HMHB News Archive
January - December 2008
Mildly Impressed (29/11/08)
Brad Friedel had the delights of I Went To A Wedding... played to him on Football Focus today. It briefly appeared on the BBC Sport website, and then it was gone, but due to the delights of YouTube...
F***king 'Ell, It's David Lloyd (27/07/08)
David 'Bumble' Lloyd, the slightly mad ex-England cricketer, umpire and team coach and now Sky Sports commentator, is a bit of fan of the band, it seems. There was a mention in his column on the Sky Sports website last month, and during the Twenty-20 cup final yesterday, he described Geraint Jones' pink wicketkeeping attire as "like Joy Division Oven Gloves"...
Uncut, and Eliza Carthy again (25/04/08)
UNCUT magazine (issue 133, p 22. June 2008 - David Bowie cover) has a full page dedicated to HMHB - The Stars That Fame Forgot, with a quote from Eliza Carthy. Here's a PDF of the page.
CSI:Ambleside (29/03/08)
The new LP is out on 28 April. The tracklisting reads thus:
- Evening Of Swing (Has Been Cancelled)
- Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess
- Took Problem Chimp To Ideal Home Show
- Ode To Joyce
- Blue Badge Abuser
- Totnes Bickering Fair
- King Of Hi-Vis
- Lord Hereford's Knob
- On The 'Roids
- Petty Sessions
- Little In The Way Of Sunshine
- Give Us Bubblewrap
- National Shite Day
Eliza Carthy on 'A Country Practice' (15/02/08)
From The Guardian: Eliza Carthy describes a song that she feels defines 'Englishness' - she plumped for HMHB's A Country Practice:
Eliza Carthy
Half Man Half Biscuit: A Country Practice
"This is from their album Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral. More than Anne Briggs, Ian Dury and Queen, who I'm a massive fan of, this makes me think of Englishness. It's incredibly wordy and conversational, with Nigel Blackwell talking over beats and making up almost nursery rhymes. In this song, Blackwell goes all over the country to pick apart English people at our basest: trying to be famous or making money living on the streets rearing fat cows. Then at the end, there's a little old lady in front of the TV watching the millennium fireworks. As Sting plays on the roof of the Barbican, she dies alone because there are no hospital beds for the poor and she's got no family. The song seems over-clever and flippant, but it's bitter and very funny, which is very English: pathos disguised by wit and emotional detachment. It's like a camera flying over the country, zooming in and out; like watching a film of England."
The full article is here.
Mojo (10/02/08)
March's Mojo has a free CD that contains God Gave Us Life - see here.
Interview with Geoff Davies, August 1992 (22/01/08)
Gary Logan has sent me the transcript of another Strangled interview from the same day, this time with Geoff Davies - click here to read.
Interview with Nigel, August 1992 (12/01/08)
Gary Logan sent me the transcript of an interview he did with Nigel in August 1992 for The Stranglers fanzine Strangled. It was never published at the time, but it has now been resurrected - click here.
BBC 6music session (04/01/08)
HMHB appeared live on Marc Riley's Brain Surgery (presented by Rob Hughes) on BBC 6music on Friday, 4th Jan 2008, with a NEW session. Tracks featured were:
- Blue Badge Abuser
- Totnes Bickering Fair
- Joy Division Oven Gloves
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