“Shop around with Johnny Kwango”
So… what do we know about Johnny Kwango?
The A to Z of HMHB
The A to Z of HMHB
There are 14 Half Man Half Biscuit albums, plus two roundup compilations, as well as 4 EPs and a handful of one-off songs. No 'Greatest Hits'. Indulge yourself by starting here.
In which we chose the nation's favourite Half Man Half Biscuit song. For the next four years, anyway.
Search for any lyric, reference, song title ...whatever.
The Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project website © 2007—2021 Chris Rand • All lyrics are the property of their owners
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THIS LEADEN PAUL
Real name John Lagey, formerly a ballet dancer.
25 June 2015
peter mcornithologist
Thank you Mr.Blackwell for taking me back to the golden age of wrestling.Johnny was one of wrestlings good guys, famous for his flying head butt which would stun one of the eras villains. We were also entertained by Honey Boy Zimba, who was also known as Nigel the Warrior.
25 June 2015
gok wan acolyte
Gave his name to organisations established by the Government and supported by public money, but at arms length from them. In a later move, the spelling was modified (in the same way that Sparrow Grass became Asparagus) to Quango because the original, with its hints of the working class sport of wrestling, was seen as too common by the establishment.
25 June 2015
Bobby SVARC
Les Kellet was better
26 June 2015
Jeff Dreadnought
One of several wrestlers of the seventies and early eighties (or bands named after them) to feature in the songs. Others that spring to mind being Kendo Nagasaki and Blackfoot Sue. And maybe Jimmy Saville, although he was a wrestler in the kind of the same way that Adolf Hitler was a painter. If you widen the list to include actors who played alongside other actors who were also wrestlers, you could add Jimmy Nail as well.
26 June 2015
Sid Snot
Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation, or, quango, is what the acronym currently stands for, as to where it got its origins from is open to debate, as to Johnny getting involved originally, who knows, he’s passed on and we’ll never probably know the whole truth.
24 November 2017
gipton teenager
Reading about wrestlers from the 60s reminded me of Mr. Adams at my school. He used to moonlight as “Pete Best” on the wrestling circuit, sometimes turning up at school with a black eye or cut or graze. Nobody said anything of course.
28 November 2017
wobbly-jelly
Not sure how it ever came up in conversation, (probably beers after work) but I worked with Johnny’s granddaughter – they were dead chuffed when they heard this song and that someone else was a fan.
24 December 2017
John anderson
I used to work with the granddaughter of Johnny Hutch, the little bald fella who would often get slapped on the head by Benny Hill.
24 December 2017
Sheridan von Smaekerei
The magnificent Johnny Kwango’s name does not in fact derive from the acronym “Quango” as some loon suggested. Kwango is actually one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and takes its name from the Kwango River, a tributary of the Kasai River that defines the international boundary between the DRC and Angola. Sources suggest Johnny’s heritage was in Nigeria.
P.S. Check out The Bevis Frond’s song “Johnny Kwango” – delightful melodic song in a quaint English fashion!
Yours,
Sheridan von Smaekerei
4 February 2019
EXXO
Look up now, Shed (may we call you Shed?) and you’ll see the Goodyear airship. Named because it looks like one of Tim Brooke-Taylor’s ears.
4 February 2019
dR desperate
Billed as ‘The King of the Head Butts from West Africa’. Lost for words when, following a charity wrestling match at the Royal Albert Hall in 1963, the Duke of Edinburgh asked him where precisely in Africa he was from.
4 February 2019