Every time there’s been a Lux Familiar Cup on this site, there’s been a Liquid Room(s) gig to go with it. This year is no exception, making it four in a row. Nice coincidence. How did it go?
Every time there’s been a Lux Familiar Cup on this site, there’s been a Liquid Room(s) gig to go with it. This year is no exception, making it four in a row. Nice coincidence. How did it go?
KESWICK ROASTERY
Many a DPAK to be seen – many a man pushing into me – many a great song played. My first immersive HMHB experience! Well worth pushing past the Beyonce crowd.
19 May 2023
Bad loser
At last the cover of Germ Free Adolescent appears. Long after I’d given up on it for FBL purposes.
19 May 2023
TwistedKiteMike
Once again, the boys popped up with the goods.
Nice touch to have “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” as the walk-on music and fair play to the audience for giving a good rendition.
Not too much chat from NB10 tonight as they were on a tight schedule, but it will be captured and reported back by Team Roger.
Here is the menu for your delectation: –
Light Tunnel
Bob Wilson
Buried in the Morning
Fred T
Renfield
27 Yards
Awkward Sean
Petty Sessions
Wrong Grave
Time Flies By
Eno Collaboration
Vatican
Terminus
Big Man Up Front
DPAK
Chatteris
Hedley V
When I Look at My Baby
NSD
AOR
Midnight Mass Murder
Busy Little Market Town
Oblong
Trumpton
Bell Rings
………………………………..
Trad Arr Tune
Germ Free Adolescents (X-Ray Specs)
JDOG
And so we move after a respectable break from Scotland to Wales. Roll on July.
Mike…………………….
20 May 2023
Hendrix-tattoo
After a epic 9 hour train journey and my own personal NSD.
Finally made it to the gig. But it was all worthwhile to hear 28 belting songs including a storming X-ray Spex cover. And you know what I’m gonna say next @Gordon Burns.
The best gig of the year so far for me…(In Scotland)
20 May 2023
Bad loser
A quick review before leaving the cramped confines of the easyhotel: it is like one of those Japanese pods. It was either this or sell a kidney to pay for a room thanks to the invasion of Beyonce fans. Unfortunately I had to listen to a couple of them for the full journey up here too.
Was walking past the venue at about 6.15 and saw a few familiar faces so decided would join the queue. Bit of a shambles getting in for those of us who had printed our own tickets. The girl on reception couldn’t find the names on her lists: no scanner and no sort feature to put everyone in alphabetical order. Welcome to the 21st century. Tony, in front of us, gave up as he was concerned about losing his spec. We followed straight him down the stairs and managed to secure our normal spot.
Great to have There Is A Light That Never Goes Out as walk-on in tribute to Andy Rourke. A reminder of my wedding day as I had that played just after the service.
Of course it was a great gig. As usual when a few minutes is trimmed from the set, there is reduced banter. The only diversion from the setlist was an impromptu Busy Little Market Town when Nigel had to leave the stage to get h his capo.
Karl did the playing behind his head bit on Hedley Verityesque: a tribute to Verity’s ability to bowl a wrong ‘un: the now politically incorrect ‘Chinaman’ or simply because he’s an extremely talented guitarist? I’m sure it’s the latter.
20 May 2023
dic aberdaron
can’t wait for llangollen
20 May 2023
KESWICK ROASTERY
Do they always do a little bit of Skids’ ‘The Saints Are Coming'”? I got very excited and sing-a-longy when they broke out into it before one of their own songs.
20 May 2023
Ferencváros fan
Cracking gig. The ‘I Was There Then’ moment for me was the cover of Germ Free Adolescents. Always loved that track to death.
Big thanks to all fellow Biscuiteers for making Bev feel so welcome before the gig. Just a bit disappointed that your efforts to persuade her to come along to the Liquid Rooms were as futile as mine. She did love your company though, so thanks again.
20 May 2023
Bad loser
Arrived home just 6 hours 20 after leaving Waverley: a new record. Good preperation in case a return to Exeter is on the cards sometime.
20 May 2023
Hawkeye mcgiddycuddie
First hmhb gig for me, flipping great night, had the missus with me, she’d never heard them before but managed to come out smiling, cant wait to see them again.
20 May 2023
Eric t’viking
Thoroughly enjoyed a first Biscuit gig in Scotland, though found the Liquid Rooms a somewhat compact venue. The sound quality seemed good, even heard JD Meatyard clearly. No moshing appearded to break out, just modest swaying and occasional bouncing (save for the whirling dervish that is Phyllis Triggs).
A pair of lesser spotted oven gloves were present on this occasion, waved enthusiastically over at Neil’s side of the stage.
It sounds like some people had awful train journeys. Can recommend using Straiton Park’n’Ride for anyone choosing to drive up to Edinburgh in the future, though do double check which bus to take when heading back to the car – I was mistakenly looking for an X37, which meant I would still have been waiting at the stop come Monday morning….
21 May 2023
Jonny Mac.
Tremendous gig! I have Chris TSO and Neil to thank for helping myself and my gig going mate get in to The Liquid Room on Friday evening. Thank you. Very much appreciated. Drove down and back from Inverness and although we got home in the wee small hours it was more than worth it! HMHB were in great form. Nice touch with There is a light as walk on music and delighted to hear GermFree cover (we had been having a chat about Poly Styrene on our way down the A9). Looking into The Boiler Shop gig now and wondering if it’s too far?!?? Friday night so could possibly stay over. Until next time.……
21 May 2023
parsfan
Sounds like everyone had a good time, I know I did.
The day started with a walk up Arthur’s Seat where I met a girl from Bangalore (half of the
SwedishIndian couple George befriended. Dog still full of beans at the toposcope, others might have been dog-tired.When I got home I told my wife I planned to make a model of it in the garden.
“To scale?” she asked.
“No. Just to look at”.
As well as many of the usual crowd I met loads of other folk from my other lives – more than usual for other gigs and only one two I’ve seen at gigs before.
I imagine there’ll be much info to come from those who document such things, for my part here’s the Edinburgh setlist and link to video of full gig on YouTube. Many thanks to Andy for that, Phil’s view of the encore to be added shortly.
Cheers
21 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Roger Green’s review, originally published on Gez’s site and reproduced with thanks to both Roger and Gez.
A question from the floor. Well actually it was from Tony. With us being in the middle of a trio of England-Scotland-Wales gigs (Hull-Edinburgh-Llangollen), he was wondering if it had ever happened before where three consecutive gigs had covered the three different countries. Upon investigation, we only have to go back to 2019, when the band straddled the island between March and June with gigs in Cardiff, Newcastle and Edinburgh. See also 2011, when they had a run of Edinburgh-Kendal-Cardiff. Gez’s records only go back to when the internet was manufactured in 1996 using old Corn Flakes packets and sticky-back plastic. I suspect anything beyond that would require consultation with the diaries of dear old Geoff.
Errors and omissions. I forgot to mention that the Hull gig was on the hundredth anniversary of the first FA Cup final at Wembley. David Jack, Billie the white horse and all that. I’m anticipating something similar at the Llangollen gig in July. Tickets for the HMHB show have sold out, but priority tickets for the whole festival were still on sale, when we last looked. It includes “priority entry to all our main events” – one of which is the sold out HMHB show. It will be interesting to see what happens if all the people with priority tickets get let in first, and then those with just HMHB tickets can’t get in. Or vice versa. Will it be like the Battle Of Towton all over again? Bearing that in mind, you might also want to move quick with the three other shows this year. Bristol, Wolverhampton, Holmfirth are all still available, but you don’t know for how long.
Stop Press. Another one has been added. The band has opened its account for 2024. They will be at The Boiler Shop in Newcastle on Friday 9th February. Beware though. Reading their website, The Boiler Shop appears to have a “no football shirts” policy. What? Does that even apply to Dukla, Honved and Ferencvaros?
Other gigs are still not quite happening for us. We had marked in the diary another show by HMHB’s near-neighbours The Webb in Leeds. But you know how it is. Get home from work. Sod it. Off to bed. We made a solemn vow to catch them the next time they are this side of the hills. Talking about solemn vows, it was the Coronation gig that same weekend. We went out in the car with Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road in the CD player.
Vicky Leandros of Whit Week Malarkey (and Eurovision) fame was mentioned briefly in the introduction to this year’s show. Originally from Corfu, she won the competition representing Luxemburg decades ago. We lasted for half a dozen songs of this year’s contest before our interest ran too thin. That was quite good going by our usual standards. Another personality mentioned in passing in a HMHB song is Bert Royal (in Footprints). Sad to hear about his passing. He and Vic Faulkner were a tag team, featuring regularly on ITV’s World Of Sport back in the day.
More life imitating art. On the bus to Wakefield one of the passengers berated the driver for setting off before she had sat down. Just like Breaking News had never happened.
As we were making our way to Edinburgh on the train, the sad news came through about Andy Rourke’s death. Karen and I are part of the HMHB/Smiths Venn diagram crossover. We are not alone, judging from the singalong to There Is A Light That Never Goes Out at the Leamington Spa gig earlier in the year. On the way, Karen noted the Angel Of The North had outstretched arms at quarter to three, and as we passed through Newcastle she noted that there was, contrary to Gazza’s and Lindisfarne’s claims, no fog on the Tyne.
Oh, and you know trains have electric plug sockets, so you can re-charge your mobile phone and/or laptop? We saw someone heating up her hair straighteners. Just wondering if you can take a microwave on board. Or maybe a record player?
After arriving in the city, we reminded ourselves of our route to the venue and took lunch at Bertie’s Proper Fish And Chips restaurant, nearly next door to The Liquid Rooms. All good stuff. They even do deep fried Mars bars. After that fill of maximum cholesterol, it seemed natural that I should do a tour of Greyfriars cemetery. There were some very grand gravestones in there, but you are always left noticing the lack of memorials for the lower orders.
While out and about, I saw Neil. He had been topping up on his whisky supplies. Like you do. No goss on any future shows, I’m afraid. I suppose the announcement in the week about the Newcastle show is enough to be going on with.
The press review took me in the direction of The Scotsman. They had a decent feature on The Damned, but there was no gig page or similar. Likewise in The Edinburgh Evening News. No word at all on the fact that HMHB were in town.
Everything in the evening’s schedule was slightly earlier than normal. Doors open at 7.00 and doors closing at 10.00. This called for a prompt arrival outside the venue. Even then, we had been beaten to the punch by Graham and Sarah, and were only just ahead of Andrew and Phill. Others hovering around were Brian and Mrs Brian, Graham Le Taxi, and Steve H. Both Andrew and Graham had forsaken a crucial Bolton Wanderers match for the sake of this gig. Didn’t turn out to be a bad decision in the end.
There seemed to be a bit of a delay with letting folk in where they had e-tickets. We had paper ones (remember them?), a swift tear off and we were straight through. I talked with Miles at the merch stall. Nothing new in stock, so it was down to the front to catch up with one and all. Mike, Elizabeth, George, John, Steve A, Chris, Ian, Lou, Jay and Thorsten. Andy was paying homage to Statler and Waldorf with his perch up on the balcony. Hearty greetings to Chris’s son Alex, who was making his debut tonight. It was a good effort from Thorsten, travelling over from Germany. But the gold medal went to Lorna for her jaunt from New Hampshire. That award was on the assumption that there was no one else there who had travelled further.
Some fine tunes were coming out of the PA. Notably The Sweetest Girl. Not heard that for years and years. Just Like Honey and O Superman were also played. I just had time for an exchange of Hellos with Nigel and Jo from Goole, and then JD Meatyard was on stage.
Actually, it was just JD. John Donaldson. I’m not sure if the band is still a going force. He has the same vitriolic approach, with or without them. At the end of his set, I shouted for his list of songs, but none was forthcoming. All I could recognise were Standing On The Shoulders, That’s The Story Of My Life, Pablo Picasso and his best song, Ubu At Erics. John keeps aiming for the non-Daily Mail audience. I can’t see anything wrong with that. He often fits these HMHB supports with a couple of gigs of his own. On this occasion, he was heading to the Celtic match on the Saturday, and then seemingly back home to Spain.
Reports came through that Postman Tony was running late. He was having his own personal National Shite Day as a result of train cancellations and having to make up an alternate route. As it turned out, he made it through the door just in time for HMHB’s set. Shite Day was a theme on the trains. Andrew, Steve H and Andy all also reported delays.
It was a nice gesture that HMHB’s walk-on music was There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. As at Leamington this generated a good singalong. Nigel said “Andy Rourke RIP” before the first song, hmm, I wonder if there was a deliberate Light/Light link there? A couple of notes on band attire. Carl had his 3743 t-shirt, while Karl was wearing one from Skeleton Records. I’m not sure which direction the venue faces, so I can’t be sure if Nigel was correct when pointing to “Kent, Gwent, Senegal”. The only celebrity spotting of the evening was Lawson Craddock.
“This is our third song” announced Nigel before the band played I’m Getting Buried In The Morning. There was an exchange with a guy in the crowd. “I remember you from twenty years ago. Well, actually I remember your shirt. It could do with an external aerial”. And there was a line, possibly to the same person… “Did I see you at the Scottish Owl Centre yesterday? They’ve missed a trick,it should really be called ‘Hoots Mon'”.
During Fred Titmus, a punter was escorted from one side of the moat to the other. Nigel hoped he would be let back in. In Renfield’s Afoot, “booking was absolutely essential, in block capital letters, even though it was a free event”. No police torches, of course. Nigel repeated Tony’s joke about going to see the Camera Obscura. But he couldn’t find it.
A photographer was patrolling in the moat. Nigel struck up a good pose for him. Neil’s intro to Awkward Sean was a few lines from The Saints Are Coming. Nigel’s quibble in Petty Sessions was “That was a five-pound note.” And while in the meadow of consolation in Tending The Wrong Grave, Karl did the usual guitar treble notes. To which Nigel noted “I wasn’t expecting Johnny Greenwood.” And he said that the glebe cow must have been a Friesian. It was another true story.
Eno Collaboration included a solo by Nigel on a toy car horn. That definitely added to the feel and structure. Nigel’s guitar needed tuning, so he swapped instruments with Karl while he played Rock O’ My Soul and Vatican Broadside. The usual requests from the floor were met with the usual response… “Len Ganley? Yes, that’s one of ours.” There were two covers tonight. A splash of Orange Juice in the main set, then X-Ray Spex in the encore.
Nigel talked about an idea for a t-shirt, which he can’t be arsed to get off the ground. A crossover between Bod and Breaking Bad. Breaking Bod, of course. Nevertheless, look out for it in the shops. He liked one punter’s constant chuckling “It’s like being at a Ken Goodwin concert,” he added. “King of comedy.” During Hedley Verityesque Karl played the guitar behind his head. “I taught him that,” said Nigel, demonstrating the same manoeuvre, and he suggested that Neil should do the same with the bass. Some other time, eh?
Midnight Mass Murder was dedicated to the vicar of St. Giles. There was a bit more car horn during that one. It produced a good response from the floor. As Tony said to me afterwards, “I think it’s fair to say it’s a crowd pleaser.” After that, Nigel realised he had left his capo in the dressing room. While he went to fetch it, Carl, Neil and Karl struck up with Busy Little Market Town. On his return, Nigel said “The Band, ladies and gentlemen”. He also had other equipment problems, a regular feature being the lead coming out of his guitar. This time it happened during The Trumpton Riots.
Another regular feature is the appearance of Nigel’s caravan guitar for the encore. “One thing it won’t be is in tune,” he assured us. “It’s going to Abersoch next week. Well, near Abersoch. That’s too expensive. A bit better than Rhyl though.”
Apologies to Phil for knocking into him while he was filming Germ Free Adolescents on his phone. There was plenty of the Status Quo guitar move with Nigel and Karl during Joy Division Oven Gloves. And at the end of the show, Nigel signed off with “Have a great weekend, weatherwise or otherwise.”
By my reckoning, this was the running order:
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train
Bob Wilson Anchorman
I’m Getting Buried In The Morning
Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus
Renfield’s Afoot
Twenty-Seven Yards Of Dental Floss
Awkward Sean
Petty Sessions
Tending The Wrong Grave For Twenty-Three Years
Time Flies By (When You’re A Driver Of A Train)
Eno Collaboration
Rock O’ My Soul / Vatican Broadside
Terminus
Big Man Up Front
All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit
Consolation Prize (last bit)
For What Is Chatteris?
Hedley Verityesque
When I Look At My Baby
National Shite Day
Everything’s AOR
Midnight Mass Murder
Busy Little Market Town
Oblong Of Dreams
The Trumpton Riots
Every Time A Bell Rings
And then in the encore:
We Built This Village On A Trad Arr Tune
Germ Free Adolescents
Joy Division Oven Gloves
Thanks to Karl for handing over his set list to Karen, being my proxy while I was scribbling a note down. Consolation Prize was not listed, and they didn’t play the whole thing, but a fair chunk. And Busy Little Market Town only appeared because Nigel had left the stage to get his capo. (By the way… Nice vault back onto the stage when you returned, Nigel.)
Afterwards, a few of us went for a beer at The Albanach on The Royal Mile – Karen, me. Andrew, Phill, Steve, Andy, Jo and Nigel. A very sociable end to the evening. We will meet again in Llangollen in a few weeks – assuming that the ticket situation is in order.
Saturday morning came, and it was time to surrender the city to The Beyonce Massive. They were there in numbers, heading to Murrayfield stadium. Each to their own. We can’t all like the same things. I’m guessing that her walk-on music was Dead Cities. Cover version? Lazy Line Painter Jane. I am sure that someone would be taking notes there.
21 May 2023
Injured Buzzard
Here’s JD’s set list from Friday:
1. Open the third eye
2. Standing on the shoulders
3. Story of my life
4. Pablo Picasso
5. Dance with you
6. Eldorado lanliq chains
7. Sorry song
8. Ubu @ Eric’s
9. Walking with Tina
Video of the set on YouTube (soon)
21 May 2023
Ferencváros fan
Re the couple from Bangalore that Parsfan mentioned, yes I exchanged details with them after Arthur’s Seat and we’ve swapped messages since. I did tell them about the gig and they said they would look up the band on YouTube. I elected not to tell them about how their home town got referenced by the band, but felt it was an almighty coincidence that, in the morning you meet a girl from Bangalore, then in the evening 27 Yards forms part of the setlist. That kind of stuff helps make me feel it’s a wonderful life.
22 May 2023
Monnow
Quite funny that owl gag seeing as the name I chose for this site a few weeks ago is mon now….
First HMHB gig, wonderful. Wife and I met the quine mentioned earlier who came over from New Hampshire, met in the Irish bar next to the venue. Hello to her!
22 May 2023
dr DEsperate
A few interpolations to Roger’s Definitive ©:
Nigel said he thought the bloke being hustled across the moat might have been attempting a streak, but Wizard Tony pointed out that if so he’d first have needed to take his clothes off.
He also professed surprise at Tony’s Camera Obscura joke getting a laugh: “I only repeated it to be kind”.
I’d never noticed it before, but after the “NO DOGS” line in ‘Renfield’s Afoot’ Nigel rolled his eyes while pointing up and down, indicating the most likely relative positions of bat and dog.
The cover of ‘Germ Free Adolescents’ marked the song’s first appearance at a HMHB gig since the Andy Kershaw Kitchen Session in July ’21.
22 May 2023
dr DEsperate
Idly wondering whether Neil’s intros to ‘Awkward Sean’ are becoming more venue-specific, with a Watersons song in Hull and The Skids (Dunfermline, but you know) last week. A verse from ‘Sixty Eight Guns’ at the next gig?
On to Llangollen!
22 May 2023
EXXO
As half the Wirral is closer to Llangollen than Rhyl, perhaps a bit of Louisa Roach?
22 May 2023
Brumbiscuit
I got a phone call at work from the wife saying the alarm had gone off.
Panic stricken, I drove home as fast as I could.
Yeah, they’ve done nothing good since 68 Guns, she said…
22 May 2023
Transit full of Keith
Can’t help wondering if the appearance of “Eno Collaboration” in the setlist might be a very oblique criticism of Brian’s recent calls to stop arming Ukraine.
22 May 2023
Alice van der meer
That is so, so terrible that I shared it with SWMBO.
22 May 2023
EXXO
Interesting that I took that as a serious comment, leading me to research Eno’s pronouncements for an hour or two, and another Biscuiteer took it as an awful joke, which truly never occurred to me. We are a broad church. And we love cricket.
22 May 2023
eric t’viking
Haven’t read what Eno has said about the war in Ukraine, but if anyone is interested in a critical view of how we got here from someone who spent a long time studying foriegn policy and global politics, check out George Kennan and his thoughts and predictions about NATO expansion from the 1990s.
23 May 2023
Transit full of Keith
Not intended as a joke, nor as a very serious suggestion, more a grim sarcastic remark. But yes, not funny and the wrong forum for it, so apologies.
23 May 2023
EXXO
I think it was a valid comment on all levels, and arguably has its place in the thread,
even if probably irrelevant.
23 May 2023
Alice van der meer
It was actually the gag about the alarm that amused me and, as so often on the intertubes, made to look a pillock by someone posting while I triped.
23 May 2023
EXXO
Unlucky there Adrian – I did wonder, but enjoyed Keith’s mischievous tangent. Maybe you’ve got a cricket injury that means slow typing? Just a guess, because I can’t find your outfit’s stats on ‘Play Cricket’ this season, so I can’t stalk you. I myself am not as fit as I would like and that has made my own stats even more pitiful this season, though I did hit my first-ever match-winning boundary last night.
24 May 2023
EXXO
Irrelevance brings me nicely back to relevance, for once. I usually post my cricket witterings to Adrian-stroke-Alice in the ‘Hedley Verity’ thread, and whenever I think about Verity I look up the stats and the anniversaries. It can’t be a coincidence that his wonderful song was restored to the setlist on the day after his birthday, 18th May, and the anniversary of his first “10 for,” 18/5/31.
24 May 2023
Alice van der meer
Could be because we’ve had so much rain we’ve hardly played – we’ve lost more games to the weather this year than in 2020-2022 combined!
Bung me an email and I’ll forward on the club details. I did, at one one point in the second game, have figures of 3-3-0-4… and no, I don’t know how either! Bet you enjoyed that boundary.
24 May 2023
dr DEsperate
In case anyone wants to have one of those Breaking Bod tee shirts made, as suggested by Nigel, here’s an image posted in 2012.
https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/13qj26/breaking_bod/
6 June 2023