The support band, to be fair to them, suffered from lousy sound but were an OK local pub band. Very Wonderstuff-y, but in the end they were Generic Pop-Rock Band. At least they weren't po-faced about it and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
HMHB put on an excellent show. Lots of old stuff - Dean Friedman, Titmus, Dukla Prague (which was fantastic), Nerys Hughes (I can't speak any more because of that one). Other highlights were The Light at the End of the Tunnel, a great Uffington, Look Dad No Tunes, Fretwork Homework, Running Order Squabble Fest, and couple of (presumably) new ones - one about tending the wrong grave for 23 years, which has some great lines in it, and Blood On The Quad, which is quite similar to the skiffley/rockabilly type numbers on Cammell Laird. The Pringles in 24hr Garage People were cheap tonight - £1.05!
Nigel indulged in a fair bit of banter with the sound man - largely because he was crap at his job and didn't really sort the mix out till about half a dozen songs in. And it was one of the most static HMHB audiences I've seen - I actually got told off by some miserable old sod for jumping about. More of a mosh pit towards the end, absolutely mental during Nerys Hughes.
Curiously there was a bunch of girls at the front who can't have been more than about 14 years old, who seemed to be word-perfect on all the songs. Which is encouraging.