Tag Archives: Half Man Half Biscuit

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds reissues: Tender Prey / The Good Son / Henry’s Dream

Last week saw the release of the second installment of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds re-issues. In addition to the first four albums rereleased last year, now Tender Prey, The Good Son and Henry’s Dream have all been given a makeover. As well as the remastered albums on CD, each also comes with a DVD. The DVD contains the album in 5.1 (for those interested in such), bonus songs, videos and an episode of the Do You Love Me? series of documentaries about each album, comprised of interviews with band members, associates, friends, lovers, fans, journalists etc. If you have been listening to Eclectic Mainline for the past few weeks, you will have heard me play several songs from these reissues, and if you listened last week, you will have heard me play one tune from each.  In terms of the remastering, they really have improved the sound terrifically.  I’ve always felt that some of The Bad Seeds’ albums from this period sounded a bit too toppy, and these new remasters have really warmed up the sound.

Tender Prey

Tender Prey

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Half Man Half Biscuit – Leeds University – Stylus – 15th October 2009

If you bumped in to British radio stalwart Andy Kershaw and asked him about Half Man Half Biscuit, he’d tell you that they are “our greatest folk band”

While this is probably a reference to the way in which Nigel Blackwell’s lyrics concern themselves with the minutiae of everyday life, the thought of a 24th Century version of Cecil Sharp House staffed with legions of reverent, bearded men in tweed jackets, brows furrowed in concentration, trying to divine the historical significance of lines like “There’s a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets” (from “National Shite Day “) or “Neil Morrisey’s a nobhead” (from “Bottleneck at Capel Curig”) is a warming one.

Half Man Half Biscuit at Leeds Stylus

Half Man Half Biscuit at Leeds Stylus

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Eclectic Mainline 14th October 2009

Half Man Half Biscuit

Half Man Half Biscuit

Well, in my last blog post I spouted off about the new album by Fuck Buttons, so I won’t go on about that again now.  There are a few wonderful things out at the moment:  Daniel Johnston‘s new album has whetted my appetite for seeing him at the Brudenel in Leeds on 6th November;  the b-side to the new Slow Club single (Trophy Room) is a hidden gem; a new EP by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart is a welcome surprise; and the new single by Frightened Rabbit bodes well for the third album; and to top it all Half Man Half Biscuit are playing at the Stylus in Leeds tomorrow night!

This is what I played tonight:

Chicken Feed – Lights Out (feat. Hazel Mills)
Neil McSweeney – Half A Mind
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Higher Than The Stars
Gable – I’m OK
Daniel Johnston – Queenie The Doggie
Fuck Buttons – Phantom Limb
Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land
Richard Hawley – For Your Lover Give Some Time
Hefner – Christian Girls (Boxing Version)
Slow Club – Thighs
Paper Planes – Doris Day
Emily Loizeau – La Femme a Barbe
Half Man Half Biscuit – Irk The Purists
Echo & The Bunnymen – Shroud Of Turin
Nancy Elizabeth – Bring On The Hurricane
The Horrors – Whole New Way