“She’s in Broadstairs….!”

Donna Williams’ 2009 UK Tour Dates

Half Man Half Biscuit fans, I do apologise for my attempt at link baiting hoping you would expect an article on the above song from their 2002 album Cammell Laird Social Club.

More seriously, the tour dates for Donna Williams’ UK lecture tour have been revealed on her website.  This time, there are no dates for the North West though the most northerly date is at Middlesbrough.  Her penultimate tour date will be in the Kent seaside town of Broadstairs (hence the title).

Dates:

• 03/10/2009: Fareham / Oxford;
• 05/10/2009: Pontypridd;
• 06/10/2009: Nailsea / Bristol;
• 07/10/2009: Birmingham;
• 08/10/2009: Wrexham;
• 09/10/2009: Newry;
• 10/10/2009: Doncaster;
• 12/10/2009: Middlesbrough;
• 13/10/2009: Peterborough;
• 15/10/2009: Dublin;
• 16/10/2009: Broadstairs;
• 17/10/2009: London.

All dates may be subject to change.  Check the Events section of Donna’s website for details.

To any regular readers of this blog who may be interested in seeing one of her seminars, you will be in for a treat.  I am not just saying that because I know her as a good friend.  As well as being informed you will also be entertained by her approach on discussing autism spectrum disorders.

Half Man Half Biscuit fans on or off the autism spectrum, you may wish to attend the Broadstairs lecture, visit the place itself properly, stay overnight and leave home the following morning.  Sadly I cannot speak for the qualities of Broadstairs as I have never been!

S.V., 20 August 2009.

Postscript (01 October 2009): Donna’s final UK venue will be at Farnborough, not London.  I will be going to the Wrexham, Doncaster and Middlesbrough lectures, so if in the unlikely event you see me, make yourself known. Middlesbrough also has a place in HMHB History in that Hedley Verity was born there (hence ‘Hedley Verityesque’ on their 1991 album ‘Macintyre, Treadmore and Davitt’.

I’m In the Metro!

OK, not quite.

A nice surprise came to me this morning in one of the free papers on the 220 service towards Stalybridge railway station. I was reading the Metro when turning towards ‘The Ridiculant’ page I found that one of my side projects was listed.

As advertised elsewhere within East of the M60, I created a Google map on the places namechecked by Half Man Half Biscuit entitled (ahem) ‘Half Map Half Biscuit’ (don’t you just love the wordplay).

Top of the list under a section entitled ‘Check These Ones Out’ was… Half Map Half Biscuit!

Fame at last I thought. Quoting from the Metro, The Ridiculant stated:

“At long last someone has created a Google map of every place ever mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit song. You young ‘uns probably don’t even know who the band HMHB are, do you? Shame on you.”

Click on the link to The Ridiculant to see the map itself, some comments and other goodies.

At this time of writing, some 6,927 people have seen the map – not bad for a Google map anyway, but one that has only been up for one day more than a month!  Feel free to contribute the map itself.  Please note that entries may be edited for spelling and grammatical errors.

S.V., 18 February 2009

Half Map Half Biscuit

“…I like to flush the demons from out of your mind…”

With only days to go until Half Man Half Biscuit’s Manchester gig (Academy, 30 January 2009), East of the M60 is proud to announce a new project.

Entitled ‘Half Map Half Biscuit’, this ongoing project is a map of the places namechecked in Half Man Half Biscuit songs.  Each place is pinpointed with a quote from the song it featured in.

The map is a user generated map created using Google Maps.  All you have to do is go into maps.google.co.uk, zoom your Google map towards the UK, click on the ‘My Maps’ link and enter ‘half map half biscuit’ into Google and click ‘Search Maps’.

Enjoy,

Stuart.

‘The Not So Perfect 10′: Ten Greatest Half Man Half Biscuit quotes

Regular readers of my blog will already know about my liking for the greatest band to have hailed from the Wirral since Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

Back with a vengeance, this month’s ‘Not So Perfect Ten’

…Meet up on a Friday with my CORGI Registered Friends…

Half Man Half Biscuit, 16 February 2007: Manchester Academy

With a near capacity crowd in the Manchester Academy, Birkenhead’s answer to Shakespeare had a solid performance, with this gig surpassing the Holmfirth one last September.

Opening the gig was fellow labelmates Calvin Party, in front of about 400 people, with their Echo and the Bunnymen meets James style of Indie music.

By 2115 hours, came the main feature, Half Man Half Biscuit who ran on to a snatch of ‘13 Eurogoths Floating In The Dead Sea’. Fifteen minutes before then, the Manchester Academy saw an extra 800 HMHB fans surge towards the venue. As with Holmfirth, they opened the gig with ‘S*** Arm Bad Tattoo’.

Friday’s gig saw a rather tight performance by Half Man Half Biscuit, with a mix of excellent new material from ‘Achtung Bono’ and a few oldies. Within the latter category were ‘4AD3DCD’, ‘Albert Hammond Bootleg’ and ‘Turned Up, Clocked Off, Laid Off’. Unlike the Holmfirth gig, ‘24 Hour Garage People’ lacked the musical samples (probably due to copyright issues).

Before the encore, HMHB dedicated their last song, ‘Joy Division Oven Gloves’ to Tony Wilson, given his recent battle with cancer. This was met by rapturous applause by the 1200 – 1500 fans at the Academy. Continuing the trend of using a cover version for the encore set, their choice was ‘Containers’ by The Fall from their 1980 album ‘Grotesque: After the Gramme’.

Ending with a snatch of ‘The Best Things In Life’ and ‘We’ve Built This Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune’ before then, Half Man Half Biscuit left me wanting a second encore and a week’s worth of cold turkey, cured only by listening to ‘Achtung Bono’ and ‘Back in the DHSS’ several times.

A fantastic night, and long may they continue. When’s the next gig in the North West…?

Gig Review: Half Man Half Biscuit

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.