Editing Half Man Half Biscuit

{{short description|English rock band}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name             = Half Man Half Biscuit
| image            = Half Man Half Biscuit (22017516678).jpg
| caption          = Nigel Blackwell (right) and Ken Hancock performing in 2015
| image_size       = 
| landscape        = yes
| background       = group_or_band
| alias            = 
| origin           = [[Birkenhead]], [[Merseyside]], England
| instrument       = 
| genre            = [[Indie rock]], [[post-punk]]
| occupation       = 
| years_active     = 1984–1986, 1990–present
| label            = [[Probe Plus]], [[R. M. Qualtrough]]
| associated_acts  = Attempted Moustache
| website          = {{URL| https://halfmanhalfbiscuit.uk/}}
| current_members  = *Nigel Blackwell
*Neil Crossley
*Carl Henry
*Karl Benson
| past_members     = *Simon Blackwell
*David Lloyd
*Paul Wright
*Carl Alty
*Ian Jackson
*Ken Hancock
*Victoria Loop
}}

'''Half Man Half Biscuit''' are an English rock band, formed in 1984 in [[Birkenhead]], [[Merseyside]]. Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell, bassist and singer Neil Crossley, drummer Carl Henry, and guitarist Karl Benson.

The band parodies popular genres, while their lyrics allude to UK popular culture and geography. Within a long career, their best-known songs include "The Trumpton Riots" (1986), "For What Is Chatteris" (2005), "Joy Division Oven Gloves" (2005) and "National Shite Day" (2008).

== History ==
Half Man Half Biscuit were formed by two friends from [[Birkenhead]], guitarist Neil Crossley and singer, guitarist and songwriter Nigel Blackwell who was (in his own words) at the time "still robbing cars and playing football like normal people do".<ref name="brief"/> In 1979, Blackwell was editing a football fanzine (''Left For [[Wakeley Gage]]''); he met Crossley when he went to see the latter's band play.<ref name="Kendal">Kendal, Mark (2004) "Britain's Greatest Living Rock And Roll Satirist", ''[[The Word (UK magazine)|The Word]]'', Unknown Issue, p. 42-46</ref> In 1984, when Half Man Half Biscuit were formed, Crossley moved to [[bass guitar|bass]] and the two were joined by Nigel's brother Simon Blackwell (lead guitar) and his friend Paul Wright ([[drum kit|drums]]), both previously with a group called Attempted Moustache, presumably named after the [[Attempted Mustache|album]] by [[Loudon Wainwright III]].<ref name="Strong">Strong, Martin C. (1999) ''The Great Alternative & Indie Discography'', Canongate, {{ISBN|0-86241-913-1}}</ref> The quartet started to rehearse in the [[Liverpool]]-based Vulcan Studios, where they soon turned a five-piece, with David Lloyd now on [[keyboard instrument|keyboards]].<ref name="brief">{{cite web
| url        = http://www.hmhb.co.uk/
| title       =  A Brief History of HMHB
| access-date    = 2011-01-01}}</ref>

Their debut album, 1985's ''[[Back in the DHSS]]'', topped the [[UK Independent Singles and Albums Charts|UK Indie Chart]] and reached number 60 in the [[UK Albums Chart]].<ref name="Strong" /><ref name="Lazell">Lazell, Barry (1997) ''Indie Hits 1980–1989'', Cherry Red Books, {{ISBN|0-9517206-9-4}}</ref> Its title was a play on [[The Beatles]]' "[[Back in the U.S.S.R.]]" and also a reference to the [[DHSS]], the government department that dealt with the unemployed, Nigel Blackwell having been on unemployment benefits since 1979.<ref name="McCready">McCready, John (1985) "Tough Cookies", ''[[New Musical Express]]'', 14 December 1985, p. 11</ref> The band's first single, "The [[Trumpton]] Riots", topped the UK Indies Singles Chart in 1986, and they went on to perform at [[Glastonbury Festival]].<ref name="Lazell" /> The second single, "Dickie Davies Eyes", also topped the indie chart.<ref name="Lazell" /> In late 1986, the band split up, giving as a reason "musical similarities".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2014/nov/13/split-decisions |title=Split decisions |website=The Guardian |first=Mark |last=Hooper |date=13 November 2014 |publication-date=13 November 2014 |access-date=24 November 2014}}</ref> The album ''Back Again in the DHSS'', containing previously issued, unreleased and live tracks, followed.

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]] on a version of [[Edith Piaf]]'s "[[Non, je ne regrette rien|No Regrets]]". Half Man Half Biscuit were championed by DJ [[John Peel]],<ref>{{cite AV media|last=Ellen|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Ellen|title=The Old Grey Whistle Test Vol. 3|type=DVD|publisher=BBC Video|year=2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/artists/h/halfmanhalfbiscu/ |website=BBC Radio 1 |title= Keeping It Peel – Half Man Half Biscuit |access-date=14 December 2014 }}</ref><ref name="JPA">{{YouTube |id=dgavqR-OwT8 |title=H is for... Half Man Half Biscuit }} linked from {{cite web |url=http://johnpeelarchive.com/ |website=John Peel Archive |title=John Peel's Record Archive |access-date=14 December 2014 }}</ref> for whom they recorded twelve sessions, and it was on his programme in 1990 that the band announced their return. 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 S. Jackson joining. Jackson (who later joined [[Rooney (UK band)|Rooney]]) and Alty (who joined [[Joyrider (band)|Joyrider]]) departed in 1996, to be replaced by Ken Hancock (guitar) and Carl Henry (drums).

[[File:HMHBNigel.jpg|thumb|The band performing in 2008]]
In April 2010, the band's song "Joy Division Oven Gloves" from their 2005 album ''Achtung Bono'' was the subject of a [[Facebook]] campaign to get it to No.&nbsp;6 on the chart for 12 April 2010, in response to the rumoured closure of the [[Independent music|indie]]-supporting radio station [[BBC 6 Music]].<ref>{{cite news|first=John |last=Plunkett |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/apr/07/6-music-half-man-biscuit |title=Campaign to save 6 Music takes the Biscuit |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 7 April 2010|access-date=2010-04-23 | location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spinner.com/2010/03/23/6-music-campaigners-aim-to-get-half-man-half-biscuit-in-the-char/ |title=6 Music Campaigners Aim to Get Half Man Half Biscuit in the Charts |publisher=Spinner |date=23 March 2010 |access-date=2010-04-23 |archive-date=20 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320015736/http://www.spinner.com/2010/03/23/6-music-campaigners-aim-to-get-half-man-half-biscuit-in-the-char/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The song reached No.&nbsp;56<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theofficialcharts.com/singles-chart/ |title=Singles Top 40 from the Official UK Charts Company |publisher=Theofficialcharts.com |access-date=2010-04-23}}</ref> on 11 April 2010: this was their first [[UK Singles Chart]] appearance. It also reached No.&nbsp;3 in the Official Independent Singles chart the same week, and was No.&nbsp;1 in the HMV UK Digital Downloads Top 40 Tracks on 16 April, knocking [[Ultravox]]'s song "[[Vienna (Ultravox song)|Vienna]]"  off the top spot – itself part of a separate Facebook campaign the previous week.

== Reception ==
[[Andy Kershaw]] described Half Man Half Biscuit as "One of England's most amazing bands"<ref>Wade's World. [http://mikewadejournalist.blogspot.com/search/label/Dean%20Friedman "Dean Friedman bites the Biscuits"].</ref> and "the most authentic British folk band since [[The Clash]]". James Dodd on ''Bido Lito!'' praised (as many others did) Blackwell's "uncanny way of chronicling two of his greatest passions in life: television and small-town England".<ref name="bidolito">Dodd, James. [http://issuu.com/bidolito/docs/february2011 Half Man Half Biscuit]. ''Bidi Lito!''. Issue No.&nbsp;8.  February 2011. p. 14.</ref> [[Eliza Carthy]] praised the band for their "pathos disguised with wit and sarcasm", describing Blackwell as a "genius".<ref name="uncut">{{cite web |last=Hughes |first=Rob |date=June 2008 |url=http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/news/extra/0806uncut.pdf |title=The Stars That Fame Forgot. Half Man Half Biscuit |work=Uncut |page=22 |access-date=2011-01-01 |archive-date=1 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001210419/http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/news/extra/0806uncut.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Journalist [[Ben Myers]] has described Blackwell's lyrics as "the antithesis of most rock songs, and iconoclastic in their total avoidance of cliche".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/jul/23/half-man-half-biscuit |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |title=Why Half Man Half Biscuit are wholly terrific |first=Ben |last=Myers |author-link=Ben Myers |date=23 July 2009 |access-date=27 February 2016 }}</ref>

Geoff Davies of Probe Plus recalled that after hearing a test pressing of ''Back in the D.H.S.S'', John Peel said "Geoff, what's this, I've just played the first side of this, what is it, tell me, it's just fantastic and all".<ref name="JPA"/> Other famous Peel quotes about the band include "I've said it before, a national treasure, there's no question about it. When I die, I want them to be buried with me." (14 August 1996) and "In a decently ordered society, members of Half Man Half Biscuit would be routinely carried shoulder high through the streets of every city they visited" (10 July 1997).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.probe-plus.co.uk/index.php/probe-plus-bands |website=Probe Plus |title=Probe Plus Bands – Half Man Half Biscuit |access-date=14 December 2014 }}</ref>

According to music writer [[Paul Du Noyer]]: "The genius of Half Man Half Biscuit is that they took just enough of Scouse culture to give themselves an edge, but kept their distance too. From their Wirral bastion they issue occasional dispatches of wry hilarity and downbeat, satirical bite. The songs of their leader, Nigel Blackwell, suggest a very real world of people too educated to be on the dole but too luckless or lazy to be anywhere else. They take a witty revenge on the drivel of popular culture, without denying their fascination with it. They seem flintily incorruptible, and scan the London music media with a mocking eye for cant."<ref>{{cite book |title=Liverpool – Wondrous Place: From the Cavern to the Capital of Culture |last=Du Noyer |first=Paul |page=204 |date=8 November 2007 |orig-year=2002 |publisher=[[Virgin Books]] |location=London |isbn=978-0753512692 }}</ref> English writer [[Julie Burchill]] praised their "supremely clever and funny lyrics", and described the band as "punk with a sense of humour and a sense of perspective".<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2016/03/how-half-man-half-biscuit-have-forged-career-mocking-middle-class |title=How Half Man Half Biscuit have forged a career mocking middle-class idiocy |first=Julie |last=Burchill |author-link=Julie Burchill |journal=[[New Statesman]] |date=3 March 2016 |access-date=4 March 2016 }}</ref>

References to Half Man Half Biscuit can be found on episodes of ''[[EastEnders]]'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Half Man Half Biscuit namecheck on Britain's favourite soap |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRbMwvb73Ts  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/gRbMwvb73Ts |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|website=YouTube |access-date=10 August 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref> ''[[Brookside (television programme)|Brookside]]'', ''[[Hollyoaks]]'', [[Men Behaving Badly]] and ''[[Byker Grove]]'', as well as an episode of ''[[Football Focus]]'' and the BBC serial ''Elidor''. The cricket commentator [[David Lloyd (cricketer, born 1947)|David 'Bumble' Lloyd]] often makes reference to songs and lyrics in commentaries, often completely lost on other commentators working with him.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/sport/cricket/article/for-comedy-genius-david-lloyd-takes-the-half-biscuit-mggq97blpkf |title=For comedy genius, David Lloyd takes the (half) biscuit |first=Giles |last=Smith |author-link=Giles Smith |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=29 May 2010 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Discography==
{{Main|Half Man Half Biscuit discography}}
*''[[Back in the DHSS]]'' (1985)
*''[[Back Again in the DHSS]]'' (1987)
*''[[McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt]]'' (1991)
*''[[This Leaden Pall]]'' (1993)
*''[[Some Call It Godcore]]'' (1995)
*''[[Voyage to the Bottom of the Road]]'' (1997)
*''[[Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral]]'' (1998)
*''[[Trouble over Bridgwater]]'' (2000)
*''[[Cammell Laird Social Club]]'' (2002)
*''[[Achtung Bono]]'' (2005)
*''[[CSI:Ambleside]]'' (2008)
*''[[90 Bisodol (Crimond)]]'' (2011)
*''[[Urge for Offal]]'' (2014)
*''[[No-One Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin' Hedge Cut]]'' (2018)
*''[[The Voltarol Years]]'' (2022)
*''[[All Asimov and No Fresh Air]]'' (2025)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote|Nigel Blackwell}}
*[https://www.hmhb.co.uk/ Official website]
*[https://halfmanhalfbiscuit.uk/ The Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project]
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/artists/h/halfmanhalfbiscu/ Half Man Half Biscuit at the BBC]
*{{IMDb name |id=nm5787974 |name=Half Man Half Biscuit}}
*[https://biscuitgigs.co.uk/ HMHB Data Retrieval System (in-setlist links to over 1,000 live videos)]

{{Half Man Half Biscuit}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:English indie rock groups]]
[[Category:Rock music groups from Merseyside]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1984]]
[[Category:British comedy rock musical groups]]
[[Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1986]]
[[Category:Musical groups reestablished in 1990]]
[[Category:English post-punk music groups]]