presents, especially when his main hobby is working, although he has a penchant for post boxes and boxing. I decided to get him a copy of "There Is No Map In Hell" by Steve Birkinshaw which I bought just for the title and found to be an excellent book seeing what some people can force themselves to do against seemingly impossible conditions.

The weather has been incredibly cold and during January absolutely not conducive to walking although I have managed to keep up my target steps so I am still exceeding my million steps every three months and I will start February in Whitby so I am not sure taht will be a good or a bad thing. Whitby is great for walking but if the weather is not good that may discourage me from actually doing my required steps.

Kendo Nagasaki was a wrestler in the sixties and maybe still is but I remember watching wrestling on a Saturday afternon at my grandmas with Kendo, Mick McManus , Jackie Pallo and others too numerous to mention. It was all staged of course as it still is in the numerous wrestling francises going on today. The link to the Kendo Nagasaki (there are/were many) portrays him as a mystic an dhypnotist as well as a wrestler, so not a one trick pony. The tennis raquet gives a similar effect to the samurai mask worn by Kendo in the ring.

So that's my Monday so far ..... now what's yours?

Friday, 21 December 2018

I Shot A Man In Tesco ... Just To Watch Him Die


Over the last couple of days I've been listening to "90 Bisodol(Crimond)" and been slightly taken aback by it's sheer quality and brilliance. Saying that, you can probably apple that to most Half Man Half Biscuit albums.

I once said that whatever Bowie album you are listening to is your favourite Bowie album after listening to "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)"  (post here) and in the HMHB canon "90 Bisodol(Crimond)" certainly lives up to that.

There are a couple of songs that are maybe not quite as good as the rest, but still great none the less and or me these are "Excavating Rita" and "Something's Rotten In The Back of Iceland" and they are crammed full of excellent wordsmithery and litererary references, and these are the least good bits of the album, which emphasises how good it really is.

"The Coroner's Footnote" and "RSVP" are both lovely tunes with a very dark twist where you don't know whether to laugh or grimace. I just enjoy.

In the middle of the album (running wise) is "Descent Of The Stiperstones" (I think it should be spelt Styperstones for some reason) which is the big song on the album, and excellent off kilter Crossroads narrative ("The Crazy World of Arthur Brownlow"). For some reason I though this was the closer but no matter, there is a lot of great stuff still to come.

The title is taken from a great line in "L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres" and that line playfully plagiarising a line from "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash, and this album is a really great end to end play. The finale "Rock and Roll Is Full of Bad Wools" (I still don't know what that means) is a right on swipe and the majority of plastic football fans that have grown up thinking it the top six of the Premier League, Real Madrid, Barcelona , PSG or any team with money and it does mention Roots Hall.

Have a brilliant Christmas everyone, Yule love it.

Saturday, 13 October 2018

An Appreciation of Half Man Half Biscuit on National Album Day


I'm not a fan of National anything Day, and I'm sure Nigel Blackwell is of the same opinion, he did write "National Shite Day", the closer on "CSI Ambleside" . When people say "Oh I'm only into 80's or 90's" music , if you mention Half Man Half Biscuit they just gawp and go on about ABC or Duran Duran (both fine bands).

I cant't remember the first song of their's I heard , whether it was "Trumpton Riots" or "All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit", but the latter made me go out and buy their their first album, and I just loved "Dickie Davies Eyes" and was disturbed when they split after that hit number one in the Independant Charts.

There is a lot in the Guardian about the band and until I read this I didn't know Nigel did advert voice overs, the article is here but there are quite a few see here. This is the bit about how the first album came about.

"Their record label then, as now, is Probe Plus - as ramshackle and free-spirited an independent as one could find anywhere. Probe operates from the Liverpool home of its proprietor, Geoff Davies, whose rambling Sefton Park manse is cluttered with Biscuit ephemera. Some of HMHB's more celebrated merchandise includes collectors' item teatowels (Some Call It Godcore tour - six dates in eight weeks) and the almost unobtainable McIntyre, Treadmore & Davitt mugs. They are an unusual pop group. Blackwell is a most unusual fellow.

Davies vividly remembers him coming into the Probe shop with his demo tape. "I looked at the back of the cassette and it was full of things like The Len Ganley Stance and Venus In Flares. I said to him: 'If the songs are half as good as the titles, we'll do it.' I was listening to the tape with my partner that night as we drove home and neither of us could believe what we were hearing. The lyrics and the subjects were astonishing, and probably actionable - but I called Nige the next day to say that we'd do an album."

To Davies's astonishment, Blackwell turned up on his doorstep a couple of days later with the finished master tapes of the album. "He just said to me: 'This is it. I've done it. That'll be £40, please.'"

"I might've told him it was 40," concedes Blackwell, "but I think it was more like 30. We recorded at Vulcan Studios. They'd just got in this eight-track studio upstairs and Half Man Half Biscuit were the guinea pigs. We went in. We did it. We put it out." "

Their site here has a list of a lot of radio sessions , and the Brampton one contains the definitive version of "24 Hour Garage People" and a three way interview between Andy Kershaw, Geoff Davies and Nigel Blackwell, in which Andy describes them as England's premier folk band. These were available for free download but removed when people started selling them when John Peel passed on, but I do have copies of the sessions and if you want a copy please contact me.

I love their very black humour "Blood On The Quad" , social observation "Lord Hereford's Knob" and pure charm "What Is Chatteris" and they always leave you with a smile on your face.

The lyric project here allows you to read their lyrics and enjoy the sheer poetry of Nigel's penmanship.

If there's a record of their's missing from your collection today is a good day to fill that hole.

Have a good one.

Sunday, 7 October 2018

Them Big Oak Trees


One of things I noticed on the walks in the Lake District was the number of big oak trees that we saw along the routes. It's not surprising that one of the pubs we frequent is The Royal Oak in Ambleside, which I discovered as it was featured on the cover of Half Man Half Biscuit's excellent "CSI Ambleside" album.

While there are lots of different tree species, Oaks are fairly distinctive and are striking and obvious in any landscape and there are a few examples on this slide show instagram link here.

I was wondering whether to combine this post with the last post, but it does give you the opportunity to just listen to one song to accompany my mindwanderings, but it's always good to see Oak Trees as I don't think there are too many round the Newcastle area.  I certainly haven't noticed on my walks to work, although tomorrow morning I will keep an eye out to see if I can see any.

So I going to include the excellent "Them Big Oak Trees" by The Wonderstuff from their album "Hup", and I only recently discovered that Miles Hunt of the band was married to Mary Ann Hobbs the 6Music DJ.

So I am just about to have tea, an Aloo Chol from Rajnagar after enjoying the first episode of Doctor Who with the wonderful Jodie Whittaker, looking forward to the rest of the series.

Saturday, 15 September 2018

Get Yer Bloody Lawn Mowed


My lawn does need mowing but it is looking lush and healthy at the moment and I think I will be overdoing it if I try it today, so I will let it continue to be lush. The title is inspired by the title of the latest Half Man Half Biscuit album " No-one Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fvckin' Hedge Cut", the title is starred out on Amazon and I've replaced the "U" with a "V" so hopefully people won't be too offended. The thing is starring things out doesn't hide anything really, people what F**k and Bu**er mean given the context, and it's unlikely the second word will be Butler, Bugker or Butter.

Anyway more of my thoughts on the album, it's much like most of their albums, ie excellent and the instrumentation, playing and productions seems much improved, possibly to the detriment of the lyrics, which are incredibly important in the effect of Half Man Half Biscuit songs sponting the references , connections, ambiguities and hilarities and Shakespearean class word play in there, although Nigel Blackwell may not thank me for that comparison, though him and John Cooper Clarke should be Poet Laureate at some point, two of our greatest populist wordsmiths.

I've chosen "Every Time A Bell Rings" which contains a refrain of the album title, checks in with David Bowie in the first line, takes swipes at Artisan stuff and wannabe cyclist and "It's A Wonderful Life". It's this sort of song that makes them an absolute joy to listen to.

Yes there is darkness in there but it's a sort of loveable darkness, and they are still one of my favourite bands and always will be.




Saturday, 8 September 2018

Blakk and Whyte


Today I shared a couple of posts with The Half Man Half Biscuit(HMHB) Appreciation Society on Facebook, because I'd been listening to Half Man Half Biscuit this week, and the likes and visits on those two posts are like ten times my normal number of visits. I think there are maybe twenty of my Facebook friends who visit my blog regularly and the rest are just robots but the visits today have really gone through the roof for me.

Maybe I don't put myself about enough, although I always hope that my titles and preamble will tempt in visitors, although that's obviously not working.

I love it when people read my stuff and make (ideally positive) comments about my stuff. Yesterday I wasn't going to write about Burt Reynolds and today I didn't expect to be writing about this but I am.

I expect this post to get maybe twenty or thirty hits but that's what I'm used to. It would be nice to have a million followers but I just have three, not very many for a twelve year old blog is it.

Today I saw an amazing young band called Trilogy busking in Northumberland street. I took a minute of Instagram video here so you can see how good and young they are, even younger than The Strypes and General Fiasco when I first saw them. They literally blew all the other buskers off the street very impressive.

So I will leave you with The Strypes covering The Beatles' "Taxman", the opener from "Revolver", in their youth , sleep well my friends.

Eno Collaboration


I was going to write this yesterday but with Burt Reynolds (see last post) leaving us I thought that more appropriate. Anyway I have been listening to a lot of Half Man Half Biscuit this week and started with "And Some Fell On Stony Ground" through "Achtung Bono" to "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road".

The first album is is an excellent ragbag collection of non album songs including a banjo driven version of "Trumpton Riots" retitled (appropriately) "On Finding The Studio Banjo".

However it also contains the single version of "Eno Collaboration" and the last album contains, well,  the album version. Nigel Blackwell's dexterity with lyrical apposition is so brilliant on this singalong classic that I had to share it with you as one of the #SongsYouveNeverHeard and if you take the time to listen to it you will love it. Lines like:

"I know Bono and he knows Ono and she knows Eno’s phone goes thus:
Brian’s not at home, he’s at the North Pole
but if you’d like to leave a weird noise”

You can read the full lyrics here.

Enjoy your Saturday everybody

Thursday, 6 September 2018

Nothing Succeeds Like A Toothless Budgie


A favourite line of a decent maths teacher of man "Pop" Moulding but also the sort of line you would expect to hear in a Half Man Half Biscuit somg. I do find it interesting how when you listen to one album by a band you want to follow it with another by them. I was listening to "And Some Fell On Stony Ground", a collection of odds and sods which is still hugely entertaining with gems like "Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes", "Hair Like Brian May Blues", "Blood on the Quad" and culminating in the hilarious thirty seconds that is "Vatican Broadside".

This made me think , how do radio stations check songs for offensiveness, does someone have to listen to them and check the lyrics or do they have software to do it. I once got banned from Yahoo for sharing "Vatican Broadside" because Slipknot fans complained about it!

Listening to that made me follow it up with "Achtung Bono" which must be up there with their best, every song is funny and brilliant. "Bogus Official" doesnt start promisingly but soon picks up and it contains the wonderful "Joy Division Oven Gloves". I could list every song on here as being brilliant but I seriously suggest you get yourself a copy of the album. Also including "Vatican Broadside probably includes this in the #SongsYouveNeverHeard sequence.

You will have  abig smile on your face and who can ask for more than that from the Bards of Birkenhead.

Sunday, 12 August 2018

Precipitate


It's been raining during the night, which is a good thing. Still too heavy to walk in, but not threat of biblical floods here in Fenham. I'vewoken up fairly demotivated, and not even had a shower but think a shower will wake me up an dmakeme a little less lethargic .

ven if I stopped writing now this still counts towards my #August50, but I don't feel that I am going to make that at this moment in time.

I had some weird dreams including my friend Juli getting a bubble perm and suiting in it a large school hall where I was trying to take a photograph of an amazing sight through the windows of the moon and the eather next to each other shaded in blue, but I couldn't get a decent shot sho went into the field outside to get a less restricted shot and they had disappeared and all there was was a big blue IKEA like cube.

That is roughly all I can remember of it but I am sure it would provide some psychiatrist or analyst a bit to go one, but as Half Man Half Biscuit stated in "San Antonio Foam Party" which appeared on their excellent "Cammell Laird Social Club" album from 2002:



"Your weird dreams
Don’t impress in any way
In dreams
Weird things are mundane and everyday
Strange to me would be
Buying a loaf
And coming straight home"


Such is the nature of dreams. So that's provided a song for this post though there is quite a lot more music that I do want to share with you, maybe I will take a chance to do that later. Now it's shower time, the maybe get a paper, do a crossword, write a song

Enjoy the rainy Sunday my friends.

Thursday, 7 June 2018

Clock Mathematics


I was completely unaware of (or had forgotten about) the concept of clock mathematics. We all use it every day and when used in applied mathematics it can apparently be very useful. Basically its working with a  limited series of numbers which rill over when you get to the end. So an example that we may use every day is that if you say that you will see someone in four hours at eleven o' clock you both know you will meet at three o' clock. Therefore 11 + 4 = 3 not 15 because after 12 we roll back to 1. Apparently it's useful in Elliptical Theory. This is another concept that I have been (re) introduced to in Simon Singh's brilliant "Fermat's Last Theorem" ,and another reason why I love reading books.

As I'm writing this the sun has really come out and it's looking like a definite walk into work today.

Yesterday I put Half Man Half Biscuit's "Trouble over Bridgewater" and it has some great titles that maybe the songs don't quite live up to such as "Uffington Wassail" ,  but "Irk The Purists" is good and then I got hit with the absolut classic "Gubba Lookalikes" which is followed by the excellent "Mathematically Say" but then we are hit with the totally brilliantly funny "With Goth On Our Side" plagiarising Bob Dylan's "With God On Our Side".

The opening line is:

"Oh my name it is Dai Young"

And that is a brilliant play on words when the song is based in Wales and it's subject matter.

But I will share "Gubba Lookalikes" with you before I set out for work.


Tuesday, 24 April 2018

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #7 - CSI Ambleside - Half Man Half Biscuit


Described by Andy Kershaw as England's greatest folk band and may John Peel said the describe the minutiae of everyday life every album holds gems to be discovered and this is no exception. If you want to sample to poetry of the lyrics check out the HMHB Lyric project here

The album opens with "Your Evening of Swing Has Been Cancelled" careering though incidents and accidents by way of detours and u-turns to hit the finale of "National Shite Day".

The cover feature the lovely Royal Oak in Ambleside who were unaware of their adornment of the sleeve when I first informed them of it. I'm am not sure if they were pleased about that, but both pub and album are wonderful artefacts of our times.

The thing is Half Man Half Biscuit have so many essential songs in their canon, anyone that you choose is something that you just never want it to finish. Lyrics like the following make you realise just how essential this band is:

And the christening party arsehole
Who hitherto had blurred
My conception of man as nature’s final word
Was fleeing from the lava
His satnav pleading thus:
“I’m not from round here mate, you should have got the bus”

So I will leave you with their opening salvo and get myself to bed.

 

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

If I Had Possession Over Pancake Day


I've just noticed it's Pancake Day so what other record could I have as the lead than "If I Had Possession Over Pancake Day"  by Half Man Half Biscuit.  It is one of my many favourites of their songs from the excellent "Cammell Laird Social Club" album and obviously very appropriate.

I've never been a fan of pancakes, always a bit bland for me like butternut squash. You can use them for bulking things out but you always have to add something.

I'm glad to see that the cars aren't frozen up this morning so the walk into work should not be as cold as it has been.

Actually after the last post, I wanted to to mention another album I listened to yestereday, "Apocalypse Girl" by Jenny Hval. The album is as disturbing as the cover (click through on the title to see) and at times very explicit.  When I started I was thinking this is just talking over noise, but the more you listen, the more you grow into it, so on the second listen the noise that was "Kingsize" becomes the song or piece that is "Kingsize".

Soundwise this is a less accented Bjork but possibly more challenging. By the time I had listened to the album I had been won over so I will be exploring more of Jenny Hval. She is someone to be approached with an open mind but definitely rewarding.

OK now time to get off to work, and no pancakes for me today.