HMHB News Archive
July - December 1997
Oasis cover? (16/12/97)
Andy Martin with the gossip:
"Dawn 'out of tune' Cooper was in the Green Room at G-Mex last night
after Oasis and (under instruction from me) quizzed those Burnage
knobheads about HMHB. The resulting discussion about "All I Want For Xmas..." and
the 'that's worth thinking about' reply to a request to cover the Biscuits on a B-Side did make Geoff laugh.
Apparently Mr Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs is a big fan."
Make of that what you will...
New Peel Session (6/12/97)
Geoff tells me that HMHB will be recording a new Peel session in January, which as usual will feature all new songs, one or two of which you may have heard at recent gigs. Nigel's apparently got 10 or 11 new songs together now. The tracks for the forthcoming single are still not finalised; the end of January is looking likely for possible release.
There's hope of some dates in the south of England early next year - just need to find some venues...
Dukla Prague shirts revisited (again) (24/11/97)
Andre Rettelet writes regarding the Dukla Prague shirts (see below for more details):
Price will be £30 each (inclusive of p&p in the UK). These are this
season's shirts. A bit higher than I was hoping for (replicas would have
been considerably cheaper but I was after the real thing). The batch I
ordered should be in my grubby paws in about two weeks time, so hopefully
no problems for Xmas. Anyone interested should write to me at
7, Sidney Road
Staines,
Middx, TW18 4LP
enclosing cheques for the amount. I'll fulfil orders on a
first-come-first-served basis.
Mail Andre if you want any further info.
Some sounds... (22/11/97)
Andy Martin, promoter of the recent Star & Garter gig, is a regular correspondent on the "Ian Collins and the Creatures of the Night" show on Talk Radio (1053/1089 MW, 1-6.30am Tuesday-Friday).
There were some samples , but I had to remove them.
Would have put my plugging appearance on John Peel on as well, but I managed to tape over it. Looks like you've all been saved.
Dukla Prague shirts revisited (21/11/97)
Andre Rettelet writes:
Gerard, thanks for the plug on the HMHB page - thought I'd just let you
know where it's at.
I've had enough responses so far to justify going for it. Not thousands
but enough. I'll initially get 20 and see how it goes from there. The
club only has home shirts available but will get some away ones made up
by their suppliers for me (dunno how your mate got hold of one, but good
on him!).
The price is the current thorny problem - I could get old style shirts
cheaper but I've never seen those so that's a bit risky - could be made
out of old hessian sacks for all I know. Away versions of the current
shirts will at least be the genuine article - not replicas. However, the
price I am being quoted is quite high. We'll try and get it down but
ultimately it's also down to the cost per shirt for Dukla from Umbro.
Ordering twenty off with the potential for more is some bargaining
position (and at least means that they are available in the first place)
but it's not exactly Man Utd quantities either. The replica shirts could
easily be £20 a throw, but not the real ones.
Availability of either is around one month, which makes it tight but
feasible for Xmas (... and there are twelve days of Christmas...). I will
have firm details by the end of the week - particularly price - and will
let those people who have emailed me know them - but it would be great if
you could put them on the web page too.
Mail Andre if you are interested and haven't yet ordered.
Gig News (8/11/97)
An additional gig has materialised, at the Sheffield Boardwalk on Mon 8th Dec. The Wolverhampton gig is now confirmed for Sat 13th Dec. We thus have:
- Monday 8th December : Sheffield Boardwalk
- Saturday 13th December : Wolverhampton The Varsity
- Tuesday 16th December : Darlington Filibuster & Firkin (with Calvin Party)
General stuff: I've added a bit to the History, rearranged the Gig Guide into separate years (avoids confusion), and also moved the older news to an archive.
Finally, did you all hear my shameless plug for the website (and the Leeds gig) on John Peel last Wednesday? Thought not.
HMHB in the studio, plus gig news rumours (3/11/97)
HMHB have recorded five new tracks set for an EP release early in 1998. Track titles are not decided yet, but Geoff described them to me as something like
- Four Skinny Indie Kids (Drinking Weak Lager In A Camden Boozer)
- T For Toxteth (or perhaps Tennessee, not sure yet)
- You're Hard
- "a hippy-style rant" is what Geoff called it
- "a country-style thing"
Lighters (27/10/97)
There are now HMHB lighters (of all things) with the internet site printed on
them, which were handed out at the Manchester Star & Garter gig last Friday. Nothing to with me, mate, and nowt to do with Geoff or HMHB either - it's a big hand to Andy the promoter for these. He ran off 150 of them, with the internet address on and the quote "Even men with steel heart's love to see a dog on the pitch". The grammatical error is on the lighter, by the way (well spotted, Dizzy). Note the web address should be in lower case, too.
All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague away kit? (26/10/97)
Andre Rettelet is collecting names for a possible bulk order of Dukla Prague away shirts - any HMHB fans with an eye on Christmas interested? It's expected that they'll cost around £20 + postage, but this is only a guess. Mail Andre if you are interested.
Gig news, new release in the pipeline (5/10/97)
Geoff phoned me this afternoon. At last, there's a few gigs to report:
- Friday 24th October : Manchester Star & Garter (with Calvin Party)
- Thursday 6th November : Leeds Duchess of York
- Tuesday 16th December : Darlington Filibuster & Firkin (with Calvin Party)
Recording news: with the holiday season over, HMHB are going back into the studio imminently to finish off the five tracks that were started last month. It is expected that four of these tracks will then be released as an EP, although the idea of releasing three with "Paintball..." as a single has been mooted (and frowned upon by Nigel).
Finally, another review - HMHB hob-nob with the Dadrockers in current edition of Mojo.
News from Geoff (21/9/97)
I phoned Geoff on Friday afternoon to see if there were any developments. It seems that the threatened London gig has failed to materialise, as has virtually everything else. There is one date booked - Darlington on 16 December. More details nearer the time. Geoff was trying to organise gigs at Dudley JBs and Leicester (but NOT at the Physio & Firkin) when we spoke. Don't hold your breath...
On the recording side, five new tracks were recorded as promised last month, but there's no sign of further studio visits or talk of release at this juncture.
It seems that this website has reached the browsers of Probe's distributers, who have an exclusive marketing deal with them (or something like that). As a result, I've had to withdraw the Mail Order service. Sorry about that. You can still phone or write to Geoff direct at Probe, though.
Bad Review, Good Review (11/9/97)
You may have seen the
'review' of the new LP in the NME last week. Not convinced that the journo really gave it a chance, the less said the better I think. Select also reviews the LP this month, giving it a more favourable 4/5 and even including a (three-year-old) photo of the band for good measure.
Stuart McHugh has also written an article on the LP on his website,
check it out here.
I've added new improved scans of the "Dickie Davies Eyes" and "Let's Not" sleeves
(thanks once again to Stuart), and corrected a few dodgy anchors and links.
Gigs, general summary of (in)activity (28/8/97)
Not much progress on the gig front yet. Spoke to Geoff earlier
in the week; looks like there will be a London gig at the Garage
in the fairly near future, and tentative new agreements have been
made in Winchester and Buckingham. More news when it arrives.
On a general note, I've added a couple of reviews or the recent Bradford gig (anyone go to Edinburgh?),
made a few corrections to the various LP pages (ta to Simon Coward for the proof reading), added a few more references to the Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road
page, and inserted a link to the Bristol Rovers site's "Goodnight
Irene" page on the Peel Sessions page.
Geoff will be in touch when there's anything new to report.
Current activities (5/8/97)
Believe it or not, HMHB are due back in the studio this month, to start recording for the next LP. Perhaps that 2nd LP by Christmas isn't so unlikely after all…
Future gigs (5/8/97)
Geoff is currently trying to organise some gigs in the south of England. A London date is planned for September, and it'll be at either the Camden Falcon, Camden Electric Ballroom or the Garage in Highbury Corner. Exeter is on the cards, and Geoff is trying to sort something out in Oxford…
New LP crashes into chart (5/8/97)
You've probably all seen this by now, but "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road" entered the Independent Chart at No. 5 this week. At least, according to the NME it did. John Peel's played the whole LP on his show now; "See That My Bike's Kept Clean" has been announced as his favourite, and he played it again on his show tonight.
Edinburgh gig (21/7/97)
Aberdeen and Inverness in August are no more, but Edinburgh is confirmed at The Attic, 71 Cowgate, Edinburgh 0131 225 8382 on Thursday 21st August. Supports will be provided by Pizza Boy Delivery and Liquid Lunch. The ticket price will be set at £4 in advance or £5 at the door. Tickets will be available at Ripping Records in Edinburgh. Startex Concert Services are organising the gig, and more info will be posted on their website at http://www.compura.com/cp/startex.htm.
A further gig in Bradford is also being organised, which may well be the day after Edinburgh. More details when I get them.
A few questions for Chester gig-goers… (21/7/97)
- "Colin Partington" got a mention in one of the songs on Friday - anyone got any idea who he is?
- I'd also be interested to find out what Nigel sung instead of "When your horse leads the field inside the first furlong of the National" in 'Fear My Wraith'. Only caught the last bit which sounded like "Sandwich". Now if the Open were being held there, I'd have guessed at something like "when your man leads the Open in the first round at Sandwich" ... Any ideas anyone?
LP released 21 July…definitely (15/7/97)
The LP will definitely be released on Monday 21 July. Probe had 2,000 CDs in the shop when I spoke to Geoff yesterday, and he was busy mailing out promos at the time. The vinyl version hadn't arrived, but it was expected any time, certainly ready for release day. See you all at Chester…(Geoff Davies on the T-shirt
stall will point you in my direction if you want to buy me a drink…).
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