Eliza Carthy says a song to define 'Englishness' is HMHB's A Country Practice

Posted by: Guido Fawkes on 19 March 2008

Eliza Carthy on Half Man Half Biscuit: A Country Practice
quote:
This is from their album Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral. More than Anne Briggs, Ian Dury and Queen, who I'm a massive fan of, this makes me think of Englishness. It's incredibly wordy and conversational, with Nigel Blackwell talking over beats and making up almost nursery rhymes. In this song, Blackwell goes all over the country to pick apart English people at our basest: trying to be famous or making money living on the streets rearing fat cows. Then at the end, there's a little old lady in front of the TV watching the millennium fireworks. As Sting plays on the roof of the Barbican, she dies alone because there are no hospital beds for the poor and she's got no family. The song seems over-clever and flippant, but it's bitter and very funny, which is very English: pathos disguised by wit and emotional detachment. It's like a camera flying over the country, zooming in and out; like watching a film of England.


The article is here

I couldn't find the track Eliza describes on-line, but here is Paintball's Coming Home - what I want to know is how did Nigel know so much about my neighbours.

ATB Rotf
Posted on: 19 March 2008 by rupert bear
Your neighbours?

I don't know about that one, but first thing this morning I was listening to 'The Imagined Village' CD and especially Eliza's song 'Acres of Ground'. Really really good - as is the whole album.
Posted on: 20 March 2008 by Shayman
A Country Practice is a fine example of mad, rambling, beat poetry.

HMHB at their creative best. How on earth do you come up with lyrics like.....

"Channel 4 presents 'Blowjob',
Introduced by Adrian and Sophie Horn
Who is of course one bloke with a pierced dick who's just had the nod from Planet 24.
Hear him say "surreal", "bizarre", "sad git", "yes indeedy", "completely and utterly", "footy", "anorak" and "respect", before whipping the audience up into doing the Tiemwarp.

Watch him take us live to the 'Queen's Arse and Firkin'
Where Joseph Bloggs and his Amazing Technicolour Shell-suit
Are about to abort their Steely Dan routine
and instead embark on 15 minutes of mantra-filled Ooompah"

Jonathan
Posted on: 20 March 2008 by Guido Fawkes
quote:
A Country Practice


In it's full glory .........

I feel like a beggar accepting alms
Then being pelted with figs
I study my steadily declining chart placings
They greet me with freezing cold inhospitality
Hey, where did that bloke go who said I was vital?

I possess the mild air of a retail tobacconist
That’s because I’m a retail tobacconist
But the mayflies on a Berkshire trout river
Would probably tell you a different story
About ham-fisted diadems and momentary daydreams
Of mythical dividends and illusory boardroom seats

In the room festooned with fat beef certificates
From county shows
Duff Leg Bryn had drank too much again
Most of Wem was steering clear of him
I’ve got no time for this twelfth consecutive Rose Bowl

‘Cos at Sunday next at ten to four
I’ve got an invitation for
A trip around Katharine Hamnett’s warehouse
Followed by dinner with David Emmanuel
Who I can’t wait to tell about my dream
In which the almost illegal Elton Welsby
Is dressed as a french maid on a moonless byway
Licking his lips as he creeps ever closer
Fast falls the eventide
Fast falls the eventide

The public appearance of bitter ex-soap stars
Who thought they could go on and do other things beside
The Centre Court amusement at the ballboy’s mishap
That bobbing up and down thing that they do at the Proms
Opinionated weather forecasters telling me it’s going to be a miserable day
Miserable to who? I quite like a bit of drizzle, so stick to the facts

Insert Jonathan's text here


Fifteen minutes of mantra-filled oompah
Fifteen minutes of mantra-filled oompah

Adrian-stroke-Sophie wants us, the viewers, to ring in
And say how we think the punters will react

These are a few of my favourite things…

I’m incredibly bored with the word “millennium”
I’m with the Jehovah’s Witnesses
Millions now earmarked will later be wasted
Her Majesty, marvellous, mother the musical
The fireworks lighting up the Houses of Parliament
Death in Trafalgar Square, death in the armchair
Of cliched old spinsters who never been loved
Every day is Australia day
“Sons and Daughters” and “Home and Away”
And then the news comes on and the sound goes down
‘Cos she can’t be bothered with all them politicians
They’re all just a bunch of flaming drongos

She died with her telly on, eighty-seven and confused
With not enough hospital beds ‘cos all the money’s been used
On the end of the century party preparations
And they reckon that the last thing she saw in her life was
Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican
Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican

T for Toxteth, T for Tennessee
T for Toxteth, T for Tennessee
T for Thatcher, that girl that made a wreck out of me

Odelaydee labelled me an idle
Odelaydee labelled me an idle
Odelaydee labelled me an idle layabout
Layabout
Layabout
Posted on: 20 March 2008 by Guido Fawkes
I think HMHB had one of the best ever synopsis of why it has been difficult for Britain to feel an integrated part of the European Union

Oh you can’t put your foot up in Europe
You can’t show your studs on the ‘nent
They take a dim view
Of a slightly raised shoe
So think on if you’re up against Ghent.