I should have done this myself, but I was beaten to it by Stuart Vallantine of East of the M60 who’s done a fine job. Clicky on the link under the map for the full thing.
I should have done this myself, but I was beaten to it by Stuart Vallantine of East of the M60 who’s done a fine job. Clicky on the link under the map for the full thing.
Neil G
Newton Abbot doesn’t get a mention. Nor does Dawlish. Those came to mind quite quickly. I’m sure there are other omissions.
27 January 2009
Chris The Siteowner
And we shouldn’t get too parochial: what about Stavanger, Malmo, Enschede, Esch and Strømsgodset?
27 January 2009
Neil G
Not to mention Ghent.
27 January 2009
Ben
Nor Dundalk, perhaps it’s a work in progress like this site before we ALL get a bit too precious. 🙂
27 January 2009
Rob
Can’t see any mention of Bridgwater. Or Uffington. Or Sierra Leone.
27 January 2009
Richard
and Zeal Monachorum. Had a caravan there once.
27 January 2009
Paul F
Does it matter that it has the A552 (Nove on the Sly) but not Woodchurch Lane (Uffington Wassail)?
28 January 2009
Paul F
She stayed with me until
She moved to Notting Hill
28 January 2009
Charles Exford
I love it – GREAT WORK – another long-imagined project I would have never got round to doing myself. 114 songs and a map, picked over by pedants. So off the top of me head here’s a few more :
Bulbarrow Hill ?
Malmesbury on the Southern Edge of Salisbury Plain ?
Wem ?
Leominster ?
Three Cocks ?
Possibly also worth including are the 41 and 113 bus routes from ‘Little in the way of Sunshine’, which because of the mention of Duff Leg Bryn (of Wem) are almost certainly in Shropshire.
Though I must admit I have often wondered if the 113 should have been 513, as the latter goes from the same Whitchurch depot as the 41 (and would locate the staff canteen photo firmly in Whitchurch), through Duff Leg’s Wem, and would get Bryn to Shrewsbury where ample transport connections are available for Leominster.
28 January 2009
Paul F
This is superb – you mention a place on here and minutes later it’s on the map!
How about St Ives (Cambridgeshire)? Ely is there, but no St Ives.
28 January 2009
Paul F
And Macchynleth (sp?).
28 January 2009
Richard
Where Paul Ross lives
28 January 2009
Chris The Siteowner
It’s becoming like one of those celebrity stalking maps, except we’re stalking NB57’s holidays. Top work Stuart for getting all these suggestions on so quickly.
28 January 2009
Richard
Yes, its brilliant. We still need one for Bridgwater, as mentioned by Rob.
Oh, and Luton. ie Luton Town / Millwall 1985. So Millwall too at a push. (although I assume the re- enactment should have taken place at Luton at in this context Millwall is only a football club rather than a location).
28 January 2009
Dave F.
Ah, the beautiful sparkling healthy spa water of Bath, in Avon. But of course now in B&NES.
28 January 2009
Dave F.
Am I being stupid here? It says it’s user created. but I logged on & went to the map but can’t find a way to enter a location. What am I doing wrong?
28 January 2009
Simon
Top work, Stuart. Here are mine: Broadstairs, Kazakhstan and Rome (to see the pope).
28 January 2009
Chris The Siteowner
@Dave F: I don’t think anyone other than the map creator can add stuff, so I hope Stuart has a lot of time on his hands.
28 January 2009
Richard
Budapest (I was a teenage armchair Honved fan)
28 January 2009
Richard
The wailing wall, Jerusalem
28 January 2009
dj
stranraer (my home town) from jarg armani
29 January 2009
John Anderson
Great stuff. I think the foam party reference is to San Antonio in Ibiza rather San Antonio Texas! You could also include Palermo (Sicily) re the brothel storming in the same song.
29 January 2009
Dave F.
@Chris The Siteowner
You’re right, could be a busy time for Stuart.
@Stuart
Are you picking up the suggestions from here?
“You call Glastonbury, Glasto”…
I think the pin for this should be a the Pyramid stage, as the lyrics are referring to the festival rather than the town itself.
31 January 2009
Dave F.
Parbold, Wigan
Billing Aquadrome, Northhampton
31 January 2009
BarcaBlade
Prague (Dukla) – if we’re counting the football references
31 January 2009
Stephen Crossman
Good work all.
The Quantock Hills (in Somerset) from Joy Division Oven Gloves.
And very importantly my farm (close to Dunster, West Somerset) because that’s where the signs for “Asparagus next left” and the arrows to “new potatoes” were seen.
Both from Achtung Bono!
1 February 2009
Ian in Colorado
Spectacular, bravo.
Do we need one for the Isle of Thanet, or does Broadstairs cover that?
2 February 2009
Ian in Colorado
Oh….The Vatican?
2 February 2009
Ian in Colorado
Mansfield, with their very own Steve Malkmus……
New York (Skiffle).
Better pick a Caribbean beach, too. And Kent, Gwent, Senegal.
2 February 2009
Alan K
T for Tennessee requires a flag I think, as does the small
village of Threecocks near Twmpa in South East Wales!
2 February 2009
Steve
Am I just being dim, but I can’t find the Ogwyn Lake (Llyn Ogwyn) – perfect for a five mile hike around, if you have restless legs.
4 February 2009
Annie
What about Farnborough, as mentioned in “…..Gobshite”
4 February 2009
porkpie
excellent work, also you can add Saltergate (Chesterfield FCs ground) from 4 skinny indie kids.
4 February 2009
problem chimp
set Norfolk and it’s cold
Godzilla eats Diss
(plus nothing-much-next-the-sea,
i saw jesus but he didn’t see me
which i always assumed was wells-next-the-sea)
4 February 2009
Rob
Sierra Leone, a gentleman can find his way home from here but he’d be lost without an inside pocket
4 February 2009
Steve
And let’s not forget wave rage on Fistral Beach (Surging Out Of Convalescence)
4 February 2009
Steve
I’m not sure how easy this one’s going to be, but …
“Brian’s not home, he’s at the North Pole”
– Eno Collaboration
6 February 2009
Steve
You’ve got Enschede, but what about Waragem and Malmo!!
6 February 2009
Steve
“Upon Westminster Bridge” mentions Hampstead, Edgware Road and the Dead Sea. But you’ve already spotted the ‘pulled up at Bangor-on-Dee’.
While I’m here, “I’d like to warn your readers, Stapely Water Gardens, A nice day out but best to take a flask” (Letters Sent)
And “Twydale’s Lament” namechecks “Warwick Arts Centre”
I’m now going off to get a life.
6 February 2009
Joe
Just a couple.
The Backs, Cambridge – Blood on the Quad
Papworth Everard – I left my heart in papworth general
6 February 2009
Dave F.
(Alan) Brazil. – Yes, I know that’s stretching it a bit.
A47, which also stretches, from Birmingham to Great Yarmouth.
7 February 2009
Dave F.
South America & Iceland (Eno).
why Cuba has a tag but Iceland, I don’t know
Same with (West) Indies which isn’t, but Andes is.
The Camden Falcon (Get Kramer)
River Dee (Brain May). Not sure if it’s the one in through Chester or Aberdeenshire.
Stuart tags the N. Wales one as being quoted in Doreen but I can’t make it out. Just a nod to it with pleasure boats.
Sca Fell. (Doreen) Not Scafell Pike which is a different hillock.
Spain (Look Dad, No Tunes)
Senegal (Bob Wilson) is listed but not Kent or Gwent.
Blackpool (Lilac Harry Quinn) where Radiohead were ahead of many council by turning of all the lights.
Camber Sands (Lark Rising)
Rocky Mountains (Worried Man Blues)
Kansas (New York Skiffle) There’s a shack there, supposedly.
CBGB’s (NYS) A club famous for…. Oh, you know.
Stranraer (Jarg Armani)
Ghent, Belgium (I went to a Wedding)
Apologies if any of these have already been posted.
I’ve just got back from getting out more…
7 February 2009
zertrudetrout
3 local ones for me
“knutsford city limits” – m6ster
“in my bedroom in nantwich” – look dad no tunes
“let me hear you spell wilmslow, boy” – 24 hour garage people (peel session)
8 February 2009
Poolio
Keeping it European and a 2nd mention for Amsterdam with,
The Melkweg – where, if you’re particularly lucky, you might just see popular 70s punk outfit PragVec playing!
9 February 2009
Poolio
Is there a Buena Vista Social Club – or was that just the bands name?
9 February 2009
Corn-a-moose
Completists need both Poles. Brian’s gone to the North, and Shackleton didn’t quite make it to the South.
Rorke’s Drift could put another pin in the Southern Hemisphere.
9 February 2009
Mr Larrington
Poolio asks:
“Is there a Buena Vista Social Club – or was that just the bands name?”
There was a BVSC, in Havana, but the post-revolutionary Socialist Fiends had a policy of closing such places down. It seems to have disappeared in the early sixties and no-one now remembers where precisely it was.
10 February 2009
Dave the Train
“Trying to get to Parbold for a quarter past seven / and it isn’t going to happen” and “I hear you’re going to Billing Aquadrome”. See Dave F Jan 31st. Both from “Epiphany”, Peel Session 16th Nov 2004; not sure where else it appears. For the record, I drive trains to Parbold.
10 February 2009
Simon
Y is for Yate…
11 February 2009
Poolio
Earls Court – For a problem chimp at the “Ideal Home Show”
11 February 2009
Poolio
Totnes Bickering Fair… has anyone got a list of where’s been spotted (without having to trawl through the map)?
11 February 2009
Poolio
If you’re having Alan BRAZIL then I think Kendo NAGASAKI is a shoe in!
12 February 2009
Poolio
Sting singing on the roof of the Barbican….
I’ll never listen to HMHB the same again…
12 February 2009
Neil G
Er, Poolio, shouldn’t that be a ‘shoo in’, rather than a ‘shoe in’?
12 February 2009
zertrudetrout
Upon Westminster Bridge
the fireworks lighting up the [houses of parliament], death in [trafalgar square]
12 February 2009
Rob
Rampton gets a mention in Vitas Gerulaitis.
Vitas Gerulaitis is itself a small village in Patagonia.
12 February 2009
Matt
What about Pen Y Ghent which is in Lord Herefords Knob. Both mountains of course the aforementioned in Yorkshire.
Filey (also in Yorkshire) is mentioned in another but can’t remember which.
13 February 2009
Dave F.
In Even men with steel hearts….
It mentions ‘From Magdalene to Sellafield’
Would I be correct in thinking Magdalene would be the college at Cambridge Uni?
Also in the same lyrics Dock Road is mentioned which is next to Birkenhead’s err… docks.
16 February 2009
Poolio
Neil G: “Er, Poolio, shouldn’t that be a ‘shoo in’, rather than a ‘shoe in’?”
He’s right you know… always wondered about the origin of the phrase.
historically to do with ‘shoo-ing’ a horse over the line – of a pre-fixed race – enlightened, thanks Mr G – now shoo!!
16 February 2009
Poolio
Page 19 of todays Manchester Metro:
Best things in life:
At long last someone has created a Google map of every place ever mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit Song.
Fame at last?…
18 February 2009
dj
…it also gets a mention on scurrilous celeb gossip site popbitch today
Link (but you’ll probably have missed it by now!)
18 February 2009
Jim Clark
Rock City, Notts?
And let’s not forget the whole A47.
18 February 2009
Dave F.
and they go to Umbria with Carol…
Emerging From Gorse
It’s in Italy, don’t you know.
19 February 2009
Charles Exford
@ myself (there’s nothing like being pedantic about your own geographical errors):
as I said above, my reference to “Malmesbury” was off the top of me head and should of course have been “Amesbury” in Climie Fisher. But nor is it “Avebury” as arrowed on Stuart’s map. All of them wonderfully atmospheric places steeped in ancient history and legend. [ I think the reason I wrongly associated Malmesbury with HMHB has to do with the fact that it was in Malmesbury Abbey that King Athelstan’s great victory over the Danes, Scots, Norwegian Wools, etc. on a Wirral golf course in 937 is commemorated. One of several battles in the 9th and 10th centuries that decided which language we all speak as much as Hastings did, you know. ]
@ Dave F “Magdalene” is indeed the Cambridge college, “Magdalen” without the “e” being in Oxford (arguably a more famous and bigger college, so statistically more likely to be the one?). Legend has it that the Cambridge college added the “e” cos it was sicking of its post going to Oxford and vice versa. On the other hand both of them are pronounced “maudlin” so who knows ?
See also my lost post about “The Backs” being in Cambridge but Cambridge not having “quads”, which spookily ended up in another thread
20 February 2009
Charles Exford
“it was sicking of” !??!
Must do better, Exford (especially as I’m writing this while doing an external inspection visit at an English language school in Dublin).
20 February 2009
dj
i got lost in newfoundland – little in the way of sunshine
20 February 2009
Dave F.
“And they’ll get back from Copenhagen…”
Fear My Wraith
One disappointing statue…
21 February 2009
Dave F.
“Oh Dracula comes from Transylvania..”
Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus.
Why has Fear My Wraith been tagged with Colchester?
I mean, to start with I thought the map was for places, not people & anyway Bobby Svarc played for many clubs other than this one, & he was born in Leicester .
And the line “I read the news today oh boy” that is quoted is surely referring to Blackburn.
However, if you want to do people….
21 February 2009
grim
@Exford: Understandable, I’d say – after all it’s the “Duke of Marlborough pub at Amesbury,” and it’s all too easy to stick the “Mar” sound on to “bury,” and arrive at somewhere quite wrong, even though seemingly quite right.
I don’t see a pin in Detroit yet, but maybe that’s because we’re all refusing to worship there. Likewise, the Frankfurt jazz-tip scene. (Nove On The Sly, of course.)
22 February 2009
Michael
“He sang a salty song about a girl from Bangalore” – 27 yards of Dental Floss.
I feel bad nitpicking after such a grand effort, though!
22 February 2009
Dave F.
Ballad of Climie Fisher:
“…Norbury, South London.”
“…Canterbury Spur”
22 February 2009
Ben
Nairobi (Slums)
Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not
22 February 2009
Alan K
Neither of The Glyders (Fach or Fawr) are mentioned, from Evening of Swing
4 March 2009
Charles Exford
@ Dave F – we’re not doing people – the song specifically namechecks Layer (Road) in Colchester, but not Leicester or Blackburn.
Today I’ve mostly been CQTM about the two San Antonio’s on the map. I’m glad he stopped at just the two.
4 March 2009
MickeyMo
‘Gipton’ teenagers?
7 March 2009
Uncle Greg
The North of Scotland is a bit bare…
Elgin, Nairn and Brora (Multitude)
Stromness (Shropshire Lad)
Also
Biarritz (Two Chevrons)
8 March 2009
Dave F.
“the song specifically namechecks Layer (Road) in Colchester”
Ah! I really should pay attention more.
9 March 2009
Ted
Reykjavik… where the Chief Executive is ‘fresh from’ (ITMA).
10 March 2009
Wam
Heres A Few I Found:
Swindon – “A swindon council estate” – Breaking News
Australia – “Every Day is Australia Day” – A Country Practice
Berkshire – “A Berkshire Trout River” – A Country Practice
Chad – “£50 to Chad” – Petty Sessions
Henman Hill – “And a storm broke over Henman Hill” – Evening Of Swing (Has Been Cancelled)
Aldershot – “Sheepskin nose-band, kids in Aldershot” – Them’s The Vagaries
17 March 2009
Poolio
Parbold and Billing Aquadrome – Epiphany from Peel Session.
17 March 2009
Poolio
Take the 20:40 boxcar to “Bude” – Hair like Brian May Blues
17 March 2009
Poolio
Ghent – I went to a wedding – Saucy Haulage Ballads
There’s my hat-trick for the day!
17 March 2009
Charles Exford
@ Uncle Greg (March 8th, above),
The above comment suggests you know the lyrics to the most difficult verse of “Multitude”, a song which we don’t yet have on this site ? I’ve just been trying to work it out but I don’t have my slowy-down-CD machine during the hols.
(I wonder if you’ve e-mailed Uncle Greg about this, Chris ?)
Anyway, is it possibly something like:
Where the ******* *** of Keith
In a sidestreet has no beef
With Elgin, Nairn or Brora any more?
(must admit before Greg’s post I thought of ‘Cawdor’, realised it wasn’t, and now I realise the clue was in the Highland League table all along – BRORA )
***** *** it’s not ‘transit van’ is it ? Sounds more like “tranted”.
As in a a transit van bringing regional league fans to an away game ?
As in “You must have come in a transit” ? (etc)
6 April 2009
Charles Exford
Soz I meant to write “transit full” not “transit van”.
It isn’t that, anyway, but it’s something like that !
6 April 2009
Mr Larrington
Iceland’s on there, but Reykjavik surely deserves a mention as the palce from whence the Chief Executive has come in “ITMA”.
9 April 2009
Mr Larrington
Oh, and Calcutta (or whatever it’s called these days) – “the children of the Calcutta railways” – National Shite Day
9 April 2009
Dave F.
Earth (UWB)
Not sure where Stuart should stick his marker 🙂
10 April 2009
Wam
Heres some more:
Warwick Arts Centre – “Before heading north to Warwick Arts Centre” – Twydale’s Lament
Stapely Water Gardens – “Stapely Water Gardens; A nice day out but best to take a flask” – Letters Sent
Cemaes Bay – “Wide berth Akabusi at Cemaes Bay” – On Reaching The Wensum
🙂
13 April 2009
Mr Larrington
Arimathea, where the hosteller named Malcolm came from. Someone with a better memory than mine might be able to remember which song it’s from. The only problem then is to determine where Arimathea actually *is*, though I suspect it’s now a suburb of Jerusalem.
14 April 2009
Neil G
Mr. Larrington,
I believe it’s from Doreen.
14 April 2009
Jan
Presumably the Rollright Stones (24 Hour Garage People) can be found in either Great Rollright (SP326310), or Little Rollright (SP300310)?
15 April 2009
Dave F.
Jan
If you go to Stuart’s excellent site, you’ll see that it’s pinpointed to the millimetre.
You’re not the only one who seems unaware of its location, with the Stones’ official site claiming it’s next to the A99!
15 April 2009
Steve Malkmoose
OK so where exactly is Trumpton then, not to mention Chigley! 😛
16 April 2009
COLIN
It’s near Camberwick Green, silly
16 April 2009
grilly
i was thinking of ‘i’ll be busking this at embankment tube tomorrow’ from Epiphany, and wondered… should there be a hmhb google calendar, for notable hmhb dates and such like? eg, january 4th, epiphany. um… i’l get back to you if i find any more…
7 June 2009
Sim
I’m not quite sure why the Wrekin is marked where it is but it’s way out!
The Wrekin is just south of the A5 between Shrewsbury and Telford, this marker needs to be moved to the correct location!
Also, as a Shropshire Lad, there is no marker for Wem from “Country Practice”, “Duff Leg Bryn had drank too much again, Most of Wem was steering clear of him”. Wem is a small market town, which used to have a thriving brewing industry, just north of Shrewsbury.
By the way, can you add to this map yourself or just submit suggestions?
Love this site and the map, keep up the good work all you HMHB pedants out there!!!!!
4 September 2009
Sim
I’ll give you the grid ref., you might like to go, SJ 628 081.
Tonight I’ll be sitting on top of The Wrekin!
Doesn’t quite have the same ring!! ;o)
5 September 2009
steve nicholls
I love this. A labour of love, nice one Stuart.
I can’t think of anything that isn’t already there, although the flag for Matlock Bath seems to be in the North Sea. It’s a couple of miles south of Matlock in Derbyshire – you have to magnify the map a bit.
18 January 2010
steve nicholls
Oh, hang on, what about Blackpool?
“Some day, some say, one of these fine nights, the council’s gonna ask Radiohead to switch off the Blackpool lights”
18 January 2010
Swanaldo
How about the South Pole, as in ‘Shackleton retreated close to’?
20 January 2010
Mr Larrington
He wasn’t /that/ close to the Pole, though…
20 January 2010
Swanaldo
…and, to my shame, someone’s already suggested it above.
Note to self: read entire thread before posting.
20 January 2010
Andy
Any chance of including Dumfries? From M6ster. Don’t know of any other songs to mention it.
1 February 2010
Dave F.
27 Yards Of Dental Floss
“…I’ve got the Plymouth outside”
A car company named after Plymouth Rock where the pilgrims landed stateside.
10 March 2010
michael
The Caves of Drach, Majorca’s greatest caves.
14 March 2010
Precocious Mckenzie
“A rented house in Brooke Street”…somewhere in the West End of Derby. Site of Charlie Hudsons pigeon loft – “King of Rome”.
28 March 2010
Alan K
“Yeah that was me, down at Camber Sands
Signing in to my chalet as
J Buckley
J Buckley
J Buckley”
Unlikely… yes, Buckley, Flintshire exists. Well worth a tag, I reckon!!
28 March 2010
Charles Exford
But surely they don’t count if it’s not actually referring to the place ? Otherwise we’ll have chaos, and here’s just a few off the top of me head: Hull as in Rod Hull, Chester and Barnes (as in Chester Barnes), Rosenthal (town in Germany), Cadiz (as in Amoco), Sparta (as in “I for one feel spartan & monastic”). And more off the top of me google: Burgh in Argyllshire (as in Chris de), Faraday (somewhere north of Melbourne Australia), Belltower (Montana, USA), and somewhere called Armani (a tiny hamlet in Latvia). Not to mention Akabusi Close in Croydon (on the same estate, I kid you not, as Christie Drive, Pickering Gardens, etc).
So I’d go Plymouth no, Buckley no.
29 March 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Looking for other lists? We’ve got a page for all this list-making now.
9 April 2010
Dave F.
Get Kramer:
“unbalanced Lincoln woman”
10 April 2010
Dave F.
Badminton. The game was named after the House/Village in Gloucestershire.
10 April 2010
Chris Warwick
Everyone seems to have forgotten Wantage (possibly because you can’t get Teenage Eskimo there….)
27 July 2010
Dave F.
No Chris, it’s because it’s already marked on the map. Click the link below the map above.
27 July 2010
Ricardo
Matlock Bath appears to be located in the North Sea, ten miles south-east of Sunderland.
27 July 2010
Chris Warwick
Oops, sorry, hidden behind Uffington… Needed to zoom in a bit
27 July 2010
Ricardo
From new songs aired on last night’s BBC6 session
Watership Down
Belgium
Poundbury
Cornbury
Zurich
Harpurhey
Wick
Ilfracombe
Riga
12 August 2010
Bobwilsonanchorman
Tommys House Eco House, Knoydart!
15 August 2010
David
from an initial glance – Switzerland obviously nude
From ‘C.O.R.G.I Registered Friends’
“December sees Kitzbuehel
Clad in Lowe Alpine”
Kitzbuehel – a major ski resort in Switzerland
6 October 2010
David
Whoops, sorry. got that all wrong.
Kitzbühel is in Austria not Switzerland, and ‘Ralph’s in Brize Norton’ – also from C.O.R.G.I Registered friends’
2 May 2011
Gregg Z
“The Lakes” as in “Week in the Lakes/reasonable rates/Early September”
–“Dead Men Don’t Need Season Tickets”
I hear it’s lovely. Cumbria and such-like.
28 May 2011
SmileyD
Sorry to say you’ve mis-located(?) the South Downs – they run from Winchester (Hants) to Eastbourne (East Sussex). Guildford (Surrey) is adjacent to the North Downs. I know it seems a minor point but that will at least put Sussex on the map.
12 June 2011
Mart. Davies
Tried to visit Zeal Monochorum whilst on holiday a few miles away, Autumn 2010. Thought it would be a personal landmark visitation and fitting tribute to ‘our mighty Biscuit’, with a possible pint to match/accompany me: Unfortunately drove straight through, such was the anonymity of said pseudo holiday resort! Heard from a ‘local’, they were proposing turning it in to a holiday village of sorts. Better ensure it is better road-signed next time. ‘Muffa’.
6 September 2011
Mr Larrington
Snailbeach, Montgomery, the Stiperstones…
30 September 2011
FrankLloydReich
trainspotters
8 October 2011
Dave Wiggins
So it’s aggro you’re after eh, ‘Frank’? We know what your type are like, so don’t ever come near this site. We have a few cyberspace loonies on here, who will run you all over the virtual highway.
8 October 2011
Gogs (Fife)
Some missed out from Scotland:
Keith, Elgin, Nairn and Brora – ‘Multitude’ from Four Lads…
Wick – ‘RSVP’ from 90 Bisodol…
4 July 2012
Crown Green Bowler (29)
Where’s Animal Farm so we can put it on the map? We can’t ask either Dougie Bader or Arthur Askey.
Pinchfield and Foxwood are to be found all over England’s green and pleasant land, so they’re no help.
Bzzzzzzzz
24 August 2012
Martin A
It’s a while since I’ve read the book. I think it was in one of the southern counties, but it may be one of those things that’s never actually mentioned. As it’s an allegory for the former Soviet Union, you could argue for putting a marker where that was.
24 August 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
Orwell grew up at Henley-on-Thames and at Shiplake, so those must be candidates. I’m not arsed either way.
New question: how many places are mentioned in more than one lyric? (INot including different places within one town, such as Embankment Tube and Norbury.) I can only think of one offhand, and only one of the two songs has been mentioned so far in this thread.
25 August 2012
Chris The Siteowner
Listen up. This is brilliant. “Two amateurish cyclists” have resolved to visit every British place-name mentioned in Half Man Half Biscuit songs. Come on, it’s about time someone did. Anyway, you can follow their progress at halfmanhalfbikekit. How long will they last? We shall see…
29 August 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
This nicely complements the idea of emailing every person named in a HMHB lyric. What’s the next task to be? Foreign locations would be a challenge, especially the Polar expeditions.
Half Man Half Bike? Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman.
29 August 2012
John Burscough
I’ve seen some marvels on this website, but this one takes the…takes the…well, it takes something well worth taking.
@AR See PBRs thread 767.
29 August 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
@John, I’d carelessly overlooked PBR #767, must have been drunk or something. Discoveries like that are often forgetten in mouldy tomes in dusty libraries (think de Selby), so that a later worker takes the credit. Your suggestion feels so right it could be left. Origin of the name, parody of Half Man Half Bike. Maillot jaune.
(The whole purpose of this site is making chests which fit inside slightly larger chests which …)
I’ve found nothing about Henry Fotheringham except that he wrote that book. If NB doesn’t know TTP (and I’d wager he does), someone should give him a copy.
Do you think the HMHBikekit team should be warned of the risks they’re taking?
29 August 2012
Pop Tart Mark
Half Man Half Bikekit is so absolutely delightful that I feel somewhat guilty adding to their workload.
Gogs’ list of missing Scottish locations is itself missing Oban from “Something’s Rotten in the Back of Iceland.”
Being from that neck of the woods I can confirm that the surrounding area is rather lovely (if a tad hilly) to cycle around.
30 August 2012
Third Rate Les
Well done the Bikekit boys. Wonder if they’re visiting the sad remains of Stapeley Water Gardens?
30 August 2012
Chigley Skin
And you have to wonder if they’ve devised an ingenious way of reaching Hilton Park services by bike.
31 August 2012
John Burscough
And the Isle of Man.
31 August 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
Do you think it would be acceptable to fly there from Wick?
1 September 2012
Charles Exford
@ the bike lads – is “scabrous folk” supposed to be some sort of sub- genre then? I don’t think HMHB sing many “scabrous” songs at all by folk standards. Vatican broadside and a handful of others, maybe.
13 September 2012
John Burscough
I’ve never felt the urge to look up the definition of scabrous before, but according to Chambers its meanings include rough, harsh and beset with difficulties (which makes ‘scabrous folk’, at least as regards subject matter, a bit of a tautology).
14 September 2012
Cynical Uncle Charlie
The River Windrush (Twydale’s Lament) seems to be missing. It travels through a number of villages, including Bourton in the Water
13 February 2013
More LIKE KEN BARLOW
In the middle of National Shite Day …. ‘Barry’. I am sure this is reference to the south Wales town of my birth as it is closely followed by ‘Herpes’. Mind you, if herpes is all he got from a visit to Barry, he might have got away lightly.
9 July 2013
Bobby SVARC
Larry…………..Cancer is a line from Float On by The Floaters, Thats why they sing “Float, Float On” and then slip in “Barry ….Herpes”
9 July 2013
More LIKE KEN BARLOW
I’ll get me coat.
9 July 2013
Bobby SVARC
In this heat?
9 July 2013
schoon
Four years and still no Isle of Thanet?
12 December 2013
Half man half bike
Hi Chris and all,
Apologies if I’m posting this in the wrong place, but we wanted to announce that our map now includes destinations not yet bagged: http://bit.ly/2m1J0NJ Currently the blue circles are 132-105 up on the green bikes, with Scotland looking particularly daunting.
Incidentally, we reckon this is close to being a definitive record of UK destinations mentioned in HMHB songs. Correct us if we’re wrong of course….
Steve and Nick
15 March 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
@ Bike Lads, might as well reply in the wrong place, ‘cos you didn’t respond to my last suggestions anyway. The main reason I despair is that you’ve still got Heston (a cook) instead of Preston (kind of a destination), despite you asking for feedback in a similar post yonks ago. There were other corrections I’m sure but you probably won’t see this.
15 March 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
Some of the other quibblings of my previous before-the-gods-that made-the-gods reply are coming back to me:
* You’ve got the wrong Loggerheads and Hope – the pair are jut a few miles apart near the Clwydian Hills.
*Your Runnel & Bridge Street are spurious. There’s no way the songs refer to those particular streets.
*The Swan & The Queen’s, on the other hand, are very real. Their locations are referenced in the A-Z on here.
*You’ve got Cammell Lairds but not the social club itself which is nearer Rock Ferry.
*You haven’t got Chelsea
*the Butlin’s in question is Pwllheli. Fortunately you pass on the way from Barmouth to Abersoch, or vice-versa.
* Don’t do the Wirral before the next album, cos the Royden Park batwalk can also be cycled, and the garage in constant use won’t be hard to find either.
15 March 2017
HALF MAN HALF BIKE
@EXXO Re 148-149
Hi Exxo,
Sorry we didn’t see your suggestions the first time – somehow we managed to miss the discussion entirely. Thanks very much for your help. So…
LOGGERHEADS AND HOPE
After a detailed re-reading of FISSDOM, reviewing the debate in these parts, and studying some maps, we think you’re right and that we probably didn’t need to cycle the 52 miles between Loggerheads in Staffs and Hope in Derbyshire. We’d be annoyed if we didn’t already have to head that way to bag the Clwydian hills.
THE RUNNELL
We were with you at first, but someone on Twitter was so passionately convinced that it’s the lane that leads down to Parkgate that we added it. We’re easily swayed like that. It’s certainly questionable, but we’d rather err on the side of caution.
BRIDGE STREET
A tricky one. There’s currently no No 71 bus on either side of the Mersey but thanks to local historian Francis Frith we discovered that such a service used to run between Heswall and Birkenhead. Although there’s no overhead railway bridge over Bridge Street in Birkenhead, we can’t find another Bridge Street with an overhead railway bridge anywhere else either. So we’re going to do it anyway.
THE SWAN
There’s nothing in Soft Verges (Shepperton, South Downs, etc) to lead us to believe it’s The Swan in Prenton.
THE QUEEN’S
Again, nothing in the song to specify a particular Queen’s.
HESTON
You’re spot on – we’ve removed that one.
PRESTON
This is also a reference to a person – “Preston” from the dreadful “Ordinary Boys” – so we don’t have to go there.
CHELSEA
Debatable, as it refers to the Fulham-based football club rather than the area, but we’ll add it on the basis that we’re doing Accrington Stanley (and have done Luton Town and Millwall). Not too much of a headache as we also forgot to do St Martin’s on our last London tour.
BUTLIN’S
According to our completely arbitrary rules, we don’t have to go there, as (regardless of authorial intent) no geographical place is mentioned. For the same reason, we don’t have to go to a Tesco.
CAMMELL LAIRD SOCIAL CLUB
Good point – we’ve moved the marker
Thanks again!
Steve and Nick
18 March 2017
Nigel,no not that one (nx3to)
I believe Preston references the Football Club, Preston North End.
The banter being with the fans thereof.
18 March 2017
The harbinger of nothing
No sign of The Budokan on the map… I think Cheap Trick played there once.
26 October 2017
Paul
I rather enjoy playing an online “Guess the location” quiz thing called Geoguessr.
https://www.geoguessr.com/
I’ve just signed up for a pro account, so that I can make my own maps. And yes, I’d like to do every British location mentioned in HMHB songs. So this here map will be useful. Thank you 🙂
11 May 2018
Tom
Needs harwich
‘In the grime of lorries bound for harwich and beyond ‘
17 May 2018
surprised of anglia
. . . . and beyond?
17 May 2018