Holmfirth Picturedrome, 21st September 2006
As British as Fish and Chips and Fawlty Towers with a sense of the absurd, Half Man Half Biscuit’s Holmfirth gig saw a tight performance from the Birkenhead Indie band.
Established in 1984, splitting in 1987, only to reform in 1990, Messrs Nigel and Neil Blackwell continue to write great songs with references ranging from ITV Wrestling contenders to hills and nondescript East Anglian towns. Last night, they didn’t disappoint.
Kicking off proceedings with ‘S*** Arm, Bad Tattoo’, their set lasted a full 90 minutes with 10 minutes added time for an encore. Applause and cheers were reserved for the old favourites like ‘F***** ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmuss’ and ‘Everything’s AOR’. Of the more recent material, ‘Joy Division Oven Gloves’ was greeted with a lively reception.
The highlights of the gig included an extended version of ‘24 Hour Garage People’, updated to include references to portable digital music players - complete with excerpts of songs which would appear on Sean Rowley’s ‘Guilty Pleasures’ album. The other one was ‘Disabled Blue Badge Abuser’, which used the bass line of one of their older pieces ‘Yipps’.
They opened the encore with a cover of ‘Caroline’ by Status Quo, before playing ‘Them’s The Vagaries’ and two classics from ‘Back Again in the DHSS’ (’The Bastard Son of Dean Friedman’ and ‘The Best Things in Life’). Suprisingly, there was no ‘Trumpton Riots’, which was seen a mild letdown by some.
Apart from that, this was a tight performance by Half Man Half Biscuit, and their 100 minute set was well worth the £15.00.
Key songs:
- Restless Legs
- Dead Men Don’t Need Season Tickets
- Joy Division Oven Gloves
- Vatican Broadside
- Everything’s AOR
- CORGI Registered Friends
- 24 Hour Garage People (extended version)
All in all, a great night.
- Presentation: 89% (Good stage effects and special mention for the caravan shaped guitar);
- Sound quality: 80% (Good acoustics, no distortion, not too loud);
- Value for Money: 93% (A long set plus a generous 40 minutes for the support band);
- Content:91% (A good mix of recent and classic material, though ‘Trumpton Riots’ was missed).
Overall rating: 90% (Half Man Half Biscuit can never be equalled with their powers of observation on the minutae of life most of us take for granted and knowledge of all things obscure. Long may they continue.)
- Half Man Half Biscuit will be playing the Manchester Academy on the 17th February 2007. Tickets are £16.75, including booking fee and the gig will include a support act. Log on to http://www.hmhb.co.uk for further details.
