Half Man Half Biscuit
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Half Man Half Biscuit
album reviews
Back In The DHSS 7½ ( 1985 )
Busy Little Market Town / God Gave Us Life / Fuckin' 'Ell It's Fred Titmus / Sealclubbing / 99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd / Time Flies By (When You're The Driver Of A Train) / I Hate Nerys Hughes / The Len Ganley Stance / Venus In Flares / I Love You Because (You Look Like Jim Reeves) / Reflections In A Flat / I Left My Heart in Papworth General / Architecture, Morality, Ted And Alice / Albert Hammond Bootleg / 1966 and All That / The Trumpton Riots / All I Want For Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Half Man Half Biscuit are a post-punk group that first won acclaim thanks to the legendary John Peel, a man who would later label them a British institution. They combine usually lo-fi music with usually witty lyrics and social commentary. 'Back In The DHSS' was their first full-length release led by the Merseryside vocals and guitar of Nigel Blackwell, together with Neil Crossley, Simon Blackwell, Paul Wright and David Lloyd. We've got songs with arcane references, well, arcane to me. '90% of god must look like Bob Todd' - who is Bob Todd? Well, Wikipedia tells us he was a Comedy actor who worked with Dick Emery and Benny Hill, usually playing the straight man. Is that important? Well, Half Man Half Buscuit also proclaim 'Fuckin' Ell, It's Fred Titmus', Fred being a cricket player who player for decades and decades. Important? Yes and no. Funny? Most likely yes, sense of humour dependant, of course. Musically this album is barely adequate and the sound is hissy and lo-fi yet the melodies are often all the better for being simple. These are jokes wrapped around songs or songs wrapped around jokes. The likes of 'I Hate Nerys Hughers (From The Heart) are songs that musically play it straight and very simple, very post-punk yet very enjoyable, certainly in a live setting. Half Man Half Biscuit were I suppose a reaction against all the pomposity and shiny production of the eighties. Can you do it with half the money, or no money? Well, following the release of The Trumpton Riots EP early in 1986, Half Man Half Biscuit were on the tips of the tongues of every Peel listener and had won over a sizeable fanbase for a British indie act.
The final four/five songs were not on the original LP release, but rather taken, in the main, from 'The Trumpton Riots' EP, Trumpton being a fictional village in a quintessentially British kids TV show. The track itself is dense, distorted, fun, funny and very mid-eighties c86 indie. Meanwhile, 'All I Want For Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit' has to be one of the best tunes here in terms of funny and quaint lo-fi catchiness. Well, it works for me.
Share Your Views? / Message Board
| Readers Comments Lee Auty Bolton Love this group. And they still are going strong. This album always makes me laugh but better albums were to come years later. Two particularly brilliant ones are "Some call it Godcore" and "Voyage to the bottom of the road". One listen to "Dead men dont need season tickets" on the latter album will convince the listener that their comic abilities have improved over time. I reccomend all their albums because even the so - so ones contain the occasional knock out track. |
this page last updated 19/09/10
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