Before you read these, a reminder about the Half Mandolin Half Biscuit session tomorrow (Saturday 12th Feb, start 1pm-ish, upstairs at Shakespeare’s). There is no set list, but I thought we might have been able to cover a track from every LP. This turns out not to be true (unless we have unexpected contributors, who would be welcome). I’ll leave it to you to work out which LP is uncovered. Please bring some cash for the collection/raffle.
11 February 2022
99%
One of the best of the 30 HMHB gigs I have seen. Brilliant set
11 February 2022
Richard holmeS
I’ve seen them around about 35 times and that was definitely top 5. Lots of crowd pleasers but the classics always work well live. Probably the best 24 Hour Garage People ever?
12 February 2022
twistedkitemike
Agreed, awesome set-list. Wonderful to see/hear 24 Hour Garage People out again.
Mike…………
12 February 2022
twistedkitemike
Here is the set-list in case you are interested: –
Broadstairs Irk Reflections Buried Morning Restless Bat Walk Shit Arm Lilac HQ Squabble 1966 Geraldine Fred T Bad Wools Joyce Vatican DPAK NSD Chatteris Terminus Trad Arr 24 Hour Awkward Sean Trumpton Bell Rings JDOG ………………………….. Light Tunnel Take the Skinheads Bowling AOR
I’m sure that Roger has caught the text from 24 Hour (Lost Oliver returned), or the congregation will piece it together.
Mike…………………
12 February 2022
dic aberdaron
awkward sean awkward sean rooftop sean
12 February 2022
Hendrix-tattoo
The best gig so far for me out of the five. 24 Hour Garage People and Take the Skinheads Bowling was worth the ticket price alone. Nice to hear a new song played also…
12 February 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
How many points for getting 24HGP in FBL? Pained at not being there to see it – I’ve never seen it live. Still, 30 points for guessing Camper Van Beethoven though.
12 February 2022
Kendo Nagasaki
Brilliant gig. Absolutely amazing atmosphere. I truly believe we are edging closer to him being berated jnto learning a song off godcore. We can but hope. I’ll leave the proper reviews to those with notepads, rest assured I can’t wait for the next one
12 February 2022
Kendo Nagasaki
As others have said. A fantastic, if somewhat circuitous 24hgp coupled with by far the most accurate rendition of NSD I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing
12 February 2022
EXXO
I make it 34 points for 24HGPKeith. Massive hat-tip and congrat’s on the spectacular double woth the 30 point cover song. I’ve seen you choose Camper Van before and thought “not a chance,” so what do I know? First glance at the entries suggests it’s a close-run thing between thee and me for this week’s top spot. Surprised I was the only one gambling on the 40 points for ‘Awkward Sean.’ But ahaem FBL talk belongs in the quiz thread of course …
Yes the first 24HGP for over 5 years, its first outing of the Benson era, before which it often served to give the rest of the band a bit of a rest. A truly epic version, with the most sandwiches ever, including a roast vegetables and pesto wrap and an upcoming request for a street atlas of Peterhead. Nigel told us that Lost Oliver (behind him in the queue and bursting with outlandish requests) should have featured in Town Characters Top Trumps. He would score low on violence and vitriol but high on quirkiness, or words to that effect. And contrary to his name, he always knows exactly where he is.
12 February 2022
EXXO
Anyone who wasn’t there want to guess the price of the Sour Cream & Chives Pringles (which NB acknowledged didn’t exist – the chives were just part of his taunting of the wordsearch loser).
12 February 2022
I’m the talentless nigel
Amazing set. 24 hour garage people was amazing. Not seen them since that rather blustery night in Northampton. I was worried that the enforced break might have had a negative effect but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yet again they have made an old man very happy (minus the nearly destroyed voice and the aching feet)
12 February 2022
EXXO
A superb and long-awaited version of ‘Bad Wools’ had the hapless singer’s band’s favourite teams as England ,Wimbledon, St Pauli, Chelsea and Accy Stanley. NB is previously on record as being very contrarian about the AFCW/ MK Dons stuff (said he would gladly go at the time most away fans were still serious about a boycott) and about St Pauli, favouring HSV cos he reckons people jump on the FCSP bandwagon just to be trendy. He’s very wrong on that last one, but at least he’s his own man eh.
Towards the end of a brilliant ‘1966 and All that’ a Honved home #10 shirt was held up in the crowd in honour of baby, Ferenc Puskas to you … well actually no it was probably just to taunt Ferencvaros Fan, all the more so when a Honved away shirt was then hurled onto the mic stand, where it remained for the rest of the gig with the badge in exactly the right position.
12 February 2022
EXXO
“What do they give the elephants for lunch at the zoo?”
12 February 2022
EXXO
It was noteworthy also that they were determined to avoid the predictability of the ‘Hedge Cut’ chanting before the encore, which has become a fixture, and could almost be mistaken for them responding to popular demand when they then play the song as planned anyway, by dropping the song in earlier.
12 February 2022
Wendell Spanswick
@EXXO half an hour, same as everyone else. What a great gig!
12 February 2022
EXXO
But of all those highlights, the greatest highlight for me was the crowd, with Sheffield’s youth policy well to the fore and a critical mass achieved early in the gig. People were even bouncing during the slow numbers. “Are you watching, Manchester?”
12 February 2022
BOBBY SVARC
Custard?
12 February 2022
kennyp
Gutted to have missed this (had a ticket but a late Covid positive screwed things up). Please please please tell me there’s a video of last night’s 24HGP on YouTube. And also 1966. Ta.
12 February 2022
woodnoggin
“You don’t get that at Sufjan Stevens.”
I didn’t realise they so rarely play 24HGP. Looks like I got lucky hearing it at my first HMHB gig. They were pretty good, I’d go again.
12 February 2022
transit full of keith
Sadly Exxo I didn’t get the double, I didn’t select 24HGP. My Camper Van selection was due to its previous outing in Worthing being my joint top favourite Biscuit cover alongside the thousand-yard stare rendition of ‘Bike’ last time they were in Cambridge.
Wish I had been at this one. Not sure when I’m going to next be at a gig, but the chance of tagging on some climbing makes Cardiff (then on to Pembroke) or Leeds (with a day at Almscliff) look quite tasty.
12 February 2022
EXXO
Yeah no sorry, I should either look properly at everyone’s answers or hold the front page. Lux Infererior also gets 40 points for Awkward Sean and may (without having really totted up yet) be near the top of this particular tabe leg, behind the Doc & myself.
12 February 2022
Kendo Nagasaki
The actual best bit was in the middle of Vatican broadside, the first time nige said “who the fuckin’ hell are slipknot” the sound man pissed himself. Awesome moment
12 February 2022
knockedonthebonce
where was it he said Joyce was from?
12 February 2022
Ferencváros fan
Think Joyce was from Market Drayton.
12 February 2022
knockedonthebonce
@FERENCVÁROS FAN thanks, for some reason I thought it was Deeping, must have been the 11% stout in the Rutland.
was a great gig though, just getting better.
12 February 2022
Ferencvaros fan
Hey Knockedonthebonce despite keeping a low profile at the gig for various reasons I’d been on the lash all day so not saying I’m right, it’s just what I think I heard. I expect Roger will sort it out.
Great moment before Irk the Purists. Shout out for Nerys Hughes. NB pauses before saying ‘it’s one of ours, that.’ I know it’s been done a lot before, but the timing, delivery, and note of surprise in his voice are priceless.
12 February 2022
Bad loser
Looking forward to Roger’s report when it comes to all the variations in 24HGP. Somebody has already filled in the gaps relating to the change of teams in Bad Wools. Noticeably the invitees to Soccer AM have shown their fickleness by no longer claiming to enjoy watching Barca as they are reduced to scrapping to make the Top 4. I just wish that song mentioned Tim Lovejoy in appropriately sneering tones.
I can’t remember who Nigel pretended was in the crowd to follow Ian Woosnam in Manchester. He did say that at the services they’d spotted Sarah Lancashire before saying that in fact it was Bob Latchford: presumably during his 1970s facial shrubbery stage.
12 February 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Thanks Gary for the 24hgp video above. Brilliant.
12 February 2022
dr Desperate
Our mate Tim has promised more videos from the night (including ‘Sean’ and ‘Skinheads’) and from Half Mandolin Half Biscuit on the Saturday – look out for his Automorph page on YouTube.
Used to come here quite a lot when it was the Socialist Republic Of South Yorkshire. That was the mid 1980s. My mate Mark and I caught The Fall, The Housemartins, The Men They Couldn’t Hang and much, much more. The much, much more included my first two HMHB gigs. That first one, when they walked on stage, took up their instruments and played Busy Little Market Town… Life-changing? Yes, I reckon so. Mark is much better than me at record-keeping. I must get details of the ”much, much more” off him.
We saw an advert for The Great Songwriters on Sky Arts. Not sure when Blackwell/Crossley et al are due to appear, but we’ll be looking out for them. In the same break, there was an ad for Carex hand sanitiser. The jingle was to the tune of He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands. Just like Paintball’s Coming Home. But not a patch, of course.
A teaser for The Voltarol Years came to light when Rogation Sunday’s Here Again! was released into the public domain. A warning to us all about those posters you see round and about concerning missing pets. Gideon Coe played that song on his 6 Music show, along with Awkward Sean in the week running up to this gig. So the CD was clearly out there somewhere. Marc Riley’s chats with Gideon at the end of the former’s shows seemed tinged with jealousy. Marc’s copy of the CD was still in transit. “They don’t exactly bend over backwards to do publicity,” Marc noted. Nigel subsequently dropped him an email to say that he was nipping round to Home Bargains for a jiffy bag and would be sending Marc another copy, as it looked like it was lost in the post.
Bit of a downer when we heard that Daz would not be at this show, but hoped that he would be back in action in Nottingham for the next one. Likewise, John and Elizabeth, testing positive for the virus. Doing the right thing checking though, and they showed boundless generosity in giving their tickets away. Get negative soon.
Gig day saw us on the bus to Wakefield. It’s the time of year for council budgets to be spent up, so there were plenty of roadworks going on and pot-holes being filled in. In Wakefield we lunched at the excellent Smokehouse. The Fully Loaded Fries are a favourite dish there. Recommended, if you are ever in town.
From there we moved on to Sheffield. The paper review didn’t turn much up. Not a peep in Metro or Yorkshire Post, which devoted space to reviews of new work from Alt-J and Sea Power. The Voltarol Years clearly hadn’t reached them yet. Another trip to Home Bargains coming up for Nigel? There was also silence in the Sheffield Telegraph and the Sheffield Star, making it a clean sweep. No publicity at all for the gig.
Doors opened at 7.30. As oft before, we were queuing well beforehand. Sorry I didn’t get the name of the couple who had beaten us there. He had done a lot of work with Sham 69 and showed me some live footage of them doing Borstal Breakout. Now there is a HMHB cover waiting to be done. Also joining us in the queue were Brian, Tony and Andrew. And there was Phil, with yet another admirable trek from the south coast. Carl and Neil came out of the venue, heading for the local curry house. Having spoken with them, we were left to watch the security guys as they put out barriers for containing the hordes heading to this gig and the club night taking place afterwards.
Once inside, we saw Graham and Sarah, and Postman Tony. There wasn’t long to wait before the support act started. Just one bloke on his own, with bass guitar and drum machine. This was Danny Lowe, previously the bass player with Babybird and now seems to be trading as Heads Off. That was all good stuff. “Quirky and enjoyable” was Karen’s considered opinion. We agreed that we wouldn’t have a problem seeing him again. I didn’t get a set list, so don’t know the proper titles, but I would hazard a guess at this.
Psychopath Propaganda Machine Reptiles Around You Celebrity Bores Pussycat None Of The Above No Fucks Given Chicken Eyes
“I wrote this in lockdown about my dislike of celebrities,” he said of Celebrity Bores. Before Pussycat, Danny said that prostitutes and cats are the two most popular things on the internet. I couldn’t possibly comment. Postman Tony reckoned that that song must be about Kurt Zouma, the West Ham footballer who had been in bother the week before after an incident involving his cat.
A few more folk showed up in the interval. Katherine and Karl with news from my locality, and Nigel and Jo from Goole. On the way to the gig, Jo reported they had heard Steve Lamacq play Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess. He had also promised to play some tracks from The Voltarol Years over the following week. And big thanks to Nigel/Exford for the donation of the Westmead Kennels And Cattery pen. It has been added to reviewing stock. Not used on this occasion – I already had a Betfred number in situ. I noticed Andy was a few places along at the front barrier, filming the evening’s events. Looking forward to seeing the results.
I also exchanged nods with George in his Barnstoneworth shirt. And good to see Lee back at these shows, complete with the Torquay / Dennis Bell shirt. Postman Tony told us that he is now the proud owner of a Premier Inn bed. It had been left on the balcony of his new flat for months before he got round to assembling it.
I didn’t quite recognise the HMHB walk-on music. It sounded a bit footbally, but I couldn’t quite place it. Nigel pointed out someone and asked “Need a hand with your packing?” He also spotted Mary Beard, and there was the first shout of “What did God give us, Neil?” – not necessarily from Mary. Nigel asked her if she had managed to get her wheelie bin jet-cleaned. The first song was She’s In Broadstairs. Straight after that came the second “What did God give us, Neil?”
Nigel introduced Irk The Purists. Apparently, it is about the 1320 Declaration Of Arbroath. I would never have guessed that. There was a shout for I Hate Nerys Hughes. “That’s one of ours,” replied Nigel. I spotted that Karl was wearing a Dry Retch t-shirt. Ta to Carl for the detail about his own t-shirt. “It was Be A Refugee by Van Der Graaf Generator from The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other.”
The line in Reflections In A Flat was turned round again. “Then there’s the time you slashed me / And I had to go hospital.” Nigel also needed help remembering the line about being gone forever. And he mentioned that I’m Getting Buried In The Morning is already in the list of “Death Row favourites”. Then came the third “What did God give us, Neil?” I stopped counting after that.
The guy standing next to me peered over my shoulder and said “I always wondered how you did the set lists.” Now he knows. Pen and notepad. There was a shout for “Anything from Godcore.” It doesn’t seem to be a big favourite among the fanbase, but I would always welcome the likes of Fear My Wraith and Sensitive Outsider. In Renfield’s Afoot, once again Nigel remarked that torches “but NOT police torches” were recommended. Later, I’m not sure what prompted this, but Nigel replied with “He’s fat / He’s round / He thinks he’s Ezra Pound.” Another observation was at Birch Services where the band had stopped on the way to the gig… “Sarah Lancashire was there. No it wasn’t her. It was Bob Latchford.”
At the end of 1966 And All That, Postman Tony shouted the usual “Stanley Mortensen!” Elsewhere there was a shout for “Lisa Riley!” and one for “Hattie Jacques!” Nigel was trying to process it all. “It’s just a series of names,” he said. “That’s how we started.”
Ahead of Ode To Joyce, Nigel asked “Is there anyone in from Market Drayton? This is about a lady from there. We buried her in 1988.” There was a bit of the Parfitt/Rossi routine from Nigel and Karl during the song. Both Nigel and Neil were struggling with the sound, both asking for monitors to be turned up.
We were introduced to Craig, the soundman, who had to make a couple of appearances on stage. “He’s like a Bez-type character. It’s like he’s joined the band.” And there was talk about Chester Zoo. “What do the elephants get for lunch? Half an hour, like everybody else.”
Pam Ferris was spotted in the crowd. “Did you get the Novichok? He won’t sort himself out.” And Nigel added “You don’t get this with Sufjan Stevens. He’s got the skeleton of Cyril Washbrook in his house.” Nigel commented about having a good pedal. He didn’t want to press it, so that he could hear himself. We were told that We Built This Village is a true story. On the line about moshing and jogging, Nigel pointed into the mosh pit, which was at full throttle.
Nigel played the opening chords of The Fall’s Fiery Jack. It fizzled out, and I shouted to keep going. Maybe another time. Then came Twenty-Four Hour Garage People. Plenty to go at here, and no doubt I’ve missed some bits. “Sour cream and onion,” said Nigel, “I know there’s no chives.” The spite for Nigel increases because the crisps are in the far corner of the shop. The keys for the door are under the guy’s Jim Davidson autobiography. He comes back with the crisps and chucks them into the metal bucket. It’s called a Mignolet after the mum of the Belgian goalkeeper of that name. She invented the device. Nigel then took off his guitar and started tying his shoelace. “I can’t concentrate with my shoelace undone,” he said.
The price of the crisps was a stern “£1.45” without the niceties. Of course, as usual, Nigel was amused rather than annoyed by this, because he’s got loads of other things to buy and all night to do so. And he’s got loads of mates behind him in the queue. “Could even be a pre-arranged thing.” None of them were wanting petrol. Lost Oliver was at the back. He should have been in the Top Trumps town character pack. “Menace and Violence, he would have been low scoring, but he would have scored 10 out of 10 for Quirkiness,” added Nigel. Lost Oliver is a misnomer because he actually knows where he is at any given time. His shopping list is a tin of Nitromors, a pre-buttered malt loaf and a street atlas of Peterhead.
The sandwich requirement is rich and varied, including Roasted Vegetable And Pesto Wraps.
Nigel refers to the employee as “Mate. Pal. Ace. Captain. Chief. Rabbi. Lionel. Blue.” The word search is slammed down on the counter. Wordle won’t arrive in his world for another ten years. “Girlfriend. Relationships. Inflatable. Kawasaki. Hayabusa. Not. In. Your. Fucking. Wildest. Dreams.” He has also been having a spat on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal Facebook Page. And Alexa is ignoring him, refusing to play Tygers Of Pan Tang. Meanwhile Nigel is urging Alexa to play some Andrew Gold.
The employee is now redder than his Shell v-neck jumper. There was a new version of the ending of the song. “He went to play golf on a Friday night… His body was found on the driving range and his head has never been found.”
A new one was then given an airing. “We literally played this in the dressing room. Join in with the chorus if it becomes evident.” The song being Awkward Sean.
There was a tiny bit of crowd surfing, but the chap seemed to pull back once he reached the barrier at the front. Nigel had intended to play his caravan guitar for the encore but it was well out of tune. “I’ll put it back,” he said. The dream sequence in Take The Skinheads Bowling involved Nigel eating a gigantic marshmallow, and then in the morning, his pillow was gone.
As always this was all good stuff, with many saying it was the best show since the band started playing again in Autumn 2021. There were even some new t-shirts on sale. Miles explained the motif, Molon Labe, to me. But Tony was prepared to commit to writing. “Before the Battle Of Thermopylae, Xerxes demanded the Spartans lay down their arms, to which Leonidas, King Of Sparta, replied Molon Labe – translating as Come And Get Them”.
Here’s how it went…
She’s In Broadstairs Irk The Purists Reflections In A Flat I’m Getting Buried In The Morning Restless Legs Renfield’s Afoot Shit Arm Bad Tattoo A Lilac Harry Quinn Running Order Squabble Fest 1966 And All That Harsh Times In Umberstone Covert Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Full Of Bad Wools Ode To Joyce Vatican Broadside All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit National Shite Day For What Is Chatteris Terminus We Built This Village On A Trad Arr Tune Twenty-Four Hour Garage People Awkward Sean The Trumpton Riots Every Time A Bell Rings Joy Division Oven Gloves
And in the encore… The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train Take The Skinheads Bowling Everything’s AOR
“Fred Titmus” was not written on the original list from Karl, so must have been a spontaneous addition. And Awkward Sean had arrows pointing from it, as though added in as an afterthought.
I had wondered if both Howie and Graham Le Taxi had missed this show, but both said Hello right at the very end. Also saw Mike, who was one of the last to leave the venue. Tony was delayed on his way out, going back to his schoolteacher days, having to break up a fight near the merch stall. And with that, the night was over, and we said our Goodbyes until the Nottingham gig in March. Some went to The Rutland, some went to The Howard. We went to The Land Of Nod.
But that wasn’t the end of the weekend. Saturday afternoon, after a fine lunch at Cavells, saw an appearance at Shakespeare’s by the excellent Half Mandolin Half Biscuit, in the persons of Ian, Katie, Ed (wearing a Burberry fez), Teg, Trevor and Will. At various points I had chats with Katie, Ed and Trevor, agreeing that the songs showed their strength by being able to stand up to a “folkie” treatment. There was a raffle where they ran out of tickets, so you had to make up your own HMHB-related year as your ticket number. All to a good cause. The Declaration Of Arbroath got us second place, meaning we came home with some Nightjar brewery product, Half Can Half Biscuit. Good to see Steve, Phil and Tim there, and we also met Nick who is/was one half of Half Man Half Bikekit. Tony (Birmingham City v Luton Town) and Andrew (Lincoln City v Wycombe Wanderers) were otherwise detained. We left for our train home, not realising that the band still had one more set to go. So thanks to Phil for completing the list by text. It would be good to see this lot more often, but we’ll make do with every time in Sheffield for now. After Ed’s opening line, “You’re all in the right place, aren’t you?”, it went like this…
Twenty-Seven Yards Of Dental Floss Irk The Purists 1966 And All That Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train Even Men With Steel Hearts Running Order Squabble Fest Lord Hereford’s Knob Uffington Wassail Fix It So She Dreams Of Me
The second set was
Gubba Lookalikes Knobheads On Quiz Shows L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres For What Is Chatteris Mod Diff V Diff Hard Severe Bad Review A Shropshire Lad (terrific performance from Ed here) Depressed Beyond Tablets Third Track Main Camera Four Minutes When I Look At My Baby (with a bit of 4AD3DCD added on) Look Dad No Tunes When The Evening Sun Goes Down Joy Division Oven Gloves
And the third set
Restless Legs Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes Vatican Broadside Keeping Two Chevrons Apart All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit With Goth On Our Side Bottleneck At Capel Curig RSVP Everything’s AOR What Made Colombia Famous
Nice to see them sticking a new one in there. Looking forward to seeing HMand.HB again soon. Ta again to Phil, our man on the spot, for filling in the gaps. Also to Andrew and Tony, for technical advice at The Leadmill. And, of course to Karen, for not smashing my laptop over my head at various points over the weekend while I was typing up these notes.
13 February 2022
kennyp
Cheers Gary, much appreciated. Can’t wait for Nottingham now. With the added bonus of Crapsons as the support.
13 February 2022
GORDON BURNS
3rd set. Oh no. Guess I left too soon. 😥
13 February 2022
Bad loser
@Exxo
I’m pretty sure the walk on music was a TV sports theme, specifically gold when the BBC still had some.
As Roger mentioned in his (as always) excellent report, I managed to record the show. Well most of it. For some reason my phone started playing silly buggers and missed JDOG but, in stages,7 unfortunately, managed to capture the rest of the show. It’s not perfect but should provide some welcome memories for those that were there and some consolation to those who couldn’t make it. I’ll post a link to a playlist for all parts when they’re uploaded.
13 February 2022
GORDON BURNS
Here’s one of the many songs performed by half Mandolin Half Biscuit, filmed by a friend of the players. https://youtu.be/jIgD2HYngY4
Fabulous work Roger, bringing back so much more of a glorious evening than could be recalled without your faithful biro work, and excellent to hear detail about how Saturday’s session went down, too.Your precise memories spark some vague ones of mine…
Great spot with the different ending to 24HGP, and since I read your words I listened to the Youtube clip and noticed it’s the whole bit starting “he went to play golf on a “Friday night (on the bus ….? Or a location?) …”
The Ezra Pound thing was a report to some shite shout of mine. There were too many so I don’t know which one.
The opening of ‘the Kids’ was played by Nigel to Neil, yet again, as it seems to have been at various times in the last two decades. Perhaps it serves some mysterious purpose of illustrating some subtle chord change or just helps Nigel with his tuning. Dunno but then I shouted something about that song [a bleak piece of Lou Reed misery] being “too positive”, cos I wanted an excuse to shout for ‘Soft Verges’ (which I have occasionally done down the last twenty years, as a pisstake of the whole shouting out requests thing rather than an actual request). Nigel’s retort to that one was in fact and uncharacteristic “nothing’s too positive these days.”
I liked the way the Mary Beard wheely bins jetwash question was followed by a comment about how good it feels when you finally get it done. For me it brought to mind something a pretentious ex of mine once said about colonic irrigation.
13 February 2022
EXXO
@Mick no it was the golf one. Think they’ve done ski Sunday and Horse of the Year before though.
13 February 2022
Phyllis Triggs
@Gordon Burns, thank you, this is wonderful! Looking forward to seeing more clips. Wish I’d been there.
Tremendous medley here from the Half Mandolin set, Click on the poster’s YT name (Automorph) below the video to find a selection of songs from t’ Leadmill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdUz9HuCtOY
14 February 2022
the master of the strat
I wasn’t able to get to the Leadmill gig, so I’m really appreciating the YouTube uploads. Thanks, folks.
Thanks also to everyone who came to the session and joined voice, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
I have to say, Ed / The Bastard in the Hat really pulled the stops out in the session. Yes: “A Shropshire Lad”! I didn’t know concertinas could do that and I dare say there’s a lot of concertina players who don’t know it. Astonishingly close to the original.
On the other hand, “Mod Diff…” was proof that there’s more than one way to cut a diamond.
And, missing from the set list, Ecclesiastical Perks had some plain alarming moments.
Great selections, great versions. Hope the bike crash wounds heal well, you’re a trouper.
Until next time, amigos – Will
14 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
Thanks for everyone who posted vid links to the Saturday session, and really sad I missed it – hopefully catch up with you at the next one Will!
14 February 2022
incapability brown (teg)
Thanks to everybody who came to the Half Mandolin Half Biscuit session, to Ed for masterminding it, and to Roger (and Phil) for the great review and set lists (although the ‘third set’ was more us jamming a few songs we hadn’t quite practiced enough to put into the actual set list because, well, we were on a roll by then…. but shhh, I didn’t tell you that).
We all had a great time, and it was lovely to spend a happy afternoon singing HMHB songs with fellow enthusiasts in a fine Sheffield pub. Very cheerful. I even won the raffle, which almost never happens (it definitely wasn’t a fix, and I shared my winnings).
In case anybody hasn’t seen them yet, we’ve put a few clips up on YouTube (they’re on my Sheffield Songwalks account, which is a different project altogether, but seemed the easiest place to put them). Thanks to Alison for the recordings.
Hope to see you all at another HMHB gig sometime soon!
Cheers, Teg
14 February 2022
Hendrix-tattoo
I must admit, I really missed the King of Hi-Vis not being in attendance on Friday. The gig didn’t seem the same without him. Get well soon John and Elizabeth…
14 February 2022
EXXO
Of course the other King John died in Notts so let’s not wish our own KIng John too hasty a return. Beware the ides of peaches.
14 February 2022
dr Desperate
Indeed he did, at Newark Castle, on the walls of which I recently stood (in my steampunk capacity) with no untoward effects. I believe the rumours that he put peaches on his cornflakes were unfounded. Thanks to all for the recovery wishes, echoed last night by Marc Riley on R6M when I requested a consolatory TVY track. He promised to play one later in the week, seeming most tickled by the title of ‘Tess of the Dormobiles’.
15 February 2022
floreat ultonia
“We all had a great time, and it was lovely to spend a happy afternoon singing HMHB songs with fellow enthusiasts in a fine Sheffield pub”
Magnificent effort by your band, and thanks for the clips 😉
15 February 2022
MR PETER GORDON
Thanks for putting the clips of the Half Mandolin Half Biscuit gig on the site ( well a link to you tube ) . It looked , and sounded , like a good way to spend an afternoon .
Whoever the landlord is, may they be condemned to the same circle of hell as the ones who turned legendary Leeds gig pub the Duchess of York into a posh clothes boutique…
31 March 2022
EXXO
Occupy. Organise. Kick the ****** out.
31 March 2022
Woodnoggin
Sheffield can’t afford to lose the Leadmill. It’s bad enough for gigs in the city as it is, with most touring bands choosing Leeds or Manchester instead. I’m hoping there’s some behind-the-scenes wrangling going on to broker a deal and this announcement will drum up support for the cause.
31 March 2022
Roger as is roger as was
According to a note on the Sheffield Star website this morning… “Electric Group, which owns the freehold to the building on Leadmill Road, insists the venue is not closing and has announced plans for a substantial investment.”
1 April 2022
EXXO
And breathe. You’d expect Electric Group to run it directly after the refurb, and run it with maximum profit in mind of course, but not too much to worry about for fans of bands who can get somewhere near selling out a 900-capacity venue, judging by their current business model. They deal with The Gig Cartel at their other venues, and indeed HMHB are on next January at their original venue (Electric Ballroom Brixton, which they took over from one of my favourite venues -The Fridge).
The Electric Group’s CEO James Madden runs it in partnership with a musical member of the Lewis family, who made their money from River Island and Chelsea Girl stores.
1 April 2022
EXXO
Dominic Madden, not James.
1 April 2022
EXXO
Forget that about Brixton too. They’re playing the differently-owned Electric Ballroom in Camden, of course they are.
1 April 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
That does sound more positive about it remaining as a live venue, though age and experience will have me reserving judgement for now.
1 April 2022
THE BASTARD IN THE HAT
I’ve just been watching the videos of this gig on Youtube (thanks as ever, andybluefox). In between Craig the sound tech and Chester zoo, there is some incoherent heckling: it’s roughly 17:55 in part 3 (https://youtu.be/-tIN-GBxMmA?t=1074). Nigel responds: “That sounds like a Zulu chant”. Then, again, around 18:15: “Ooh-shoo-zoo, that’s what they chant”. I think he could be getting his Zulu information from Vivan Stanshall (https://youtu.be/DXdNUJBid5s?t=1533) — unless Viv based his “Sir Henry” on fact, which I cannot accept.
THE BASTARD IN THE HAT
Before you read these, a reminder about the Half Mandolin Half Biscuit session tomorrow (Saturday 12th Feb, start 1pm-ish, upstairs at Shakespeare’s). There is no set list, but I thought we might have been able to cover a track from every LP. This turns out not to be true (unless we have unexpected contributors, who would be welcome). I’ll leave it to you to work out which LP is uncovered. Please bring some cash for the collection/raffle.
11 February 2022
99%
One of the best of the 30 HMHB gigs I have seen. Brilliant set
11 February 2022
Richard holmeS
I’ve seen them around about 35 times and that was definitely top 5. Lots of crowd pleasers but the classics always work well live. Probably the best 24 Hour Garage People ever?
12 February 2022
twistedkitemike
Agreed, awesome set-list. Wonderful to see/hear 24 Hour Garage People out again.
Mike…………
12 February 2022
twistedkitemike
Here is the set-list in case you are interested: –
Broadstairs
Irk
Reflections
Buried Morning
Restless
Bat Walk
Shit Arm
Lilac HQ
Squabble
1966
Geraldine
Fred T
Bad Wools
Joyce
Vatican
DPAK
NSD
Chatteris
Terminus
Trad Arr
24 Hour
Awkward Sean
Trumpton
Bell Rings
JDOG
…………………………..
Light Tunnel
Take the Skinheads Bowling
AOR
I’m sure that Roger has caught the text from 24 Hour (Lost Oliver returned), or the congregation will piece it together.
Mike…………………
12 February 2022
dic aberdaron
awkward sean
awkward sean
rooftop sean
12 February 2022
Hendrix-tattoo
The best gig so far for me out of the five. 24 Hour Garage People and Take the Skinheads Bowling was worth the ticket price alone. Nice to hear a new song played also…
12 February 2022
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
How many points for getting 24HGP in FBL? Pained at not being there to see it – I’ve never seen it live. Still, 30 points for guessing Camper Van Beethoven though.
12 February 2022
Kendo Nagasaki
Brilliant gig. Absolutely amazing atmosphere. I truly believe we are edging closer to him being berated jnto learning a song off godcore. We can but hope. I’ll leave the proper reviews to those with notepads, rest assured I can’t wait for the next one
12 February 2022
Kendo Nagasaki
As others have said. A fantastic, if somewhat circuitous 24hgp coupled with by far the most accurate rendition of NSD I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing
12 February 2022
EXXO
I make it 34 points for 24HGPKeith. Massive hat-tip and congrat’s on the spectacular double woth the 30 point cover song. I’ve seen you choose Camper Van before and thought “not a chance,” so what do I know? First glance at the entries suggests it’s a close-run thing between thee and me for this week’s top spot. Surprised I was the only one gambling on the 40 points for ‘Awkward Sean.’ But ahaem FBL talk belongs in the quiz thread of course …
Yes the first 24HGP for over 5 years, its first outing of the Benson era, before which it often served to give the rest of the band a bit of a rest. A truly epic version, with the most sandwiches ever, including a roast vegetables and pesto wrap and an upcoming request for a street atlas of Peterhead. Nigel told us that Lost Oliver (behind him in the queue and bursting with outlandish requests) should have featured in Town Characters Top Trumps. He would score low on violence and vitriol but high on quirkiness, or words to that effect. And contrary to his name, he always knows exactly where he is.
12 February 2022
EXXO
Anyone who wasn’t there want to guess the price of the Sour Cream & Chives Pringles (which NB acknowledged didn’t exist – the chives were just part of his taunting of the wordsearch loser).
12 February 2022
I’m the talentless nigel
Amazing set. 24 hour garage people was amazing. Not seen them since that rather blustery night in Northampton. I was worried that the enforced break might have had a negative effect but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yet again they have made an old man very happy (minus the nearly destroyed voice and the aching feet)
12 February 2022
EXXO
A superb and long-awaited version of ‘Bad Wools’ had the hapless singer’s band’s favourite teams as England ,Wimbledon, St Pauli, Chelsea and Accy Stanley.
NB is previously on record as being very contrarian about the AFCW/ MK Dons stuff (said he would gladly go at the time most away fans were still serious about a boycott) and about St Pauli, favouring HSV cos he reckons people jump on the FCSP bandwagon just to be trendy. He’s very wrong on that last one, but at least he’s his own man eh.
Towards the end of a brilliant ‘1966 and All that’ a Honved home #10 shirt was held up in the crowd in honour of baby, Ferenc Puskas to you … well actually no it was probably just to taunt Ferencvaros Fan, all the more so when a Honved away shirt was then hurled onto the mic stand, where it remained for the rest of the gig with the badge in exactly the right position.
12 February 2022
EXXO
“What do they give the elephants for lunch at the zoo?”
12 February 2022
EXXO
It was noteworthy also that they were determined to avoid the predictability of the ‘Hedge Cut’ chanting before the encore, which has become a fixture, and could almost be mistaken for them responding to popular demand when they then play the song as planned anyway, by dropping the song in earlier.
12 February 2022
Wendell Spanswick
@EXXO half an hour, same as everyone else. What a great gig!
12 February 2022
EXXO
But of all those highlights, the greatest highlight for me was the crowd, with Sheffield’s youth policy well to the fore and a critical mass achieved early in the gig. People were even bouncing during the slow numbers. “Are you watching, Manchester?”
12 February 2022
BOBBY SVARC
Custard?
12 February 2022
kennyp
Gutted to have missed this (had a ticket but a late Covid positive screwed things up). Please please please tell me there’s a video of last night’s 24HGP on YouTube. And also 1966. Ta.
12 February 2022
woodnoggin
“You don’t get that at Sufjan Stevens.”
I didn’t realise they so rarely play 24HGP. Looks like I got lucky hearing it at my first HMHB gig. They were pretty good, I’d go again.
12 February 2022
transit full of keith
Sadly Exxo I didn’t get the double, I didn’t select 24HGP. My Camper Van selection was due to its previous outing in Worthing being my joint top favourite Biscuit cover alongside the thousand-yard stare rendition of ‘Bike’ last time they were in Cambridge.
Wish I had been at this one. Not sure when I’m going to next be at a gig, but the chance of tagging on some climbing makes Cardiff (then on to Pembroke) or Leeds (with a day at Almscliff) look quite tasty.
12 February 2022
EXXO
Yeah no sorry, I should either look properly at everyone’s answers or hold the front page. Lux Infererior also gets 40 points for Awkward Sean and may (without having really totted up yet) be near the top of this particular tabe leg, behind the Doc & myself.
12 February 2022
Kendo Nagasaki
The actual best bit was in the middle of Vatican broadside, the first time nige said “who the fuckin’ hell are slipknot” the sound man pissed himself. Awesome moment
12 February 2022
knockedonthebonce
where was it he said Joyce was from?
12 February 2022
Ferencváros fan
Think Joyce was from Market Drayton.
12 February 2022
knockedonthebonce
@FERENCVÁROS FAN thanks, for some reason I thought it was Deeping, must have been the 11% stout in the Rutland.
was a great gig though, just getting better.
12 February 2022
Ferencvaros fan
Hey Knockedonthebonce despite keeping a low profile at the gig for various reasons I’d been on the lash all day so not saying I’m right, it’s just what I think I heard. I expect Roger will sort it out.
12 February 2022
Gary Evans
@KENNYP here you go – https://youtu.be/nJpCpS1Hhpk
12 February 2022
FerencvÁros fan
Great moment before Irk the Purists. Shout out for Nerys Hughes. NB pauses before saying ‘it’s one of ours, that.’ I know it’s been done a lot before, but the timing, delivery, and note of surprise in his voice are priceless.
12 February 2022
Bad loser
Looking forward to Roger’s report when it comes to all the variations in 24HGP. Somebody has already filled in the gaps relating to the change of teams in Bad Wools. Noticeably the invitees to Soccer AM have shown their fickleness by no longer claiming to enjoy watching Barca as they are reduced to scrapping to make the Top 4. I just wish that song mentioned Tim Lovejoy in appropriately sneering tones.
I can’t remember who Nigel pretended was in the crowd to follow Ian Woosnam in Manchester. He did say that at the services they’d spotted Sarah Lancashire before saying that in fact it was Bob Latchford: presumably during his 1970s facial shrubbery stage.
12 February 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Thanks Gary for the 24hgp video above. Brilliant.
12 February 2022
dr Desperate
Our mate Tim has promised more videos from the night (including ‘Sean’ and ‘Skinheads’) and from Half Mandolin Half Biscuit on the Saturday – look out for his Automorph page on YouTube.
13 February 2022
CARRIE aNNE
Roger’s review from Gez’s website
LEADMILL, SHEFFIELD – FRIDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2022
Roger Green:
Used to come here quite a lot when it was the Socialist Republic Of South Yorkshire. That was the mid 1980s. My mate Mark and I caught The Fall, The Housemartins, The Men They Couldn’t Hang and much, much more. The much, much more included my first two HMHB gigs. That first one, when they walked on stage, took up their instruments and played Busy Little Market Town… Life-changing? Yes, I reckon so. Mark is much better than me at record-keeping. I must get details of the ”much, much more” off him.
We saw an advert for The Great Songwriters on Sky Arts. Not sure when Blackwell/Crossley et al are due to appear, but we’ll be looking out for them. In the same break, there was an ad for Carex hand sanitiser. The jingle was to the tune of He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands. Just like Paintball’s Coming Home. But not a patch, of course.
A teaser for The Voltarol Years came to light when Rogation Sunday’s Here Again! was released into the public domain. A warning to us all about those posters you see round and about concerning missing pets. Gideon Coe played that song on his 6 Music show, along with Awkward Sean in the week running up to this gig. So the CD was clearly out there somewhere. Marc Riley’s chats with Gideon at the end of the former’s shows seemed tinged with jealousy. Marc’s copy of the CD was still in transit. “They don’t exactly bend over backwards to do publicity,” Marc noted. Nigel subsequently dropped him an email to say that he was nipping round to Home Bargains for a jiffy bag and would be sending Marc another copy, as it looked like it was lost in the post.
Bit of a downer when we heard that Daz would not be at this show, but hoped that he would be back in action in Nottingham for the next one. Likewise, John and Elizabeth, testing positive for the virus. Doing the right thing checking though, and they showed boundless generosity in giving their tickets away. Get negative soon.
Gig day saw us on the bus to Wakefield. It’s the time of year for council budgets to be spent up, so there were plenty of roadworks going on and pot-holes being filled in. In Wakefield we lunched at the excellent Smokehouse. The Fully Loaded Fries are a favourite dish there. Recommended, if you are ever in town.
From there we moved on to Sheffield. The paper review didn’t turn much up. Not a peep in Metro or Yorkshire Post, which devoted space to reviews of new work from Alt-J and Sea Power. The Voltarol Years clearly hadn’t reached them yet. Another trip to Home Bargains coming up for Nigel? There was also silence in the Sheffield Telegraph and the Sheffield Star, making it a clean sweep. No publicity at all for the gig.
Doors opened at 7.30. As oft before, we were queuing well beforehand. Sorry I didn’t get the name of the couple who had beaten us there. He had done a lot of work with Sham 69 and showed me some live footage of them doing Borstal Breakout. Now there is a HMHB cover waiting to be done. Also joining us in the queue were Brian, Tony and Andrew. And there was Phil, with yet another admirable trek from the south coast. Carl and Neil came out of the venue, heading for the local curry house. Having spoken with them, we were left to watch the security guys as they put out barriers for containing the hordes heading to this gig and the club night taking place afterwards.
Once inside, we saw Graham and Sarah, and Postman Tony. There wasn’t long to wait before the support act started. Just one bloke on his own, with bass guitar and drum machine. This was Danny Lowe, previously the bass player with Babybird and now seems to be trading as Heads Off. That was all good stuff. “Quirky and enjoyable” was Karen’s considered opinion. We agreed that we wouldn’t have a problem seeing him again. I didn’t get a set list, so don’t know the proper titles, but I would hazard a guess at this.
Psychopath
Propaganda Machine
Reptiles Around You
Celebrity Bores
Pussycat
None Of The Above
No Fucks Given
Chicken Eyes
“I wrote this in lockdown about my dislike of celebrities,” he said of Celebrity Bores. Before Pussycat, Danny said that prostitutes and cats are the two most popular things on the internet. I couldn’t possibly comment. Postman Tony reckoned that that song must be about Kurt Zouma, the West Ham footballer who had been in bother the week before after an incident involving his cat.
A few more folk showed up in the interval. Katherine and Karl with news from my locality, and Nigel and Jo from Goole. On the way to the gig, Jo reported they had heard Steve Lamacq play Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess. He had also promised to play some tracks from The Voltarol Years over the following week. And big thanks to Nigel/Exford for the donation of the Westmead Kennels And Cattery pen. It has been added to reviewing stock. Not used on this occasion – I already had a Betfred number in situ. I noticed Andy was a few places along at the front barrier, filming the evening’s events. Looking forward to seeing the results.
I also exchanged nods with George in his Barnstoneworth shirt. And good to see Lee back at these shows, complete with the Torquay / Dennis Bell shirt. Postman Tony told us that he is now the proud owner of a Premier Inn bed. It had been left on the balcony of his new flat for months before he got round to assembling it.
I didn’t quite recognise the HMHB walk-on music. It sounded a bit footbally, but I couldn’t quite place it. Nigel pointed out someone and asked “Need a hand with your packing?” He also spotted Mary Beard, and there was the first shout of “What did God give us, Neil?” – not necessarily from Mary. Nigel asked her if she had managed to get her wheelie bin jet-cleaned. The first song was She’s In Broadstairs. Straight after that came the second “What did God give us, Neil?”
Nigel introduced Irk The Purists. Apparently, it is about the 1320 Declaration Of Arbroath. I would never have guessed that. There was a shout for I Hate Nerys Hughes. “That’s one of ours,” replied Nigel. I spotted that Karl was wearing a Dry Retch t-shirt. Ta to Carl for the detail about his own t-shirt. “It was Be A Refugee by Van Der Graaf Generator from The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other.”
The line in Reflections In A Flat was turned round again. “Then there’s the time you slashed me / And I had to go hospital.” Nigel also needed help remembering the line about being gone forever. And he mentioned that I’m Getting Buried In The Morning is already in the list of “Death Row favourites”. Then came the third “What did God give us, Neil?” I stopped counting after that.
The guy standing next to me peered over my shoulder and said “I always wondered how you did the set lists.” Now he knows. Pen and notepad. There was a shout for “Anything from Godcore.” It doesn’t seem to be a big favourite among the fanbase, but I would always welcome the likes of Fear My Wraith and Sensitive Outsider. In Renfield’s Afoot, once again Nigel remarked that torches “but NOT police torches” were recommended. Later, I’m not sure what prompted this, but Nigel replied with “He’s fat / He’s round / He thinks he’s Ezra Pound.” Another observation was at Birch Services where the band had stopped on the way to the gig… “Sarah Lancashire was there. No it wasn’t her. It was Bob Latchford.”
At the end of 1966 And All That, Postman Tony shouted the usual “Stanley Mortensen!” Elsewhere there was a shout for “Lisa Riley!” and one for “Hattie Jacques!” Nigel was trying to process it all. “It’s just a series of names,” he said. “That’s how we started.”
Ahead of Ode To Joyce, Nigel asked “Is there anyone in from Market Drayton? This is about a lady from there. We buried her in 1988.” There was a bit of the Parfitt/Rossi routine from Nigel and Karl during the song. Both Nigel and Neil were struggling with the sound, both asking for monitors to be turned up.
We were introduced to Craig, the soundman, who had to make a couple of appearances on stage. “He’s like a Bez-type character. It’s like he’s joined the band.” And there was talk about Chester Zoo. “What do the elephants get for lunch? Half an hour, like everybody else.”
Pam Ferris was spotted in the crowd. “Did you get the Novichok? He won’t sort himself out.” And Nigel added “You don’t get this with Sufjan Stevens. He’s got the skeleton of Cyril Washbrook in his house.” Nigel commented about having a good pedal. He didn’t want to press it, so that he could hear himself. We were told that We Built This Village is a true story. On the line about moshing and jogging, Nigel pointed into the mosh pit, which was at full throttle.
Nigel played the opening chords of The Fall’s Fiery Jack. It fizzled out, and I shouted to keep going. Maybe another time. Then came Twenty-Four Hour Garage People. Plenty to go at here, and no doubt I’ve missed some bits. “Sour cream and onion,” said Nigel, “I know there’s no chives.” The spite for Nigel increases because the crisps are in the far corner of the shop. The keys for the door are under the guy’s Jim Davidson autobiography. He comes back with the crisps and chucks them into the metal bucket. It’s called a Mignolet after the mum of the Belgian goalkeeper of that name. She invented the device. Nigel then took off his guitar and started tying his shoelace. “I can’t concentrate with my shoelace undone,” he said.
The price of the crisps was a stern “£1.45” without the niceties. Of course, as usual, Nigel was amused rather than annoyed by this, because he’s got loads of other things to buy and all night to do so. And he’s got loads of mates behind him in the queue. “Could even be a pre-arranged thing.” None of them were wanting petrol. Lost Oliver was at the back. He should have been in the Top Trumps town character pack. “Menace and Violence, he would have been low scoring, but he would have scored 10 out of 10 for Quirkiness,” added Nigel. Lost Oliver is a misnomer because he actually knows where he is at any given time. His shopping list is a tin of Nitromors, a pre-buttered malt loaf and a street atlas of Peterhead.
The sandwich requirement is rich and varied, including Roasted Vegetable And Pesto Wraps.
Nigel refers to the employee as “Mate. Pal. Ace. Captain. Chief. Rabbi. Lionel. Blue.” The word search is slammed down on the counter. Wordle won’t arrive in his world for another ten years. “Girlfriend. Relationships. Inflatable. Kawasaki. Hayabusa. Not. In. Your. Fucking. Wildest. Dreams.” He has also been having a spat on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal Facebook Page. And Alexa is ignoring him, refusing to play Tygers Of Pan Tang. Meanwhile Nigel is urging Alexa to play some Andrew Gold.
The employee is now redder than his Shell v-neck jumper. There was a new version of the ending of the song. “He went to play golf on a Friday night… His body was found on the driving range and his head has never been found.”
A new one was then given an airing. “We literally played this in the dressing room. Join in with the chorus if it becomes evident.” The song being Awkward Sean.
There was a tiny bit of crowd surfing, but the chap seemed to pull back once he reached the barrier at the front. Nigel had intended to play his caravan guitar for the encore but it was well out of tune. “I’ll put it back,” he said. The dream sequence in Take The Skinheads Bowling involved Nigel eating a gigantic marshmallow, and then in the morning, his pillow was gone.
As always this was all good stuff, with many saying it was the best show since the band started playing again in Autumn 2021. There were even some new t-shirts on sale. Miles explained the motif, Molon Labe, to me. But Tony was prepared to commit to writing. “Before the Battle Of Thermopylae, Xerxes demanded the Spartans lay down their arms, to which Leonidas, King Of Sparta, replied Molon Labe – translating as Come And Get Them”.
Here’s how it went…
She’s In Broadstairs
Irk The Purists
Reflections In A Flat
I’m Getting Buried In The Morning
Restless Legs
Renfield’s Afoot
Shit Arm Bad Tattoo
A Lilac Harry Quinn
Running Order Squabble Fest
1966 And All That
Harsh Times In Umberstone Covert
Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus
Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Full Of Bad Wools
Ode To Joyce
Vatican Broadside
All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit
National Shite Day
For What Is Chatteris
Terminus
We Built This Village On A Trad Arr Tune
Twenty-Four Hour Garage People
Awkward Sean
The Trumpton Riots
Every Time A Bell Rings
Joy Division Oven Gloves
And in the encore…
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train
Take The Skinheads Bowling
Everything’s AOR
“Fred Titmus” was not written on the original list from Karl, so must have been a spontaneous addition. And Awkward Sean had arrows pointing from it, as though added in as an afterthought.
I had wondered if both Howie and Graham Le Taxi had missed this show, but both said Hello right at the very end. Also saw Mike, who was one of the last to leave the venue. Tony was delayed on his way out, going back to his schoolteacher days, having to break up a fight near the merch stall. And with that, the night was over, and we said our Goodbyes until the Nottingham gig in March. Some went to The Rutland, some went to The Howard. We went to The Land Of Nod.
But that wasn’t the end of the weekend. Saturday afternoon, after a fine lunch at Cavells, saw an appearance at Shakespeare’s by the excellent Half Mandolin Half Biscuit, in the persons of Ian, Katie, Ed (wearing a Burberry fez), Teg, Trevor and Will. At various points I had chats with Katie, Ed and Trevor, agreeing that the songs showed their strength by being able to stand up to a “folkie” treatment. There was a raffle where they ran out of tickets, so you had to make up your own HMHB-related year as your ticket number. All to a good cause. The Declaration Of Arbroath got us second place, meaning we came home with some Nightjar brewery product, Half Can Half Biscuit. Good to see Steve, Phil and Tim there, and we also met Nick who is/was one half of Half Man Half Bikekit. Tony (Birmingham City v Luton Town) and Andrew (Lincoln City v Wycombe Wanderers) were otherwise detained. We left for our train home, not realising that the band still had one more set to go. So thanks to Phil for completing the list by text. It would be good to see this lot more often, but we’ll make do with every time in Sheffield for now. After Ed’s opening line, “You’re all in the right place, aren’t you?”, it went like this…
Twenty-Seven Yards Of Dental Floss
Irk The Purists
1966 And All That
Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train
Even Men With Steel Hearts
Running Order Squabble Fest
Lord Hereford’s Knob
Uffington Wassail
Fix It So She Dreams Of Me
The second set was
Gubba Lookalikes
Knobheads On Quiz Shows
L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres
For What Is Chatteris
Mod Diff V Diff Hard Severe
Bad Review
A Shropshire Lad (terrific performance from Ed here)
Depressed Beyond Tablets
Third Track Main Camera Four Minutes
When I Look At My Baby (with a bit of 4AD3DCD added on)
Look Dad No Tunes
When The Evening Sun Goes Down
Joy Division Oven Gloves
And the third set
Restless Legs
Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes
Vatican Broadside
Keeping Two Chevrons Apart
All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit
With Goth On Our Side
Bottleneck At Capel Curig
RSVP
Everything’s AOR
What Made Colombia Famous
Nice to see them sticking a new one in there. Looking forward to seeing HMand.HB again soon. Ta again to Phil, our man on the spot, for filling in the gaps. Also to Andrew and Tony, for technical advice at The Leadmill. And, of course to Karen, for not smashing my laptop over my head at various points over the weekend while I was typing up these notes.
13 February 2022
kennyp
Cheers Gary, much appreciated. Can’t wait for Nottingham now. With the added bonus of Crapsons as the support.
13 February 2022
GORDON BURNS
3rd set. Oh no. Guess I left too soon. 😥
13 February 2022
Bad loser
@Exxo
I’m pretty sure the walk on music was a TV sports theme, specifically gold when the BBC still had some.
13 February 2022
dr Desperate
Video of TTSB here, courtesy of Phil from Portsmouth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZPKBc3cjDk
13 February 2022
INJURED BUZZARD
As Roger mentioned in his (as always) excellent report, I managed to record the show. Well most of it. For some reason my phone started playing silly buggers and missed JDOG but, in stages,7 unfortunately, managed to capture the rest of the show. It’s not perfect but should provide some welcome memories for those that were there and some consolation to those who couldn’t make it. I’ll post a link to a playlist for all parts when they’re uploaded.
13 February 2022
GORDON BURNS
Here’s one of the many songs performed by half Mandolin Half Biscuit, filmed by a friend of the players.
https://youtu.be/jIgD2HYngY4
13 February 2022
BOBBY SVARC
Was this it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=526OsPdSlxk
13 February 2022
EXXO
Fabulous work Roger, bringing back so much more of a glorious evening than could be recalled without your faithful biro work, and excellent to hear detail about how Saturday’s session went down, too.Your precise memories spark some vague ones of mine…
Great spot with the different ending to 24HGP, and since I read your words I listened to the Youtube clip and noticed it’s the whole bit starting “he went to play golf on a “Friday night (on the bus ….? Or a location?) …”
The Ezra Pound thing was a report to some shite shout of mine. There were too many so I don’t know which one.
The opening of ‘the Kids’ was played by Nigel to Neil, yet again, as it seems to have been at various times in the last two decades. Perhaps it serves some mysterious purpose of illustrating some subtle chord change or just helps Nigel with his tuning. Dunno but then I shouted something about that song [a bleak piece of Lou Reed misery] being “too positive”, cos I wanted an excuse to shout for ‘Soft Verges’ (which I have occasionally done down the last twenty years, as a pisstake of the whole shouting out requests thing rather than an actual request). Nigel’s retort to that one was in fact and uncharacteristic “nothing’s too positive these days.”
I liked the way the Mary Beard wheely bins jetwash question was followed by a comment about how good it feels when you finally get it done. For me it brought to mind something a pretentious ex of mine once said about colonic irrigation.
13 February 2022
EXXO
@Mick no it was the golf one. Think they’ve done ski Sunday and Horse of the Year before though.
13 February 2022
Phyllis Triggs
@Gordon Burns, thank you, this is wonderful! Looking forward to seeing more clips. Wish I’d been there.
13 February 2022
INJURED Buzzard
Hope I’ve got this correct, this should be the whole gig https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnTJcFmq-6aev0xKEn7Hze-CvH9_al4VI
13 February 2022
dr Desperate
Tremendous medley here from the Half Mandolin set, Click on the poster’s YT name (Automorph) below the video to find a selection of songs from t’ Leadmill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdUz9HuCtOY
14 February 2022
the master of the strat
I wasn’t able to get to the Leadmill gig, so I’m really appreciating the YouTube uploads. Thanks, folks.
Thanks also to everyone who came to the session and joined voice, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
I have to say, Ed / The Bastard in the Hat really pulled the stops out in the session. Yes: “A Shropshire Lad”! I didn’t know concertinas could do that and I dare say there’s a lot of concertina players who don’t know it. Astonishingly close to the original.
On the other hand, “Mod Diff…” was proof that there’s more than one way to cut a diamond.
And, missing from the set list, Ecclesiastical Perks had some plain alarming moments.
Great selections, great versions. Hope the bike crash wounds heal well, you’re a trouper.
Until next time, amigos – Will
14 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
Thanks for everyone who posted vid links to the Saturday session, and really sad I missed it – hopefully catch up with you at the next one Will!
14 February 2022
incapability brown (teg)
Thanks to everybody who came to the Half Mandolin Half Biscuit session, to Ed for masterminding it, and to Roger (and Phil) for the great review and set lists (although the ‘third set’ was more us jamming a few songs we hadn’t quite practiced enough to put into the actual set list because, well, we were on a roll by then…. but shhh, I didn’t tell you that).
We all had a great time, and it was lovely to spend a happy afternoon singing HMHB songs with fellow enthusiasts in a fine Sheffield pub. Very cheerful. I even won the raffle, which almost never happens (it definitely wasn’t a fix, and I shared my winnings).
In case anybody hasn’t seen them yet, we’ve put a few clips up on YouTube (they’re on my Sheffield Songwalks account, which is a different project altogether, but seemed the easiest place to put them). Thanks to Alison for the recordings.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxno9f_XNX2toTuflFCtLLSy7yFnXDvnB
Hope to see you all at another HMHB gig sometime soon!
Cheers, Teg
14 February 2022
Hendrix-tattoo
I must admit, I really missed the King of Hi-Vis not being in attendance on Friday.
The gig didn’t seem the same without him. Get well soon John and Elizabeth…
14 February 2022
EXXO
Of course the other King John died in Notts so let’s not wish our own KIng John too hasty a return. Beware the ides of peaches.
14 February 2022
dr Desperate
Indeed he did, at Newark Castle, on the walls of which I recently stood (in my steampunk capacity) with no untoward effects. I believe the rumours that he put peaches on his cornflakes were unfounded.
Thanks to all for the recovery wishes, echoed last night by Marc Riley on R6M when I requested a consolatory TVY track. He promised to play one later in the week, seeming most tickled by the title of ‘Tess of the Dormobiles’.
15 February 2022
floreat ultonia
“We all had a great time, and it was lovely to spend a happy afternoon singing HMHB songs with fellow enthusiasts in a fine Sheffield pub”
Magnificent effort by your band, and thanks for the clips 😉
15 February 2022
MR PETER GORDON
Thanks for putting the clips of the Half Mandolin Half Biscuit gig on the site ( well a link to you tube ) . It looked , and sounded , like a good way to spend an afternoon .
15 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
Some grim reading on the BBC – the February gig may have been their last one at the Leadmill!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-60946394
Whoever the landlord is, may they be condemned to the same circle of hell as the ones who turned legendary Leeds gig pub the Duchess of York into a posh clothes boutique…
31 March 2022
EXXO
Occupy. Organise. Kick the ****** out.
31 March 2022
Woodnoggin
Sheffield can’t afford to lose the Leadmill. It’s bad enough for gigs in the city as it is, with most touring bands choosing Leeds or Manchester instead. I’m hoping there’s some behind-the-scenes wrangling going on to broker a deal and this announcement will drum up support for the cause.
31 March 2022
Roger as is roger as was
According to a note on the Sheffield Star website this morning… “Electric Group, which owns the freehold to the building on Leadmill Road, insists the venue is not closing and has announced plans for a substantial investment.”
1 April 2022
EXXO
And breathe. You’d expect Electric Group to run it directly after the refurb, and run it with maximum profit in mind of course, but not too much to worry about for fans of bands who can get somewhere near selling out a 900-capacity venue, judging by their current business model. They deal with The Gig Cartel at their other venues, and indeed HMHB are on next January at their original venue (Electric Ballroom Brixton, which they took over from one of my favourite venues -The Fridge).
The Electric Group’s CEO James Madden runs it in partnership with a musical member of the Lewis family, who made their money from River Island and Chelsea Girl stores.
1 April 2022
EXXO
Dominic Madden, not James.
1 April 2022
EXXO
Forget that about Brixton too. They’re playing the differently-owned Electric Ballroom in Camden, of course they are.
1 April 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
That does sound more positive about it remaining as a live venue, though age and experience will have me reserving judgement for now.
1 April 2022
THE BASTARD IN THE HAT
I’ve just been watching the videos of this gig on Youtube (thanks as ever, andybluefox). In between Craig the sound tech and Chester zoo, there is some incoherent heckling: it’s roughly 17:55 in part 3 (https://youtu.be/-tIN-GBxMmA?t=1074). Nigel responds: “That sounds like a Zulu chant”. Then, again, around 18:15: “Ooh-shoo-zoo, that’s what they chant”. I think he could be getting his Zulu information from Vivan Stanshall (https://youtu.be/DXdNUJBid5s?t=1533) — unless Viv based his “Sir Henry” on fact, which I cannot accept.
5 April 2022