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

First things first, I've just got in from seeing Half Man, Half Biscuit for the first time in over a decade, and I've had an absolute ball. I get to see most of the bands I truly I love every year or three, or sometimes more often than that, at least the ones who are still playing. So this amount of time away from a band is an exception, largely because they don't play a lot of shows. So it's a very different experience to be faced with songs from half a dozen different albums that I've never heard live before, as well as a good few old favourites that are up to twenty years old. And in all of it there are still surprises, or references that finally drop into place - only yesterday I finally put together exactly which bits of 24 Hour Garage People are nicked from Rock Island Line. No pretensions and no risk of a flying fibre glass white tiger, just some good old traditional English curmudgeonliness and cynicism, and some eminently hummable tunes. Hovis Presley R.I.P.

Labels: HMHB