Half Man Half Biscuit - Back In The D.H.S.S.
Ripped from a vinyl album released on Probe Plus Records (PROBE 4) in 1985 to high resolution 24-bit lossless flac audio. Here is a seriously good upgrade and re-rip to 24-bit of my post from a few years back. For penguinflight.
Unless you were growing up in mid-eighties Britain with a love of John Peel or the Liverpool pub circuit, Half Man Half Biscuit would make no sense. According to Google statistics, 72% of this blog's readership come from outside the UK, so in a brief and probably disastrous attempt, here is the unofficial ESWA Half Man Half Biscuit glossary of terms, brands and personalities.
D.H.S.S. : The Department of Health and Social Security better known as the dole, or for our American friends, just Welfare.
God : the late Bill Shankly, former manager of Liverpool FC, John Peel's favourite football team, not that the Biscuits cared - they supported minnows Tranmere FC, or old man with a beard.
Una Stubbs : stylish twee English actress whose fame waned as the years progressed.
Nerys Hughes: bland Welsh actress who featured in bland TV sitcoms after original success as a Liver Bird.
Little And Large : unfunny eighties comedians, the poor man's Two Ronnies.
Keith Harris : ventriloquist who found dubious fame with a green duck doll in a nappy.
Wendy Craig : talented and popular British sitcom actress.
Thora Hird : TV actress well known for being old.
Mathew Kelly : camp bearded Liverpudlian TV personality from the eighties.
Len Ganley : a snooker referee known for his great precision in re-spotting the pink or black.
Lionel Blair : camp elderly male dancer and eighties TV celebrity, or cockney rhyming slang for flared trousers.
Fred Titmus : famous cricketing all-rounder. Shame on you if you don't know cricket.
Peggy Mount : as Thora Hird
Tony Bastable : presenter of Magpie, a rival TV show to Blue Peter.
Lech Walesa : Polish revolutionary and dock worker.
Shake'n'Vac : It puts the freshness back - dubious carcinogenic carpet deodorant.
Lenor : brand of fabric conditioner. Almost too soft for words.
Sealclubbing : popular, brutal and very one-sided Canadian blood-sport.
Haliborange: a brand of fruit flavoured vitamin pill given to small children, to make them even more hyper.
Bob Todd : popular sixties comedy actor with prominent features and scary eyes.
Ali Bongo : seventies kids TV magician, or the current ruler of Gabon.
Triangles From A Cow : we all love Dairylea! Heavily processed cheese triangles wrapped in foil which are allegedly good for children.
Fiver : the British £5 pound note
Slag : waste material from the mining industry, or a slang for a person who sleeps around.
Blue Peter : British tv kids magazine show and rival to Magpie.
John Noakes : male presenter of Blue Peter, often portrayed as a bit of a klutz.
Jimmy Clitheroe : Forties British entertainer from Clitheroe, near Blackpool.
Fiorucci : expensive Italian designer jeans brand or just a cured sausage.
Lesley Judd : female presenter of Blue Peter, and very popular with young boys of the day.
Whiskas : best selling British cat food brand.
Trumpton : imaginary village in popular seventies British children's television.
Chigley : a rival village just down the road from Trumpton. There were never any skinheads in Chigley.
Camberwick Green : a village on the other side of Trumpton.
Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb : bold members of the Trumpton fire department.
Careful with that spliff Eugene : a play on words from a lengthy Pink Floyd track.
C & A : Dutch chain store retailer of dull clothing who withdrew from the UK due to poor sales.
Arctic Roll : Tubular-shaped sponge cake filled with jam and vanilla ice cream. Yum!
A1 God Gave Us Life
A2 "Fuckin' 'Ell, It's Fred Titmus"
A3 Sealclubbing
A4 99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd
A5 Time Flies By (When You're A Driver Of A Train)
B1 I Hate Nerys Hughes - From The Heart
B2 The Len Ganley Stance
B3 Venus In Flares
B4 I Love You Because (You Look Like Jim Reeves)
B5 Reflections In A Flat
