Music / Half Man Half Biscuit

Andy Kershaw: Can you make a living being Half Man Half Biscuit?
Nigel Blackwell: Just about. But then again I'm not that materialistic, I can't drive, so I haven't got a car. I've never been on a plane so I don't go on foreign holidays, so as long as I've got enough money for a season ticket every season [for Tranmere Rovers] that's good enough for me really"

Half Man Half Biscuit are an indie rock/folk band, with a big smattering of parody thrown in, from Birkenhead near Liverpool. Active since 1985, they have released 14 albums, two compilation albums and a number of singles / EPs. Their sound is a bit hard to describe, but is frequently a mix of Post-Punk, folk, and Jangle Pop; they are cited as being a band in the "C86" movement, coined after a cassette tape released by NME which they were featured on.

The band split up in 1986, citing "musical similarities", and reformed in 1990. After some Early-Installment Weirdness, since 1996 the members of the band have been Nigel Blackwell, Neil Crossley, Carl Henry and Karl Benson.

They have a pretty large cult following, but saying which of their songs is most famous is difficult, although the only one to chart is "Joy Division Oven Gloves", which reached #56 after a Facebook campaign. They even managed to get a Shout-Out on EastEnders, of all shows.

Legendary DJ John Peel was a fan, and they recorded a number of sessions for his radio show. Andy Kershaw once called them "The most authentic English folk group since The Clash".

Discography

• Back in the DHSS (1985)
• Back Again in the DHSS (1987)
• ACD (1989) (compilation)
• McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt (1991)
• This Leaden Pall (1993)
• Some Call It Godcore (1995)
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Road (1997)
• Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral (1998)
• Trouble over Bridgwater (2000)
• Cammell Laird Social Club (2002)
• Achtung Bono (2005)
• CSI:Ambleside (2008)
• 90 Bisodol (Crimond) (2011)
• Urge for Offal (2014)
• And Some Fell on Stony Ground (2016) (compilation)
• No-One Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin' Hedge Cut (2018)

Half Tropes Half Biscuit:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: The line "There's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets!" in "National Shite Day".
• Affectionate Parody: Often. One example is "With Goth On Our Side", a parody of Bob Dylan's "With God On Our Side".
• Anti-Christmas Song: "It's Cliched to Be Cynical at Christmas" is an Anti-Anti-Christmas Song.
• Christmas Songs: "All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit", "It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas".
• Defictionalization: Yes, you can buy your very own Joy Division oven gloves.
• Folk Music: Is not a perfect description, but it will do, and they have covered folk songs in the past.
• From Bad to Worse: "National Shite Day" is an excellent example of all those petty (and not so petty - remember, there's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets!) annoyances slowly weighing you down until you blow your stack.
• George Washington Slept Here: Referenced in "Fix It So She Dreams Of Me":
  And she lives somewhere you wouldn't wanna get stuck
  That can't be found in the Domesday Book
  Cromwell's troops never billeted there
  Dick Turpin never had Bess shoed where
• I Banged Your Mom: A variation in "The Referee's Alphabet":
  The N is for the numbskull who, during the Boxing Day game, asks me what else I got for Christmas besides my whistle. An afternoon with your wife, mate.
• Joggers Find Death: The suicide in "Stuck Up A Hornbeam" wonders if he'll be found by a dog-walker.
• List Song: Quite a few.
• Literary Allusion Title: The song "Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not" (a reference to Tess of the D'Urbervilles), among others.
• Non-Appearing Title: A few. "Malayan Jelutong" has the refrain "When my grave's waist-deep in meadow grass" and "The Coroner's Footnote" is a description of the song, it doesn't appear in the lyrics.
• Pun-Based Title: Most of their albums, and a good number of their songs.
• Reference Overdosed: Good luck catching everything they mention, and not just lyrics either but sometimes tunes. A lot of them are explained on their website: http://www.hmhb.co.uk/
• Refuge in Audacity: The narrator's flimsy cover story in "Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not" rests on this:
  I'm going to be apprehended by some mandatory galoot with a handheld camera who will point it in my face and say: "Who are you, and what do you do?" And I'll say: "I'm a counterblast to agnosticism, how do you do?" And he'll go away immediately.
• Self-Deprecation: The lyrics of "Lord Hereford's Knob" assert that all their songs sound the same. As a demonstration, the song immediately and seamlessly segues into "Paradise Lost".
• Take That!: Just as often as Affectionate Parody.
• Teenage Death Songs: "The Coroner's Footnote", although it's not from the perspective of one of the teens.
• Wham Line: At the end of "Paintball's Coming Home":
  And if I'd have known they were coming, I'd have slashed my wrists.

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