Category Archives: Half Man Half Biscuit

A new venue for me tonight, it’s actually a converted cinema. It looked pretty grotty, but worked quite well with tiered areas giving everyone a good view.

The less said about the support band the better, I think they probably rank as the worst support band I’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing, however Half Man Half Biscuit more than made up for them.

They started out with the obvious tribute to the recently departed Fred Titmus, and then played for the best part of two hours. The only oddity was the lack of 24 Hour Garage People tonight, so no up-to-date Pringles pricing information was offered.

Setlist:

Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus
San Antonio Foam Party
Restless Legs
Asparagus Next Left
Petty Seasions
Running Order Squabble Fest
Bob Wilson Anchorman
Left Lyrics in the Practice Room
Deep House Victims Minibus Appeal
Trumpton Riots
Bad Review
National Shite Day
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train)
Lark Descending
Surging Out of Convalescence
A Lilac Harry Quinn
99% of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd
Tommy Walsh’s Eco House
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Joy Division Oven Gloves
For What is Chatteris?
Evening of Swing (Has Been Cancelled)
Vatican Broadside
A Country Practice
We Built This Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune

Them’s the Vagaries
Dreaming (Blondie)
Everything’s A.O.R.

After a lazy morning I headed off on the lengthy trip to Cambridge to see the mighty Half Man Half Biscuit again, stopping off briefly to don my DPAK and swap cars, then back on the road for the last hours driving. We arrived 30 minutes after the doors opened to find only a dozen or so people in the venue, however it soon filled out as it got nearer to the start time of the only band tonight. They really should wash the floor in The Junction more often as it was rather on the sticky side, although it did mean you were unlikely to slip over at any point, or be able to move your feet at all really.

Just after 20:30 the band took the stage, and after the obligatory preliminary faffing launched into the set with Restless Legs. The mix was fairly poor tonight, with the vocals getting lost beneath the guitar and bass. However this didn’t prove much of a hindrance as pretty much everyone knew every word of every song anyway, and sang along enthusiastically.

Two hours later it was all over bar the queue for the ticket machine in the car park, and a rather wet drive back again.

Setlist (to be decoded later):

Restless Legs
Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes
Fuckin’ ‘Ell, it’s Fred Titmus
Bad Losers on Yahoo Chess
A Lilac Harry Quinn
San Antonio Foam Party
Irk the Purists
Uffington Wassail
Bob Wilson – Anchorman
Outbreak of Vitas Gerulatis
Running Order Squabble Fest
Petty Sessions
The Light at the End of the Tunnel (is the Light of an Oncoming Train)
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Bottleneck at Capel Curig
Look Dad, No Tunes
Ballad of Climie Fisher (start)
Monmore, Hare’s Running
Twenty Four Hour Garage People (the Pringles cost £1.61)
National Shite Day
Trumpton Riots
For What is Chatteris…
Apache
1966 and all that
Vatican Broadside
Footsteps
We Built this Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune

Evening of Swing (Has been Cancelled)
Joy Division Oven Gloves

Another fantastic night with Half Man Half Biscuit. There was no support band tonight, leaving us with 100+ minutes of biscuity goodness. Plenty of old classics tonight as well, and they finished with the perfect song for Bath.

Setlist:

Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus
Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes
Restless Legs
Took Problem Chimp to Ideal Home Show
Petty Sessions
Four Skinny Indie Kids
Floreat Inertia
The Light at the End of the Tunnel (Is the Light of an Oncoming Train)
I Went to a Wedding… (end)
1966 and All That
Bob Wilson – Anchorman
For What is Chatteris
We Built This Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune
Blue Badge Abuser
Trumpton Riots
Paintball’s Coming Home
National Shite Day
Bad Losers on Yahoo Chess
Turned Up, Clocked On, Laid Off
Twenty Four Hour Garage People (Pringles were on special offer at 75p)
Bastard Son of Dean Friedman
Totnes Bickering Fair
Twydale’s Lament (end)
Vatican Broadside
Seal Clubbing
Running Order Squabble Fest
Gubba Look-a-likes
Joy Division Oven Gloves

Kissin’ Cousins (Elvis Presley)
Everything’s AOR
I Hate Nerys Hughes (from the Heart)

Nowhere near as much travelling today, and a much more intimate venue. Support came from the rather good MJ Hibbett & the Validators complete with a rendition of “Hey Hey 16K”. Nigel seemed on much better form tonight resulting in far fewer lyrical cock-ups.

As with last night, there were surprisingly few people sporting Dukla Prague away shirts.

Setlist:

Fuckin’ ‘ell it’s Fred Titmus
Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes
Restless Legs
Running Order Squabble Fest
Petty Sessions
The Light at the End of the Tunnel (is the Light of an Oncoming Train)
Bogus Official
Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo
Four Skinny Indie Kids
Totnes Bickering Fair
Blue Badge Abuser
Look Dad No Tunes
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Ode to Joyce
The Best Things in Life (end)
24 Hour Garage People (98p for the Pringles)
Trumpton Riots
Tending the Wrong Grave for 23 Years
For What is Chatteris
Paintball’s Coming Home
We Built this Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune
Vatican Broadside
National Shite Day

Took Problem Chimp to Ideal Home Show
Electricity (OMD)
Joy Division Oven Gloves

A fairly lengthy trip today, I spent a good five hours or so sat in various cars in order to get to Norwich, however we were rewarded with nearly two hours of biscuity goodness, although Nigel did look a little unwell at times.

Setlist:

Evening of Swing has been Cancelled
Fuckin’ ‘ell it’s Fred Titmus
Running Order Squabble Fest
The Light at the End of the Tunnel (is the Light of an Oncoming Train)
Uffington Wassail
Four Skinny Indie Kids
Petty Sessions
Took Problem Chimp to Ideal Home Show
Bad Review
On Reaching the Wensum
Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo
Blue Badge Abuser
Secret Gig
Paintball’s Coming Home
Trumpton Riots
Look Dad No Tunes
The Best Things in Life (end)
This Leaden Pall
Restless Legs
Everything’s AOR
Tending the Wrong Grave for 23 Years
24 Hour Garage People (97p for the Pringles)
We Built this Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Vatican Broadside
National Shite Day

For What is Chatteris
Song From Under The Floorboards (Magazine)
Joy Division Oven Gloves

A long trek up to Kettering, a quick donning of my “Dukla Prague Away Kit” shirt, followed by a shorter trek up to Nottingham saw us emerge from the car park to see “Birkenhead Car and Van Hire” emblazoned on the side of the nearest van. This can only mean one thing, Half Man Half Biscuit must be playing nearby.

Support came from Calvin Party who were fairly uninspiring to be honest. Once they were finished we took position against the barrier in front of the stage to get in front of the rapidly increasing crowd.

Just after 9pm the main band strolled on stage and launched into the first of many songs, a few technical difficulties delayed parts of the evening but didn’t really spoil things. Firstly Ken (guitar) had problems with his FX pedals necessitating some reconfiguration, and later Neil (Bass) had to replace a problematic lead, at one point disappearing off stage leaving Nigel to keep us amused for a few minutes.

Setlist:

The Light at the End of the Tunnel (is the Light of an Oncoming Train)
Fuckin’ ‘ell it’s Fred Titmus
Restless Legs
Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo
Totnes Bickering Fair
Albert Hammond Bootleg
Running Order Squabble Fest
Deep House Victims Minibus Appeal
Outbreak of Vitus Gerulaitis
Blue Badge Abuser
Ballad of Climie Fisher (intro only, because only Nigel knew how to play it)
Used to be in Evil Gazebo
Vatican Broadside
We Built this Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune
Twenty-Four Hour Garage People (the Pringles cost £1.02 tonight)
National Shite Day
For What Is Chatteris?
Tending The Wrong Grave
Tonight Matthew I’m Going To Be With Jesus (complete with loud cheering from the crowd after the “Rock City, Notts” line)
Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess
Look Dad No Tunes
Everything’s AOR
The Trumpton Riots

Worried Man Blues
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Joy Division Oven Gloves

Absolutely fantastic.

90 minutes of sing-a-long superbness with a decent mix of old classics, and potential future classics.

Full setlist, now in the proper order (apparently):

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train)
Lock up your mountain bikes
Shit Arm Bad Tattoo
Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus
If I Had Possession over Pancake Day
Bob Wilson Anchorman
Bad Review
Restless Legs
Turned Up Clocked On Laid Off
CORGI Registered Friends
Trumpton Riots
Paintball’s Coming Home
Secret Gig
Look Dad No Tunes
Twydale’s Lament (ending only)
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
The Best Things in Life (ending only)
Numanoid Hanglide
Running order squabble fest
For What is Chatteris
Everythings A.O.R
Vatican Broadside
24 Hour Garage People
Joy Division Ovengloves

encore:
Rubber Bullets (10cc)
We built this village on a Trad. Arr. tune