Bad Manners & Half Man Half Biscuit
No, not the novelty ska act, but yes, definitely the consummate indie smart-arses from the Wirral. I’ve been battering through new music a bit much recently, so today there will be no newness at all, just some Billy Bragg (previous post), some stuff from the brilliant HMHB and later tonight some vintage indie from the C86 era that is being talked about so very much at the moment.
So how did Half Man Half Biscuit pop into my head then, and what’s all this bad manners business about? Well a day or so ago I received the following email from a gentleman called Ellis:
more half man half biscuit on project playlist.
hows about some fred titmus.
All of which is rather jolly, but that’s all he wrote. Project Playlist is yet another new music blog aggregator which is, in my opinion at least, still well behind the venerable Hype Machine in terms of usability and function. Mind you, they link directly to posts and I’ve been getting a slowly but steadily increasing trickle of traffic from them recently, so good luck to ‘em.
But to come from an aggregator, as opposed to being a reader, and send such a cursory, demanding email without so much as an introduction is, well, just uncouth really don’t you think? Seriously, I know this is teh internetz, but I always think that sort of fundamental lack of basic manners is a little bit sad really – it just seems to lack self-respect as much as anything else.
Anyway, idle chatter aside, I thought why not. I love Half Man Half Biscuit and I haven’t played their stuff on this site for ages. For those who don’t know them, Half Man Half Biscuit were formed around the birth of indie in the early eighties and are still going strong today. They border on being a novelty act at times because barely a song goes by without an outright laugh, and some of the lyrical juxtapositions and genuinely surreal. That said, they write brilliant tunes, so there’s no denying their merit as a proper band and, as Mrs. Toad said on a recent podcast, they really should be employed by a demographics think tank as they have an amazing talent for absolutely nailing the banal vacuity of all sorts of boring, ordinary people and their boring, ordinary lives. Genius, genius, genius!
Half Man Half Biscuit – Fuckin’ ‘ell, It’s Fred Titmus Ellis, you’re welcome.
Half Man Half Biscuit – 1966 & All That One of their all-time classics.
Half Man Half Biscuit – On Passing Lilac Urine “I’m Slim Shady I’m the real Slim Shady, all the other Slim Shadys have gone to play tennis.”
Half Man Half Biscuit – Twydale’s Lament “Gouranga Gouranga! Yes I’ll be happy, when you’ve been arrested for defacing the bridge.”
I once gave a cigarette to Buster Bloodvessel from Bad Manners. The poor chap was skint and dying for a fag after one of his notably energetic performances.
I was most surprised to find him a remarkably polite, quiet and really quite shy fellow; even though at the time he was breathless, stripped to the waist and covered in sweat.
Heady days indeed.
Oh, and Half Man Half Biscuit are fookin’ brilliant. I haven’t heard Fred Titmuss in years!
Well that’s why I was happy to post it, despite the rather clumsy email.
New album in May, according to one of the monthlies.
HMHB – yes! “Trumpton Riots” is one of my all-time faves. Though you also can’t go wrong with “1066.” Thanks for posting.
Such perceptive social commentators HMHB. “Time flies by when you’re the driver or a train. Speeding out of Trumpton with a cargo of cocaine.” How true that is.
May? Fookin’ marvellous! Their last one was a little inconsistent but it had some moments of pure genius on it.
One of my all-time favourites has to be Vatican Broadside – so simple and yet so to-the-point.
thanks for HMHB. All I want for christmas is a Dukla Prague away kit just encapsulated in one song perfectly adolescent subbutteo and competition. Classic stuff!