Live Performance Downloads
Links to downloads of Half Man Half Biscuit live performances – please feel to add any in the comments. One link per comment please, and if you can provide a few notes about the performance, that’d be great.
Note that many of the links will be transient, so (especially if they were posted a few years ago), they may have been and gone.
Do not post links to downloads of studio material. If you want that, you know where to get it. Please use a link shortener such as TinyURL for long links.
✉ Letters Sent (106)
Skip to the most recent comment
(5 years ago by Injured Buzzard)
Chris The Siteowner
2009 Roadwater Village Hall gig
http://tinyurl.com/roadwater2009
(Direct link to play 80Mb MP3; or download by right-clicking or Ctrl-clicking here and “saving as…”)
“A rare chance to catch this quintessential English band play a gig in the quintessential English setting of a rural village hall. A unique opportunity to see the band delivering some top Trad. Arr. Tunes at a top Trad. Arr. venue. While you’re there you could also check out the Quantocks.”
25 August 2010
Chris The Siteowner
2010 6Music session
http://tinyurl.com/6Music2010
(link to download page)
HMHB recorded five tracks for Marc Riley and Gideon Coe, including four new songs. The session is discussed here on this site.
25 August 2010
jim
Here’s Reading Festival 1990
01 Fuckin’ ‘Ell, it’s Fred Titmus
02 A Lilac Harry Quinn
03 Albert Hammond Bootleg
04 All I Want For Christmas
05 Our Tune
06 Venus in Flares
07 Let’s Not
08 I Hate Nerys Hughes
09 Ordinary to Enschede
10 The Bastard Son of Dean Friedman
11 Pragvec at the Melkweg
12 Trumpton Riots
13 Time Flies By
14 No Regrets (fades out)
http://www.mediafire.com/?ltyzonmmbd8
26 August 2010
Charlie Davidson
I appreciate that this may well be a very silly question to those who are a good deal more capable with a computer than me, but given that the Roadwater recording is 88mins long, is there a way of splitting the file in order to burn it to CD? Many thanks in advance…
The downloads are very much appreciated. Chapeau!
31 August 2010
jim
try this
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
just chop it in half!
cheers
jim
31 August 2010
Charlie Davidson
Thanks Jim, I’ll give that a go! Thanks again for the invaluable contibutions. Keep it up!
1 September 2010
Dave F.
The last time I used audacity it decompiled/recompiled each each time. This took a while when doing it for each track & reduced the quality. It also was a bit fiddly setting the split times.
I now use:
http://mpesch3.de1.cc/mp3dc.html
Just so much better all round IMO.
1 September 2010
Mac
Cue File for the Roadwater Gig
http://rapidshare.com/files/417228996/HMHB_Roadwater_050809.cue
or http://jump.fm/DFBTJ
Not played all, but should be accurate enough to chop the file up with mp3dc.
Hope this helps…
5 September 2010
Tony Hill
Fantastic! A casual search for HMHB turned up your Reading 1990 recording. Lucky enough to be there, one of my most memorable gigs. Spectacles knocked off and trampled ‘down the front’ was a gague to amount of fun had. Found Stones t shirt by way of compensation, unfortunately it doesn’t fit any more! Cheers
24 January 2011
Alex Staszko
http://tarquinlive.blogspot.com/search/label/Half%20Man%20Half%20Biscuit
heres some 4 ya
31 January 2011
jim
just put the merseyside gig up here…
http://tasty.freshbrains.org/index.php?page=torrents
24 July 2011
jim
2 more added at http://tasty.freshbrains.org/index.php?page=torrents
25 July 2011
jim
couple of biscuits gigs here.. http://tonkroachmentyarbles.blogspot.com/
26 July 2011
Ian
Could some kind soul please re-up the 6 Music session?
Ta!
2 August 2011
Treadmore
^ the 6 Music session is at http://tasty.freshbrains.org/index.php
it’s the original mp2 files as broadcast, no further lossy re-encoding done
3 August 2011
Dave F.
This is an updated version of the Peel Session P.R.S Yearbook – Quick, the Drawbridge from a Gideon Coe show a few months ago. it’s a bit clearer & in stereo.
http://tinyurl.com/3rmcseb
It’s only available for seven days so download before it runs out.
Gideon occasionally plays their session material. If you hear of any download it using the program below or email here so I can rip it. It would be good to get good stereo copies of many of the Peel sessions tracks.
I used this to rip the stream to my hard-drive (see the Download section):
http://www.infradead.org/get_iplayer/html/get_iplayer.html
It’s a bit convoluted to set up (instructions are on the site) but once it’s up & running it works well. I then use the mp3 splitter I mentioned before to split the show up.
5 August 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Fabulous quality 108-minute recording of the November 2010 Preston gig now available via Tarquin Live. Usual chore to download from Megaupload, unless you pay them £3, but that’s capitalism. There are worse options (worse than Megaupload, not worse than capitalism).
Note the file (like other good quality recordings) is in FLAC format, so make sure you can convert that if you’re expecting to bung it straight on the old iPod. But well worth the effort, this is the clearest live recording of the band that I’ve ever heard.
6 September 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Quick sample of the Preston gig download:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/461621-you-ve-got-a-friend-in-me-vatican-broadside
7 September 2011
Neil G
“There are worse options (worse than Megaupload, not worse than capitalism).”
There is no option worse than socialism? Are you serious? Or are you in unthinking socialist brainless comment mode? I’ve heard some shit in my time.
If I misinterpreted what you wrote, please forgive me. But I don’t think I did.
8 September 2011
Chris the Siteowner
Calm down, it was just a flippant comment.
8 September 2011
Neil G
Sorry, flippant comment, yes. I shouldn’t get in a flap over a flippant comment.
8 September 2011
Third Rate Les
Neil G – putting up gracefully with Student Union politics and economics is something you just need to do.
Or you could join the Wedding Present forum and argue all day there instead with people who still think that Pol Pot had a point, actually.
16 September 2011
renny
please – has anyone got an mp3 of glastonbury 86 that i could have ?
27 September 2011
Riot100
Yep me too, I’m looking for the Glastonbury ’86 mp3 or Flac, as I’ve misplaced my original copy. Unfortunately not able to use torrents.
All the best.
30 September 2011
Hagerty F.
Does anyone have a recording of the Shepherds Bush Empire gig? Thank you
24 November 2011
argieuk
Audio for Leeds up on tarquinlive.blogspot.co.uk (and a fair few others too). Another .Flac format one. Seems very good quality.
Ed’s note: All the HMHB recordings on the Tarquin Live! site are excellent, and there are a lot. You can get the full list here.
10 June 2012
jim
in the process of uploading some live recordings to soundcloud
mainly tarquin live recordings but a load of early stuff will soon be available to listen/download
http://hmhblive.blogspot.co.uk/
7 April 2013
jim
a few more gigs added at http://hmhblive.blogspot.co.uk/
6 July 2013
stuart
I’ve just sent a copy of my recording from the Peel Centre, Stowmarket to the band. As soon as they give me the ok then I’ll post links for it here…
22 July 2013
Stuart
My recording of HMHB at The John Peel Centre, Stowmarket 2013.
9 January 2014
Chris The Siteowner
Thanks for that, Stuart: worth downloading just for the (I suspect) never to be repeated cover of Abba’s “SOS”.
10 January 2014
EXXO
Bet you a pint they will Chris. To be settled either at next gig after they do it or after death of all original band members.* Deal?
*I had a dream about “Hancock’s Half Biscuit”, you see.
Deal – Ed.
10 January 2014
Chris The Siteowner
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but the incredible collection of gig recordings on the “HMHB Live!” site is worth listing here. All are on Soundcloud, so can be listened to directly with a click.
Jodies Bar Liverpool (10 October 1985)
Birmingham Powerhouse (1986)
Leeds Poly (1986)
Glastonbury (1986)
Camden (1986)
Leicester Princess Charlotte (1986)
Liverpool System Club (07 March 1986)
Salford Uni (14 March 1986)
Transworld Festival Gardens Liverpool (07 June 1986)
Peel Session (1990)
Mean Fiddler (24 July 1992)
Phoenix Festival (1994)
Manchester Roadhouse (25 March 1995)
John Peel Session (14 October 1996)
Manchester Star And Garter (24 April 1998)
Royal Festival Hall (05 July 1998)
Sheffield Boardwalk (09 July 1999)
Leeds Duchess Of York (04 November 1999)
Manchester Star And Garter (19 November 1999)
Leeds Duchess Of York (20 March 2000)
Manchester University (08 June 2000)
Manchester University (Soundcheck) (08 June 2000)
Manchester University (24 November 2000)
Manchester University (13 December 2002)
Manchester (28 November 2003)
Sheffield Boardwalk (19 February 2004)
Sheffield Boardwalk (10 May 2006)
Holmfirth (21 September 2006)
Manchester Academy (16 February 2007)
Ulverston Coronation Hall (17 April 2008)
Nottingham Rock City (23 April 2008)
Manchester (30 January 2009)
Preston 53Deg (12 November 2010)
Sheffield Plug (17 February 2011)
Leicester (28 April 2011)
Bilston Robin 2 (26 January 2012)
Holmfirth Picturedrome (07 December 2012)
Birmingham (17 October 2013)
10 January 2014
EXXO
Brilliant! Words can’t make you know how slightly-more-content you’ve made a man who was at Glastonbury 86 but didn’t have a programme and never knew they were on till I’d missed them.
10 January 2014
Bobby SVARC
Brilliant! Words can’t make you know how slightly-more-content you’ve made a man who has just watched his beloved Foxes rip the sheep apart :-)
10 January 2014
jim
An hour from last night’s gig (Bilston, Oct 2014)…
10 October 2014
Rob S
Bilston 2014-10-09 – full show (torrent, FLAC)
(Another great recording – Thanks Rob)
10 October 2014
Lutzy
Having gone to Wolverhampton some 20+ years ago! to see HMHB but only to be refused entry because I wasn’t a student (what were you thinking playing at the uni !!!!) last night at the robin was almost a “bucket list” experience !! An amazing night, something ill cherish for ever
I did feel sorry for the chap whose missus was so pissed, that despite her encouragement for the support act, had to take her out midway through the second song !!! Lol, she only managed to bounce into about 50 people, but was extremely apologetic !
Loved the guy in the Ramones Tshirt…..
“so, what’s your favourite Ramones song”
I’m still chuckling at that one now
10 October 2014
EXXO
Downloaded it but what sort of media player or something do I need to listen to it?
11 October 2014
EXXO
Wow – the Soundcloud one is brilliant for hearing every detail of lyrics on new songs, forgotten lyrics on old songs, Neil’s BVs in places you never knew there would be BVs, between song quizzes about who’s dead, etc
Thanks for both though my media player won’t play the torrent downloaded one.
11 October 2014
Chris The Siteowner
Exxo – they’re just FLAC files. It’s a fairly common format:here are some ideas to get you going. Or there are plenty of free conversion programs if you want the files as MP3s or AACs.
11 October 2014
Rob S
@EXXO – If you’re loooking for software to play FLACs, I’d highly recommend Foobar2000. I’ve been using this as my audio player on my PC for about four years. Does a great job of coping with anything I throw at it.
http://www.foobar2000.org/
If you’ve downloaded the fileset from Dimeadozen, you should have a folder of FLAC files?
I’ve already sent an untracked file of my recording to Jim for him to add to the HMHB LIve blog.
11 October 2014
Dawlishian
My torrent has been “finding peers” all day. Is no-one seeding?
11 October 2014
The Boy Teffs
Are the Soundcloud recordings downloadable (Mainly the Bilston show)? I can’t seem to find a way …
12 October 2014
jim
Here’s a plug-in for windows media player which allows it to play flac files
All the soundcloud gigs should be downloadable – if they’re not give me a shout…
Also if anyone has any shows not on the live blog please share!
cheers Jim
23 November 2014
Rik
Cheers, Chris the Siteowner for the Soundcloud links. I was the sound engineer for the 1999 and 2000 gigs at The Duchess in Leeds. I have another recording of the 2000 gig from the sound desk which I’ll be able to share if/when I get back to England. Always loved doing their sound. Very friendly and professional chaps.
18 December 2014
EXXO
The thing about the Ramones t-shirt (comment somethingty-something above) airshipped me til Maud told me a story just now. So people would wear a t-shirt of a band they don’t even know? Huh?
20 April 2015
Mr Larrington
Anyone got a copy of the Roadwater cue file? The link up there ^^^^ is b0rked chiz.
17 May 2015
Stuart
My recording of the recent gig at Bury St. Edmunds. Sadly missing a few of the last songs…
13 July 2015
Chris The Siteowner
The good folks at BBC Radio Lancashire have let us have the other two songs from the 1992 “On The Wire” acoustic session:
Enjoy!
10 October 2015
D List paul ross
Should those Soundclouds work? It just displays as “Oops, we couldn’t find that track.” Am I being a technocretin? Looking for Glastonbury 1986, four post A Level jerks from Lincoln sleeping in a mini as we didn’t know to bring a tent. HMHB, The Cure, Ted Chippington and the “hand of God” (200 or so people gathered round one bloke with a radio telling us what was happening). Marvellous.
7 December 2015
jim
Paid up for a month so Soundcloud downloads back up:
http://hmhblive.blogspot.co.uk/
15 October 2016
Chris The Siteowner
OK folks – we need some advice and thoughts here. Jim has kindly said that we can copy and archive his amazing collection of live recordings on this site, and there are many others which I’m sure we can get together (any we can’t get permission to copy over, we can have as links, even if that’s not ideal, because other people’s hosting often goes away). So my question to the collective is: what’s the best way to make these available? I’m sure some of you must have some experience in this. Is it free storage services from the likes of Google Drive or Dropbox? Or is it YouTube? Or should we go to a paid-for service like SoundCloud? I’m guessing we may eventually have a few Gb of data. If it’s a paid-for service we might have to have a whip-round, or arrange some supporting advertising, but I’m sure we can cope with that.
16 October 2016
jim
can you not buy storage via your web site provider .. and it’s a simple click and save as ..
will send you all the files chris which will save you messing about downloading them all ..
19 October 2016
Injured buzzard
I’ve got 62 gigs i’d gladly share. If there’s a way of doing it. Got 2 from Jim’s Soundcloud post earlier, cheers. I’ll look into the possibilities. Lacking recent ones tho. Last one I’ve got is 2015.06.12 The Apex, Bury St Edmunds.
1 December 2016
hendrix tattoo
A big thank you to you CtSO…
Just listened to the first gig I went to in 86′ at Salford Uni.
Many thanks Sir.
14 January 2017
The harbinger of nothing
Jim’s SoundCloud recordings are great! It would be great to hear some of Injured Buzzard’s collection too. I hope he’s back to full health now.
It would be nice to have some more recent recordings. Does anyone have any good quality bootlegs from either (or both) of the first two gigs of 2015, in Edinburgh and Wakefield? I’d love to hear those as they played some songs from UfO which have turned out to be rarities.
20 October 2017
EXXO
Rarities indeed. Strong possibility we may never hear the wonderful ‘Mileage Chart’ live again. It was a brave stab, but I wouldn’t want to hear it back, least of all from a venue with such poor sound.
20 October 2017
The harbinger of nothing
That would be a shame. Ditto Urge for Offal.
Even if the sound in the audience was bad, a soundboard recording would probably be worth hearing.
I’d love to hear the Sheffield gig from this year. Excellent setlist!
21 October 2017
jim moody
Leeds, Duchess of York 1993 mp4 video to download for 7 days only. On YouTube here.
1 December 2017
EXXO
Just to warn folks that’s a big download which may have serious consequences if you have an old, slow computer. I’d love to download it though Jim when I’m on a better machine, so thanks :-)
2 December 2017
GORDON BURNS
@Jim: I love it!! Thank you. From when Leaden Pall was new. I saw them in Southwick, West Sussex around this time. Brings back awesome memories.
2 December 2017
The harbinger of nothing
Has anyone got any good quality, complete recordings of any recent gigs?
1 July 2018
Martin Daulby
Does anyone have the Queen Elizabeth Hall gig that John Peel played in approx 1999? My recording of it is rubbish. It starts with “Uffington Wassail”. I have always relied on the kindness of strangers.
12 November 2018
The harbinger of nothing
Does anyone have any good quality, complete recordings of any recent gigs? There don’t seem to have been any mentioned for a while. I would love to have one from the Karl era. Especially if it was from Bilston earlier this month!
Does anyone know if the gigs get recorded at the soundboard?
26 November 2019
jim
from dime ….
Half Man Half Biscuit
Welly Club
Hull
England
24th January 2020
Lineage: CA11 Cardioids>Sony PCM-M10 (mic-in, 24 bit, 44.1kHz)
Transfer: Sony PCM-M10> usb > wav > Soundforge 9.0 (Selected hard limiting, Normalise,
Fade-in/fade-out, 16 bit 44.1kHz)>CD Wave (Track splits)>FLAC>mp3tagv2.55a (Tag Flacs)
Setlist
1.She’s In Broadstairs
2.When The Evening Sun Goes Down
3.Baguette Dilemma For The Booker Prize Guy
4.Renfield’s Afoot
5.Ode To Joyce
6.What Made Colombia Famous
7.Dickie Davies Eyes
8.Look Dad No Tunes
9.Totnes Bickering Fair
10.Harsh Times In Umberstone Covert
11.Barmy Army
12.Fuckin’ ell It’s Fred Titmus
13.Old Age Killed My Teenage Bride
14.Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo
15.For What Is Chatteris
16.National Shite Day
17.Floreat Inertia
18.Vatican Broadside
19.Every Time A Bell Rings
20.Them’s The Vagaries
22.Terminus
22.Joy Division Oven Gloves
23.We Built This Village On A Trad Arr Tune
24.All I Want For Christmas Is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
25.The Light At the End Of The Tunnel
26.Trumpton Riots
27.Encore Break
28.Bob Wilson Anchorman
29.She’s Lost Control
30.Everything’s AOR
Notes:
Recorded a few rows back left of centre
flac …. https://we.tl/t-UkqA2vYWM7
mp3 320 single file…. https://we.tl/t-onyH3ewY8o
31 January 2020
Chris The Siteowner
Cheers Jim!
31 January 2020
Intheshadowoflilly
Ooh, ta. Just the thing to swerve 6Music for the afternoon.
4 February 2020
Chris The Siteowner
Jim, the keeper of so many good good recordings (see above) and I are trying to put together a definitive resource on this site of gig recordings. Has anyone got anything good we don’t know about – tapes of early recordings particularly welcome? Send details – or leads – to me at chris@chrisrand.com (and if anyone from the band or connected to it is reading this, that includes you! 😉)
29 February 2020
The harbinger of nothing
I managed to pick the Welly recording up while it was still available, and I meant to say: thank you very much, Jim! It’s an excellent recording and very enjoyable. I particularly liked the line, “notice was given of a bass lesson…” – although to my untrained ear, it didn’t sound like the bass was what had caused the aborted start, so I assume it was very much tongue-in-cheek!
I think the recording I would most like to have is Bilston from November last year. Unbelievable setlist!
Chris: Most of the recordings I have were found via links on this site, but I may have come across one or two in corners of the internet that lurk, so I’ll let you know in case I can add anything to the library.
2 March 2020
The harbinger of nothing
I have noticed two HMHB live videos have appeared for sale on Discogs. Both are official Probe Plus releases. One is from 1987 (called Back Again in the DHSS, but different from the album) and the other from 2001 (live at Manchester University – the show from which A Country Practice was featured on the “Wake Up with Probe Plus” compilation). Both are priced at just less than £40 excluding postage, so are presumably quite rare. I vaguely recall one of them being mentioned on here some time ago.
I would love to see – and particularly hear – both of them, and was almost tempted to fork out… However I’m not too keen on spending £80 or so when the format is not one that I can use. But it got me thinking.
Does anyone have the ability to do a high-quality digital transfer from VHS? If so, would that person be interested in buying the videos, and then anyone who is interested can chip in an equal share of the cost in return for a copy?
The best thing I can think of to see us all through this bleak period would, of course, be a new HMHB album. But assuming that isn’t possible, this would probably be the second best!
21 March 2020
BAD LOSER
Whilst pretending to work from home yesterday, I thought of that first video and hoped that it was one I’d transferred to CDR when I had a dual recorder. Will have to conduct a search for it and see if I kept the tape as well. Be the only one I kept if I did.
That’s Monday’s work at home sorted.
21 March 2020
The harbinger of nothing
Re post #70, the only recording I have which I can’t find mentioned previously is from the Liquid Room, Edinburgh, 6th November 2006. I have quite a lot of them, so if any are no longer online elsewhere, I may be able to help. I’ll make a complete list at some point. Possibly while working from home.
Re post #71, in searching for the above, I think I have found that I already have the recording of the first VHS: Liverpool System, 7th March 1986. In fact my version has a couple more songs than the video.
21 March 2020
jim
Quote: I have noticed two HMHB live videos have appeared for sale on Discogs. Both are official Probe Plus releases. One is from 1987 (called Back Again in the DHSS, but different from the album) and the other from 2001 (live at Manchester University – the show from which A Country Practice was featured on the “Wake Up with Probe Plus” compilation). Both are priced at just less than £40 excluding postage, so are presumably quite rare. I vaguely recall one of them being mentioned on here some time ago.
i have both transfered on dvd .. can send a copy via download link
if anyone has any bootleg vhs copies i can transfer for free
cheers jim
22 March 2020
Chris The Siteowner
Just to update everyone with current plans, I’ve been working on merging the gig reviews page and the live performance downloads into a single page which will one day list every gig ever. Next to each gig we can link to reviews, audio recordings and video recordings where available. We’ll also store all these recordings in a single place online. It’s a big job but people like Jim are being amazingly helpful. Bear with us while we get it done!
22 March 2020
The harbinger of nothing
Hi Jim,
Thank you so much! That would be amazing.
CtSO, please could you send Jim my email address? The plans for the live page sound fantastic and I’d be happy to help if I can.
22 March 2020
jim
put a better audio track to this .. so better than my original youtube upload…. this will be available as a download soon .. https://youtu.be/kjrQ4rkDDAE
23 March 2020
Jim Moody
manc 2001
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7NgWkEYkME
15 April 2020
The harbinger of nothing
I thoroughly enjoyed this earlier. There are quite a few snippets of now-familiar future songs. Thank you very much Jim!
16 April 2020
WARDEN HODGES
Ta Jim, got that from Geoff’s gaff back in 2003, VHS version,
17 April 2020
transit full of keith
Thanks for this Jim! Just spent a morning “working from home” with that Manchester gig playing but it’s far too good to be background music – brilliant, especially A Country Practice. Looks like the first outing for ‘Paradise Lost’?
17 April 2020
MIKE the cad monkey
Hi folks does anyone have a link to the 1986 System gig please, i did have the original probe VHS but have mislaid it. It seems a long time ago but i was there…
thanks
2 October 2020
Bad Loser
If you want to hear some new material, Andy Kershaw’s podcast is up!
3 August 2021
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
Doesn’t appear to be on Andy’s own website yet but the Apple link is here and it’s also available here. Other podcast providers (Google. Spotify, Audible etc) may have it as well.
3 August 2021
BAD loser
Some studio time around the end of the month but more will be needed.
*Garstang will have to be disallowed as a guess for places on the next album.
3 August 2021
dr desperate
And so to Todmorden, where I’d been invited by Andy Kershaw to witness his podcast Kitchen Session with Half Man Half Biscuit last Monday. He’d had to decline my invitation to a meal in Manchester the day before to commemorate our late mate Dr CP Lee, as he was commentating on a Donald Campbell-themed model speedboat regatta on Coniston (I know, right?) so we met at midday at his house, both in a state of scarcely-contained excitement.
The band arrived a couple of hours later, Neil driving the van with all four of them toting microphones, instruments and practice-room equipment (no sign of the arshall amp). Carl had limited himself to a simple snare and hi-hat combo with brushes, while Neil and Karl, intriguingly, had packed acoustic as well as electric guitars.
After a bit of bonding over their shared tendency to lumbago and a passion for the music of Hank Williams and Jerry Lee Lewis, Andy and Nigel stepped outside to feed the rod-caught fish in Andy’s pond. I observed that just beyond the well-cut hedge, trains on the Leeds – Manchester line were going past so often that you wouldn’t even notice it – nobody got the reference.
Discussion ranged over many topics, though mainly Talking Pictures TV and which boxsets we’d watch when we were in our nursing homes (‘The Sopranos’ and ‘The Wire’ for Nigel). I took the opportunity to ask Neil what had happened to Blackpool, to which he replied, “It’s still there, isn’t it?” Andy suggested that the ubiquitous Clare Balding might make a suitable subject for a song – we’ll see.
As the property had been built by a local butcher, the subject of haunted houses came up, and Nigel reprised his joke about the skeleton he’d found in the attic wearing a ‘Hide & Seek Champion 1922’ medal. We also got “What do they give the penguins for lunch at the zoo?”, and following a bit of chat about the list of countries that Andy had reported from, the ever-popular “My mate’s moved to North Korea”.
Asked how much songwriting they’d managed during lockdown, Nigel admitted they’d accumulated enough new material for an album, though so far had booked only a couple of days’ studio time at the end of August, so not enough to record one. He then announced that they intended to play two new songs at the session, at which point the excitement level reached Hard Severe, and I snapped my pencil.
After the usual rigmarole with unplugged instruments and fluffed intros we were off, with the band seated at strategic points around the kitchen and Nigel singing into the hand-held mike of Andy’s Sony Walkman Pro (“the AK47 of cassette recorders”, which Neil particularly admired, having previously owned one himself).
The hand-written setlist went as follows:
After-match lagers were taken in the upstairs office, where the band professed themselves pleased with the recording, and confirmed their intention to keep on keeping on, despite Geoff’s retirement and the demise of Probe Plus. It seems that their lack of interest in any sort of promotion at all remains unsullied.
The decision to postpone the Blackpool gig had apparently been taken by the Gig Cartel (“We just do what we’re told”), but as far as they know the next gig is still going ahead, so… on to Holmfirth!
3 August 2021
dr desperate
The recording can be found here on AK47’s website, along with several other fine podcasts.
3 August 2021
Chris The Siteowner
Deeply jealous.
3 August 2021
warden Hodges
Great listen that. Cheers.
3 August 2021
dic aberdaron
i’m gettin’ frazzled in the mornin’
so get me to the chair on time
genius
4 August 2021
bobbybottler
At first listen “When I Look…” reminded me a bit of “David Wainwright’s Feet” – a lot of names of ordinary, not famous people. I wasn’t sure if it’s strong enough to be an album track.
I thought “Buried” was much better, and fitted in with the darker tone of 90 Bisadol and onwards.
I’ll give them another whirl later though, and may change my mind.
4 August 2021
EXXO
Great stuff John, thanks for sharing. But always good to be the first pedant on new material. Richie’s not from Garstang. There was no Garstang.
4 August 2021
EXXO
An informative page about Yellow Mama (Alabama) tells us that at least 2 songs have previously been written about her.
https://www.al.com/news/2016/01/post_87.html
4 August 2021
dr desperate
Quite right on Richie of Garstang, @Exxo (although the town is still there, 10 miles from my family home).
4 August 2021
EXXO
I know the ‘Stang well John, and happy times have been spent by our family too by the canal in and around T’owd Tithe Barn when us sojourning with Mrs E’s folks in Blackpool for Xmas have met up with Simon’s lot from Goosnargh to exercise t’owd dogs and t’nippers when they was not so owd.
Nonetheless there is no Richie from Garstang. Nor is there an Amanda Warhurst.
4 August 2021
dr desperate
Mmm, Goosnargh cakes.
4 August 2021
EXXO
Actually I’ve just been reminded it was mainly the pub in Billsborrow we mainly frequented on such occasions, but anyway I know Garstang’s fine establishments too.
4 August 2021
dr desperate
Many’s the time I joined my late bro’s quiz team, The Unusual Suspects, at Owd Nell’s. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong, always certain.
5 August 2021
RICHIE STEVENS
@EXXO & DR DESPERATE
No, but there is a Richie Stevens.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/200262-Richie-Stevens
8 August 2021
richie stevens
I’m not the real Richie Stevens, by the way, just somebody pretending to be him, although I have been known to frequent the Coach and Horses. I wonder if the Richie Stevens in the link is the subject of Nigel Blackwell’s ire. Probably not.
9 August 2021
EXXO
Which recent footy song is it that Neil’s bassline has (consciously or unconsciously) adapted here for the “Never any … you were in the coach and horses” bit.
Shit I realised as I posted what it is, it’s fucking Jamie Webster isn’t it – Allez Allez Allez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh7jAq4niC0
9 August 2021
EXXO
Hasten to add for those that don’t know that I just mention the Jamie Webster version as it’s the best known, was the first version in England, and cemented the current Anfield lyrics to that tune, but it started in Italy as a disco song ( “L’Estate Sta Finendo”) and spread around various clubs in Europe before L’pool adopted it in 2018, and since then many crowds around the UK have adopted it with their own adaptations.
9 August 2021
EXXO
But now that I think of it, when I first heard the Mars Ultras* singing Allez-Allez-Allez, I thought they might be singing ‘The Games that People Play,’no doubt in my mind the Italian song was beased on that, and you can sing
“There never was any Garstang” etc even better to that one.
9 August 2021
EXXO
Games People Play by Joe South (1969) of course I meant.
*Napoli
9 August 2021
INJURED BUZZARD
Sheffield gig audio available on dimeadozen.org
18 February 2022
INJURED BUZZARD
Full gig. Not my recording.
18 February 2022