GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-ONE
Who
I got changed and would have loved to visit the Brazilian steakhouse in the hotel/cinema complex but knew that stuffing my face would be a poor way to prepare for a gig, and also ruinously expensive and time consuming on a Friday night. I set out into town and wandered into the very centre, past the All Saints Church and Guildhall, marvelling that an unfashionable town such as Northampton could contain such fabulous buildings, which were beautifully lit up for Christmas, and the large Christmas tree in front of the church was especially pretty. The town did suffer from an abundance of hobos but I soon found a massive pub that was serving food and got to enjoy a modestly sized mixed grill, accompanied with bottles of Duvel and Liefmans beer from Belgium. In fact the two smallish drinks cost about as much as the meal, but that's my fault for having expensive tastes! Still following my map - although Northampton was quite simple to navigate - I then headed northwards towards the venue, past the large - and closed - market square. I was sporting my Love t-shirt and second thickest coat as it was actually rather chilly. I spotted what appeared to be punkily attired fans so followed them up the ramp into the venue, which had furnished me with an A4 piece of paper and a barcode as a ticket, which was unnecessary as they simply asked for my name then crossed it off a list. Aaah the wonders of technology!
I walked into a quite pleasing lobby/bar area but didn't hang around, heading into the stage area itself and - as the entrance was from the front - secured myself a good spot by simply not stepping far backwards. The room was a decent size, smaller than the Wulfrun but larger than a "pub" venue, meaning that everyone could have a great view but there were enough fans here that it didn't feel awkwardly small. There were loads of Dukla Prague away kits - possibly due to the proximity to Christmas - but I'd resisted the urge to invest in any subtle lyrical referencing attire, in particular a Dukla Prague away kit from Ebay looked rather expensive! Perhaps I could have got something simple like a Brazil shirt with a number ten on the back, but decided to settle for knowing almost every single lyric that the band would be able to throw at me instead, even some of the live-only ones! As Northampton is quite a way from Bilston there weren't as many familiar faces as I expected, but I did see that the geeky guy had slotted in, and also I'm sure I've seen the absurdly tall guy before who was behaving crazily in the moshpit later on. He could easily have been chucked out if security were a bit harsher, but I also spotted him the next day and he may or may not have been the madman randomly screaming in the street! By the time I headed inside Shifty Chicken Shed were already onstage, who I'd seen supporting once before in 2012. Apparently they'd came onstage at 7:30pm with a cover of Rock The Kasbah, so I'm pretty disappointed to have missed that one! I had my proper camera with me but being aware of arbitrary no photography policies I kept it mostly away, although the few shots I captured of SCS suggest that the singer was glowing brightly like a ghost!
I counted six members in Shifty Chicken Shed and considering that they were a support band at a relatively small show they were really very good, although they were only there as they were another Probe Plus band, but it's good to see that the label aren't just a one act wonder. They won the crowd over with their enthusiastic tunes - especially the two guys to the side of the stage throwing in talking bits - and the loudspeaker didn't go amiss either. Sadly as I was a bit lax in making review notes I have little else to add, except that as the band finished the lights were turned off and they discretely packed their own stuff away. Good show guys! As well as being a nice room the sound was pretty decent too, and the crowd included a few unexpected faces such as kids, including one who left the room covering his ears with disapproval like a grumpy old Grandad dismissing the show as a "din". HMHB then appeared to set up most of their stuff, except for Nigel who I guess is above all of that, and as the guys unjustly aren't at U2 levels of acclaim the crowd just let them get on with it rather than screaming with excitement. They came onstage properly very early - 8:30pm! - emerging to a blast of classical music from Tchaikovsky. Nigel remembered to plug in his guitar this time around but quickly wandered offstage as he'd forgotten to bring out his setlist, although as usual he was struggling to read any of it! Also in the spirit of health and safety he deposited a Caution Wet Floor sign by Ken, and I also wondered if some of the guys - Ken maybe? - were participating in Movember, a charitable act that had given me an itchy face for the duration of the month, which thankfully was coming to an end!
And that seems an appropriate note on which to state that the band opened with The Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train)! There was a moshpit from the outset and I found myself just on the edge of it, with the aforementioned tall guy seemingly out of control! And I'm pleased to report that the set was so strong that the moshpit wouldn't have much time to rest tonight! Joy In Leeuwarden (We Are Ready) is well-established in the set and it was wonderful that they played A Lilac Harry Quinn, but the first particular delight was hearing Fuckin' 'Ell It's Fred Titmus for my first time since 2010. I was ready to come in during the pause but nobody else did, and Nigel had confused us all with a deliberate misstep, a little comic tease which was possibly my favourite moment of the whole night. The ludicrous pace continued with Look Dad No Tunes and Bob Wilson - Anchorman, and Nigel showed his knowledge of Northampton by reeling off a list of famous people, none of whom stood out to me, and announced that DNA stood for the National Dyslexic Association. Great joke, but I'm sure I've heard him tell that one before! There was plenty of banter, including Nigel's worry that using the M6 Toll to get to the gig had been too flashy, and then realising that the band had spent their milk budget on it by mistake! Nigel tried to get one over on a heckler who seemed to know everything by asking him the name of the two horses in Kes, and upon being informed that his facts were wrong - hard to believe! - Nigel suggested that maybe the fan had watched a Nicolas Cage remake in error. Nicolas Cage remake of Kes? Could hardly be as bad his version of The Wicker Man, surely?
Much of the chat came while Ken was tuning up his guitar with his back to us, leading Nigel to comment that he could at least have bothered to iron his shirt, and he also made a joke asking how many A&R men it takes to change a light bulb. The answer? "Can I come back to you on that one?" There was a random snippet of a TV theme I didn't know, and also a snippet of Ballad Of Climie Fisher, something they'd done three years ago. Does the same persistent fan keep asking to hear it? Neil had a sore throat and there was some banter about that, if I recall Nigel suggested he take some voice pills, but no doubt he put it in a far more amusing way than that! The guys played Used To Be In Evil Gazebo - for my first time since 2003! - but the precipice lyric came in a little earlier than Neil's sound effect. The "you can't put your foot up in Europe" segment of I Went To A Wedding... made an appearance and was appreciated, but few things give me as much pleasure as the ending of Yipps (My Baby Got The)! All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit was dropped mid-set and Tending The Wrong Grave For 23 Years was introduced as a true story, as Nigel pointed towards Neil. Irk The Purists is always decent enough, and we all enjoy Carl's moment in the spotlight, but makes its way into the set a little too often for me. One tune that should be an ever-present is Running Order Squabble Fest, which always goes down a storm, and Fix It So She Dreams Of Me - the one about the Gok Wan acolytes - appears to have a strange hold over everyone, as it hardly sticks out on the album. the setlist was energetic and well-paced but with so many natural closing songs it was inevitable that some would fall around the middle, first up being National Shite Day. The ending of The Best Things In Life is always a treat to hear - although the sound went really fuzzy at this point - and at one point Nigel was shining us in the face with his guitar, then considerately moving away from the light source before I found myself blinded!
Vatican Broadside remains the ever-present in the setlist - and at 30 seconds long why should it ever be omitted? - and was played as a standalone tune out of reverence, but there's always a cheeky pleasure in when the band burst into it after a relatively serious cover version. It's all good! The mischievous intro of When The Evening Sun Goes Down was present and correct, before the second natural closing song Rock And Roll Is Full Of Bad Wools was played. It's reasonable enough but rubs uncomfortably alongside National Shite Day, which is better and just too similar. Restless Legs however is fabulous, and it was a delight to hear Twenty Four Hour Garage People with maximum ad libbing. This may have been the point where Nigel tried to use his sound effects pedal - it didn't work so he made up a few lines about that situation. This time the 12 people behind him in the queue had just come off a minibus from the Happy To Stand And Wait Society, who'd just paid a visit to Alton Towers, the guy in the garage was wearing a 'Keep Calm And Listen To Toto' t-shirt and we were reminded that sour cream and chive isn't actually a real flavour. The foot-stamping wasn't quite as pronounced as it can be, but I did my bit and it's hard to ever imagine listening to this song live and not enjoying the moment. We Built This Village On A Trad. Arr. Tune was played - third potential closer! - before the one big surprise of the night, namely It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas. Sure it was topical and everything but I hadn't expected to hear it, and the song was wrapped in some beautiful Christmas fuzz, but understandably there was no choir. My research suggests that they have played it live before but it was a nice surprise, saving completely unheard big guns such as Sponsoring The Moshpits, Rod Hull Is Alive - Why and The Referee's Alphabet for another time. I guess it keeps me coming back for more, and with such a rich back catalogue there's almost always something unexpected to pique my interest. The main set then finished with an anarchic version of Joy Division Oven Gloves, making me wish I'd invested in some, and the insanity of the moshpit was great and all but sadly meant that the hand actions were downplayed by nearly all.
For the encore Nigel briefly emerged with his legendary caravan guitar. I tried to take a photo, but didn't have time as it was quickly rejected as not being good enough, with Nigel stating it had just failed its MOT! I'd showed restraint throughout by not joining the moshpit but by this point was getting rather hot so I struggled to put my thick coat around my waist. For What Is Chatteris... is always a nice one to hear, a rare "quiet" number that doesn't sound out of place opening an encore. This was followed by a cover version of New Dawn Fades by Joy Division, amazingly the first time I'd heard it since the very first time I saw HMHB back in 2001! Ken and Neil swapped places and stepping 12 years back in time was a pleasure. The set then finished with what I embarrassingly thought to be Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not, but which was, obviously, A Country Practice. It started with what may have been the intro of Dukla Prague Away Kit in error, and built up towards its fabulous climax, with the loudest and most spirited rendition of the Thatcher bit that I expect the band had ever performed. The guys seemed genuinely touched by the enthusiasm of the crowd and the reception and I half-expected a second encore, but there was no such luck - the show was over around 10:30pm. Still, two hours onstage is more than many manage! I grabbed a Coke and my ears were whistling, then sensibly decided to head back to my hotel room to write up some notes rather than visiting a pub. My commitment to this website is astonishing!
The next morning I saw everything that Northampton had to offer and still finished in time for the hotel check-out of midday, which says more about the speed and efficiency at which I did my sightseeing than anything else. I even found time for both a Spoons breakfast and a McDonald's wrap for lunch! There were a nice few churches - and even a cathedral randomly on the outskirts - and also possibly the best shoe section in any museum in the world. In a total surprise the head cast of Richard III was also in the Northampton Museum - which I'd seen on TV a few months ago - and the only disappointment was that one of the churches was closed due to the heating being broken. It was a cold day yes, but not that cold, I wouldn't have minded, and this was a shame as it was the only notable thing I failed to do! After checking out and taking my stuff with me I quickly wandered down to Delapre Abbey, which was basically a run-down building in nice surroundings, then had the frustration of missing my train connection as my assumption that it would work the same regardless of what hour I left proved incorrect - usually that plan works nicely! If I'd had known I could have changed at Birmingham International onto a fast service while our train driver was twiddling his thumbs, but sadly I didn't! Just to rub it in a bit more I went to a lovely pub in Wolves for a delightful pint of Czech lager - Krušovice - before leaving to catch my train, finding that it not only had been cancelled but its existence had been obliterated from the train timetable for the day altogether! Very 1984! That'll teach me to be more paranoid and to double check train times before I leave the pub, and just to rub it in a little further the train afterwards showed up a few minutes late.
Nevertheless this was a lovely day out and combining great gigs with unexplored towns and cities is a brilliant way of gradually covering the country, especially as Northampton is relatively inexpensive to get to. The set had been embarrassingly strong, with the real head fuck being to look back and think that HMHB could easily have played a different 29 songs and kept me happy. I've already mentioned the terminally neglected Sponsoring The Moshpits, Rod Hull Is Alive - Why and The Referee's Alphabet, but the show could also have been enhanced with The Bastard Son Of Dean Friedman, Dickie Davies Eyes, God Gave Us Life, Sealclubbing, 99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd, Time Flies By (When You're The Driver Of A Train), Venus In Flares, I Love You (Because You Look Like Jim Reeves), Albert Hammond Bootleg, The Trumpton Riots, Them's The Vagaries, Paradise Lost (You're The Reason Why), Took Problem Chimp To Ideal Home Show, Lord Hereford's Knob, Four Skinny Indie Kids, You're Hard, Secret Gig, Keeping Two Chevrons Apart, Outbreak Of Vitus Gerulaitis, Everything's A.O.R., Even Men With Steel Hearts, 4AD3DCD, Turned Up Clocked On Laid Off, Improv Workshop Mimeshow Gobshite, Bottleneck At Capel Curig, Bad Review, Eno Collaboration (Remix), Monmore, Hare's Running, Paintball's Coming Home or Jarg Armani. In fact without even having to dig deep for ideas that's over 30 songs right there! Someone suggested they play Some Call It Godcore in full, bemoaning that they never play anything from it. I'd love to see them do that, and resisted the urge to smugly point out that I'd got to hear Fear My Wraith at the 11th time of asking. Despite a relative lack of surprises, HMHB did more than enough to justify my continued faith in seeing them live at every practical opportunity.
Mark: 8.5/10
Half Man Half Biscuit
Support
Shifty Chicken Shed
Where
Northampton Roadmender
When
29th November 2013
Price
Ł18.00
Who with
No-one
Position
Towards the front
Comments
Not only was I seeing Half Man Half Biscuit for the 12th time - just three times less than the mighty Super Furry Animals themselves - but in deciding to travel all the way to Northampton I was making it two live viewings of the boys in 2013. I also was quite keen on seeing them in Bristol in early 2014, but had to draw a line somewhere. I felt I needed a little something to fill in pretty much the only hole in my late 2013 calendar and figured that this would be a good opportunity to see what Northampton had to offer while I was at it. As far as I can gather the Biscuit last played here in 1998, and Northampton is hardly on the regular gigging circuit. I'd decided fairly late to attend and the hotel was pleasingly cheap as an additional incentive, then after half-joking that the sightseeing element of the trip would take a matter of minutes I was surprised to discover that there was quite a few things worth seeing. Apart from listening to my homemade greatest hits compilation and the latest record a bit I didn't do much other preparation, and travelled down to the show straight after work on a Friday night. I had to change at Birmingham but was fortunate enough to have a seat the whole way down, and my map was hardly necessary as the walk from the station to the hotel was as simple as could be.
Setlist
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train)
Joy In Leeuwarden (We Are Ready)
A Lilac Harry Quinn
Fuckin' 'Ell It's Fred Titmus
Look Dad No Tunes
Bob Wilson: Anchorman
Used To Be In Evil Gazebo
I Went To A Wedding... [snippet]
Yipps (My Baby Got The)
Petty Sessions
All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit
Totnes Bickering Fair
Tending The Wrong Grave For 23 Years
Irk The Purists
Running Order Squabble Fest
Fix It So She Dreams Of Me
National Shite Day
The Best Things In Life
Vatican Broadside
When The Evening Sun Goes Down
Rock And Roll Is Full Of Bad Wools
Restless Legs
Twenty Four Hour Garage People
We Built This Village On A Trad. Arr. Tune
It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas
Joy Division Oven Gloves
For What Is Chatteris...
New Dawn Fades
A Country Practice
