Half Man Half Biscuit came together as an acerbic post-punk outfit in Birkenhead, England during 1984, with singer/guitarist Nigel Blackwell, his guitarist brother Si, bassist Neil Crossley, and drummer Paul Wright among the founding members. Still largely unknown, the group laid down its first album, Back in the D.H.S.S., in 1985. Once issued, the record established the five-piece through its razor-sharp, biting lyrical content and drew approval from veteran broadcaster John Peel. It promptly reached the summit of the U.K. indie charts and finished as the top-selling independent release of 1986, demonstrating the band’s knack for addressing unemployment and other social ills beneath layers of barbed humor. The 1986 EP Trumpton Riots also climbed to number one, yet Half Man Half Biscuit avoided wider exposure, turning down multiple television invitations; even after scoring a major hit with the single “Dickie Davies’ Eyes,” the group declared its dissolution in autumn 1986. A 1987 compilation of B-sides and unreleased material appeared under the title Back Again in the D.H.S.S. In 1990 the Blackwell brothers and Crossley revived the project, which delivered the album McIntyre, Treadmore & Davitt the following year. This Leaden Pall, the next full-length, coincided with the exits of Wright and Lloyd, after which Blackwell’s brother Simon departed in 1992. Carl Alty and Ian S. Jackson stepped in on drums and guitar respectively, only to leave in 1996, at which point Carl Henry took over drums and Ken Hancock joined on guitar. The revised lineup ushered in an extended stretch of stability that yielded fresh recordings every few years. The band’s thirteenth album, Urge for Offal, arrived in 2014, followed in 2016 by And Some Fell on Stony Ground, a set of non-album tracks, B-sides, and EP cuts that balanced humor with bleakness in the manner of earlier Half Man Half Biscuit releases. Their fourteenth LP, No-one Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin Hedge Cut, surfaced in 2018.
