Back in the D.H.S.S.

Chronique

The sole album released by Liverpool indie outfit Half Man Half Biscuit in their original 1984-1986 incarnation, Back in the DHSS is one of the signature albums of what retroactively became known as the C-86 movement. (The name comes from a promotional cassette put out by the New Musical Express; HMHB's "I Hate Nerys Hughes," included here, was one of its 22 tracks.) Yet even here, the quirks and eccentricities of the band and primary songwriter Nigel Blackwell are on full display: opening track "God Gave Us Life" is a call and response singalong based on Paul's letter to the Ephesians, interpolating any number of reasons why one should not be pleased with God for this fact, mostly including television variety presenters and sitcom actors. At once, then, the two primary threads of Blackwell's songwriting are introduced: a fondness for old Church of England hymns and church social songs, and snarky put-downs of exceedingly minor British celebrities. The band's website helpfully offers album by album explanations of just who these people are, but the band's gift for scrappy, Fall-like post-punk guitar pop riffs and instantly memorable vocal hooks make the songs minor classics all on their own. Shouting "Fuckin' 'Ell, It's Fred Titmus" is fun whether one knows that Titmus was a star cricketer or not, and the goofy dance craze pastiche "The Len Ganley Stance" doesn't require the amazingly arcane knowledge that Ganley was the referee on a televised snooker program.
This incarnation of Half Man Half Biscuit was a five-piece that included Nigel's brother Simon Blackwell on synthesizer. Simon's rattley, monophonic, lo-fi additions to the band's sound nodded back to the first wave of U.K. post-punk acts; no fancy Prophet V setups or MIDI sequencers for him. He's even more prominent on the band's first EP, The Trumpton Riots. This five-song set is probably the single most essential Half Man Half Biscuit item, featuring no fewer than three of the band's most beloved songs in the title track (imagining civil disobedience in the midst of an old sitcom about a hapless local fire brigade), the remarkably snarky "Albert Hammond Bootleg," and perhaps the band's most famous song, "All I Want for Christmas Is a Dukla Prague Away Kit." A semi-mournful childhood remembrance of the neighborhood rich kid who always had the latest toys, the song introduced a generation of American fans to the weedy tabletop football game Subbuteo and has maintained a cult level of interest in an otherwise obscure Czech football team ever since its release. (Online retailers selling replica Dukla Prague shirts never fail to mention the song on their sites.) This CD edition collects the entirety of both LP and EP, adding two extra songs (the folky instrumental "Busy Little Market Town," based on the theme song of the aforementioned TV series Trumpton, and the slight but charming "I Left My Heart in Papworth General") and new liner notes. There is plenty more where this came from, but this CD is the essential starting point for all new Half Man Half Biscuit fans.

© Stewart Mason /TiVo