Half Man Half Biscuit | |
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.jpg) Nigel Blackwell (right) and Ken Hancock performing in 2015 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Birkenhead, Merseyside, England |
| Genres | Indie rock,post-punk |
| Years active | 1984–1986, 1990–present |
| Labels | Probe Plus,R. M. Qualtrough |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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| Website | halfmanhalfbiscuit |
Half Man Half Biscuit are an English rock band, formed in 1984 inBirkenhead, Merseyside. Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell, bassist and singer Neil Crossley, drummer Carl Henry, and guitarist Karl Benson.
The band parodies popular genres, while their lyrics allude to UK popular culture and geography. Within a long career, their best-known songs include "The Trumpton Riots" (1986), "For What Is Chatteris" (2005), "Joy Division Oven Gloves" (2005), and "National Shite Day" (2008).
Half Man Half Biscuit were formed by two friends fromBirkenhead, guitarist Neil Crossley and singer, guitarist and songwriter Nigel Blackwell 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 ForWakeley 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 tobass 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, presumably named after thealbum byLoudon Wainwright III.[3] The quartet started to rehearse in theLiverpool-based Vulcan Studios, where they soon turned a five-piece, with David Lloyd now onkeyboards.[1]
Their debut album, 1985'sBack in the DHSS, topped theUK Indie Chart and reached number 60 in theUK Albums Chart.[3][4] Its title was a play onthe Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." and also a reference to theDHSS, the government department that dealt with the unemployed, Nigel Blackwell having been on unemployment benefits since 1979.[5] The band's first single, "TheTrumpton Riots", topped the UK Indies Singles Chart in 1986, and they went on to perform at theGlastonbury Festival.[4] The second single, "Dickie Davies Eyes", also topped the indie chart.[4] In late 1986, the band split up, giving as a reason "musical similarities".[6] The albumBack Again in the DHSS, containing previously issued, unreleased and live tracks, followed.
The band reformed in 1990, with a performance at theReading Festival following, and a new single, "Let's Not", issued before the year was out, followed in 1991 by a collaboration withMargi Clarke on a version ofEdith Piaf's "No Regrets". Half Man Half Biscuit were championed by DJJohn 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 third album wasMcIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt, released in October 1991. By the timeThis 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 joinedRooney) and Alty (who joinedJoyrider) departed in 1996, to be replaced by Ken Hancock (guitar) and Carl Henry (drums).
In April 2010, the band's song "Joy Division Oven Gloves" from their 2005 albumAchtung Bono was the subject of aFacebook campaign to get it to No. 6 on the chart for 12 April 2010, in response to the rumoured closure of theindie-supporting radio stationBBC 6 Music.[10][11] The song reached No. 56[12] on 11 April 2010: this was their firstUK Singles 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, knockingUltravox's song "Vienna" off the top spot – itself part of a separate Facebook campaign the previous week.
Andy Kershaw described Half Man Half Biscuit as "One of England's most amazing bands"[13] and "the most authentic British folk band sinceThe Clash". James Dodd onBido Lito! praised (as many others did) Blackwell's "uncanny way of chronicling two of his greatest passions in life: television and small-town England".[14]Eliza Carthy praised the band for their "pathos disguised with wit and sarcasm", describing Blackwell as a "genius".[15] JournalistBen Myers has described Blackwell's lyrics as "the antithesis of most rock songs, and iconoclastic in their total avoidance of cliche".[16]
Geoff Davies of Probe Plus recalled that after hearing a test pressing ofBack 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).[17]
According to music writerPaul 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."[18] English writerJulie Burchill praised their "supremely clever and funny lyrics", and described the band as "punk with a sense of humour and a sense of perspective".[19]
References to Half Man Half Biscuit can be found on episodes ofEastEnders,[20]Brookside,Hollyoaks,Men Behaving Badly andByker Grove, as well as an episode ofFootball Focus and the BBC serialElidor. The cricket commentatorDavid 'Bumble' Lloyd often makes reference to songs and lyrics in commentaries, often completely lost on other commentators working with him.[21]
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