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Half Man Half Biscuit, often "HMHB", is a UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 rock band from Birkenhead
Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool....
, active since the mid-1980s, known for satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs. The group is Nigel Blackwell (lead vocals, guitar), Neil Crossley (bass), Ken Hancock (lead guitar), and Carl Henry (drums). Throughout their career they have been signed to Probe Plus
Probe plus

Probe Plus is a record label based in Liverpool, England. It was founded by Geoff Davies, an enthusiastic promoter of small, unsigned bands, who describes the label as "Music to drive you to drink"....
 records.

band was formed in 1984 by Nigel Blackwell (vocals
Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the human voice, which is often contrasted with regular speech. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist....
, guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
), his brother Simon (guitar), Neil Crossley (bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
, vocals), David Lloyd (keyboards
Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organ s as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic musical instrument....
), and Paul Wright (drums
Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
).






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Half Man Half Biscuit, often "HMHB", is a UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 rock band from Birkenhead
Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool....
, active since the mid-1980s, known for satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs. The group is Nigel Blackwell (lead vocals, guitar), Neil Crossley (bass), Ken Hancock (lead guitar), and Carl Henry (drums). Throughout their career they have been signed to Probe Plus
Probe plus

Probe Plus is a record label based in Liverpool, England. It was founded by Geoff Davies, an enthusiastic promoter of small, unsigned bands, who describes the label as "Music to drive you to drink"....
 records.

History

The band was formed in 1984 by Nigel Blackwell (vocals
Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the human voice, which is often contrasted with regular speech. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist....
, guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
), his brother Simon (guitar), Neil Crossley (bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
, vocals), David Lloyd (keyboards
Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organ s as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic musical instrument....
), and Paul Wright (drums
Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
). Simon Blackwell and Wright had previously been members of the band Attempted Moustache. Their debut album, 1985's Back in the DHSS topped the UK Indie Chart
UK Indie Chart

The UK Independent Chart or Indie Chart is a chart of the best-selling independent record releases in the UK....
 and reached number 60 in the UK Album Chart. The band's first single, "The Trumpton
Trumpton

Trumpton is a stop-motion children's television show from the producers of Camberwick Green first shown on the BBC in the 1960s. The third and final series in the sequence was Chigley....
 Riots", topped the British independent chart in 1986, and they went on to perform at Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or Glasto, is one of the largest music and performing arts festivals in the world....
. They were post-punk
Post-punk

Post-punk was a popular musical movement with its roots in the mid to late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the early 1970s....
, similar to Josef K
Josef K (band)

Josef K was a Scotland post-punk band active in the early 1980s who released singles on record label Postcard Records. The band was named after the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial....
 or The Fall. The second single, "Dickie Davies Eyes", also topped the indie chart. In late 1986, the band split up, with a collection of radio sessions and unreleased tracks following. The band reformed in 1990, with a performance at the Reading Festival following, and a new single, "Let's Not" issued before the year was out, followed in 1991 by a collaboration with Margi Clarke
Margi Clarke

Margi Clarke is a United Kingdom actress . She was born in Liverpool and raised in Kirkby , and is known for her Scouse accent and platinum-blonde hair....
 on a version of Edith Piaf
Édith Piaf

?dith Piaf was a France singer and cultural icon of partly algeria and Italy descent who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads....
's "No Regrets
Non, je ne regrette rien

"Non, je ne regrette rien" is a France song composed by Charles Dumont, with lyrics by Michel Vaucaire. It was written in 1956, and is best known through its 1960 recording by ?dith Piaf....
". The third album was McIntyre, Treadmore And Davitt, released in October 1991. By the time This Leaden Pall was released in 1993, Wright and Lloyd had left the band, with Carl Alty joining on drums. Simon Blackwell left the following year, with Ian Jackson joining. Jackson and Alty departed in 1996, to be replaced by Ken Hancock (guitar) and Carl Henry (drums), this line-up remaining to this day. Since reforming, the band have produced an album every two or three years.

Half Man Half Biscuit were championed by DJ John Peel
John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, Order of the British Empire , known professionally as John Peel, was an England disc jockey, radio presenter and journalist....
, for whom they recorded 12 sessions and it was on his programme in 1990 that the band announced their return.

The band played live more infrequently. Half Man Half Biscuit turned down the chance to appear on The Tube
The Tube (TV series)

The Tube was an innovative United Kingdom pop/rock music television programme, which ran for five series, from 5 November 1982 until 1987....
, as Tranmere Rovers were playing that night, even though Channel Four offered to fly them by helicopter
Helicopter

A helicopter is an aircraft that is Lift and propelled by one or more horizontal plane Helicopter rotors, each rotor consisting of two or more rotor blades....
 to the game.

The band's styles parody popular genres, while their lyrics allude to UK popular culture
Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of Distinction memes, ideas, Perspective s and Attitude s that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture....
 and geography
Geography

Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"....
 (Blackwell often refers to North Wales
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
, often in the context of hillwalking
Hillwalking

In United Kingdom, the term hillwalking or fellwalking is normally used to describe the recreational practice of walking in hilly or mountainous terrain, generally with the intention of visiting the summit of hills and mountains....
 in Snowdonia
Snowdonia

Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National parks of England and Wales, in 1951....
; he also appears fond of Shropshire
Shropshire

Shropshire , alternatively known as Salop or abbreviated, in print only, Shrops, is a Counties of England in the West Midlands of England....
, East Anglia
East Anglia

East Anglia is a region of eastern England. It was named after one of the ancient Heptarchy, the Kingdom of the East Angles, which was in turn named after the homeland of the Angles, Angeln, in northern Germany....
 and Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East England region, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire....
) and British or international football. Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was an United States poet, novelist and short story writer.Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas....
, Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, Order of Merit was an England author of the naturalism movement, though he regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels mainly for financial gain....
, and the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 are referenced in his lyrics.

As the nineties progressed Blackwell's love of blues and folk became more apparent. In 2002 Andy Kershaw
Andy Kershaw

Andy Kershaw is a British broadcaster, known predominantly as a champion of world music.His shows feature a mix of country, blues, reggae, sounds from around Africa, folk music, Asian music and spoken word performance from the likes of Ivor Cutler and John Cooper Clarke....
 dubbed them "the most authentic English folk group since the Clash
The Clash

The Clash were an English Rock music band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk rock. Along with punk rock, they experimented with reggae, ska, Dub music, funk, Hip hop music and rockabilly....
". Bassist Crossley's tastes include late-70s/early-80s new wave
New Wave music

New Wave is a genre of rock music which originated from the late 1970s. It emerged from punk rock as a reaction against the popular music of the 1970s....
 or post-punk
Post-punk

Post-punk was a popular musical movement with its roots in the mid to late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the early 1970s....
 bands, and HMHB have performed covers
Cover version

In popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition of a previously recorded, commercially released song.In its current use, it can sometimes have a pejorative meaning — implying that the original recording should be regarded as the definitive version, usually in the sense of an "authentic" rendition, and all...
 of Joy Division
Joy Division

Joy Division were an English Rock music band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris ....
, Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley

Timothy Charles Buckley III was an experimental vocalist and musician who incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul music, and avant-garde rock in a career spanning the late 1960s and early 1970s....
, The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band. Formed in 1961, the group gained popularity for its close harmony and lyrics reflecting a California youth culture of cars and surfing....
 and Tiffany
Tiffany (singer)

Tiffany Renee Darwish , known popularly as Tiffany, is an United States singing who had a number of teen pop hits during the late-1980s. Since then she has performed in a variety of genres, from country to dance, both in America and other countries....
.

Blackwell has also referred to fictional bands who appear on the sleeves of HMHB records and in songs - an essay on "Evil Gazebo" (and that band's relationship to "Pankhurst") appears on the liner of Trouble Over Bridgwater and both bands are mentioned in some of that album's songs. Assorted fake acts have also been mentioned in HMHB songs such as "I Can't Believe It's Not Focus".

In 2001, Blackwell provided the voiceover
VoiceOver

VoiceOver is a feature built into Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system since version Mac OS X v10.4. By using VoiceOver, the user can access his or her Apple Macintosh by using speech and the Computer keyboard....
 for a BP
BP

BP plc , is the third largest global energy corporation, a multinational corporation oil company with headquarters in London. The company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six "supermajors" ....
 television advert.

The band's first release since 2005, CSI:Ambleside
CSI:Ambleside

CSI:Ambleside is the eleventh album by UK rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released in April 2008.The 'CSI' in the title is a reference to the CSI franchise....
, appeared on April 28, 2008.

Discography


Misc.
  • "David Wainwright's Feet"; on the charity album Colours Are Brighter
    Colours Are Brighter

    Colours Are Brighter is a charity record which was released on Rough Trade Records on October 16, 2006, all proceeds going to Save the Children....
     (2006)


External links