(Continued from this thread)
Feel free to set any questions you feel might entertain people, but if possible, do wait until the previous question has run its course. Oh, and only set them on Fridays. If someone beats you to it, try again the next week.
dr desperate
So sorry for your loss, @MOVS, propelling me into 14th place and you into 15th. You can take consolation in having secured the coveted 2000th post on this thread.
15 September 2022
Exxo
Thanks Paul. That’s a record 18 entries.
My own picks are
1. Harry Quinn, Surging, bad losers, evenjng of swing, Rogation, Broken Headstone, persian rug.
2 joker on Harry quinn
3 left lyrics, PRS, San Antonio, vitas G
4.FILM THEME
5. Broadstairs
6. THe Saints
7 .27.58617%
Now an apology. Could everyone who entered more than 48 hours ago tell me on this thread over the next few days what you picked for the cover song artist, so I know who is who. I see now that i must have deleted the name question temporarily (and so the answers before then permanently ) when I changed some wodings after the “len ganley” query.
I also notice now (cos I only look at answers after the foirm closes and after I publish my own) that one person has indeed chosen len ganley as a song that will be dropped tonight, presumably because it appears in the set list chart, so understandably assuming it was played by the band in Castleton (rather than a few bars of “the john ganley stance” by NB alone, as a joke to piss-take the “request ” from a drunken audience member).
What i will generously do is give each of that person’s other 3 picks for dropped songs a weighting of 8 points if indeed dropped so adding up to the same possible maximum of 24.
Good luck everyone. I am fishing tonight so maybe I should say “tight lines.”
16 September 2022
Schoon
I think I picked the Sex Pistols.
16 September 2022
Man Of varying sorrow
I went with the Beatles. A bit out of the box perhaps but haven’t been covered since pre-pandemic times. Also I’m not too annoyed about the VAR overturning – I play for the love of the game!
16 September 2022
mister tubbs
I picked Shakespeare’s Sister again, as they got me 7 points last time out
16 September 2022
BOBBY SVARC
The cover is 5.7.0.5. by City Boy
16 September 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
I went with Black Sabbath, continuing my failing strategy of picking local bands. (I did consider the obvious topical Sex Pistols / Smiths numbers, but I reckon they’re a bit too on the nose).
16 September 2022
Bad loser
Walk on was ‘Daybreaker’ by Brum’s finest: ELO.
16 September 2022
Cream CHEESE AND chives
Pistols Pretty Vacant
16 September 2022
dr desperate
I picked Buzzcocks as the cover band, which I hope will have gained me a couple of points for ‘same city’ as Magazine. Howard Devoto was born in Scunthorpe, you know.
Good call on ‘Persian Rug’ btw, @Exxo (I picked ‘Broken Headstone’ from TVY, can’t remember which other).
17 September 2022
D list paul ross
Mine was Velvet Underground.
19 September 2022
nige
Mine was ELO – wrong end of the gig though!!
19 September 2022
EXXO
Thanks. Brilliant setlist, now confirmed by Roger, so please check for me that the annotated setlist HERE will allocate the points in a just & equitable way.
To issue the points, because of my lost names question fiasco I just need to know who picked the Clash for the cover (no points there but 10 points for the closest percentage guess as it happens), the person who picked the Undertones (who was second closest for 5 points), and the other person (not Dr. D) who picked the Buzzcocks (who will get 5 points for a Manchester band). This will probably be the only gig ever where although nobody picked either band covered, 3 contestants picked bands who had some of the same members as the two bands. There should be points for that. Maybe next season (I love a rule tweak, me).
Unlucky with choosing ELO there, Nige (No, not that one). Wonder if it will also be the only gig where someone’s cover pick was the walk-on? There will definitely be a bonus for that too next season – already I can’t wait for a summer 2023 tweakfest. So it was Lux inferior who gets 5 points for walk on POP. But Nige (No, not that one), at least you were lucky to get 24 points for the dropped songs, even though you picked The Len Ganley Stance, which wasn’t really played in Castleton. Unlike Keith who only picked 3 songs to be dropped, where 4 choices are available this season. Come on, get a grip lad!
19 September 2022
Lord hereford
I was the other person who picked Buzzcocks.
19 September 2022
woodnoggin
“although nobody picked either band covered…”
Hang on – I picked Magazine. It made my day when I saw I’d got points for that, as it’s always something of a crap shoot. Don’t tell me I’m not going to get them!
19 September 2022
EXXO
Apologies Wood. I don’t even know why I said that, as I haven’t even looked properly at all the answers yet, as I’ve been away for a few days. In the process of just trying to work out who is who after a cock-up with an edit on Wednesday, I looked at most forms but not yours! I’d be pretty sure Magazine are HMHB’s most covered act, and ‘Song from Under the Floorboards’ their most covered song, plus was always a favourite of mine long before HMHB were around, so a wise choice indeed,
19 September 2022
EXXO
OK, I’ve worked out the points while I should have been prepping for a job interview. Priorities, eh?
Only two mystery identities remaining from my editing mishap – Cream Cheese & Chives – you said you’d chosen the Pistols as your cover, but by a ‘cess of elimination, you can’t have. You must have changed your mind, or not changed your mind, and chosen whichever of The Clash & The Undertones wasn’t chosen by CtSO. Whoever of those two chose the Clash got 10 points for the closest percentage of setlist turnover, and whoever chose the Undertones got 5 points for the second closest %.
20 September 2022
Chris The Siteowner
I think I picked The Clash, but I wouldn’t bet a pint on it. Definitely more likely than The Undertones, if that’s the alternative.
20 September 2022
EXXO
Thanks.
Ooh wait a minute – just spotted Schoon’s doubt when he says “I think I picked the Sex Pistols.” Hmm. @Schoon – did you pick Dead Men Don’t Need season Tickets for 33 points no less? and a difference percentage of 38.something? And the Undertones?
20 September 2022
Schoon
@exxo nope unfortunately not.
20 September 2022
Schoon
I think I picked Westward ho a lot and probably scored about three points.
20 September 2022
EXXO
Thanks Schoon. You scored a respectable 36 points, the median score for this gig, and I am assuming that Cream Cheese and Chives is the man in 7th place with 62 points. Points for Chris & Cream Cheese are somewhat provisional.
Sorry if this scoring is becoming a bit of a laughing stock. Heads are rolling at Hughes Lane FBL HQ as we speak.
20 September 2022
EXXO
So here are your provisional points and league table. Pre-season bookies’ favourite Woodnoggin, who achieved the ‘points per gig’ title last season, has raced into the lead after 2 rounds, with a neat combo of cover band and debut song.
There is controversy. Some early entrants were disadvantaged by erroneous setlists, and two participants thought Terminus had not been played in Castleton, entering it for question 1, and one thought Len Ganley had been played, entering it therefore for Q.3. The latter error was anticipated and a ruling given pre-gig, meaning that Nige (NNTO) scored 24 points from his other three correct entries for Q.3.
The ‘Terminus’ question is more vexed. I did not anticipate the issue pre-Brum, and it would have been worth another 2 points each to Lord Hereford and Mister Tubbs, but we can’t really give points for a song which did indeed appear in the last two gigs (and indeed is an ever present for 4 years). So their loss of the 2 points is just one of those things and incidentally neither played their joker on Terminus – indeed both players were successful with their joker on another song).
Brum points provisional – please check with the annotated setlist at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ICkS_nvNQMQmoUxIS7L1tka1dNCDqHuKYB_uXJ_gr2E/edit?usp=sharing
Woodnoggin_______ 94 ( 40 for Persian, 30 for Magazine, 24 for dropped songs)
Ferencvaros Fan____80 (40 persian, 22 Buried with joker, 18 dropped songs)
Mister Tubbs_______80 (40 Persian, 22 Buried with joker, 18 dropped songs)
Transit Fo Keith _____75 (40 Persian, 12 Floreat, 18 dropped songs, 5 Brum band Sab)
Lux inferior ________69 (40 Persian, 24 dropped songs, Pop walk-on 5 points)
Exxo ______________64 (persian 40, dropped songs 24)
Cream Cheese (?)____62 (dead Men 33 points, dropped songs 24, 5 for 2nd closest 38%)
Lord Hereford________49 (22 Buried, 2 ? 18 dropped songs, 5 Manc band Buzzcocks)
Man of Varying Sorrow 46 (22 Broadstairs, 24 dropped songs)
CtSO (?)____________36 (2 Broadstairs, 24 dropped songs, 10 points for closest – 40%)
Schoon_____________36 (12 Floreat, 24 dropped songs)
Nige NNTO __________31 (2 Broadstairs, 24 dropped songs, Brum band ELO 5 points)
Parsfan _____________29 (24 dropped songs, 5 for Brum band Dexy’s)
Bad Loser ___________24 (24 dropped songs)
Injured Buzzard _______24 (24 dropped songs)
Phyllis Triggs__________24 (24 dropped songs)
Dr Des _____________ 23 (18 dropped songs, 5 manc band Buzzcocks )
D-List Paul Ross_______18 (dropped songs 18)
League table after the 2nd fixture of the 2022/23 season
(2 players marked PL1 have only played 1)
Woodnoggin _________135 points
Lux Inferior __________119
Mister Tubbs _________114
Exxo _______________ 112
Transit Fo Keith _______110
Ferencvaros Fan _______97
Schoon _______________76
Parsfan _______________74
Man of Varying Sorrow ___64
C.C. & Chives__(PL 1)___ 62
CtSO _________________60
Nige (No, not that one) ____60
Bad Loser ______________55
Phyllis Triggs ____________50
Injured Buzzard __________48
Lord Hereford___(PL 1) ____47
Dr. Des _________________46
D-List Paul Ross __________42
20 September 2022
EXXO
The breakdown of Lord Hereford’s score there was just a handwriting issue with my scribbled notes and should read: 22 Broadstairs, 2 Buried, 18 points for dropped songs, 5 for Manc band Buzzcocks)
20 September 2022
EXXO
And so his Lordship is on 47 as per the overall table, not 49 as in the Brum points. doh!
20 September 2022
Cream CHEESE AND chives
I’m fairly sure that I didn’t predict Dead Men Don’t Need Season Tickets. I am happy to acfept an award for honesty and good sportsmanship.
21 September 2022
EXXO
I have had a niggling feeling ever since I didn’t find an entry for ‘Pretty Vacant’ that your form somehow didn’t come through at all, CC&C, and that therefore the mystery entry belongs to a new contestant.
Who chose ‘Dead Men Don’t Need Season Tickets’?
21 September 2022
D list paul ross
Doing exactly as well as I expected!! Must try harder although Magazine lost the toss for the cover choice.
21 September 2022
Cream cheese and chives
Exxo, fear not. I have no record of my predictions but a quick scan of the setlist made me wonder whether a negative score might be possible. The site is a very welcome distraction to some very serious issues at Cream Cheese Towers.
21 September 2022
Bad loser
I paid the price for actually doing some work in the office last week instead of doing my predictions with my gig listing close at hand. My memory told me that we’d witnessed Persian Rug Sale so I dropped it after picking it 2 of 3 times in a row. Won’t make that mistake again.
21 September 2022
woodnoggin
To celebrate being briefly top of the table (I’m sure it won’t last), I’ve put together a picture quiz. My daughter (4) has kindly drawn some of the animals featured in Half Man Half Biscuit songs. I’ve positioned them on a map according to where you might find them around the world. Your task is to identify the animal and the HMHB song it appears in. Some of them are a bit tricky. 18 animals and songs to guess.
Link here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e3dptjM_cV-zCIAkWNBN68tHBv3Bd9de/view?usp=drivesdk
23 September 2022
EXXO
Just a brilliant idea! Please pass on great praise to your daughter, who has a particular flair for the apes and birds I reckon. I’ve identified most species I reckon, but 12, 13 &14 are proving the most challenging.
23 September 2022
EXXO
OK, got #12. And #14 will be what I thought 4 was, so what’s 4? Great quiz this.
23 September 2022
Natalie at the back
This is good fun. Is no. 16 ‘Soft Verges’? I’m probably wrong – my geography is all over the place…
23 September 2022
Lord leominster
Great quiz. I thought I had no.6 but then I realised it’s not the animal that’s mentioned in song but the animal’s owner/keeper (who was alive then – but is dead now). Hmm.
23 September 2022
Lord leominster
And is no.3 a trick question? Is that a picture of a long since dead dog?
23 September 2022
Woodnoggin
@Natalie at the Back – you’re right with no.16. I think there are actually two possible correct answers for that animal.
My partner thinks 12, 13 and 15 are too difficult and I should give you a clue. But I’ll leave you to puzzle a bit longer first.
24 September 2022
dr desperate
I had ‘Mountain Bikes’ for no.16 or just possibly ‘Blood on the Quad’, in view of the location of the number. Similarly, I have two possible answers for no.18.
I haven’t got 13 or 15, and my answer for 12 is more geographical than zoological (though with a herpetological link).
24 September 2022
Lord leominsteR
I thought no.15 was one of the less difficult ones, in which case I must have that one wrong, too. Them’s the vagaries.
24 September 2022
EXXO
oooh great quiz but for my tastes way too early with sharing answers, hints, etc.
24 September 2022
EXXO
Soz I shouldn’t have actually written that thought never mind sent it. Probably the effect of having yet another bike stolen last night.
What I meant was yeah, good thinking, no hints for a couple of days.
24 September 2022
dr desperate
Still puzzling – I have an initial idea for animal no.13.
25 September 2022
Woodnoggin
This link may help for the most obscure three:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_named_after_famous_people_(born_1950%E2%80%93present)
26 September 2022
EXXO
Ha, thanks – a brilliant extra dimension to a splendid quiz! I’d googled #12 successfully because I had a vague memory of the fact that one was named after that person, but was unable to do the same for 1#3 (never thought of googling “insects named after famous people”). And I didn’t know I was wrong about #15 with squid, but now I do!
26 September 2022
dr desperate
Yeah, got ’em now. Excellent quiz!
(I don’t suppose anybody else made the herpetological link to my geographical guess for no.12.)
26 September 2022
EXXO
No – but when you said “initial idea” for #13 were you thinking of the initial U, and a cricket crowd chant-chirping like giant Colombian brown crickets?
No? Oh, OK then.
26 September 2022
dr desperate
Actually, the initials were those of Animal Number Thirteen, giving an ANT (king of the hill in WMCF).
Colombians eat fat-bottomed ants (hormigas culonas), you know.
26 September 2022
dr desperate
Even further off the mark, my geographical suggestion for no.12 was them Andes off ‘Eno Collaboration’, crossed by Frog by Captain Walter Snetterton. (Herpetologically, of course, Michael Palin was an ex-Python.)
26 September 2022
EXXO
Following the incident in which the name question for the early entrants for the Brum gig was deleted, an enquiry at FBL HQ, has now allocated 62 points (not 36) to Chris the Siteowner and identified the following 36-point entry as the one that still needs claiming,
1. songs in:
Rogation Sunday Westward Ho! Hornbeam Broadstairs Fix it so she dreams… Restless Legs (just 2 points for Broadstairs there)
2. (joker) Restless Legs
3. songs out:
Vitas G Joy in Leeuwarden PRS Yearbook Little In The Way of Sunshine
(24 points there)
4. walk on: Country
5. opening song: Suffolk Ditch
6. Cover song: London Calling
7. % difference 40% (won 10 points as the highest and nearest guess)
27 September 2022
woodnoggin
Time for some answers?
Here are the animals:
1. Badger
2. Fox
3. Tiger
4. Mynah bird
5. Orangutan
6. Turkey
7. Dolphin
8. Giraffe
9. Chimpanzee
10. Octopus
11. Sloth
12. Hyla stingi (frog)
13. Sericomyrmex radioheadi (ant)
14. Hummingbird
15. Amphinema rollinsi (jellyfish)
16. Swan
17. Eel
18. Bat
29 September 2022
EXXO
Great stuff Woody. Badger was always my favourite for #1 though I had wolf and alsatian on the pedestal for that medal. Fox likewise for #2 with “your missing cat” in a distant second place.
For #4 I got misled by the map and settled on crane a bit too too readily.
For #6 I assumed an Australian native, and so thought it was a portrayal of a baby kangaroo perhaps within a fluffy pouch without the portrayal of the mother.
For #7 I was going to give myself the points whether it was dolphin or shark, likewise the swan one if it turned out to be goose and indeed so too for the eel one if it turned out to be a tope.
All in all I’m happy with 14 out 18 before your celebrity creatures help and 16 after and just generally full of joy that this delightful quiz came to be.
Many chapeaux to the whole family and I look forward to your next quiz.
29 September 2022
EXXO
What song is the fox from?
29 September 2022
Phyllis Triggs
Fab quiz, Woodnoggin. Thanks to you and your daughter. Being somewhat geographically-challenged I’m pleased to have managed a score of 10. Had a seal for #1 and either baby kangaroo or emu for #6. Prior to the joyous realisation that #10 was an octopus, I had #10, 15 and 17 all down as plankton… Got completely wrong-footed by #11 and am shamefaced to have misinterpreted such a wonderful depiction of a sloth – it looks nothing like a dead ram!
29 September 2022
dr desperate
I had Jackdaw (or Crow) for 18, Walrus for 1 and Wolf for 2; I also went for Crane, Emu and Shark as 4, 6 and 7. Discounting my pre-hint American answers, ingenious though they were, I can’t claim any more than 50% correct.
Very enjoyable quiz though; many thanks to you and your daughter (and partner).
Do you also have a son called WoodKnut?
29 September 2022
woodnoggin
Here are the songs I had in mind for each animal:
1. Badger – Bladderwrack Allowance – “Mine’s a pint of Badger’s Entirely Blameless”
2. Fox – Persian Rug Sale at the URC – “Alfie Bass and that drone have got me foxed”
3. Tiger – Multitude – “Where the tiger soothes the baby kangaroo”
4. Mynah Bird – Stuck Up a Hornbeam – “I’ve got a mynah bird, it does nothing but moan”
5. Orangutan – Every Time a Bell Rings – “Why can’t you say ‘orangutan’?”
6. Turkey – New York Skiffle – “I’ve turkeyed way upstate”
7. Dolphin – Girlfriend’s Finished with Him – “And something or other about dolphins”
8. Giraffe – Awkward Sean – “Murdered by a giraffe”
9. Chimpanzee – Took Problem Chimp to the Ideal Home Show – “Took problem chimp to the Ideal Home Show”
10. Octopus – Them’s the Vagaries – “Squid yes, not so octopus”
11. Sloth – Tonight Matthew I’m Going to Be with Jesus – “It prods me out of my sloth”
12. Frog (Hyla stingi) – A Country Practice – “Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican”
13. Ant (Sericomyrmex radioheadi) – On Passing Lilac Urine – “The council’s gonna ask Radiohead to switch off Blackpool lights”
14. Hummingbird – Depressed Beyond Tablets – “I’ve been sent to gut hummingbirds”
15. Jellyfish (Amphinema rollinsi) – You’re Hard – “Henry Rollins – you’re hard”
16. Swan – Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes/Soft Verges – “Careful now, that swan could break your arm”/”Do you still drink in The Swan?”
17. Eel – Something’s Rotten in the Back of Iceland – “The age-old eel in your decommissioned fridge”
18. Bat – Renfield’s Afoot – “Notice was given of a bat walk”
30 September 2022
woodnoggin
I was tempted to locate the eel in the Mersey as a nod to the infamous Speke Eel of Alehouse Futsal…
30 September 2022
dr desperate
I thought it was aspic eel (though since Bre*it they won’t come from Germany any more).
https://www.eatyourbooks.com/library/recipes/539640/eel-in-aspic-aal-in
30 September 2022
Golden Biscuit Winner
Frog (Hyla stingi) Jellyfish (Amphinema rollinsi) Ant (Sericomyrmex radioheadi) – you should be in a Suffolk Ditch
30 September 2022
EXXO
Predictions form for Friday’s Blackpool gig. New contestants and one-off entries welcome.
https://forms.gle/NpTTKX1Lfn4QvpzF8
The form now asks for an email and sends you a copy of your answers, but your emails will not be stored in my data retrieval system.
The last 15 setlists are here with the current league table:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l_G0TLwgj4MzaU9c931nTtz6hKBSNUHJ4itd_2gfLhc/edit?usp=sharing
2 October 2022
Natalie at the back
I managed to identify 11 out of the 18. I’d have got 12 but foolishly plumped for Drongo for no.6.
Thanks to Little Woodnoggin for a very entertaining quiz!
3 October 2022
EXXO
Twelve entries so far for tomorrow’s gig.
New contestants welcome to try their hand.
https://forms.gle/NpTTKX1Lfn4QvpzF8
6 October 2022
dr desperate
I’ve just got an email reminding me what my entries were – if that’s your doing, @Exxo, much thanks.
7 October 2022
EXXO
Yes. The FBL compliance committee considered it an essential measure to maintain the credibility of the competition after the Birmingham lost names fiasco.
(and they thought it also help Keith to remember to do the right number of selections).
7 October 2022
Exxo
Thanks to all our our record 21 enyrants. Form now closed, with a record 21 entries.
My picks:
1. Asparagus. Lilac Harry Q. Doreen. When i look at my baby. Rogation. Broken Headstone. Tess.
2. Joker on when i look at my baby.
3.alehouse futsal. Bane of C. Bogus official. Floreat inertia.
4. Vintage music hall style eg George Formby.
5. Aspargus Next Left.
6. The Fall.
7. 41.41%
7 October 2022
Bad loser
Hoping that New Order being the cover, when I’d picked Joy Division, might be worth 75% of the available points.
8 October 2022
Golden biscuit winner
@bad loser. Incorrect, no marks, you are indeed a bad loser
8 October 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Hate to be the “I think you’ll find…” guy, but Ceremony is indeed a Joy Division song.
8 October 2022
TwistedKiteMike
Quite right, Bad Loser (who pointed out they didn’t play ‘Clocked Off’ as I said in my setlist report) and CtSO (who pointed out Ceremony was a Joy Division song).
I will go into teenage girl mode and blame a combination of the remnants of a heavy cold and wearing my contact lenses. The latter was an error of epic proportions, because a man of my age has improved vision with varifocal lenses, but not from within 5 yards. Discombobulation is the word of the day. I am never clear about the lines between JD and NO.
I will give myself whatever they call detention at school these days. I know it’s not called that anymore, there is another woke term for it.
I will be more careful at Naaaaaar-rich.
Mike……………………
8 October 2022
Exxo
@Bad Loser. For next season we will definitely consider a rule that would have seen you get more than 5 points for Joy Division (and likewise those who picked Buzzcocks or the Nightingales for Brum who shared members with Magazine and The Prefects respectively ).
I suppose I was a bit unlucky with my prediction of a George Formby walk-on. Next season there will probably be some consolation points for someone picking a walk-on which turned out to be the cover or vice versa, but unlikely to be any points for any artist “covered” in the intro to ‘Vatican Broadside’.
For those who dont know by the way, Tranmere have run out to the ‘Rockford Files’ theme for the last 44 or 45 seasons. My immediate thought on hearing it last night was that it might be an anniversary thing but I soon dismissed that idea.
8 October 2022
EXXO
@Bad Loser & @Dr. D. So of course my memory of ‘Ceremony’ being written and first recorded by Joy Division is correct (despite Mrs. Exford convincing me otherwise in the ‘spoons after the gig) and Alex you will receive the 30 points that are your rightful reward. Think we’ve already had more points won for cover versions this season than in the whole of last season.
8 October 2022
D list paul ross
Another shocker, with even the gimme of Floreat Inertia failing! Derby County 2008 springs to mind.
8 October 2022
EXXO
Subject to the usual ratification procedures, these annotated setlists give the points allocation (Brum setlist annotated with which songs were dropped).
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VzcOei62xCuF1YDrJ-XrR3gLcF2Iutb0jJhnEtDVhqI/edit?usp=sharing
I haven’t started to count your points properly yet – probably do that after MOTD2 – but I do notice that about 7 or 8 of you will get points for the TV theme walk-on and about 5 of you for picking another Manc band for the cover, though at a quick glance only Bad Loser got the 30 points for that. Also looks like about half of you scored the joker points this time, including some Bastard Sons, some Lilac Harries some Look Dads, a 1966 and a When I look at My baby.
Just about every song that was restored to the setlist was picked by someone, and again at first glance Mister Tubbs’ first 3 picks – 1966 And All That, Bastard Son of Dean Friedman, God Gave Us Life – suggest that his may have been the stand-out performance of this round.
But it’s all yet to be properly Rogered.
9 October 2022
EXXO
Oh – 1966 not played? That’s a case in point of how it needs Roger’s ratification.
9 October 2022
EXXO
Ah OK – Roger’s rip-roaring romp of a review (available on Gez’s site) does entirely ratify Mike’s setlist, with Roger’s remarks on ‘1966’ not being played going some way to explain why I briefly mis-remembered it (this morning) as maybe having been played (when I saw Mister Tubbs’ predictions). So I will go ahead and allocate scores as per the annotated setlist above.
By the way, it will probably at some point be worth re-iterating that the percentage difference is based on the percentage of the setlist that was different from the previous gig (ie 10 out of 29), not the percentage of the previous gig that was different from this one (12 out of 31).
9 October 2022
mister tubbs
@Exxo – I think there may be more than one Mr. Tubbs out there, as this Mr. Tubbs didn’t select God gave us Life or Dean Friedman – I think only one of my selections came in (Look Dad No tunes)
9 October 2022
EXXO
Sorry about that. There isn’t more than one Mr. Tubbs, and don’t worry folks there will be no more confusion about whose entry is whose. I was just taking shortcuts on identifying contestants from individual answers that often work and occasionally don’t, probably cos Microsoft forms shuffles the order of the forms when it reloads. Won’t do that again.
9 October 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
1966, Dean F & God Gave Us Life were among my selections I believe…
9 October 2022
EXXO
Please check your FBL points for Blackpool. Bad Loser aced it this week, breaking another all-time record by scoring points on 6 out of the 7 questions.
1st.Bad Loser___________92___(Lilac 7+20, Bastard Son 10, 15 for dropped songs, TV theme, Joy Division, second nearest 35.48%)
2nd.Transit F o Keith ______69___(Bastard Son 10+20, God Gave 19, 20 for dropped)
3rd.Man of Varying Sorrow_53___(Look dad 4+20, Baby2, Big Man 2, 20 dropped, TV)
4th.Exxo_______________49___(Baby 2+20, Lilac HQ 7, 15 for dropped songs, 5 Manc band)
5th.Clash City Rocker_____48___(Look dad 4+20, baby 2, 15 for dropped songs, TV, 2pts for “M” band)
6th. Injured Buzzard ______47___(Lilac HQ 7+20, 15 for dropped songs, 5 Manc band)
7th. Mister Tubbs_________44___(Look dad 4+20, 15 for dropped songs, TV theme)
8th.Nige (NNTO)________40___(bastard Son 10+20, 10 for dropped songs)
9th.Ferencvaros Fan ______31 ___(Irk 7, Evening Sun 4, 20 for dropped songs)
10th.Phyllis Triggs________29___(bastard Son 10, Look dad 4, 15 for dropped songs)
11th.Schoon _____________29___(Look Dad 4, dropped songs 15, TV th, Manc band)
12th.Woodnoggin_________27___(dropped songs 15, nearest % =34.5%, 2pts “M”band)
13th. D-List Paul Ross_____26___(Irk 7, E. Sun 4, dropped songs 15)
14th. Lord Hereford_______ 26__(Look Dad 4, Big Man 2, dropped songs 10, Tv theme, Manc band)
15th. Cream Cheese &Chives_25___(20 for dropped songs, Manc band)
16th. Parsfan______________24___(Look Dad 4, 15 for dropped songs, TV theme)
17th. Lux Inferior __________22___(Lilac HQ 7, 15 for dropped songs)
18th. Mark Griffiths ________20___(15 for dropped songs, TV theme)
19th. Ctso________________ 15____(15 for dropped songs)
20th. Dr. Desperate__________15____(15 for dropped songs)
21st. Golden Biscuit winner ___0_____(only entered a pick for band covered).
10 October 2022
Chris The Siteowner
*Coughs* called Improv Workshop Mimeshow Gobshite…
10 October 2022
Parsfan
At the risk doing others more of a favour than myself, did dropped songs not go up six points this season?
All the ones I noticed were divisible by five.
10 October 2022
EXXO
Bollocks, yes. thanks Paul. as you’ve noticed I just went back to the old system there. Have to check I got it right last time now.
And yes many apologies again, Chris – well played for the stunning 33-point pick (again!!) and for the correction – nobody’s corrected the “annotated setlist” I put up yesterday which went by Mike’s setlist, not Roger’s (which I then scanned too quickly and thought was identical). Mike had TUCOLO where it was really Improv. Bet he noted it down after the first line or two. At least that doesn’t change the percentage.
Stand by for a corrected version.
10 October 2022
EXXO
I even missed Mike’s self-correction above cos I was on my phone not laptop and everything goes to pieces when I touch a phone (especially the phone) – so apologies to Mike as well!
10 October 2022
EXXO
Only Chris picked 33-pointer ‘Improv Mimeshow,’ another Mick Walsh class effort after his ‘Dead men’ pick last time for the same score, and nobody picked ‘TUCOLO.’ So not too hard to correct. Any more amendments?
Bad Loser___________95___(Lilac 7+20, Bastard Son 10, 18 for dropped songs,
TV theme, Joy Division, second nearest 35.48%)
TfoKeith ____________73___(Bastard Son 10+20, God Gave 19, 24 for dropped)
Man of Varying Sorrow_57___(Look dad 4+20, Baby2, Big Man 2, 24 dropped, TV)
Exxo________________52___(Baby 2+20, Lilac HQ 7, 18 dropped songs, 5 Manc)
Clash City Rocker_____51___(Look dad 4+20, baby 2, 18 for dropped songs, TV,
2 pts for “M” band)
Injured Buzzard ______50___(Lilac HQ 7+20, 18 for dropped songs, 5 Manc band)
Ctso________________48____(33 points!! Again!! for Improv Mimeshow, 15 for dropped songs)
Mister Tubbs_________47___(Look dad 4+20, 18 for dropped songs, TV theme)
Nige (NNTO)________42___(bastard Son 10+20, 12 for dropped songs)
Ferencvaros Fan ______35 ___(Irk 7, Evening Sun 4, 24 for dropped songs)
Phyllis Triggs________32___(bastard Son 10, Look dad 4, 18 for dropped songs)
Schoon _____________32___(Look Dad 4, dropped songs 18, TV th, Manc band)
Woodnoggin_________30___(dropped songs 18, nearest =34.5%, 2pts “M”band)
Cream Cheese &Chives_29___(24 for dropped songs, manc band)
D-List Paul Ross_______29___(Irk 7, E. Sun 4, dropped songs 18)
Lord Hereford_______ _28__(Look Dad 4, Big Man 2, dropped songs 12, Tv theme, Manc band)
Parsfan______________27___(Look dad 4, 18 for dropped songs, TV theme)
Lux Inferior __________25___(Lilac HQ 7, 18 for dropped songs)
Mark Griffiths ________23___(18 for dropped songs, TV theme)
Dr. desperate__________18____(18 for dropped songs)
Golden Biscuit winner ___0_____(only entered a pick for band covered).
10 October 2022
EXXO
As you’ll probably have guessed by the way, it was the retention of ‘Floreat’ that reduced the average points scored on Q.3, with only 3 contestants scoring a maximum 24 this time. 18 out of 20 entries correctly predicted ‘Bogus Official’ being dropped, 14 out of 20 ‘Dead Men,’ 13 out of 20 ‘Alehouse futsal.’ Question 3 doing its egalitarian job of getting points on the board for the masses.
10 October 2022
EXXO
4 contestants got 24 points for dropped songs in fact, 2 got 12 and 14 got 18 points.
10 October 2022
EXXO
CtSO the only score on that revised table where I hadn’t changed the “dropped songs” points to 6 per song – so CtSO should be on 51 points there of course.
10 October 2022
Man of varying sorrow
Wow I wasn’t expecting to have done so well this week. I must confess that I actually forgot about Floreat Inertia being played at Brum and probably would’ve picked it as a dropped song if I did!
10 October 2022
Lux inferior
Bugger – my last minute joker switch from Harry Quinn to Squabble Fest has seen me plummet from the Champions League qualification places in the overall standings. Kudos to a fair few others for some outstanding shouts for Q.1 though.
Anyway, as we approach a landmark number of comments on this wonderful site, here’s a quick brain teaser relating to said number:
Mutiplying together the number of full international caps of which five HMHB referenced footballers gives a total of exactly 50,000?
12 October 2022
Exxo
3 goalkeepers, a full back and a centre forward by any chance?
12 October 2022
Lux inferior
Had a feeling you’d nail it pretty swiftly, Exxo. Maybe leave it a while to see if anyone else can come up with the names, and also because it’s probably best if comment 50,000 on the site is set aside for CtSO, or perhaps even yourself, as our most regular and esteemed contributor.
12 October 2022
Chris The Siteowner
That’s very kind of you…
12 October 2022
Chris The Siteowner
…and here it is, comment no. 50,000!
12 October 2022
EXXO
Wouldn’t have dreamed of denying Chris comment Roman numeral L with a horizontal line above it. I just wish ‘Gipton Teenager’ was around to claim the palindrome.
To further celebrate this Lyrics Project statistical milestone, in which songs do the numbers in the lyrics enable these sums to all reach the same magical figure? Each sum involves between two and six different songs. See how many you can do from memory. Ooh, Carol …
1. Number of clowns, multiplied by number of sea cadets.
2. Number of pounds, divided by number of fauns.
3. Number of dredgers, multiplied by number of quid.
4. Number of minutes past, multiplied by number of winters, multiplied by weekly allowance.
5. Prize sum times hymn number, the subtract feet scuttled.
6. Add together five different numbers from the same song, multiply by number of metres from another song, then subtract the total obtained by multiplying a number of coats by a number of band members.
7. Number of people at the after-show, multiplied by the length of breaks.
8. Length of thread multiplied by year of hooliganism, then subtract the product of words not sung right now multiplied by cards of Gerry Gow, then subtract number of tickets available for hanging, then subtract percentage of sculpted resemblances and finally add specific moment from Match of the Day.
12 October 2022
EXXo
In #5, “then subtract,” sorry.
12 October 2022
FEATURELESS TV PRODUCER STEVE
One of Exxo’s fabulous brainteasers not withstanding, I feel we should be making a bigger deal about hitting the 50,000 mark. Personally, I am standing and applauding, and hoisting a beer in CtSO’s honor. I don’t know what it feels like to have created the best website on the entire internet, but here’s a salute to our fearless leader, who does.
Thank you, CtSO, and here’s to another 50,000.
13 October 2022
Chris The Siteowner
That’s very kind, FTVPS. For 99% of the time, it’s the comments that make the site what it is, and they take very little effort in maintaining (just the occasional prompt ‘approval’ needed for first-time contributors, and dealing with people who bash stuff in without thinking about or reading it, then ask for corrections, you know who you are). The other 1% is when there’s a new album (sadly not often enough) and when we have a World Cup or something else out-of-the-ordinary (about as infrequently). But that can be quite fun, even if it means several very late nights. Oh, and there’s a bit of background maintenance, but that’s quite rare; as it happens, we’re doing some serious tidying up right now, with the help of a contributor here who knows a lot more about MySQL databases than I do. With any luck, we shouldn’t break the site.
You can see some stats in the ‘Website Activity Records’ section here.
13 October 2022
dr desperate
You can add my applause (but not the beer – it’s only 8.30am, so that’ll have to wait another hour).
13 October 2022
Parsfan
Hmmmm, I’m not sure I trust those “visitor” stats. There’s 75,000 of us making two visits per year?
13 October 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Yes, the majority of visitors only come once. It’s often because they’re not interested in the band at all, but have been searching on Google for (often obscure) things which happen to turn up in the lyrics.
13 October 2022
Lux inferior
Exxolent quiz, Exxo. Puts my little brain teaser to shame. Managed to solve all bar Q.6, but will get there in the end. Confused myself for a while by assuming the number of ‘minutes past’ in Q.4 was 30, as in ‘half past’ from Squabble Fest.
13 October 2022
Chris The Siteowner
In case you’re wondering, here’s an update of the Google searches where we’ve appeared in the results over 1000 times in the last year (other the searches which are obviously looking for references to the band or the lyrics)
ted moult (the site has appeared 16321 times as a result of that search)
peter glaze (15331)
fred titmus (9921)
tony bastable (9756)
sour cream and chive pringles (8623)
len ganley (7185)
yahoo chess (7152)
shane fenton (7073)
pugh pugh barney mcgrew (6337)
bubble perm (5982)
hedley verity (5399)
johnny kwango (4606)
my grandfather’s clock (4318)
bunty james (3545)
pew pew barney mcgrew (3362)
bob todd (3312)
subbuteo (3125)
chester barnes (3071)
barney mcgrew (2970)
pringles sour cream and chive (2933)
chippy minton (2760)
accy stanley (2699)
lynette mcmorrough (2680)
hugh pugh barney mcgrew (2605)
flintlock band (2603)
grant baynham (2474)
bert royal wrestler (2460)
tonight matthew i’m going to be (2407)
lord herefords knob (2222)
dukla prague (2165)
sad cafe (2119)
readers wives letters (2087)
cuthbert dibble and grub (1985)
prize guy (1964)
footnote lyrics (1904)
climie fisher (1896)
millican and nesbitt (1868)
everytime a bell rings (1679)
johnny quango (1618)
the shend (1609)
rod hull (1544)
vitas gerulaitis (1457)
hamilton bland (1389)
peter grummitt (1382)
kendo nagasaki (1323)
only the crumbliest flakiest chocolate (1318)
jim reeves i love you because (1310)
ted molt (1280)
the escort (1278)
ted moult death (1267)
lesser free trade hall (1258)
ian sludge lees (1220)
lesley judd (1184)
vanburn holder (1177)
dickie davies (1172)
jimmy clitheroe (1134)
hugh pew barney mcgrew (1127)
is wrestler bert royal still alive (1122)
arthur brownlow (1116)
hugh pugh barney (1097)
dani behr (1068)
bert royal (1065)
britannia music club (1056)
fiesta readers write (1052)
judie tzuke (1045)
adam boyle (1043)
tommy walsh house (1020)
sour cream and chives pringles (1004)
13 October 2022
Brumbiscuit
If I could be arsed to count, I’d say that the various Trumpton Fire Brigade combinations would sit atop the pile. And whilst just checking facts, I ascertained that the brothers Pugh are also twins. Jose & Josb?
13 October 2022
transit full of keith
I was working on a quiz for tomorrow, but I’m not sure if I should post it if the mid-week one is still running, if only people would read the rules more.
50,000 is a fine milestone (and also a terrible song by Sting). Cheers Chris for this marvellous site, which I may possibly have spent a little too much time on the past 5 years or so.
13 October 2022
EXXO
Good to hear you’ve got one in the pipeline, Keith. Both Lux and I had prepared questions for the 50,000 mark, so I hope Chris’ OCD won’t be too irritated by the Wednesday quizzing. Post yours whenever you like though. Friday is just a state of mind after all. It would be an exaggeration to claim that “it’s always Friday somewhere,” but it’s definitely Friday, somewhere, most of the time.
13 October 2022
transit full of keith
I’ll wait until the previous has run its course.
14 October 2022
Lux inferior
Finally got an answer for Q.6, though it’s a touch convoluted. I was getting nowhere while assuming the number of coats was 7 (Suffolk Ditch), but the 100 Spandex overcoats in Prac Veg has at least led me to a solution of sorts. Still not convinced it’s right, as I’ve had to use ‘fourth’ rather than four in the first part of the answer. Anyway…
1. 1,000 (Gubba) x 50 (Deep House)
2. 100,000 (ITMA) ÷ 2 (Joyce)
3. 1,000 (Carry On Cremating) x 50 (Petty Sessions)
4. 25 (Room Bigger) x 50 (Grafting Haddock) x 40 (Prac Veg)
5. 200 (Fretwork) x 252 (Petty Sessions) – 400 (Gwatkin)
6. [41+89+5+113+4 (Little In The Way Of Sunshine] x 200 (Wrong Grave) – [100 (Prac Veg) x 4 (Westminster Bridge)]
7. 10,000 (Christian Rock Concert) x 5 (Doreen)
8. 27 (Dental Floss) x 1985 (Uffington) – [1,000 x 3 (This One’s For Now)] – 500 (PRS) – 99 (Bob Todd) + 4 (Third Track)
14 October 2022
EXXO
Bravo Lux. The fourth is strong with you.
14 October 2022
EXXO
Looking forward to your quiz, Keith, especially as the recently established tradition is to celebrate your ascent to the top of the FBLwith some top, top questions.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VzcOei62xCuF1YDrJ-XrR3gLcF2Iutb0jJhnEtDVhqI/edit
23 October 2022
EXXO
By the way I can’t help feeling I spoiled Lux’s 50,000th post brain-teaser by smothering it with my own sums,. That’s cos I’d spent the morning preparing them while my students were doing a test, and ‘cos I then went to the pub at lunchtime for someone’s retirement thing, so there was no stopping me.
Anyway Lux asked
I reckoned: Joel Bats, 50 Caps for France, times George Farm 10 caps for Scotland, times Bob Primrose Wilson 2 caps for Scotland, times Barry Venison 2 caps for England (selected by Mike Bassett, one vaguely seems to remember), times Stanley Mortensen 25 caps.
23 October 2022
transit full of keith
Oh yeah I’d forgotten about that.
23 October 2022
transit full of keith
Quiz
A bit cryptic this. Each of the answers is the title of an HMHB song with one letter changed. For example: Legendary king’s Mancunian bap might point you to the answer ARTHUR’S BARM (i.e. one letter changed in ‘Arthur’s Farm’). Post answers next Wednesday after 5? Enjoy (or not, it’s a free country).
1. Instruction to prepare snake for action
2. Bob Marley’s ‘angular’ hairstyle
3. Kirsty going down in a lift?
4. Return of the potato fungus
5. Crooner’s offspring is a game bird
6. Undercover policeman
7. Clergymen sporting the Keegan look
8. Smoking vessel sent to Brussels
9. Dark crime committed with Crossley’s instrument
10. Lingering fart left by female dragon?
11. Singer’s entreaty to polish his equipment
12. Two dozen miserable brake fitters
13. What do you see in that shiny tart?
14. What vandals might do in a church
15. Disappointing night at the livestock market
23 October 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
Top of the FBL eh? That’ll never last.
23 October 2022
dr desperate
Got ’em except one.
23 October 2022
EXXO
Only five out of fifteen for me so far!! Must try harder.
25 October 2022
Slow dempsey
After several attempts over a few days, I think I’ve got them all. Number ten had me fixed until a sudden inspiration this morning.
A splendid quiz which definitely tapped into the cryptic crossword bit of my brain.
25 October 2022
dr desperate
Well done, @SD! I had a similar problem (though differently vowelled) with the same one. As we know, occupants of that Number have not been noted for their lingering qualities of late.
I do have an unlikely answer – it’s quite an obscure reference (say whaaat?) and seems only partly relevant to the clue, but it’s the best I can do.
I’m off to that London and that Sheffield in the morning to see Art Brut and the CUD band, so I’ll leave it to you to post the (presumably) winning entry after 5 tomorrow.
25 October 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
Hmm, no 10 probably does smell a bit off – I think I’ve overstretched the meaning of a word a bit.
“Smog produced by female dragon?” is better.
25 October 2022
EXXO
It was one of the first ones I got 😀
Still only got about eight of them though. Might have to actually start looking at some titles, as brain itself is a farty smog at the moment and if you asked me to name 9 track titles per album right now on pain of death I’d just have to surrender to the firing squad.
26 October 2022
Slow dempsey
This is what I ended up with:
1. Ready steady boa
2. Oblong of dreads
3. Wark’s descending
4. Blight reprise
5. The bustard son of Dean Friedman
6. Secret pig
7. Ecclesiastical perms
8. A bong for Europe
9. Midnight bass murder
10. This Meaden pall
11. See that my mike’s kept clean
12. Twenty-four dour garage people
13. Reflections in a flan
14. Breaking pews
15. Evening of swine (has been cancelled)
26 October 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
Absolutely spot on!
No prize though, sorry.
26 October 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
(Well, 3 is Wark Descending, if we’re being picky).
26 October 2022
EXXO
ooh lucky, saw that someone had posted the answers before I focused in on them.
Three days before posting answers is a bit short for my tastes when I’ve been mad busy. Need more time for these, so now need to scroll back up without seeing the answers and copy and paste them and not come back to the site for a couple of days.
Such procedures in my case are easy to accomplish by removing glasses and then only putting them back on when I’m sure I can’t see the answers.
26 October 2022
dr desperate
I’ve never seen ‘Dragons’ Den’, so didn’t get Meaden – the closest I came was ‘This Ladon Pall’, referring to the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, who would have required the change of two letters, and was male anyway.
My alternative suggestion (using the original clue) would have required the female dragon from Disney’s ‘Sword in the Stone’ to be in a doomed Sapphic relationship with another of her species: ‘left by female dragon’ would then lead to ‘Girlfriend’s Broken Up With Mim’.
26 October 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
For future reference, it’d be safe to assume that none of my quiz questions would be as obscure as that…
27 October 2022
Schoon
Why would anyone Google ‘only the crumbliest flakiest chocolate’?
29 October 2022
Richie stevens
Google it and you will find out
29 October 2022
EXXO
Let’s be having your FBL predictions for Norwich:
https://forms.gle/Xf8JYoqDYPStXr1M6
Form guide for the last 3 years is here, beneath the current league table:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VzcOei62xCuF1YDrJ-XrR3gLcF2Iutb0jJhnEtDVhqI/edit
See also Giant Setlist Spreadsheet on this site.
5 November 2022
dr desperate
Nice Delia reference there, @Exxo.
6 November 2022
D list paul ross
I’m a predictions placepot Uttoxeter, down by 1.45, pulled up at Bangor-on-Dee, etc but I have persisted like Sue the Human JCB at the Colman’s Mustard Bravery Awards.
7 November 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
Correction to my entry: Turned Up Clocked On is on the Blackpool set list, but I think it was Improv Workshop right?
So my dropped song entry should also say Improv Workshop where it is currently Turned Up Clocked On. Ta
8 November 2022
EXXO
I think I went too early with the link to the predictions form for Friday’s gig, as the number of entries is well down on the usual.
In other words: “where are you?!!” “Let’s be havin’ you!!”
https://forms.gle/Xf8JYoqDYPStXr1M6
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VzcOei62xCuF1YDrJ-XrR3gLcF2Iutb0jJhnEtDVhqI/edit
9 November 2022
EXXO
But yes, Keith is right about Improv Mimeshow and I’ve now corrected the Blackpool setlist on that document, which I’d thought I’d already done.
If anyone chooses TUCOLO as a dropped song and does not correct it before the gig (as keith has done), it will be assumed that they “meant” Improv Mimeshow.
9 November 2022
dr desperate
At the Azed 50th anniversary lunch in May I sat next to a bloke who works as a researcher on OC. I can’t remember his name, but if I see him again I’ll ask him if there’s a fan among the setters.
9 November 2022
EXXO
Looks like entries in from all the usual suspects. Thanks to the 16 predictors so far.
Entries are welcome from anyone else, new or old, up to the “soundcheck” deadline of 5pm
https://forms.gle/Xf8JYoqDYPStXr1M6
Form guide for the last 3 years is here, beneath the current league table:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VzcOei62xCuF1YDrJ-XrR3gLcF2Iutb0jJhnEtDVhqI/edit
11 November 2022
EXXO
Buggeration. It was bound to happen one day that gig day, and an early start at that, would combine with the day from hell for me, after the weeko de la muerte. No internet and punctures to cap it all off.
So the band may come on in about 2 minutes and I’d better think about me picks or else disqualify meself.
Yes I know my mate in Norwich could have texted me a sneaky peak of the list by now, but you’ll have to trust me here.
Just wish I could read my handwriting from some notes I made the other day on a plastic visor, off which plenty has also rubbed.
So I’ll go for opening song and joker on the same easy pick – Bob wilson.
Other songs restored – Sealclubbing. Secret gig. Monmore.
New songs – Tess Rogation Broken Head
Dropped – mimeshow Dean Irk Broadstairs
Walk-on – FOLK – deliberately went for a rare one hoping I’m wrong, as it will probably already have happened (it’s now 7:34pm)
Cover X ray Spex
Percentage ooh errm just 31.742
11 November 2022
EXXO
Hope to get the points done tonight or Monday afternoon. At first glance it looks like there were a number of inspired picks, with 3 contestants grabbing the 18 points for Evening of Swing and 2 getting the 12 points for Dickie Davies Eyes. At least 7 players landed the 20 joker points, 5 of them for Bob Wilson, 2 for Terminus.
Looks like most of you got 24 points out of 24 on dropped songs.
It won’t be the highest-scoring round ever as nobody scored any points for the Undertones or any of the associated bonuses, nobody got the walk-on genre if it is confirmed that it was Hawkwind’s ‘Brainstorm,’ in tribute to Nik Turner’s passing. [by the way I note that Karl had tweeted about Nik Turner pre-gig, although I don’t know what time, and I can confirm that it would be deemed acceptable to change your choice of anything right up to 5pm as long as not based on any information from the band about what they might play]
If 11 ouf 28 songs different is confirmed, then for the first time we have a tie of 2 contestants getting it spot on, so 7.5 points each to Bad Loser and Woodnoggin.
13 November 2022
Chris The Siteowner
OK, here’s a bit of fun. Rob W-M writes: “I’m currently training as a software engineer and one of our assignments was to remake the recently popularised Wordle game in HTML/JavaScript. I found this a bit dull on its own so decided to make it with a HMHB twist… words only from HMHB lyrics, Kendo Nagasaki background tiles, etc.”
It works, and here it is. Enjoy! (Thanks Rob)
15 November 2022
D list paul ross
Sorry to be thick but should the version on the link work or is this just for info? Won’t work on my phone or am I just a twat?
15 November 2022
dr desperate
Jolly good! It worked for me, got the first one in 4/6. Not a particularly Biscuity word, but it does appear in at least one lyric. (You get a different answer word every time you start, unlike Wordle which changes only once every 24 hours.)
It may help to know that correct letters entered in the wrong place appear in purple, correct letters in the right place in green, on my laptop at least.
15 November 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Link works for me, but if anyone else has any problems it’s at:
https://chrisrand.com/hmhb-wordle/
15 November 2022
EXXO
Must admit I’ve tried it in 3 different browsers and can’t get it to do anything. Presumably you’re meant to drag the letters into the boxes? Top row first or bottom row first? Either way I’ve tried everything and nothing responds.
15 November 2022
Chris The Siteowner
You just type the letters.
15 November 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
Works on my laptop (by typing), but not on my phone.
15 November 2022
EXXO
Ha. Wouldn’t have thought of just typing without an instruction. Looks like it’s going to be a draggy or clicky thing.
Dunno if it’s a glitch, but there’s a problem when you try a word with the same letter twice, when that letter is only in the answer once, ‘cos it then looked to me as if one letter ‘e’ was in the right place and one was in the wrong place, when in fact both were referring to the same single occurrence of the letter ‘e’.
15 November 2022
dr desperate
I’ve always typed in the letters on Wordle, as its on-screen keyboard requires use of the touchpad, making a click which is annoyingly loud (to anyone else in the room, or the next room).
16 November 2022
EXXO
Already this season we have seen several of the big FBL outfits making more effective use of their data analysis for questions 1-3. None more so that Schoon FBLC last week, who became the first FBL unit to score with 10 different songs in the first 3 questions. You’ll notice that in this round Question 1 gained contestants far more points for old songs than ever before. A lot of players are only interested in a 2-pointer on Q.1 if it also secures them their 20-point joker, but Team Schoon added 3 x 2-pointers to the 10 for ‘Surging’ and the 18 points for ‘Evening of Swing.’ Both of those last two songs had been on the shortlist for team Exxo before being benched for the match, and both are personal favourites in a live environment that I was gutted to miss. Also kicking ourselves here at the Exxodome that we were one of only 3 teams not to score maximum points for dropped songs this time.
So the points for Norwich go thusly, with apologies that it’s taken me all week:
Schoon _______78 __(Eve 18, Surging 10, BobW 22, BobT 2, Term 2, dropped songs 24)
Ferencvaros Fan_66__(Bob W 22, Eve 18, Buried 2, dropped 24)
Lux Inferior_____63___(Term 22, Colombia 7, dropped 24, opener correct)
Mister Tubbs____60__(Bob W 22, Dickie 12, Buried 2, dropped 24)
TFoKeith________56__(Bob W 22, dropped 24, opener correct)
Woodnoggin_____47.5_(Bob W 2, Buried 2, Term 2, dropped 24, opener correct, joint correct %)
Exxo ____________47__(Bob W 22, Seal 7, dropped 18)
Injured Buzzard___46__(Bob W 22, dropped 24)
Mr. Spokesman ___42__(Eve 18, dropped 24)
Phyllis T__________36__(Dickie D 12, dropped 24)
CtSO_____________34__(dropped songs 24, opener correct)
Nige (NNTO)_______30__(Bob W 2, Bob T 2, Buried 2, dropped 24)
Bad Loser _________31.5_(dropped 24, joint correct %)
D-List Paul Ross ____24 __(dropped songs 24)
Doctor D__________24 __(dropped songs 24)
Parsfan___________24___(dropped songs 24)
Lord Hereford ______20__(Buried 2, dropped songs 18)
Mark Griffiths_______18__(dropped songs 18)
Check your points, check your points I think I’ve lost my mind – setlist here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10wLf5DXj-iQ3-LyPPPvyEN6xQHqjAE2QmmqBqpX7pEk/edit
Bad Loser & Woodnoggin deserve a special mention for both predicting the exact % i.e. 11 out of 28 songs different, but can also count themselves unlucky that on the current scoring system it means they both got 7.5 points (10+5 divided by 2).., but it won’t be the first time that in applying a rule for the first time I realise it’s a bit unfair – next season this will be revised to 10 points each, as what if say 5 people all got it spot-on? They would surely deserve more than 3 points each.
18 November 2022
Schoon
Oh no, and I’ve just fired the Data Science team for not being hardcore enough! Back to mid table mediocrity next time.
Thanks Exxo for a fantasy league that’s actually worth doing.
One day they’ll come on to Westward Ho! and I’ll score millions.
18 November 2022
EXXO
Hard to believe the respected institution that the FBL has become is not even one year old for another week. I say respected, but “envied” might be a better word, as hardly a month goes by that we don’t see comments in the wider setlist-prediction media about how lucky we are to only have HMHB gigs every month or so, with a 35% turnover of material between gigs. I can already see that envy turning to glee as they rub their hands and chuckle about how the FBL is going to deal with the double-header in April.
But fear not. We will get the Stowmarket setlist up by 1am on 15th April and there will indeed be just a 16-hour window for submitting your Cambridge predictions on that day. The FBL will cope, fear not.
18 November 2022
EXXO
The Norwich results, once you’ve checked for the odd oversight on my part, might leave the upper half of the overall table looking something like this:
Transit Full of Keith ____239
Mister Tubbs _________221
Woodnoggin _________212.5
Exxo _______________ 211
Lux Inferior __________207
Ferencvaros Fan _____198
Schoon _____________186
Bad Loser ___________181.5
CtSO _______________171
Injured Buzzard _______144
Nige (No, not that one) __132
Parsfan _______________125
Man of Varying Sorrow _(Played 3)_121
18 November 2022
FERENCVáROS FAN
@Exxo: thanks as always for your FBL work. Like you, I am dismayed at missing ‘Surging’ live. It’s one of my top 5 Biscuit tracks. Overall score was definitely one of my luckier efforts. I believe, however, that I’m on for an additional 7, as Colombia was my first pick for question 1. Cheers.
18 November 2022
EXXO
Cheers George. I knew there would be 1 or 2 oversights and I just ran a complete re-audit using more coffee in my (very) software. Two errors emerged:
You are due those 7 points and Lord Hereford is due 2 points for Terminus.
18 November 2022
Woodnoggin
Thanks Exxo. I think I’m owed an extra 20 points for listing Terminus as my joker.
18 November 2022
EXXO
Aw, yes, that’s poor of me, soz.
18 November 2022
Ferencváros fan
Thanks @Exxo. Don’t take all the work you put into this lightly. Maybe see you at Hull.
18 November 2022
transit full of keith
Blimey. Two rounds at the top. This doesn’t feel right. Watch me crash and burn for the rest of the season.
18 November 2022
Mark Griffiths
Another poor performance,re election beckons just like Hartlepool (s) United,they must despair.
18 November 2022
dr desperate
Quick World Cup one: what’s the Biscut link between Jonny Williams, Chris Gunter and Idrissa Gueye?
2 December 2022
EXXO
Nice one. Fell into place as soon as I re-read the question after thinking about something else.
2 December 2022
dr desperate
Thanks! If anyone hasn’t got it by 6.55pm on Sunday (which I doubt), I’ll give the answer then.
2 December 2022
BOBBY SVARC
Bob Wilson
2 December 2022
EXXO
When I put up the FBL form for Hull 16th Dec predictions (form to appear in this thread on sat Dec 10th), there will bean extra question asking you whether you wish to join the inaugural FBA Cup, as well as the FBL in 2023. The cup will be open to the first 16 players to say yes on that form.
To compete in the cup, all you will need to do is answer one extra question (one the same form as the FBL) for each of the London, Leamington, Stowmarket and Edinburgh gigs. For each round (round of 16, quarters, semis and final) there will be a draw pairing players together, and the closest answer between the 2 players drawn together will get them through to the next round. Edinburgh May 19th will be the FBA cup final, between the two players that remain standing. so enter the cup if you think you will be around to enter predictions for those 4 gigs, but if you do miss a round you would forfeit the cup tie. There will be other stipulations to avert the need for replays.
3 December 2022
dr desperate
That World Cup puzzle answer (for anyone who didn’t get it on Friday): the two League Two Welshmen and the Toffee Lion of Teranga were born, respectively, in Pembury, Newport and Dakar.
That’s Kent, Gwent and Senegal (BWA).
4 December 2022
STEVO
Don’t know if anyone spotted this – only six years short of our hero’s experience…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-63858303
5 December 2022
EXXO
Hull gig predictions form.
https://forms.gle/j4bMha4unLbyuUFR8
New contestants including one-off entries always welcome.
League table and last 15 setlists.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1it2hDa972TfdrgetwKS_Ha5LgO9ferj0OPccTysD0to/edit
11 December 2022
D list paul ross
@EXXO I have submitted my usual sub-standard entry, so far down the table I have to wait for Ceefax to move to 2/2 to see me. I have said yes to the cup but if you get 16 others please stand me down.
13 December 2022
EXXO
Thanks D-L PR. Of 11 predictors so far, 9 wish to enter the FBA Cup, so you’ll be in the hat don’t worry. Thanks too for the reminder to complete the league table. Will do it this evening.
13 December 2022
EXXO
If any regulars didn’t yet enter any predictions for the gig (eg Phyllis Triggs & Dr. Des), it would still be helpful if you could answer question 8 only. The cup still needs 5 more entrants.
I won’t be looking at the answers submitted for the other questions and as and when the Hull gig is rescheduled there will of course be another form.
15 December 2022
Woodnoggin
I just checked in here to complete my gig predictions. I’ll go in for the cup if it’ll help round out the numbers.
15 December 2022
EXXO
Just one quick question to kick us off for 2023.
What did Grace Jones say to Lord Hereford?
(I don’t know, what did Grace Jones say to Lord Hereford?)
13 January 2023
dr desperate
“Pull up to the Twmpa, Baby”?
(If she supported a team playing in the Swedish Division 1 Norra she might say “Pull up to the Bwmpa, Täby”.)
13 January 2023
Exxo
Indeed. In your long black limousine. Which I cant stop giggling about when I think of s long black limousine sliding into the car park at Gospel Pass.
I’ll put up the predictions form for Camden on Sunday. Draw for the FBA Cup on Monday lunchtime.
13 January 2023
Exxo
On my phone Dic’s comment contains an ad offering me “the trendiest ringtones”. Hope they are Instant Agony tunes.
13 January 2023
Hendrix-tattoo
Pull up to it.
Don’t drive through it..
Back it up twice…
Now that fits nice….
Grease it, spray it…..
Let me lubricate it……
13 January 2023
dr desperate
R6M may have noticed that the title doesn’t quite match the lyrics, as they now seem a bit less keen to play it (it was the 8th most played song of 2021, but failed to make the top 100 last year, beaten by ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ which came 6th).
This year’s figures may be skewed by it featuring on their trail for ‘Back to the 80s Week’ every five bloody minutes.
14 January 2023
dic aberdaron
good to see you took the luxury cruise to the swingin’ arm, mr Exxo
14 January 2023
EXXO
FBL predictions form for this Friday’s Camden gig, including bonus question for FBA Cup Round 1 entrants.
https://forms.gle/V1EPuYF9va4ixdUv5
Previous 15 or so setlists:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1it2hDa972TfdrgetwKS_Ha5LgO9ferj0OPccTysD0to/edit
Apologies for late appearance of this form, so therefore apologies also if you receive an email alert, which will not normally happen.
16 January 2023
EXXO
We have 15 entrants for the inaugural FBA Cup, drawn by a pair of distinguished former setlist predictors as follows:
Parsfan v Bad Loser
Nige (NNTO) v Chris the Siteowner
Mister Tubbs v Lord Hereford
D-List Paul Ross v Exxo
Lux Inferior v Ferencvaros Fan
Injured Buzzard v Woodnoggin
Phyllis Triggs v Dr. Desperate
Schoon v. BYE (or AN Other)
The ties will be decided by nearest answer on question 8, but the tie breaker will be FBL score for questions 1-7 and if that is also level by past average all-time FBL score.
Top of the table Transit Full of Keith has decided to concentrate on the league!
If anyone does want to take that last position to see if you can get nearer the bull than Schoon, first come first served.
16 January 2023
EXXO
Oh, BTW @ D-List Paul Ross, I don’t look at the forms before the gigs, but as I am drawn with you and need to be above suspicion of having seen your answer to question 8 before submitting mine, I will ask you not to submit today (Monday), and I send my answer to Q.8 to a third party Lyrics Project member (not a fellow FBA Cup contestant) this evening (Monday). If I remain in the cup, so on for future rounds.
16 January 2023
D list paul ross
Thanks @exxo but I suspect given previous form even if I were handed the set-list 5 minutes before the gig I’d make a hash of things. Out of laziness I’ll probably just submit my Hull form with Cliched swapped out for something less Christmassy.
16 January 2023
D list paul ross
Just seen the cup is an entirely separate question. If only people (I) would study the rules more.
16 January 2023
D list paul ross
@exxo I have submitted now, mainly so I don’t forget and partly because I want to be paid for doing it rather than doing it in my own time.
17 January 2023
EXXO
That’s the spirit D-L PR, and very much the spirit of my morning too as I am have just spent some time creatively justifying to my employer what I was doing with my time on certain days either side of Xmas that they had expected me to take as leave, a leave allowance not taken which I expect to be paid after end of temporary contract (next week).
17 January 2023
Parsfan
I’d meant to resubmit the cancelled one with one obvious alteration but didn’t get an email this time so no idea what I entered.
My bag’s packed and I’m leaving in a minute…will have to figure it out on phone.
20 January 2023
woodnoggin
I had the same intention, Parsfan, but the confirmation email I received had “N/A” for all the answers. Not very helpful, so I had to start again.
20 January 2023
EXXO
@Woodnoggin. Are you sure you didn’t submit only Q8 for Hull, because it was already after the postponement? (I just looked at your Hull form for the first time a minute ago, and your answers to Q1-7 all say N/A. I haven’t looked at anyone else’s Hull answers).
@Mr. Tubbs. Your first round opponent has not submitted, so like Schoon you have a bye.
My predictions for tonight:
1. A Country Practice; Eno Collaboration; Used to be in Evil Gazebo; Big Man Up Front; Broken Headstone; Tess of the Dormobiles; Rogation Sunday
2 (joker) Big Man up Front;
3. Evening of Swing; Sealclubbing; Dickie Davies; What made Colombia Famous
4. Pop
5. Renfield’s Afoot
6. The Ramones
7. 33.3333%
8. 25th song on Roger’s List.
20 January 2023
Woodnoggin
I’m pretty sure I filled it out then shortly afterwards heard the gig was cancelled. I can’t entirely rule out user error, though. I hope today’s predictions made it through OK.
20 January 2023
EXXO
Well Question 8 may have been a bit random in design and in results, but that’s the cup for you. Parsfan was first out of the hat in the first ever FBA Cup draw and he comes out of it the unluckiest, dumped out by one of the big boys, even though he (Parsfan) was only 8 places out on the setlist position of ‘Light,’ and even several though other sides won much dourer ties with far inferior performances. Woodnoggin went through to the next round even though he was 23 setlist places out, Mr. Tubbs likewise (though on a walk-over), Lux Inferior and D-List paul Ross similarly, even though each were 21 places out.
FBA Cup, First Round
BAD LOSER beats PARSFAN 4-10
SITEOWNER thrashes NIGEL (NNTO) 1-20
MR TUBBS walks over LORD HEREFORD 25-N/A
D-LIST PAUL ROSS edges out EXXO 23-25
LUX INFERIOR scrapes past FERENCVAROS FAN 23-26
WOODNOGGIN is left standing after a dour struggle with INJURED BUZZARD, 25-27
DR D. trounces PHYLLIS T. 1-25
SCHOON plays well scoring 7 in training, relaxing with a bye for round 1.
We now have nearly 8 weeks to wait for the Quarter Finals in Leamington, 17th March, so let’s have the draw for that one a little earlier on Monday 6th March.
21 January 2023
Ferencváros fan
@Lux, well done and all the best for the remainder of the competition. Hope you are doing OK. I wish I’d been paired with fellow Prestonion Dr D though. Together we could almost have recreated the 1887 FA Cup 26-0 trouncing of FC Hyde. IGMC.
21 January 2023
Woodnoggin
I got lucky in picking the same end of the setlist as Injured Buzzard. It could easily have been a catastrophic loss. Light at the End of the Tunnel was a great choice for this question as it seems to always be played either early or late, which encourages picking extreme answers. Although, by the looks of things, going for a number somewhere in the middle would have worked for most match-ups this time.
21 January 2023
phyllis Triggs
Well and truly trounced! It did occur to me after submitting my form that choosing a midway position would have been the most mathematically safe strategy. However, as Doctor Desperate was so damn near spot on, it wouldn’t have helped me this time around. Well done Doc! Also, interesting to see quite a few of us chose number 25. What psychology’s at work there then?
21 January 2023
Lux inferior
@FF – Cheers, and apologies for scuppering your cup dreams. I’m not doing too badly thanks. Got my tickets for the Stowmarket/Cambridge double-header, which is my own light at the end of the tunnel for the coming months. Also chuffed that my persistence in making ‘Grafting Haddock’ one of my FBL setlist predictions finally paid off.
22 January 2023
Ferencváros fan
Good to hear that your news is positive @Lux. My skill in plotting holidays around gigs is about as impressive as my cup exploits. Other than the Edinburgh city break in May, we’ve got 2 other trips booked. The first one clashes with Stowmarket/Cambridge, so sorry in advance for not being around to say hi. The second trip is a 10 day break in Brecon, commencing on 5th July…
22 January 2023
Lord hereford
Apologies, especially to Exxo, for my N/A in the FBA Cup. Exxo did send me a reminder on Friday but I was busy all day before the gig and only picked up the e-mail when I got back to my hotel. Good luck to those left in.
22 January 2023
INJURED Buzzard
Congrats to Woodnoggin on his cup victory. Close but no cigar for me. As you say it was a good choice of song. It was a toss up between 1 or 2 & one from end and I chose 27 purely because that was the age that so many musicians died, alas just as my cup run. Hey ho. Good luck for future rounds.
22 January 2023
EXXO
Scoring points for Q1 were these seven songs:
Twydale 86 points (CtSO) – yes I know – but I’ve just re-checked the last 86 Roger Green setlists!
Grafting Haddock 40 points (FF, Phyllis, Woodnoggin, Keith, Lux, Mr. T & Mr. Spokesman who used his joker)
Petty sessions 11 points (no takers)
Tommy Walsh 7 points (no takers)
Umberstone 5 points (FF)
Big Man 2 points ( Exxo & Injured Buzzard, both with joker)
Look Dad 2 points (Schoon, Woodnoggin, Lux Inferior with joker Phyllis T with joker, Mr Tubbs with joker)
Bad Wools 4 points (Nigel NNTO, D-List Paul Ross)
Q.3 points scored were for just 6 songs, 6 points each: Bob Todd, D Davies, Broadstairs, Lark, Terminus, E o Swing.
Nobody got maximum points for Q.3 this time. 4 contestants got just one (6 pts), 5 got 12 pts & 7 contestants got 18 points.
Q.4 Only pop can be accepted. A specialist rock or folk fan would be very pissed off at a Lieutenant pigeon gig. Only Lux Inferior and Exxo got 5 points.
Q.5 Renfield. 10 points for Exxo
Q6. Highest scoring ever – 6 people said The Clash!! (FF, Dr D, Pars, wood, Keith, Bad Loser).
I’m not sure I should give 5 points for the Stranglers as a London band. They formed and first played in Guildford, but within a couple of months were playing in London, so I do feel really mean not giving it. I will give 5 generous points to Mr. Tubbs and Injured Buzzard and the Stranglers are considered a London band for this rest of this season, subject to review.. 5 points to Nigel (NNTO) for Madness. 2 points each to Phyllis and Schoon for D & B bands respectively.
Q7. 30% exactly said D-List Paul Ross, exactly, for 10 points. 29.7% said Nigel (NNTO) for 5 points. Unlucky Injured Buzzard on 30.7%
Please check:
CtSO_______________ 92 points (86+6)
Lux Inferior___________90 points (62+18+10 for pop)
TFoKeith_____________88 points (40+18+30 for the Clash)
Ferencvaros Fan_______87 points (45+12+30 for the Clash)
Mr Tubbs_____________85 points (62+18+ 5 for the Stranglers)
Woodnoggin__________ 84 points (42+12+30 for the Clash)
Mr Spokesman________ 72 points (60+12)
Phyllis Triggs__________62 points (42+18+ 2 for the dead K’s)
Exxo________________49 points (22+12+5 for pop + 10 for opening number)
Bad Loser____________48 points (0+18+30 for The Clash)
Injured Buzzard _______45 points (22+18 + 5 Stranglers)
Dr Desperate__________42 points (0+12+30 for The Clash)
Parsfan______________36 points (0+6+30 for The Clash)
D-List Paul Ross_______32 points (4+18+10 for exact %)
Nigel (NNTO)__________27 points (4+18+5 for 2nd %)
Schoon_______________10 points. (2+6+2 for Buzzcocks)
22 January 2023
EXXO
Yes, you’re right, it’s only 5 points for the pop walk-on, so 85 total for Lux inferior – soz.
22 January 2023
Chris The Siteowner
My cunning, all-or-nothing, plan of always selecting the same set of ridiculously neglected songs pays off at last! Now I need to bring one off the bench to replace Twydale…
22 January 2023
LUx inferior
You’ve awarded me 5 points too many, Exxo – 10, rather than 5, for the pop walk-on. (My joker was actually played on Big Man Up Front, though that makes no difference to the overall score.)
22 January 2023
Lux inferIor
Ah, you’ve already spotted it. As you were 🙂
22 January 2023
EXXO
Provisional league table. All very close and exciting, with plenty of players in contention and at least 5 fixtures remaining this season.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B4SUzqxisXdz9Q8xzyH31HdPczBmwtwTnVXM3FGJp9s/edit?usp=sharing
As has been noted, the addition of a July fixture is unexpected, but it will now be the final fixture and title decider.
22 January 2023
Phyllis Triggs
I think I’m missing 20 Joker points, Exxo. Shouldn’t it be 42 + 20 + 18 + 2?
22 January 2023
EXXO
Quite right. So sorry. Corrected. And good to see the reigning champion climbing the table. Comfortably in the top half with those points.
22 January 2023
D list paul ross
Thanks Exxo, exact percentage and a fortuitous cup victory papering over the cracks of overall league form, whole town’s buzzing, etc.
23 January 2023
transit full of keith
Late season wobble and crash to mid-table has still yet to materialise, thanks to lucky picks of The Clash and Grafting Haddock. I’ll try and rectify that next time.
24 January 2023
EXXO
You make your own luck in this game. Give or take the odd 6 points (given or taken away by the presence on the front row of H-Tattoo). Swings and roundabouts, slings and arrows. With any luck it all evens out over the course of the season.
24 January 2023
schoon
From first (Norwich) to last. I think it’s the additional pressure of the cup with a poor squad. I have already sacked the data science team so now I will hire a legal team to scrutinise this gig’s results.
During the London gig I kept telling my daughter that I wasn’t doing well in terms of the league. She seemed really interested.
@Exxo thanks for your fantastic work in creating and running it.
26 January 2023
EXXO
The draw was made earlier this week for the quarter finals of the FBA Cup.
Dr. Desperate v. Woodnoggin
Bad Loser v. Schoon
Mister Tubbs v. Chris the Siteowner
Lux Inferior v. D-List Paul Ross
For the final question on the Leamington entry form, which follows shortly, you will need to predict whether the following songs will be played in Leamington and if so what number on the setlist:
Everything’s AOR
All I want for Xmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
11 March 2023
EXXO
Entry form for your Leamington gig predictions. New contestants including one-off entries always welcome:
https://forms.gle/7rqmvSjSva29GPhi9
League table and last 15 or so setlists:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NaDpDR1Cb57DEPR90IkgIsOYqiNRRbDOQ0_BaFSBXsU/edit?usp=sharing
See also Giant Setlist chart on this site.
11 March 2023
Lux inferior
Got my submission in nice and early for once, leaving vital additional minutes free for Cheltenham Festival form study…
13 March 2023
BAD LOSER
Entry submitted. Based on league form, not one of the favourites to lift the cup so grateful to be drawn at home etc.
13 March 2023
EXXO
With 8 entries received so far, and my original post hardly guaranteed to induce cup fever, I’ll just give this a bump. The draw was made last Monday lunchtime.
Dr. Desperate v. Woodnoggin
Bad Loser v. Schoon
Mister Tubbs v. Chris the Siteowner
Lux Inferior v. D-List Paul Ross
For the final question on the Leamington entry form, linked below, FBA Cup contenders will need to predict whether the following songs will be played in Leamington and if so what number on the setlist:
Everything’s AOR
All I want for Xmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
those out of the cup should just concentrate on the league (questions 1-7).
https://forms.gle/7rqmvSjSva29GPhi9
New contestants including one-off entries always welcome:
League table and last 15 or so setlists:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NaDpDR1Cb57DEPR90IkgIsOYqiNRRbDOQ0_BaFSBXsU/edit?usp=sharing
See also Giant Setlist chart on this site.
*********
Festive Fifty Fixture Congestion
Just a heads-up that for John Peel Centre gig, Friday 14 April, the form will be on here about 6 days ahead as usual, but entries for Cambridge, the next day, will only be open on 15 April from midnight until 5pm, so make time in your diaries on that Saturday please.
I will put the Stowmarket setlist on here by midnight after the Friday night gig, and my list will be the official FBL league on this occasion though I will consult with Roger before I post it.
14 March 2023
D list paul ross
Hi @Exxo, thanks as ever for the work that goes into this, just as a point of order and as it is Easter holidays so I’m likely to forget, if we say so before can the 14 April effort also act as the 15 April one? I’m relegation material so doesn’t matter at all, just curious and wondering how irritating that would be for you.
15 March 2023
EXXO
@D-L PR. OK, you can do that if you like, although the skill is to look at a previous setlist and predict the next and with question 3 (the 4 songs dropped) being the most consistent source of points, personally I would just skip the fixture and you’ll probably end up with a higher ‘points per gig’ total at the end of the season by not submitting.
Some other notes and queries:
*Cambridge is not an FBA Cup gig (so no question 8)
*I won’t be working out the points for Stowmarket until after Cambridge.
*It seems likely that some of you will be staying in the same hotel as the band. Do not be tempted to fish for Cambridge setlist information in the car park, graveyard, meadow of consolation, etc. The FBL Compliance Committee has ways of finding out about these things and a series of sanctions that they are itching to experiment with,
15 March 2023
BAD LOSER
On the basis that I never manage to eat in the same place as the band, even when provided with as few options as in Holmfirth, I doubt I’ll find my self in the same hotel.
I suspect such information wouldn’t be divulged anyway. My wife was once told ‘If you’re going to the gig tomorrow, you’ll like the cover version’ but no suggestion as to what it was. We weren’t, unfortunately, and it was a belter.
I’m sure some of you will be aware that there used to be a couple of guys who went by the Twitter name ‘Biscuit Tourers’. Their mission was to cycle to every place referenced in the lyrics. I felt that the band got wind of this and the Tourers disappeared after ‘Mileage Chart’ was written. If you do get a few tips ,be wary of its authenticity.
The possible sanctions sound interesting. A bit of controversy could only add to the game’s appeal.
15 March 2023
D list paul ross
Thank Exxo but I think a few low scores are no use to me in my lowly position, I’m all out for the win when Fretwork Homework finally gets resurrected.
17 March 2023
EXXO
Dunno when they were due on tonight – apologies – about now maybe, but my head’s been in Cheltenham for 96 hours solid. One of the finest data processing organs ever to emerge from Wallasey has been utterly fried by 4 days and nights solid of horsey arithmetic and so not much chance with these picks:
1. Terminus
2. Terminus; 24HGP; A country practice; Eno Collaboration; Broken Headstone; Tess of the Dormobiles; Rogation Sunday
3. Twydale Tommy Walsh Sealclubbing Surging
4. TV theme
5. Light Tunnel
6. The Fall
7. 41.4141%
17 March 2023
EXXO
Christ. 1 & 2 the other way around, obvz.
(can you tell today was my least successful day of the festival? )
17 March 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Bottleneck.
Jim Reeves.
Gwatkin.
And they’ve only been on 30 minutes.
Update:
Urge for Offal
Busy Little Market Town
(Tonight may have some very odd point scoring!)
17 March 2023
EXXO
Spectacular stuff! And Urge for Offal! When I put the UFO album cover at the end of the predictions form (because the pic was taken backstage at this venue) I was wondering if someone would choose it. Will check later if anyone did.
More updates, please.
17 March 2023
Chris The Siteowner
QUO!!!!
17 March 2023
EXXO
We had two draws after normal time in the quarter finals 😀
Now I’ll have to do the full scoring for the tiebreakers … back in a while with the results … followed by the traditional Monday lunch time draw for the semi-finals.
20 March 2023
EXXO
FBA Cup 2023 Quarter Final Results
Correct positions were 28 & 16. The individual differences are calculated, then the aggregate difference.
Woodnoggin beats Dr Desperate 3-6 (25,16 v 24, 18)
Lux Inferior beats D-List Paul Ross 7-12 (24.19 v 22,20)
CtSO draws 6-6 with Mister Tubbs (24,18 v. 25,19)
CtSO wins the tiebreaker 89-32
Schoon draws 3-3 with Bad Loser (25,16 v 25, 16)
Schoon wins the tiebreaker 49-29
Commiserations to some unlucky losers of the tiebreakers there – you can see if you had been drawn differently you all could have progressed. That’s the cup for you.
Semi-final draw
CtSO v Schoon
Woodnoggin v. Lux Inferior
Ties to take place in Stowmarket on 14th April. There will be three songs to predict and probability dictates they won’t be as straightforward as those last two.
Weekly FBL results this evening.
20 March 2023
EXXO
Would be fantasy Biscuit if there wasn’t at least one initial error. D-List Paul Ross lost 7-10, not 7-12. Sorry.
20 March 2023
BAD LOSER
A painful one to have to take. It was a coin toss between Magazine (as someone mentioned recently that they were nearly chosen for the cover again either at Norwich or Camden) and The Buzzcocks on the basis it has been a while.
Many points thrown away this season. I could do an Antonio Conte and blame everyone else but know that that would be fooling nobody. If League form doesn’t improve, it’ll be The Checkatrade next season assuming that they don’t bring back The Watney Cup.
20 March 2023
EXXO
OK, I’ll try again (and Chris can feel free to delete the previous two posts).
Please check your Leamington FBL points. See setlist / points info here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QrjGXjHVWPY5RECROZu78fmTZmAa6Lja53vIL3Se438/edit?usp=sharing
Can it be true that only TFO Keith won the joker points this week? So he does remain top of the pile going into the tricky Easter fixture congestion. Everyone scored the maximum 24 for the dropped songs, though, so the number 24 below refers to that in all cases:
CtSO___________94 points (60 for Bottleneck, 24, 5 for a London band (like Quo), 5 for an “S” band (like Quo))
Dr Des__________84 points (60 for Bottleneck, 24)
Ferencvaros Fan__58 points (4 Ditch, 24, 30 Magazine)
TfoKeith_________57 points (3 Dean F, with 20-point joker, 24, 5 for an “S” band, 5 for second closest % ……….though not particularly close with 37.93%
Mr Spokesman____49 (15 Westward Ho!, 24, 10 opener Ho!)
Schoon __________49 (15 Westward Ho!, 24, 5 walk-on genre post-punk, 5 Manc band)
D-List P.Ross ______44 (15 Westward Ho!, 24, 5 walk-on genre post-punk)
Parsfan_______44 (11 Knobheads, 4 Suffolk Ditch, 24, 5 Manc Band)
Lux Inferior ____40 (11 Knobheads, 24, 5 Manc band)
Woodnoggin____39 (5 Vitas, 24, 5 post-punk walk-on, 5 Manc band)
Exxo_________ 39 (24, 5 Manc band, 10 points for nearest percentage 41.41 % …..though still 5% out*)
Mr Tubbs_______32 (5 Vitas, 3 Time Flies, 24)
Bad Loser _______29 (24, 5 Manc band)
Nige NNTO_______27 (3 Time Flies, 24)
Phyllis Triggs_____24 (24)
Injured Buzzard___24 (24)
Lord Hereford_____24 (24)
*The actual % difference was 46.4285%, 13 different songs out of 28. Normally I am reluctant to choose high-ish (or very low) percentages meself, because it would be the easiest thing to cheat on (I could glance at everyone else’s and choose an outlier) and it might look suspicious if I regularly won the points for nearest %. This time I didn’t have time to even think about what people might think. It just seemed likely that extra rehearsal time would produce a higher turnover, and was very surprised that it turned out nobody had gone higher, and that the second highest was Keith’s 37.93% (with Woodnoggin unlucky on 37.9%)
**You’ll also have to trust me, not that it matters, when i claim that seconds before I posted my picks for Friday my opening song was Westward Ho! and my cover band was Magazine … I’ve got a verysore leg from kicking meself.
20 March 2023
D list paul ross
Not to worry, a miss is as good as a mile, as they say.
20 March 2023
EXXO
So we’re now six elevenths of the way through this highly competitive FBL season, and after Chris’ spectacular Capel Curig coup I’m sure you’re all clamouring for an update on the best individual performances of the season. Here’s the top 15 (ish) performances of the season, featuring about 9 of you:
1. Bad Loser at Blackpool 95 points. Can last year’s Gig of the Season winner do it again?
2. Woodnoggin at Brum. 94 points
2= CtSO at Leamington 94 points
4. CtsO at Camden 92 points
5. Lux Inferior at Camden 90 points
6. TFoKeith at Camden 88 points
7. Ferencvaros Fan at Camden 87 points
8. Mr Tubbs at Camden ______85 points
9=. Woodnoggin at Camden___ 84 points
9= Dr. Des @ Leamington 84
11=. Ferencvaros Fan at Brum 80
11=Mister Tubbs at Brum 80
13. Schoon @ Norwich 78
14. Transit Fo Keith at Brum 75
15. Transit Fo Keith at B’pool 73
20 March 2023
EXXO
And may I just say that if (as is widely expected), setlist prediction becomes a demonstration sport at the 2032 Olympics in Qatar, and if (as seems inevitable) some of us are chosen to be the chief selectors for the Team GB setlist prediction team, well, we can’t let sentimentality rule our hearts. Form is form, and Phyllis Triggs more than anyone will surely be well aware of that.
20 March 2023
EXXO
2036, even.
20 March 2023
Woodnoggin
I can’t believe I lost 5 points due to not writing enough decimal places. I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again. You might need a bigger form, Exxo…
20 March 2023
Phyllis Triggs
Oh dear, Exxo. Another no rosette situation for Ms Triggs. It’s only what I’ve come to expect this season – wot a crock of shit! Currently up in the highlands licking my wounds, learning to embrace lower nowhere…
20 March 2023
EXXO
One day there’ll be a gig when you’d have won points by writing fewer decimal places,
Just a note than if it’s recurring decimal places it is now assumed that if you write the full iteration once you mean it ad infinitum, eg for fractions of prime numbers or odd fractions of numbers like 28.
20 March 2023
EXXO
@Lou. Sounds fab. But I reckon the top, top prediction league psychologists would say “wounds schmounds”. It’s about learning opportunities. Breathe in that Highland air, stride forth, empty your mind for a week or two and come back thinking about how the game has moved on from last season, how are Keith and Woodnoggin so consistent and what is CtSO doing to put this incredible run of 33,33, 86 and 60 point songs together? I know here at Team Exxo there’s serious talk of abandoning any fresh ‘Voltarol’ debut predictions.
20 March 2023
schoon
Man that cup round was exciting! And here we are a team from a small village from Kent up against the might of CtSO in the semis. We never dreamt we would get this far. Both Bad Loser and Bye were worthy opponents. One step from Wembley, will our dreams be dashed by the professionalism of CtSO?
21 March 2023
Chris The Siteowner
I have no blummin’ idea what I’m doing, I promise you, other than picking random old songs and getting lucky.
21 March 2023
Lux inferior
Suitably ashamed to progress to the semis with only the seventh best score of the quarter-finalists. Though I’m up against the might of team Woodnoggin (currently in third place in the FBL table?) next, I’m becoming increasingly hopeful of Cup glory, especially given that the semi-final, traditionally played at a neutral venue, is not all that far off being a home tie for me. This caps a splendid week, after turning around the frustrations of the first two days at Cheltenham with a few long-priced winners on the Thursday & Friday.
21 March 2023
EXXO
I’m considering a format for the cup next year (starting Jan 2024) where each tie will focus on a separate song or songs, possibly drawn at random from all recently played songs. This – in a way – will seem to give less randomness to who progresses to the next round (though it won’t really).
Stuff I posted yesterday has also made me realise how unfair it is that I’m the only one with all the data after the gigs about who chose what (apart from the point-scoring picks, which I do list). I don’t make any conscious use of other people’s picks meself, but who knows it might have an influence. I’d ideally want a platform for next season that enables me easily to release all contestants’ individual picks after each gig, but maybe I can afford another 30-40 mins or so after each gig to cut and paste everyone’s picks into a google doc, in case anyone wants insights into the strategies (or lack of them) of rival outfits.
21 March 2023
Chris The Siteowner
The entries for each gig are done on a Google Form, so do you get them written to a Google Sheet? If so, you could just make that public after the event.
21 March 2023
EXXO
Brilliant! Thanks. I never even knew what a Google Sheet was. Will (try to) do that from now on.
21 March 2023
transit full of keith
Surprised to still be in the lead several furlongs in. I do have a strategy but it’s too half-arsed to call it a system. I mean I don’t have spreadsheets or anything.
22 March 2023
EXXO
Apologies. Bit of a lost weekend plus computer problems (apologies in advance if any missing letters in my posts or forms as f, h, j, v, comma and full stop not working unless I go through a right palaver)
Here’s the FBL form for Friday.
https://forms.gle/FSnPUc45HWqhff3m9
See again the important ‘NB’ in bold about Saturday’s form, which will be on here with Friday’s setlist and open for your predictions Saturday 00:00 until 17:00 only
Here’s the doc with the league table and last umpteen setlists
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QrjGXjHVWPY5RECROZu78fmTZmAa6Lja53vIL3Se438/edit?usp=sharing
See also giant setlist chart and Paul’s wonderful site too
10 April 2023
EXXO
9 entries in so far. I hope if anyone who hasn’t submitted by later this evening won’t mind an email reminder, which I don’t usually do, but will on this occasion cos I’ve just got a feeling it might be appreciated.
12 April 2023
EXXO
In the end 14 of you had submitted – THANKS – by the time I send a reminder just now to the last few (including two of the cup semi-finalists). Good luck all!
13 April 2023
EXXO
Thanks. All the regulars have submitted now except one semi-finalist. Probably doing that last-minute “changing on the bus” thing to minimise the potential distractions around the big occasion. Just another game.
Setting off shortly, so just to make things easier when I’m posting the John Peel Centre setlist tonight on my phone tonight after several beers, here’s the link for tomorrow’s Cambridge predictions, but the form will not be set to accept your answers until midnight tonight.
https://forms.gle/B34AgfDcEadtTTTw5
14 April 2023
EXXO
By the way if you do click that link today, you are wrongly informed that the form for tonight is no longer accepting responses – it is (separate link three posts above).
14 April 2023
Exxo
Ironically i havent had any time to think about my own entries. Will have to do exactly the same picks as last gig (see above) except for Q1 i’ll go fear my wraithinstead of my last pick in the list. JOKER SAME wlalk on same percentage same first song same For dropped songs its botlenak jim reevz gwatkin urge for cover the fall. Same on all other picks soz just no TIME!!
14 April 2023
Exxo
Blimey. Done rather well by just not thinking about it. Not many predictors have done the coveted first song and cover band double. And nobody has done it by just saying “same as last time.”
The form for tomorrow – link above – is open… so netter get this setlist together… give me fifteen or twenty minutes.
14 April 2023
Exxo
This setlist has been triangulated with Roger, my notes, mrs exxo’s notes and two band setists. It is official for FBL purposes.
Light Tunnel
Joyce
Evening Sun
Checkatrade
Buried morning
Renfield
Look dad no tunes
Best things in life
Terminus
Lock up yer mountain bikes
Wrong Grave 23
Chatteris
Bob Todd
Colombia
Dukla
Persian URC
Nat Shite Day
Tess (debut for 40 points)
Village
T. Riots
Lark descending (best version ever)
When i look at my baby
Oblong OD
JDOG
*********
MMASSMURDER
the fall – how i wrote elastic man
Every time bell rings
15 April 2023
FERENCVáROS FAN
Today’s entry just submitted in haste. To be hoped it fares better than yesterday’s effort, which was submitted at leisure. Day of walking in the Malverns awaiting me before the National. It’s a wonderful life, but I’ll still be wishing I was at Cambridge this evening. Enjoy the gig, all.
15 April 2023
D list paul ross
Congrats on the double @Exxo, I have visitors and no spare time so please could I use last night’s entry as tonight’s as well, cheers.
15 April 2023
woodnoggin
Cambridge entry submitted. Getting a dead leg from kicking myself for switching The Fall out of my Stowmarket entry at the last minute. Thought it too obvious.
15 April 2023
parsfan
I had fully intended to send in my guesses on the train to the game. I didn’t. I imagine I did sufficiently badly last night to let the same ones stand again today (losing the easiest 24 points in the process) so I’d like to do that if possible.
That said, it’s not entirely unheard of for them to do the same set two nights in a row like a regular band on tour.
That won’t happen.
Have as great night all, whether lucky enough to be there or doing something else entirely.
15 April 2023
Exxo
Again just too much to do in too little time bur random worked last night so
1 suffolk ACP Broken H mileage joy fear wraith rogation
2. Suffolk
3. Tending evening sun bob todd checkayrafe
4. Film
5. Renfield
6. Undertones
7. 45.64
15 April 2023
EXXO
FBA Cup semi-final results.
Ties played at the John Peel Stadium, Stowmarket, 14-4-2023
The relevant songs’ setlist positions were:
Bob Wilson 0
Chatteris 12
Terminus 9
Lux Inferior (3,15,5 ) beat Woodnoggin (6,18,5) 10-16
Chris the Siteowner (6,12,0) beat Schoon (6,18,0) 15-21
17 April 2023
Woodnoggin
That can’t be right: I submitted 6, 18, 0 so did even worse than you suggest.
17 April 2023
EXXO
Apologies. As soon as we got back from Cambridge via Huddersfield I spent several hours doing two job applications for the same midnight deadline (MOTD 10.30pm in effect), so I’ve re-checked all and it’s
Lux Inferior(3,15,5 ) beat Woodnoggin (6,18,0) 10-21
Chris the Siteowner (6,12,0) beat Schoon (6,18,0) 15-21
Congratulations and commiserations in equal measure. The cup final will take place in Edinburgh on 19th May.
17 April 2023
woodnoggin
Thanks, Exxo and well played, Lux Inferior – the only one to cannily predict the return of Terminus.
17 April 2023
schoon
Thanks Exxo and well played CtSO.
I’ll now concentrate on coming bottom of the league.
Having said that a last minute sub of Rogation Sunday might have turned things around.
17 April 2023
Lux inferior
Cheers Woodnoggin. More luck than judgement on my part. And thanks as always to Exxo for all his hard graft organising the FBL & FBA Cup. As some old snooker player once famously said to David Vine, “I’m in the final now, you know.” I’ll have to get my FBL T-shirt updated to reflect this success.
It’s a no-lose scenario in the final too. I’d be more than happy if CtSO were victorious, as some kind of reward for the sterling work he puts in to keep this site up and running.
I was going to add that this is quite a momentous achievement, as it’s not always easy for someone of my vintage to get beyond a semi (fnaar, fnaar), but I’d probably be risking instant disqualification.
17 April 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Ah, but Lux, you’re playing the world’s least competitive person – I’ve spent six decades rarely getting into a winning position in anything, but when I do, I usually picture the disappointment in my opponent’s eyes and throw the game. I do wonder if it’s why I chose a like-minded football team to support.
17 April 2023
EXXO
Blimey. Stowmarket results in a major turnaround at the top of the table, as only 5 of us stayed loyal to Tess (I was lucky that I just didn’t have the time to think enough drop it), only 2 of us landed the joker points, only three chose The Fall for the cover and only 2 chose other Manc bands.
More successfully, 7 out of 17 contestants correctly chose the opening song and 16 out of 17 got the full 24 points for dropped songs.
The percentage difference was 51.851%, and the closest were Mister Tubbs 45.4% 10 points and Injured Buzzard 45.1% for 5 points.
Stand by for provisional Stowmarket points for you to check. Cambridge points probably tomorrow.
17 April 2023
EXXO
Apologies – 4 of us got the joker points, not just 2 as stated.
Songs scoring points for Q1. were Tess 40, Swerving 22, Tending 14, Ode to Joyce 9, Lock up 7, Best Things 6, Eve Sun 4, Persian 4, Terminus 3, Bob Todd3, Lark 3, Colombia 2, Look Dad 2.
I won’t list Dropped songs as you all got 24 except one 18.
For the VdGG walk-on, I’ve given the only 5 points to Schoon for “rock.”
Please check your own individual totals:
Exxo _____________ 127 points (Tess 40, Terminus 3+20, 24, opening song 10, Cover the Fall 30)
Injured Buzzard_____ 108 points (Tess 40, Joyce 9, 24, cover band 30, 5 points for 2nd closest %)
Lux Inferior __________83 points (Tess 40, Grave 14, 24, Manc band 5)
Woodnoggin ________ 81 points (Tess 40, Lock up 7, 24, opening song 10)
Dr Desperate_______ 74 points (Tess 40, 24, opening song 10)
Lord Hereford______ 64 points (Terminus 3, Bob Todd 3, 18, opening song 10 , cover The Fall 30 pts)
Mr Spokesman______ 62 points (Wrong Grave 14+20, Persian URC 4, 24)
Bad Loser__________ 56 points (Terminus 3+20, Joyce 9 points, 24)
Phyllis Triggs ________46 points (Look Dad 2+20, 24)
Schoon _____________44 points (Look Dad 2, Bob Todd 3, 24, rock walk-on 5 points, opening song 10 points)
Parsfan_____________ 37 points (Bob Todd 3, 24, opening song 10 )
CtSO _______________34 points (24 + opening song 10)
Mister Tubbs_________ 34 points (24 + closest percentage 10)
Ferencvaros Fan______ 32 points (Bob Todd 3, 24, Manc cover 5 points)
NNTO_______________ 27 points (Bob Todd 3 + 24 for dropped songs)
D-List Paul Ross_______ 24 points
Transit Full of Keith______24 points
17 April 2023
Lux inferior
@Chris – that’s another reason it would be fitting for you to win – the result is likely to be announced the day after the Edinburgh gig (May 20th), which will be 42 years to the day since your team clinched their last major trophy!
17 April 2023
transit full of keith
Where did that bloke go who said I was “consistent”? I’ll have clawed some points back at Cambridge probably – but after a decent run at the top, I can’t see this ending anywhere but mid-table obscurity. My open top Transit ride has been cancelled.
17 April 2023
EXXO
Provisional Cambridge results – please check.
So bookies’ favourite Woodnoggin re-took the overall FBL lead at Stowmarket and extended his lead with a superb Cambridge performance (112 points). Bad Loser (106) and Schoon (104) also topped the ton. Behind them, another great score from Injured Buzzard (96) means all four of those are in the top 5 individual performances of the season. Great to see people’s champion Phyllis Triggs back amongst the big hitters with her Cambridge score of 90.
The high scores were in part because it was an easy week to predict stalwart songs restored to the set, and so 12 out of 18 predictors got the 20-point joker bonus (I lost out on easy points there, and am kicking myself that because on Friday I was telling whoever would listen (not many, obviously) “they won’t play in a Suffolk Ditch in Suffolk,” and because I was right about that, and because I spent time on Saturday sitting in a pub scribbling lines from that song on a t-shirt, I played my joker on it Saturday, when there were far more obvious choices like Vatican or AOR, and when I suppose I really knew Nigel wouldn’t want to be seen to be making any kind of “statement” about Kelvin Mackenzie on the anniversary of Hillsborough) .
Q1 Cambridge songs brought in:
Rogation Sunday__ worth 40 points
Squabblefest______ worth 8 points
Len Ganley_______worth 7 points
Bane of C_________worth 6 points
Lilac HQ_________worth 5 points
Dickie D__________worth 4 points
Broadstairs_______ worth 4 points
Bob Wilson_______ worth 3 points
Bad Wools________worth 3 points
Petty Sessions_____ worth 3 points
Awk Sean_________worth 3 points
Fred Titmus_______worth 3 points
Dean Friedman____worth 2 points
Vatican __________worth 2 points
AOR_____________worth 2 points
Q3. Stowmarket songs dropped – any 4 of these 13 songs, for 6 points each
99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd
The Best Things In Life
Look Dad No Tunes
Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes
Lark Descending
When The Evening Sun Goes Down
Tending The Wrong Grave For 23 Years
Ode To Joyce
What Made Colombia Famous
Swerving the Checkatrade
Tess Of The Dormobiles
When I Look At My Baby
Persian Rug Sale At The URC
Q4. Walk on genre was Classical 5 points (Italian national anthem)
Q5. She’s in Broadstairs 10 points
Q6. The Only Ones 30 points
other London bands 5 points
“N” and “P” bands 2 points
Q7. Setlist 15 out of 29 different from last time = 51.724137931034484% churn
Please check your Cambridge scores:
Woodnoggin_____112 points (Vatican 2+20, Rogation 40, Squabblefest 8, Fred 3, ____________________24, first song 10 points, 5 points for London band (Ruts)
Bad Loser________106___Vatican 2+20, Rogation 40, Broadstairs 4, Bane 6, 24, ____________________first song 10
Schoon _________104____Broadstairs 4+20, Rogation 40, Bob W 3, Fred 3, 24, _____________________first song 10
Injured Buzzard ___96____AOR 2+20, Rogation 40, 24, 5 walk-on genre, 5 ______________________London band (Damned)
Phyllis Triggs _____90____Fred3+20, Rogation 40, Bob 3, 24
Lux Inferior ______86____AOR 2+20, Rogation 40, 24,
Exxo____________74____Rogation 40, 24, closest% (45.64)**
Dr Desperate _____66____Rogation 40, 24, “P” cover band 2 points
Lord Hereford_____66____Broad 4+20, Bad Wools 3, 24, first song 10, 5 London __________________________band (Clash)
Ferencvaros Fan___65____Bob W 3+20, Fred 3, LHQuinn 5, 24, first song 10
TfoKeith__________62____Fred3+20, Sean 3, LHQuinn 5, 24, walk-on genre 5, _________________________“P” cover band 2 pts.
Nigel NNTO________60___Fred3+20, Sean 3, BW 3, Vatican 2, 24, London band ________________________(Clash) 5.
Mister Tubbs ______57___Fred 3+20, Bob W 3, 24, “P” cover band 2 points, 2nd ________________________closest % 45.4% 5 points.
Man of Varying Sorrow_55_Fred3+20, Sean 3, BW 3, Dean F 2, 24.
Mr. Spokesman ____29___24, classical walk-on
Chris tSO_________24____24
Could not submit due to fixture congestion but wanted their Stowmarket entries to double up:
D-List Paul Ross ____5____London cover band (The Damned)
Parsfan ___________0_____
**see what I meant about it having the potential to look suspicious when I choose a high number? I am going to have to revert to deliberately trying to lose on question 7.
18 April 2023
EXXO
Post-Stowmarket provisional FBL Table. Please check:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FQr7XTGZySQhTZxOxg84TFErnjPRfPjBNVy5cEEnBd8/edit?usp=sharing
Post-Cambridge provisional FBL Table. Please check:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lULlIlqx7ng_mebQmGgSn6k7j3z-nTPxU2O1Kk1A23o/edit?usp=sharing
18 April 2023
Lux inferior
Blimey. If it wasn’t for Woodnoggin’s stellar performance I’d be harbouring dreams of pulling off the league & cup double.
18 April 2023
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
In awe at the sheer amount of admin involved in running this. Is the final match of the season to be Edinburgh, or Llangollen?
18 April 2023
EXXO
3 FBL fixtures remain this season, in three nations, and featuring seven double l’s.*
Fri 28 Apr – The Welly, Hull
Fri 19 May – The Liquid Room, Edinburgh (featuring the 1st ever FBA Cup final)
Wed 12 Jul – Llangollen Town Hall, Llangollen.
*Yes I know it’s a separate letter in Welsh, but I’m writing English innit.
18 April 2023
EXXO
And yes I do intend to announce the 2022-23 FBL winner’s name while standing tall on the Llangollen town hall balcony.
https://www.simonbaynes.co.uk/news/simon-baynes-mp-praises-improvements-interior-llangollen-town-hall
18 April 2023
Parsfan
I’ve spent the last couple of days thinking that, if nothing else, Rogation Sunday would have won me 40 points with my carry over prediction from Friday. Unfortunately I didn’t carry it over from first deciding on it to the actual form. In retrospect, I should maybe have played as many TVY tracks as possible.
Still, it’s a small price to pay for winning the league (in real football, however lowly) with three games to spare.
18 April 2023
EXXO
Here it is for the Hull gig on Friday.
https://forms.gle/FoaCfpGjdKHWDfpx8
All the info you could need or wish for is linked in recent posts, on the giant setlist chart on here (update by Chris) or at the marvellous https://biscuitgigs.co.uk/
22 April 2023
EXXO
By the way I woke up in a cold sweat the other day when I realised (again) that the giant setlist chart is wrong about the Len Ganley stance being played at The Devil’s Arse, but relaxed again when I realised that fortunately nobody picked it for Cambridge. It would have been worth 57 points, rather than 7.
22 April 2023
EXXO
By the way for any newbies wanting to join our zany band of perspicacious predictors, this is the third-to-last gig of the 2022-23 Fantasy Biscuitball League season, and therefore if you join now and compete in the other two as well (19th May, 12th July), you would still have a chance to top the prestigious points-per-gig table come mid-July. Yes indeedy, get involved!
https://forms.gle/FoaCfpGjdKHWDfpx8
22 April 2023
EXXO
Only 8 forms submitted so far for Hull, with 48 hours to go. Will send reminders to those who haven’t submitted by the end of Match of the Day tonight.
26 April 2023
EXXO
Thanks to all the usual suspects – 17 responses now in, and I’ll even try to put mine up a bit earlier than usual, before I go to the station.
28 April 2023
Exxo
Form now closed. My effort:
1) 1966, asparagus, baby (when i look at my), bad losers, broken headstone, restless legs, shit arm.
2) baby (when i look at my)
3) Bane Bastard Dickie Len
4) classical (and the only larkin poetry recited by say Tom courtenay for which i would give myself the points will be if it has classical music in the background)
5) renfield
6) joy division
7) 12 ouf 28 ie 42.857142 recurring
Probably won’t be such a high scorer this gig. Good luck all!
28 April 2023
EXXO
I must admit if i’d realised sooner how easy it was to show everyone what everyone else picked, on google sheets, I’d have done it sooner and every time. thanks for the heads-up on this Chris.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12KW55hlR306JEUCAsTIJT69J2VElfdZtVlcMQa0nfes/edit?usp=sharing
In theory you can now work out everyone else’s points as swell as your own. Double click on any cell where you can’t see all of the info therein.
29 April 2023
EXXO
Please check the points allocations on this provisional setlist (Thanks Woodnoggin – I’m sure that’s right but we’ll await confirmation from Roger)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18qhsQym7nD02iP6qN-XAOf5AMx0npQv-84wQeGE9rMM/edit?usp=sharing
And then check the individual points in red on the spreadsheet in the previous post.
The season is reaching a very competitive climax with 2 rounds left.
29 April 2023
EXXO
Roger’s redoubtable report confirms the setlist already published by Woodnoggin.
Once you’ve checked your scores on the links above, this provisional post-Hull table may be adjusted or confirmed:
(Played 9 unless stated)
Woodnoggin ________604.5
Exxo_______________574
Lux Inferior __________557
Bad Loser ___________505
Transit Full of Keith ____503
Ferencvaros Fan ______471
Injured Buzzard _______465.5
Schoon______________463
Mister Tubbs _________447
CtSO _______________439 (ppg = 48.08)
Mr. Spokesman (PL 6)___278 (ppg 46.33 =11th in Points Per Gig table)
Phyllis Triggs _______________400 (ppg = 44.44)
Man of Varying Sorrow_(PL 4)__176 (ppg 44 = 13th in PPG table)
Dr. Desperate ______________382 (ppg 42.44)
Lord Hereford___(PL 7) _______275 (ppg 39.28 = 15th in PPG table)
Parsfan _________(PL 8*)_____266 (ppg 33.33 = 16th in PPG table)
Nige (No, not that one) ________291 (ppg 32.33 = 17th in PPG table)
D-List Paul Ross _(PL 8*)______225 (ppg 28.125 = 18th in PPG table)
Clash City Rocker__(PL 1)_______51 (won’t be in PPG table unless min. 3 fixtures played)
Mark Griffiths____(PL_2)________41 (won’t be in PPG table unless min. 3 fixtures played)
UNKNOWN (sorry!)_(PL-1)______36
CC & Chives_______(PL_1)_____29
Golden Biscuit Winner(PL_0.14)___0
30 April 2023
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
The points seem right to me. My slow but inexorable slide down the table continues.
1 May 2023
EXXO
Here’s the prediction form for Friday’s Edinburgh gig, the penultimate FBL round of this season (and the FBA Cup Final – Lux v CtSO).
https://forms.gle/zwWnUZJH654CsfJw6
League table and all the recent setlist info here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18qhsQym7nD02iP6qN-XAOf5AMx0npQv-84wQeGE9rMM/edit?usp=sharing
See also Paul’s site & the giant setlist chart.
14 May 2023
Lux inferior
I guess Lux Familiar Cup 2023 preparations have taken over a few people’s time and thoughts, but if one of the regular editors of the Giant Set List Chart is able to update it for the Hull gig it would be greatly appreciated 🙂
As it’s the FBA Cup Final this Friday, perhaps I’ll go with ‘Abide With Me’ as the walk-on music.
15 May 2023
parsfan
I can’t update the spreadsheet, but all the info here: Biscuit Gigs – Hull (as referred to in Exxo’s post).
15 May 2023
Lux inferior
Cheers Paul – I was aware of your superb site. It’s just handy to have all the set list positions next door to each other to help inform my Cup Final predictions (not that I’m taking this way too seriously or anything).
15 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Only I can update it (evil laughter) and of course I will be playing mind games with you all week…
15 May 2023
Lux inferior
Excellent, Chris. That gave me a proper chuckle. And there was I thinking you weren’t at all competitive…
Great to have a local Cambs derby being played out in a final on such a grand stage by the way.
15 May 2023
BAD LOSER
Submitted my entry for this week’s FBL but didn’t get the email. I don’t need a reminder of my guesses but if you could confirm you’ve received it, Exxo, that’d be great.
16 May 2023
EXXO
Yes Alex – got your entry thanks. Somehow the settings had returned to default, so nobody so far had had a confirmation email this time (but now rectified – I hope).
16 May 2023
D list paul ross
Thanks @Exxo so future entrants will get an email but not those already submitted? I sent mine earlier, although my guesses are so terrible it hardly makes a difference I suppose.
16 May 2023
transit full of keith
You may have two entries from me for that reason, but they are (I think) the same.
16 May 2023
EXXO
If you submitted before some time this av, I’ve got your entry but you haven’t got an email. It’s all cool. If after, you’ll get an email. All supercool.
@FTVP Steve (while there’s a chance you might see this) – the people of Europe want you in this league next season. Several of our powerful backers are willing to bend over backwards powerully to make it happen.
16 May 2023
Lux inferior
@CtSO – there are a couple of omissions from the Hull gig on the Giant Set List Chart, it seems. (I won’t let your mind games get to me, but I tell you, I’ll love it if I beat you. Love it 😉 )
17 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Oh jeez, you’re right! Now your mind games have got to ME. How can I win against someone with that attention to detail?
17 May 2023
EXXO
Eleven entries received so far, but in fact D-L P Ross, I haven’t received yours – please try again. This could be your jackpot gig!
17 May 2023
D list paul ross
Ah bugger cheers @Exxo I’ll send it ASAP. I work for a fairly unpopular firm who have been in the cyber news a bit too much recently and number one son has started his GCSEs this week so it’s a bit fraught round here at the moment.
17 May 2023
D list paul ross
“Panic” over it had saved, sent now.
17 May 2023
EXXO
Nice one D-LPR, got that now. With 48 hours to go, of the regulars we’re only waiting for Mr. Buzzard, Paul, Phyllis and Schoon so it’s all good.
17 May 2023
EXXO
@Schoon and Andy Buzzard
https://forms.gle/2FuYpr8i4J7yu6Uk6
19 May 2023
EXXO
Form closed with entries from all the usual suspects. Thanks and may all your forseeings become true visions of glory.
My effort:
1) 27-1966-Chatteris-Fix it-Reflections in A Flat-Restless Legs-Time Flies
2) Chatteris
3) Bad Losers-Floreat-Hornbeam-Joy in L
4) TV theme
5) She’s in Broadstairs
6) The Skids
7) 46.1538461%
Have a good one: weather-wise and otherwise.
19 May 2023
Lux inferior
Looks like we had a broadly similar thought process for tonight’s predictions, Exxo.
Good luck to my opponent CtSO in the FBA Cup Final tonight. May the luckiest man win. (Bit surprised the cameras haven’t been down to film a cup final preview piece 😁)
19 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Well good luck to you too! (Although the evening is over and I guess I should know how I’ve got on, but I have no idea what I put)
19 May 2023
Lux inferior
Looking at Mike’s setlist, I reckon my FBA Cup Final score is 8 – if you’ve beaten that, Chris, then you thoroughly deserve to win.
By the way, happy 42nd anniversary of your lads’ famous UEFA Cup triumph!
20 May 2023
Hendrix-tattoo
CtsO thanks for the beer. Sorry I didn’t get the chance to have a chat…
20 May 2023
EXXO
The cup final was very much a game of two halves. Tight, tense, not too much to split the sides as they sparred early on, but what an atmosphere in the ground. Should all cup finals be played under the lights, one wondered?
Fred Titmus came out in 4th spot on the setlist, so Chris the Siteowner took the lead with a perfect finish, for 4th he had predicted, whereas Lux hit the bar with 3rd so was already one point behind.
20 May 2023
EXXO
As I say, a febrile atmosphere was building up in the ground … ahem, hint, hint.
*Does one of those “come on let’s hear you!” gestures to the crowd*
20 May 2023
Lux inferior
I’m afraid you’ll find this final was played out in good spirits (I think), Exxo.
Looks like it could be a real nail-biter. Loving the idea of a report in instalments to ratchet up the tension, though I’m only around til early afternoon so hope to be celebrating/put out of my misery by then 😁
20 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Oh no, I’m bloody Peterborough, aren’t I?
20 May 2023
EXXO
Yes! This maybe calls for the present tense and the Vicky Sparks impression (basically Motty MK.2)
The crowd really getting fired up now after that little spat from the two managers on the touchline!
20 May 2023
EXXO
Not long to wait for the next flurry of goalmouth action, as Renfield’s Afoot comes out 5th on the setlist.
Again Lux’s finish isn’t perfect, hitting the woodwork again with his scuffed effort of 4th, but this time it creeps in off the post under Chris’ despairing dive (he’d said 2nd).
So Lux goes in at the interval 2 points ahead. What a game!
20 May 2023
Lux inferior
No, you’ve got this Chris I reckon. It’s all going to come down to Trad. Arr. Tune.
20 May 2023
Bad loser
Keep hitting refresh looking for the final score and I lost on penalties in the second round.
20 May 2023
Lux inferior
Trying to stay calm but I’ve now resorted to pacing nervously around the dressing room. The wife trying to keep me grounded with regular chants of “you’re gonna win f*ck all”, but I’ve already been in touch with East Cambs District Council about the possibility of an open-top bus ride through the streets of Ely, ending up at the Cathedral.
20 May 2023
EXXO
Well, it seems to have done Pep some good to admit that he was sometimes prone to over-thinking things in big games.
What will these two be saying at half-time? Will they have kept it simple? Played their usual game?
Or will one of them have seen that 10pm curfew time announced by JD Meatyard of the FBA, and thought “shorter setlist? Lower numbers?”
Will one of them have had doubts as to whether ‘Village’ would appear at all, and thus plated a percentage game on that one?
It’s all to play for as the teams come out for the second half of the first ever FBA Cup Final …
20 May 2023
Lux inferior
I keep alternating between sitting on my so-called soccer sofa and stretching my restless legs, but now so anxious ahead of the second half that I’m definitely he who would Valium take.
20 May 2023
EXXO
So tight for most of this second half … Lux still one ahead (not two as stated earlier by commentator) … no opportunities arising … until … yes in the 84th minute of the gig it’s ‘Every Time a Bell Rings.’ There’s a theory in the press box that it’s been moved forward slightly in recent fixtures, that the chanting for it before the encores was a sign of predictability, so things needed a shake-up. Here it’s the 25th song … Chris fires well wide with a prediction of 17th song, and Lux is nearer the mark with 21st, opening up an overall lead of 5 points with not long left now …
20 May 2023
Lux inferior
You’re killing me Exxo, especially as I predicted position 26 for ETABR, I’m sure!
20 May 2023
EXXO
Wait a minute! VAR! Red card? Yellow? What’s the ref doing? Has he got mixed up as to who predicted what? He’s going to the monitor…
Yes look Vicky, the replay seems to indicate that it might be you who’s got two predictions mixed up … as usual …
20 May 2023
EXXO
“Why oh why can’t this just all happen so much quicker?”
“They’ll never remove human error from the game.”
“The people in the stadium have paid a lot of money for this and they’re just not kept informed. They have no idea what’s going on.”
“The problem in my view is that …”
“I can’t read my own notes.”
20 May 2023
Lux inferior
Got to hand it to you Exxo, this is brilliantly done, whatever the outcome.
20 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
I long ago “did a Paul Cook” and hid in the dressing room.
20 May 2023
Exxo
Well from what we can make out up here, a powercut which only affected the VAR and computers has meant that yes indeed we did get the right predictions. But for the wrong song.
So yes in the 84th minute, it’s another fine finish for Lux who predicted ‘ETABR’ 26th song and was just one out, a hat-teick of near perfect attempts, while CtSO was 4 out, smashing wide with 21st.
So still very tense, with just 4 points separating these outfits going into the vital final throes.
20 May 2023
Exxo
And, as we move into extra time, it’s ‘Village’ 26th on the setlist. It could still go either way as Lux’seffort, 5 places out (21), opens the door for Chris who (and this is another correction from the producer in my ear-piece) is currently 5 points behind. If it’s a bullseye, the latter will be equal on aggregate and it will go to a tiebreaker.
The crowd are on the pitch. They think it’s all over. It is now, as the Siteowner again shoots wide … this time by 9 places (17).
Final score Lux Inferior 8, CtSO 17…
Congratulations and commiserations in equal measure.
20 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
“Disappointed in the result obviously, but I couldn’t have asked any more from the lads, and I know they’ll be sitting in the dressing room already thinking about training on Monday morning, which shows how professional they are. We go again. What’s that? Ah not me, I’ve just agreed to be let go by mutual consent.”
20 May 2023
Lux inferior
Oh my. A trophy for the Inferior squad. Not sure how to sum up my emotions. Definitely relief and euphoria, but outweighed by a sense of sombreness and guilt at beating the chap without whose site none of this would be possible. Apologies Chris.
I’ll hold off on the open-top bus malarkey until the FBL season is over as I may still be in with an outside squeak of the league & cup double, greedy sod that I am.
20 May 2023
Ferencváros fan
Sorry @CtSO that your family presence in the crowd counted for nothing, but it was good to chat to Alex before the match. Congrats @Lux, name clearly written in the Cup. Your triumph makes my first round exit at your hands a slightly sweeter pill to swallow.
20 May 2023
Lux inferior
Cheers for your kind words @FF. I’d rather have been at the gig of course. Friday was a treatment day for me, so celebrations were limited to a couple of zero alcohol beers (yuk) yesterday. Hoping to make the Wolverhampton gig in October, though it may well be sold out before I can commit.
21 May 2023
EXXO
FBL League Update post-Edinburgh
Please tell me whether you can see any errors in this scoring:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nSMRmO6PxeKh1oJmjomkoNbB533FM7WUQQmhSatDzvg/edit?usp=sharing
or in this points allocation & arithmetic:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vSkoSXfOjSsuVHDcdeu69vr0R30tCDib_y2jZQ3Jk3w/edit?usp=sharing
Scoring was reasonably healthy, thanks to many jokers played on ‘Chatteris’ and many correct predictions of ‘Light’ as the opener. However especial congratulations to at least 3 of you for picking up the 35 ‘Eno’ points. This includes Woodnoggin who extends his overall lead with his tally of 96, and Mr. Spokesman who gets the second highest individual score of the season with 124 points.
I would have accepted a lot of phrases with “indie” in for the Smiths’ walk-on genre, and of course I accept “post-punk.” I can’t accept “pop,” even though Wikipedia gives “jangle-pop” as one of four genre tags for them. However, this could potentially advantage me (if somehow I pull of a result in the final fixture of the season which would have to become known as “the miracle of Llangollen”), so if Woodnoggin appeals, and if more than one FBL-er does think I should allow “pop” then I will happily award Woodnoggin the 5 points on appeal.
22 May 2023
EXXO
I should also have congratulated everyone for getting maximum points on the dropped songs. FBL-ers are getting better and better at Q.3, and some might say what’s the point if everyone scores the same. But that is the point. Do the simple things well, get some points on the board, build from the back.
Incidentally, I did watch Andy’s video of the gig to ensure that the Orange Juice part-cover did satisfy the requirements (full band involvement, clearly planned) and felt that it was a nice vindication of the rules there.
22 May 2023
EXXO
I do believe that Mr. Spokesman’s daring choice of ’27 Yards’ as his joker song makes that the highest ever scoring joker song (last appeared 15 gigs ago), but that’s just from memory.
You know I’m born to lose
And gambling’s for fools
But that’s the way I like it, baby
I don’t want to live forever
And don’t forget the joker…
22 May 2023
D list paul ross
Gutted I missed the open goal that was Chatteris but strangely calmed by the fact CTSO had the same banker as me.
22 May 2023
woodnoggin
I was wondering what you’d decide the genre of ‘There is a Light that Never Goes Out’ might be. I also visited Wikipedia where the mention of ‘jangle pop’ got my hopes up that I could grab an extra five points here. Plus, the song was a chart hit… In any case, I’m pleased that my Eno gambit paid off. With it being his 75th birthday recently, I thought that song had a reasonable chance of coming back.
22 May 2023
Lux inferior
@Exxo – apologies, only just got around to looking at the Edinburgh FBL scores. As we’re counting ‘Consolation Prize’ as part of the set, shouldn’t the % difference be 37.93% (11/29)?
23 May 2023
EXXO
Thanks Lux. Corrections and queries are welcome at any point. Not sure how that’s happened as I do try to check & re-check such basic facts.
10 points to you, 2.5 each to Bad Loser and Mr. Spokesman, both of whom will be kicking themselves about decimal places but especially the latter, who would have had the best individual gig points tally of the season with one more decimal place.
Apologies to Phyllis T. & Parsfan who lose the 10 & 5 points respectively that had been provisionally awarded.
23 May 2023
IRISH NIALL
@EXXO: “Scoring was reasonably healthy, thanks to many jokers played on ‘Chatteris’ and many correct predictions of ‘Light’ as the opener. However especial congratulations to at least 3 of you for picking up the 35 ‘Eno’ points….”
If I may brazenly bring some technical insight as a man who’s served in these trenches as it were -Light At The End Of The Tunnel, which I’m sure I’ve seen the lads kick off with several times, makes a great intro song for reasons beyond it being a cracker of a tune.
From a vocalists perspective it’s relatively low register allowing you to warm into things without straining the voice early on.
Also, unlike the studio version which is “All-in” from the off, they tend to do it slightly differently live, where Nige jangles a B7, does “give me Love, give me Can….” with little more accompaniment than Carl tapping the rims. That low register vocal now serves a second purpose of being a final soundcheck on lead vocal volume in the wedges and the first verse gives space for for Neil and Karl to have a final line-check -building up a little before everyone crashes in full pelt on the chorus. A bit like letting the handbrake off the car and trundle down the hill it just gives everyone a chance to settle in without undue surprises.
As for Eno Collaboration -man I love that song but we used find it bitchin’ hard to play …well. And if you’re gonna play it you want to do it well. Just needs to be very tight.
I must join in this fun for Llangollen where fingers crossed I stay lucky and will be in attendance.
23 May 2023
EXXO
@Niall. Valuable insight and much appreciated. For several years in the noughties, ‘The Light at the End of The Tunnel’ was nearly always the opener, and it did seem that the main reason must be that it it built confidence in some ways that perhaps only one who performs the songs in venues were the levels are not perfect can fully appreciate.
It would be great to have you on board for some Fantasy Biscuitball. I am going to seriously propose to at least one US contributor and at least one Italian HMHB fan that they join for at least one gig sometime soon, so we can hope to compete for some kind of world championship.
23 May 2023
EXXO
Note to self: during the summer break we’ll need to revise the rule on decimal places again, to include non-recurring infinite places as well as recurring infinites, and to make sure that anyone who basically gets it right gets rewarded.
23 May 2023
Lux inferior
Cheers Exxo. I hadn’t realised the extra 0.0010345% would earn me the full 10 points. Still won’t be enough to help reel in Woodnoggin, however. I’d say his inspired selection of ‘Eno Collaboration’ has pretty much clinched the FBL title. Without that 35 point haul, we’d all be quoting Brian Moore come Llangollen: “it’s up for grabs now.”
23 May 2023
Irish Niall
@Exxo: I’ll certainly try -though who knows what balls-ups I’ll commit when I’m talking about The Light At The End Of The Tunnel while describing the live intro to Irk The Purists. 🙂
Reasons I described for kicking off with LATEOTT (or Irk the Purists for that matter) remain sound nonetheless.
23 May 2023
Phyllis Triggs
After such a shit season I was actually feeling pretty chipper about being spot on with the Edinburgh percentage, but now I return home to find even those small crumbs of consolation have been taken away from me and thrown in the bin. Grrrr!
23 May 2023
FEATURELESS TV PRODUCER STEVE
@Exxo – do we have a US contributor on this site who understands the rules?
24 May 2023
EXXO
Simple rules Steve. Look at recent setlists, especially the last one then:
Q’s 1-3: Predict 7 songs that will be added and 4 that will be removed. Choose one of the seven as your “banker/cert/joker”
Q’s 4&5: Predict the genre of the walk-on music and the first song.
Q’s 6&7: Predict a band that will be covered and the % of different songs from last time
So Steve why not step up to the plate and make Llangollen the ‘World Series’ of Fantasy Biscuitball? You’ve got 7 weeks to think about it. Simple questions, and all the other small print on the forms is just to cover all the bases:
https://forms.gle/Gw13wqgrVo2XZVGi7
24 May 2023
Parsfan
Steve, maybe you can grasp something in your first go, re the relationship between questions 1 and 3, that only occurred to me on Friday after I’d submitted (and have been doing so from the start). I might not be doing so appallingly badly otherwise.
Pleased on Friday with getting the opening track, a first I think, but little after that beyond the missing ones. Then that little extra was whipped away (like a distinguished lady with the top of an egg).
24 May 2023
EXXO
Wednesday 12 July 5pm is the deadline for your predictions for the last round of the 2022-23 Fantasy Biscuitball League season:
https://forms.gle/Bw8fKiFwYLZpSZAt9
Last umpteen setlists on this document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nSMRmO6PxeKh1oJmjomkoNbB533FM7WUQQmhSatDzvg/edit?usp=sharing
Just realised I never updated the league table after Edinburgh, so will do that on the same document later. It will take something special for anyone to overhaul Woodnoggin’s lead, but it’s not unimaginable.
4 July 2023
D list paul ross
My final attempt at a miracle recovery to get off the bottom so I can do a Pleat (q.v.) style run on to the pitch.
6 July 2023
Exxo
Spent an hour and a half trying to get everyone’s predictions into a spreadsheet link** so you could see them all tonight if you are here, but my old Samsung, whose testimonial gig this is, won’t do the editing out of your email addresses in the sheets app.
So as that hasn’t worked, mine are 1. R&r wools. Eve swing. Fix it. With goth (!). See bike – escort – broken headstone 2. R &r wools 3. Eno. Wrong grave. Busy litle. 27 yards. 4. Welsh choral/ nationalistic 5. Light tunnel 6. Gorky’s 7. 45.54%
**ok mostly i was chatting shite with Biscuiteers in the pub for those 1.5 hours, but I did try.
12 July 2023
EXXO
Please check this FBL points allocation for Llangollen:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BH9lCkMRiJxy9ptsQtvtBvu36F5bdTR8KfORWOYucMo/edit?usp=sharing
And this individual scoring:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wKPUyJnz7lW4Y-4s926V5byKHoQ1n38LVivdoEDCeag/edit?usp=sharing
I feel fairly certain there will be errors, slips and omissions. Maybe even protests. Hopefully minor.
But if the errors aren’t too major, the top of the final table will look like a bit like this:
16 July 2023
EXXO
Top 7 of final table (provisional)
Played all 11 fixtures unless stated:
Woodnoggin ________759.5
Lux Inferior __________699
Exxo_______________689
Bad Loser ___________669.5
Ferencvaros Fan ______605
Transit Full of Keith ____598 (points per gig =54.36)
Mr. Spokesman (PL 8)__432 (points per gig= 54)
Huge congratulations to Woodnoggin for such a consistent performance all season – a worthy champion, retaining his ‘Points per Gig’ title from 2021/22. Well played Lux for overtaking me into second, with the runners-up spot complementing your recent cup win.
Not cool to win your own competitions, but I am pleased at getting the highest individual gig score of the season, especially as it was thanks to the Fall cover at the John Peel Centre.
Thanks to everyone for taking part!!
But please let me know about those inevitable arithmetical bloops.
16 July 2023
EXXO
Ha, yes, minor omissions it is. I completely forgot to add your alphabetical points for cover band guesses. Not sure I’ve ever done this on the same day as a massive pile of Sunday marking before.
16 July 2023
EXXO
Now corrected … which changed 5 or 6 contestants’ points, but none of those on the above provisional table.
16 July 2023
Bad loser
Thanks for running this again Exxo.
I’d forgotten that Capel Curig had broken its 8 year drought at Leamington Spa and spent 24 hours believing I’d bagged about 80 points for it. The consolation is that those points weren’t available elsewhere.
Fourth is respectable and my team will retain my services for next season with the demand that I don’t throw away silly points like this time round.
16 July 2023
EXXO
Unlucky. I’m guessing loads more would have gone for ‘Bottleneck’ if it had been worth more. I gambled on five other potentially higher scoring songs with North Wales references, plus one that makes me think of Nigel cycling to/from Wales, but of course no joy.
16 July 2023
D list paul ross
Thanks @Exxo, despite being as consistently shite as Woodnoggin was good, I have very much enjoyed it.
16 July 2023
Ferencváros fan
Thanks for organising, @Exxo and congrats, @Woodnoggin, a worthy winner. Good luck in the Champions League next season to those who finished ahead of me. Europa League on Thursdays for me then, probably in company with Ferencváros.
16 July 2023
dr DEsperate
Excellent season of entertainment, @Exxo, thanks! I suffered the same fate as you for relying on Welshness in Llangollen, but did finally manage to get closest to the correct percentage of churn, which must be an indicator of something.
16 July 2023
parsfan
Ta Exxo (should it not just be Exo?) for running this and well done to everyone else, especially those who did better than me (everyone?).
I this was probably my best performance of the season, or at least since the start where I might have scored a lot of points for one of the new songs.
I noticed you gave someone 27 points in the dropped songs bit, likely because their last one was 27 Yards, but don’t know if that’s just a typo or included in totals.
16 July 2023
EXXO
Well spotted, Paul. While obviously mainly just carelessness on my part, I could bore you with a spiel about how the crapness of google sheets is also partly to blame. Actually increases Woodnoggin’s winning margin.
16 July 2023
Transit full of Keith
Cheers Exxo for running a great compo, and plaudits to Woodnoggin for the well-deserved win. I’ll cherish the brief period a few months ago when I was top of the heap and dared to dream.
16 July 2023
Injured Buzzard
Thank you @Exxo for organising a great competition. Looks like I just missed out on the Euro places. Terrific fun and look forward to next season. Congratulations to @Woodnoggin on a great victory.
16 July 2023
Phyllis Triggs
Thanks for your all your efforts Exxo. This season’s been a wash out for me but very well done to everyone else. At least I managed some points on the cover at Llangollen. And I almost chose Capel Curig but decided it was too obvious…. Bah!
16 July 2023
Lord Hereford
Thanks Exxo for all your work running the competiton. Much like my own team I spent all of it near the bottom of the league but was mathematically safe with a couple of gigs to go. Now I need a return of the prodigal song (ACP) for next season.
16 July 2023
nige
Thanks Exxo – I don’t think I’ll need to use NNTO next season, my results make it pretty obvious I’m not that one
16 July 2023
EXXO
Yebbut you’re not this one either so I reckon all other Nigels on here need a bit extra 😉
16 July 2023
eric t’viking
Just wondering if there is, or should be, an actual FBL trophy for Woodnoggin to hoist aloft after his victory?
Perhaps at a future gig, Phyllis Triggs could hand over an urn of some ashes, or maybe slip a tour jacket over the shoulders of Woodnoggin, whilst muttering something magnanimous…?
16 July 2023
Bad loser
And congratulations to Woodnoggin. Without a new album in the season (though there was a 40 point bonus or two) that’s quite a score. I had a couple of quiet rounds, but mostly felt i scored well, and was nowhere near.
17 July 2023
Nige
I’m Spartacus!
17 July 2023
woodnoggin
Well played everyone and many thanks for organising it all, Exxo. It’s been a lot of fun and made even the gigs I can’t attend exciting.
20 July 2023
Lux inferior
Belated congratulations to Woodnoggin on his comprehensive victory & massive thanks to Exxo for all his hours of hard graft and organisational skills.
Considering I wasn’t certain I’d make it through the entire season, I’m more than happy with a repeat of last season’s runner-up spot, topped off with my fortunate success in the inaugural FBA Cup. My performance is as dependable as a Chatteris bus service, it would appear.
21 July 2023
Darren the lollipop man
Friday Quiz then? Don’t mind if I do.
Ten clues to song titles, some cryptic(ish), some punny, some easy, some fiendish. Post your answers when you’ve got all ten. Go!
1. Eddie’s partner causes eclipse
2. Not the exeet
3. Fire sky folk
4. 9 months
5. Mr Klum out on the town
6. Tom John
7. Maybe after Rik Mayall’s accident?
8. Dine by ale
9. Donate packaging to America
10. For drumming on Half A Person – £50
28 July 2023
Transit full of Keith
Good quiz. Five so far
29 July 2023
dr DEsperate
Eight, still working on the last two.
29 July 2023
EXXO
Is it any song by anyone ever?
29 July 2023
Darren the lollipop man
I probably should have said that they’re all HMHB songs, but I thought that was a given.
29 July 2023
Darren the lollipop man
I bet no one’s got number 4.
29 July 2023
dr DEsperate
Nine.
29 July 2023
dr DEsperate
Ten.
29 July 2023
Transit full of keith
OK, there are 6 I’m fairly sure about. Including no.4: ingenious, and not surprised the Doctor got there first. Very tenuous answers to two more, almost certainly wrong.
29 July 2023
dr DEsperate
I’ll put my answers up tomorrow.
29 July 2023
Transit full of keith
Now seven. The three intractable ones for me being 2,3, and 8.
29 July 2023
dr DEsperate
I think 3 and 8 are the ones @DTLM described as cryptic(ish).
29 July 2023
Darren the lollipop man
Exactly Dr D. I wouldn’t describe any others as tenuous except 4, which really really is.
29 July 2023
Exxo
I walk down a really long boring straight lane to go fishing where I am today
Said tomeselfi i Will get number 4 b4 the end of the lane (13 or 14 minutes total)-got it after 4 mins woohoo.
I wouldn’t call it tenuous.
29 July 2023
Exxo
7 so far. Got the two easiest (9 and 10) on the bus to fishing, number 4 on the boring walk down to the river, 3 more on the bus back – assuming I guessed Mr Klum right (not gonna google) and one while brushing me teeth, suddenly remembering something from school at least 44 years ago.
30 July 2023
dr DEsperate
Excellent quiz, very enjoyable!
My answers (others may be available):
1. (Syd) Little in the Way of Sunshine, causing eclipse
2. Doreen (if Door in is not the exit, then Doreen is not the exeet)
3. New York Skiffle (anag. ‘Fire sky folk’)
4. When I Look at My Baby (normal gestation period)
5. Sealclubbing (Heidi Klum’s ex-husband)
6. (Tom) Petty (John) Sessions
7. Blood on the Quad (ref Mayall’s quad-bike crash)
8. Turn a Blind Eye (anag. ‘Dine by ale’)
9. Give Us (US) Bubblewrap
10. Ode to Joyce (“Owed to” Mike Joyce, drummer on The Smiths’ ‘Half a Person’)
30 July 2023
Transit full of Keith
Didn’t get 2,3, and 8.
And my no. 4 was “Terminus”, ie ‘term in us’ = gestation period for humans.
30 July 2023
Darren the lollipop man
Well done! Between you you got the lot. I was thinking Terminus for number 4 (which is why I considered it tenuous) but When I Look At My Baby ticks at least as many boxes. I would probably have put “In 9 months” if I’d meant WILAMB.
30 July 2023
Transit full of keith
Yeah, I rejected ‘When I look at my baby’ as too tenuous – I don’t think ‘Terminus’ is.
Properly tenuous was my answer for no.3, ‘Venus in Flares’. If you squint your ears it might sound like ‘Venusian flares’. I was completely airshipped by the clever device in 3 and 8, requiring you to work backwards from the answer to a cryptic clue. Anyway, great quiz, ta!
31 July 2023
dr DEsperate
‘Terminus’ for Q4 didn’t cross my mind once I’d settled on WILAMB (which I also now see is a brilliant near-acronym). It’s better, though.
It helped that I used to subscribe to a crossword magazine with a monthly competition to devise backwards clues of that sort – some of them were were extremely tenuous.
31 July 2023
EXXO
I’ve so far managed to avoid all answers except Dr. D’s last comment. I’ve never been a Terry-and-Bob-style results swerver for sports matches*, but I do tend to try it for quizzes until I’m good and ready, and in this case I’m still hoping to find a moment to find my remaining three (can’t even remember the clues at the mo’ though). I was convinced it was ‘WILAMB’ too and it’s taken me ages to get the ‘Terminus’ route even after seeing the Doc’s post (not having yet seen the explanation – luckily I didn’t have me specs on when I saw a blurred set of answers). Neat pun though & ace quiz.
31 July 2023
D list paul ross
I’m not of a religious persuasion but the first answer I thought of for 9 months was “God gave us life”, as in we have been blessed with another child – I blame my very Catholic mother.
31 July 2023
Simon Smith
Quite a non-sequitur post but I don’t know where else to plant it. I’d like to apologise to Mr Exxo for my rattiness towards him in previous years. My quiz question, answer subsequently engraved on a plaque, is why was I such a defensive uptight narky blert?
Answers on a post-punk postcard.
(Clue: it’s because I was a defensive uptight narky blert)
1 August 2023
EXXO
Whoosh, the closed seasons get shorter every year, and it’ll be time within a couple of days to put up a link to a form for your predictions for the first gig of Fantasy Biscuitball League 2023/24. Hopefully we won’t have lost too many of our veteran predictors to the Saudi Gig Predictions League, but if so I’m sure they’ve done it for “a new challenge” rather than the money, and we wish them well. It would be great to bring in some overseas recruits of our own of course, but all new predictors welcome.
Not much time to consider closed season rule change suggestions or debate them, but I scroll up and notice that early last FBL season I wrote “@Bad Loser. For next season we will definitely consider a rule that would have seen you get more than 5 points for Joy Division (and likewise those who picked Buzzcocks or the Nightingales for Brum who shared members with Magazine and The Prefects respectively).”
Yep, definitely considered it. And then rejected it. It would mean Buzzcocks/Magazine would just become even more common choices.
So. The only slight rule change is something else mentioned during last season – that everyone who gets the % turnover of songs exactly right will be rewarded with 10 points (whether they express it as a percentage or a fraction). If nobody gets it exactly right, it’ll stay the same:10 points for nearest, 5 points for second nearest, 7.5 if shared 2 ways, etc. Otherwise as you were.
Form for Bristol on here on Friday.
6 September 2023
EXXO
@Simon Smith. Wow, just seen your post above, having missed it previously. Good stuff, no hard feelings. I always thought I understood why you were narky with me though. See you at a gig sometime.
6 September 2023
EXXO
The form for your Wolverhampton set predictions:
https://forms.gle/QzbCCyePi37erSHt6
This ever-expanding Google doc with the last 20 setlists is one way of doing your research, but see also the Giant Setlist Chart on here and especially biscuitgigs.co.uk
9 September 2023
nigennto
Just checking – is this for Bristol next week or Wolverhampton?
9 September 2023
Exxo
Oh yeah soz. Was on autopilot and low on coffee. Fill it in for Bristle and I will change the words now, but might not get to change the pics for a few days as am currently heading up-country for a few days.
9 September 2023
EXXO
Only 6 entries received to date, so I’ll take the liberty of emailing the other regular FBL managers just now to remind them. But no worries if you’re swerving it this season to gaze upon other things.
https://forms.gle/YEKakw4dfXTRAgR98
14 September 2023
parsfan
That’s me entered.
This might have been suggested before but, especially with the new season, could this not be given its own topic?
It’s not really a quiz and is perhaps stifling new ones.
14 September 2023
EXXO
Yes, I get embarrassed a bit that it can seem to stifle other things. Or maybe we could transfer it to a low-traffic Whatsapp group? The sort of Whatsapp group where you mute notifications. Might put that as a poll on the next gig form.
14 September 2023
EXXO
Thanks folks. Entries were up into double figures before I even got round to sending the reminder (‘bcc’) to several others.
This season, and probably henceforth, we will of course be playing for the Geoff Davies memorial FBL trophy. And he may well have responded to that with “WTF?”
14 September 2023
D list paul ross
Thanks for the reminder @Exxo, my usual shitty entry has gone in.
14 September 2023
Phyllis Triggs
I’m swerving the FBL this season – can’t take the pressure!
14 September 2023
EXXO
You are a FBL legend Lou, and will be sorely missed. As long as there are set-list predictors, they will say “remember Phyllis Triggs? Her early 2022 FBL totals have still not been accounted for.”
Like the Watney Cup, conversation will often turn to whether one day Phyllis Triggs or even Hendrix Tattoo will return to the league as a phoenix club.
I’ll remind those who prefer a Snickers to a Marathon (I will never tire of that) that you only need to predict three set-lists per season to get an average in the final table (and potentially be champion), and that even if you only ever do it once you have a chance of individual gig honours, records and associated glory.
ubi fides ibi spes – eius qui te occidit
15 September 2023
Lux inferior
@Phyllis – I wish you’d given it a swerve in the 2021/22 season…I’d have been champion without your relentless point scoring prowess!
15 September 2023
EXXO
Form closed with 16 entries.
Not sure why I haven’t done this before, when I’m not at the gig anyway, but here for the first time you can see all 16 entries up front.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L7W-_v9RhC4XgrYB0WcViLcn45iELgb2VddWIMfEjsM/edit?usp=sharing
15 September 2023
Phyllis Triggs
Thanks for the kind words guys. Now freed from the tyranny of deadlines I’m looking forward to reading tonight’s set list😃 Good luck everybody!
15 September 2023
Lux inferior
I think you once posted a link to something similar during last season’s FBL, Exxo, which I was able to access easily enough. This time, however, it’s asking me to request access after clicking on your link.
15 September 2023
EXXO
Oops. Sorry. Sorted now.
15 September 2023
Lux inferior
Cheers Exxo 🙂
15 September 2023
EXXO
Oh my days. ‘Nimrod’ as the walk-on, a toast to Geoff and then straight into Jarg Armani. I’m in tears here listening to them 250 milees away.
15 September 2023
Irish Niall
I’ve played Nimrod three times in a row. Wonderful. Raising a glass to Geoff.
15 September 2023
parsfan
Excuse my savage ignorance, but I don’t suppose Nimrod was by Hank, Roy or Bill?
15 September 2023
EXXO
Setlist now official, with points to be allocated per song
Please check your own points
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L7W-_v9RhC4XgrYB0WcViLcn45iELgb2VddWIMfEjsM/edit?usp=sharing
Well played Schoon for bagging Jarg Armani’s first outing in 8 years.
Otherwise it was all about playing the percentages on the “joker” song, the basis of any good FBL score.
A low-to- mid-sixties average score should win the FBL this season, so only Schoon is under par so far.
17 September 2023
EXXO
Soz here’s the doc with setlists & points to be allocated, with apologies if formatting difficulties affect your OCD or aesthetic sensibilities.
17 September 2023
EXXO
Aaargh no here it is
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dP-SsKZdZlytavSAjSq_QZeOZq6nDL_EgMdQ7QPnWWM/edit?usp=sharing
17 September 2023
D list paul ross
Understandable given my scores of last year but you seem to have missed my selection of Fretwork Homework. Been expecting a camera crew like when Football Focus used to send an OB unit to the club when someone shit like Carlisle or Ipswich (sorry CTSO!) were top after three games.
17 September 2023
EXXO
Sorry Richard – now corrected – a brilliant pick, an all-time record song score I think, if you don’t count the over-generous 100 points for new songs in the first season.
So D-List Paul Ross leads in the first furlong with 123 points. By my estimates he could take the title if he averages just about 55 for the rest of the season, but as we don’t even know how many fixtures we’ll have yet, that’s just guesswork.
Unless there’s something else I’ve missed. Always try to check your scores and feel free to scan the other scores for my little faux pas.
17 September 2023
dr DEsperate
I had Jarg Armani too. Close with the percentage change at 35.5%, but no cigar.
17 September 2023
D list paul ross
Thanks Charles, don’t apologise, I reserve a special place in my personal vision of Hell for people who moan about something “staffed” by a volunteer. I’m the FBL mug punter who passes up easier points for the proverbial 6 horse acca, where the staff stopped checking the slips about 20 years ago!
17 September 2023
Bad loser
Can’t see me on there. Unless I’ve been demoted for making illegal payments, it’s a bog standard 46 points for me.
17 September 2023
dr DEsperate
I reckon Jarg should put me into second place in the first furlong with a below-par 95 (though I don’t expect that’ll keep me mathematically safe).
18 September 2023
EXXO
Apologies Doc and well played. Appalling scan reading failures by me. I can’t explain though why some other contestants have just disappeared from that spreadsheet. It seems that trying to get it done before cricket on a Sunday morning is not the best idea. It still made me late and then I was run out for 0. Even worse than that everyone focused on me giving up the sprint, depressed beyond tablets, half-way down the wicket, rather than on the idiot who ran me out and went on to score a cool sixty.
18 September 2023
EXXO
Same spreadsheet then with a couple of amendments
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L7W-_v9RhC4XgrYB0WcViLcn45iELgb2VddWIMfEjsM/edit?usp=sharing
Congratulations again to our new-look (provisional) Top 3
D-List Ross 123 points
Dr. Desperate 95 points
Schoon 79 points
FBL point scoring has no statute of limitations other than my own errm, considerable limitations, so if you ever spot anything amiss, let me know.
18 September 2023
Lux inferior
Jeez, that must be just about my worst individual gig performance since the FBL started. Good job my current medication plan involves being ‘on the ‘roids’, as I may well be propping up the FBL league table this season. Can usually be relied upon to nail my joker pick, but changed the original selection of Fred T to Look Dad after listening to the 2009 episode of ‘On The Wire’ on the Geoff D tribute page, where he raves about said track.
Much kudos to those who somehow predicted Prag Vec, Jarg & Fretwork.
20 September 2023
EXXO
Wolverhampton predictions form.
https://forms.gle/mutgn1t2bT9r6TJdA
See usual links above for all the requisite background info’.
29 September 2023
BAD LOSER
Entry submitted. Glad of the early opportunity as out of the country Tuesday to Thursday. Hopefully no issues getting home so that I can still get to Wolverhampton.
29 September 2023
EXXO
8 sets of predictions received so far for Friday. I’ll send email reminders to those who haven’t submitted by tonight.
https://forms.gle/YEGySnKcBn11UMtt8
Doc with recent setlists:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dP-SsKZdZlytavSAjSq_QZeOZq6nDL_EgMdQ7QPnWWM/edit?usp=sharing
the song ladder under stats at biscuitgugs.co.uk may be your best friend or just dive into the Giant Setlist Chart on the Lyrics Project’s home page.
4 October 2023
EXXO
Sorry Paul that’s https://www.biscuitgigs.co.uk/songLadder
4 October 2023
EXXO
Unless Paul’s site isn’t working at the moment?
4 October 2023
parsfan
That’s odd.
I noticed it was down this morning and have it a kick about 8:30 and all looked fine.
Maintenance screen up for now, will try to sort it at lunch time.
4 October 2023
brumbiscuit
I very much like the maintenance screen picture 😁
4 October 2023
parsfan
That’s it sorted – not that there was anything wrong.
It was down first thing but I sorted it this morning. It seemed fine but the link you put up to the song ladder wasn’t working.
I did something at lunchtime and that seemed to fix it but not for your link.
I tried a couple of things later on that suggested it was working so put the main page back up and it worked in a fresh, private browser and on phone. Your link still not.
I’ll not explain why but the problem is the “www”s. Not only do you not need them, they make it not work. I’ll put a fix on for that at some point, in the meantime try this one: https://biscuitgigs.co.uk/songLadder.
4 October 2023
EXXO
@Paul – I got the link through Google.
12 prediction forms received to date. Just sent reminders to the rest of the usual suspects, but new one-off entries are always welcome too.
5 October 2023
EXXO
Good luck to out usual 17 suspects.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OqhI8FkcOOhq2YieuX3Gf-DeF1A6UI5TBnGI1c4lM0U/edit?usp=sharing
6 October 2023
Transit full of Keith
Aah, no one else will pick Slade, I thought, confidently.
6 October 2023
EXXO
This is very provisional, points-wise.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19LUg12Guacd03NKRS0kYcZssa8WrHLBc7BPoSpR5ft4/edit?usp=sharing
There will be many who hope that Cornershop counts as a song played, for the 5 Slade points, although the “intro snippet” for VB has not done so yet. the committee are open-minded and await clips, etc. Nobody’s rushing our video-assisted decisions.
7 October 2023
Transit full of Keith
I reckon it should count if the rendition reached the bosom/pillow line.
7 October 2023
dr DEsperate
It did, but only because I sang it after they’d finished ‘Vatican’.
And thanks Niall, for ruining my ‘pop song’ walk-on prediction by finishing with ‘Mamma Mia’ *, so they had to switch to Tchaikovsky – his Piano Concerto No 1 in B minor, as recorded by the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, as at Leed Stylus in 2012.
Tony’s Interesting Fact was that the composer lived with the morbid fear that his head was going to fall off while conducting (which led to him holding his chin with one hand and conducting with the other). I asked, “And did it?”, but apparently there’s no evidence that that was the case.
* ‘Mamma Mia’ is the song title that Lucy Beaumont uses to let her mother know that she’s arrived – hoping to sing along with it again tonight.
7 October 2023
EXXO
In the absence of video evidence, the committee asks for consensus. Did all 4 band members join in, clearly prepared, and get as far as a least one rendition of the words “Brimful of Asha on the 45”? This will be enough to secure 5 points for those who said Slade.
10 October 2023
Lux inferior
@Exxo – There is a video knocking about on YouTube, as mentioned towards the end of my ‘review’ earlier…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIbpYb0kg6o
10 October 2023
dr DEsperate
Proof, if proof were needed…
10 October 2023
EXXO
Thanks. Not sure why that video didn’t show up in the committee’s searches but yes, that will certainly do. 5 points for the five who said Slade.
Spizz’s Solihull is not within 12 miles of Cornershop’s Wolvo, but did he first perform solo in Brum (9 or 10 miles)? The committee are inclined to be generous here, so 5 points for Spizzenergi too.
This means 32 songs, so D-List Paul Ross (10) gets the % points as opposed to Bad Loser (sorry) . Lord Hereford would have the 5 points either way.
The pre-Vatican fragment, or any other segued fragments, will only count in future under the condition that we have whole band involvement until the chorus is reached (or for a full minute in the case of tunes with no real verse-chorus structure).
Unlucky though BL.
10 October 2023
EXXO
So how do you all like your points? Please check.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OqhI8FkcOOhq2YieuX3Gf-DeF1A6UI5TBnGI1c4lM0U/edit?usp=sharing
10 October 2023
Transit full of Keith
Ich nichten lichten, but I’ll have to go along with it.
10 October 2023
BAD LOSER
Those points might’ve spared me the ire of the crowd at Bad Loser FC after a lackluster start to the season. In need of a good performance at Holmfirth with the 3 month sacking season to follow.
11 October 2023
Ed day
@exxo (pretending I don’t care) Yeah it’s no big deal but you gave me 2 for Look Dad instead of 4 in the 7 songs. Thanks again for your excellent work in running this.
11 October 2023
EXXO
@Ed – “excellent” is clearly not true, but thanks for the correction. The FBL will run on a principle of eternal justice and redress. If in twenty years you suddenly realise I got the Holmfirth 2023 points wrong, we will put things right. If in 2163 Doctor Desperate’s great, great, great, great, great grand-daughter realises an injustice and demands an extra point or two for her distinguished and highly decorated ancestor, by all that is decent and sacred s/he will have it if it was merited! Sorry.
11 October 2023
Sturmey Archer
Here’s a link to a NYT Connections-style quiz. Match the groups of four references to their HMHB song.
https://connections.swellgarfo.com/game/-Nhrqvqzz1UQS52oGPMU
28 October 2023
D list paul ross
I found it pretty straightforward so I’m sure a lot of people on here will have but I also thought it was fun and really well done, more please!
30 October 2023
Sid
I do quite like that Connections style quiz, good bit of fun and really tests you. Would love to see more!
10 November 2023
Chris The Siteowner
So… there is nothing better than life, than getting generative AI (in this case mainly DALL•E) to interpret Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics. This thread started on social media, but I’ve added a few more, and brought in some of the best ones which were contributed, with Twitter credit where due. Your task is to guess which songs each image is trying to illustrate…
https://halfmanhalfbiscuit.uk/everythings-ai-ah/
10 November 2023
Chris The Siteowner
And no, I don’t know what the machines were thinking about when they came up with no.9 either, but if anyone can get to the bottom of it, you may one day well end up as our last hope against Skynet.
10 November 2023
dr DEsperate
They say AI is lousy at doing hands, but really…
10 November 2023
dr DEsperate
The bloke in the middle of No 9 has six fingers on one hand, the one on the right has seven. There may be inaccurate depictions of the Wailing Wall and Rochester Cathedral, the writing may be AI’s idea of Kent, Gwent and Senegal, and I suppose anchormen use microphones and jets travel faster than the speed of sound, but beyond that Skynet is winning.
10 November 2023
Transit full of Keith
No.9 looks like it was done by a Watchtower illustrator on acid. A particularly unusual one-piece suit jacket, hoodie & top hat garment sported by the elderly chap on the right.
10 November 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
No 9 looks like an episode of Inside No 9.
10 November 2023
BAD LOSER
The Swarthy Portuguese centre-half, Persian Rug Sale, and Badminton Court in the Jungle are particularly fine efforts.
My chimp looks rather more eccentric than problematic but I was typing lyrics rather than descriptions into the generator.
10 November 2023
Transit full of keith
No 16 is my favourite. I guess once our robot overlords gain a cursory familiarity with the 1970s Vauxhall range, they’ll be unstoppable.
10 November 2023
Quantocks checker outer
These are tremendous and bizarre in equal measure. That fella with the high end coffee bean catalogue is pretty spot on though.
10 November 2023
Alice van der meer
The cricketing quakers is hysterical – Dall.E has a lot to learn about cricket (though I wouldn’t mind bowling at that set of stumps).
10 November 2023
Cream CHEESE AND chives
These are fantastic! I have a long train journey later today so I will study them minutely. The interpretation of the blue flag and the melting faces of the darts ensemble are, I think, initial points of interest to go with those previously flagged.
11 November 2023
Quantocks checker outer
I’m finding Janet from accounts a lot more alluring than I should. Certainly not the mental image I had from just listening to the song.
11 November 2023
Transit full of Keith
Wondering about the mouths on the darts players… Assuming the prompt included the words “soap opera”, is it throwing some opera singers mouths into the mix?
11 November 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
@QCO, RE 462, the lyrics do mention Janet and banging, not what I was expecting from the image either.
11 November 2023
Tonto’s expanding waist band
Well hello, Janet from accounts! Please tell me more about this “turmeric” you’re always bangin’ on about… 🤔
11 November 2023
dr DEsperate
A few random fish-in-a-barrel potshots on the accuracy of AI-generated images:
That monkey’s tin opener would never work, so it’s a good job its custard tin has a ring-pull top.
Janet would have difficulty typing ‘turmeric’, as she’s missing the right-hand side of her keyboard. Also, lovely blouse, but how does she fasten it with buttons on both sides?
The dartboard has 24 numbers, but no cheer-raising bull. Is the oche under the table?
Why is there a gold star above the swarthy Portuguese centre half’s oddly-designed, wrong-sided team badge? They’ve never won a World Cup.
The publishers of the high-end coffee bean catalogue seem to have almost as much trouble spelling the name of their product as did Donald Trump.
The layout of the badminton court is as unorthodox as that of the cricket pitch.
12 November 2023