Half Man Half Biscuit are a UK indie band from Birkenhead in the North West, active since 1983, known for their satirical and sometimes surrealistic songs. The band are huge fans of Tranmere Rovers FC, and once turned down the chance to appear on the Channel 4 80`s rock show The Tube, as Tranmere were playing that night. The musical styles often parody simple popular genres, while the lyrics are dense with cultural allusions, usually (but not exclusively) UK popular culture. For instance, the interpretation of the title of the band’s first album, Back in the DHSS (1985), requires three items of background information: that the Beatles wrote a song called “Back in the USSR”; that the DHSS was the UK state welfare agency, and that at that time unemployment stood at high levels. The humour of HMHB draws on 1970s and early 1980s popular culture, and in particular children’s programmes. Hence, HMHB ‘borrowed’ wholesale from Trumpton and turned a song about being the driver of a train into an ode to hard and soft drug use.
Tracklisting:
A1 I’m Getting Buried In The Morning
A2 Rogation Sunday
A3 Awkward Sean
A4 Tess Of The Dormobiles
A5 Grafting Haddock In The George
A6 Big Man Up Front
A7 In A Suffolk Ditch
B1 When I Look At My Baby
B2 Beneath This Broken Headstone (there lies a broken heart)
B3 Persian Rug Sale At The URC
B4 Midnight Mass Murder
B5 Token COVID song
B6 Slipping The Escort
B7 Oblong Of Dreams
Please note that we also have two pre-owned first pressings in stock:
Back in the D.H.S.S. Signed by N Blackwell and Neil Crossley £35.00
Back again in the D.H.S.S £18.00
