Minor British Institutions: Half Man Half Biscuit

By Sean O'Grady

Saturday 24 April 2010

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Half Man Half Biscuit, or HMHB, are a band from Birkenhead that constituted a sort of dessert for the strong meat served-up during the punk era. Formed in around 1984, they seem to be still going, and there has never been a finer group of musical, social and political satirists (unless you count the Barron Knights).

These, after all, are the people who brought us songs such as – and the list is necessarily long to do justice to their fecund imagination – "99% of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd"; "Trumpton Riots"; "I Hate Nerys Hughes"; "D'Ye Ken Ted Moult"; "Rod Hull is Alive – Why?"; "Dickie Davies Eyes"; "Styx Gig (Seen by My Mates Coming Out of a...)"; "Joy Division Oven Gloves"; "Dead Men Don't Need Season Tickets"; "He Who Would Valium Take"; "Lord Hereford's Knob"; and "Twenty-Four Hour Garage People". For all this and more, thanks to Nigel Blackwell, Simon Blackwell, Neil Crossly, David Lloyd, Paul Wright and their heirs and successors.

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