HMHB News Archive
January - June 1997
Photos (29/6/97)
Russ Reid has provided me with a few of scans; one taken at Tranmere Rovers FC
in around 1986, a second 'posed shot' also from 1986, and the third from Q magazine in 1994. I've also included them on the Brief History page.
Tour dates (26/6/97)
Geoff has confirmed Chester (Telford's Warehouse) for 18th July - see you there. Three dates in Scotland are also planned for the period August 14-30 (summer holiday anyone?) in Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
LP put back, ordering info, 2nd LP still planned (26/6/97)
Just got off the phone to Geoff. SRD are finally pressing the Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road LP/CD. Geoff still hasn't got copies yet. The release date has been put back to 14th July. But a cheque for £11.50 made out to PROBE PLUS, sent to the address on the Mail Order page should get you a copy before it hits the shops.
Geoff also tells me that a 2nd LP to be out for Christmas is still on the cards at the moment…
LP surfaces (26/6/97)
As a few of you might have heard, the LP "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road" has surfaced on Peel's programme this week. So far, "See That My Bike Is Kept Clean", "Bad Review", "Shropshire Lad", "Dead Men Don't Need Season Tickets", "Deep House Victim's Minibus Appeal" and "CAMRA Man" have all been aired. Check out the RealAudio of Peel's programme at the Radio 1 Website in the Listening Room, and you should catch the latest programme. Peel pronounced the record as "almost certainly one of the LPs of the year unquestionably" (or something like that). Full track listing and a good few references are now available
on the Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road page.
Nigel speaks!… (9/6/97)
Yep, a sound file finally appears on the Biccies page. Listen to Nigel regale us with a lamentable tale of the demise of Climie Fisher…(.wav file, 355K). Ta to Russ Reid for supplying it.
A reader writes… (8/6/97)
Russ Reid writes:
Have you heard of The Mental Eddies? I was once in a band with Ken called Jegsy Dodd and the Sons of Harry Cross and one with Carl when we were 16 called The Durge. Blimey!
The Mental Eddies consisted of Simon Biscuit on guitar Paul on bass and Spen from The Sons on drums. This was during the spell when HMHB had split around 1989. I saw them at a concert for Hillsborough which we also played at and they did 'Nerys Hughes' but changed the lyrics to the effect of 'bath water ' instead of 'spa water of Bath' etc. The Sons did a couple of records on Probe Plus before I joined. That ends this chunk of Biscuit trivia!
Web page reorganisation (26/5/97)
Never one to ignore public demand, a new page has been added to the site - the Guest List, a page mainly for you, the reader (is this corny or what?) which will function as a place for gig reviews to be posted, as well as a "fixture list" of future gigs. I'll still post news of forthcoming gigs on this page as well, just to make sure no-one misses out. Thanks to Simon Betts for the idea.
V2 deal falls through…the full story (26/5/97)
Possibly the most unlikely HMHB story ever - the Biccies signing to a major - eventually came to nothing, despite looking pretty certain a couple of months ago. As reported below, the man at V2 (Virgin offshoot) with whom the deal had been agreed went missing, delaying the LP release. When Geoff finally got through to V2 again, a different voice answered the phone - apparently the guy the deal had been sorted with had been 'shifted sideways' within the label, and now deals with Scotland only. The new fella
still said that he liked the Biccies stuff, but he had to find his own stuff to prove himself or something - so deal was off.
This all happened a few weeks ago, and left everyone a bit despondent at Biccy central (more because the LP still hadn't been manufactured, rather than because they hadn't signed). The problems have been compounded by Geoff being virtually broke, and having great difficulty getting the LP pressed due to the cutters wanting some cash. Nigel was all for scrapping the LP, since the tracks on it are around 20 months old, and a lot of the references made are not exactly current anymore, but finally the decision was made that it should still go out. Pressing is now going ahead, and the plan is to get it released in early July, before the record company "dead zone" period of mid-July to mid-August. Here's hoping!
2nd HMHB LP this year? (26/5/97)
One consequence of the V2-inspired delays is that Nigel has written another half a dozen new songs already (Mr. Prolific, eh?). This has led to the idea that a second Biccies LP could well appear by the end of the year…you heard it here first!
Other Probe activity (26/5/97)
Geoff has been telling me of some other stuff he's currently involved in. He's working on some material with Laserboy, who you may have heard on Peel recently. Geoff compares their songs to early Devo.
Also, John Donaldson of Calvin Party is to put out a solo LP, apparently after John Peel suggested that it could be a good way to get better recognition (singer/songwriters are taken a bit more seriously than groups). Some the material originated in Calvin Party, but has a radically different arrangement. It's still quite raw, but hopefully will appear to the general populus a bit more (there's cellos and mandolins on there, for God's sake). Can't wait meself, cos I'm a bit of a fan. Check John (and Calvin Party) out.
Surprise new release! (17/3/97, updated 25/3/97)
Well, sort of. German magazine "What's That Noise?" has a 7" EP on it's cover, which features HMHB's "Dead Men Don't Need Season Tickets" (as previewed in the 14/10/96 Peel session), as well as tracks by Faust, Die Goldenen Zitronen and David Thomas (of Pere Ubu) And Two Pale Boys. It's not on general release over here, but John Peel has played it on his show. See the discography for full details.
HMHB to sign for Virgin offshoot? (17/3/97 update)
Yep, you read it right! I learnt of this back in January, but forgot to post it up here. The Virgin offshoot label V2 have approached HMHB to sign for them. From a phone call 14/3/97, Geoff says that they should have decided within a fortnight. All this has, of course, put the LP back still further - it's on hold until the
V2 business is sorted out one way or the other. (Cheers to Darren Marsland for phoning Geoff!). From 17/3/97, Geoff says that a "proposal" is supposedly on the way to Probe HQ, although their having trouble tracking down the man at V2 on his mobile!
HMHB f**k up John Peel's Festive 50 (1/1/97)
Yep - Half Man Half Biscuit proved John Peel's biggest challenge yet to his annual Festive 50 show. Listeners voted for the aforementioned Paintball's Coming Home as the number 43, but the great DJ couldn't remember where it came from. If only he surfed the net eh, he might have been able to find out here :-). Having not played it in its given slot (i.e. between 44 & 42), he was later put right and we had to wait until the following week to hear it. Still got it slightly wrong mind - he played A Shropshire Lad as well, which segued into PCH.
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