overlap

Not for the first time, this evening I've been to see Half Man Half Biscuit. Not a band I'm a diehard follower of, but definitely a fan and of some longstanding. In a perfect world, Nigel Blackwell would be hailed in the same breath as the likes of Ray Davies as a chronicler of the ways of Englishness, and I'm certain nobody else has ever combined as many geographical locations with their music, except perhaps Julian Cope. It's an appropriate sign of Nigel's appreciation of place then that the band play a major Welsh city on St David's day, and for the first part of the gig the headstock of his guitar features a daffodil. For the encore there's even a fair effort at Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (yes of course I checked, one typo in my original version ain't bad). Familiarity always helps, and there's only a couple of things played which I don't have my own copies of. All the same, I haven't heard Running Order Squabble Fest or Turned Up Clocked On Laid Off for years, and the additional verses in Paintball's Coming Home are a forgotten treat. It's easy to play the fantasy setlist game, but hugely pointless and ultimately frustrating, and I'm more than happy with what I got. And then I got in the car and the next song on the radio was The Cocteau Twins' majestic Bluebeard, which is also a source of nostalgic warm fuzziness and another song that I hadn't heard in years. Great night out!

Labels: HMHB