Half Man Half Biscuit @ Roadmender, Northampton

Before life changed immeasurably and I like most of the rest of the world had to go into lockdown, I went to see a band I'd barely heard of, at a venue i'd never been too..

Saturday 15th Feb seems a world away now, it was cold, blustery and dark, a typical British Feb evening then. Indeed life was normal. A friend and I, on his recommendation, decided to see Half Man Half Biscuit, one of Britain's unsung bands, one of our Top 100 cult heroes (according to Mojo Magazine at least) and a band that has outlived most other Post-Punk/Indie bands that started around the same time. It's also a band I'd virtually never heard as being a Nineties kid meant I missed Post-Punk and the early Indie bands outside of The Smiths and The Jam (who had been revered by my Britpop heroes at the time). It was a first in more ways than one tonight, being also my first visit to Roadmender, Northampton's and indeed the East Midland's premier venue for live music, particularly for touring bands and a venue that down the years has hosted The Smiths, Primal Scream, Radiohead, Metallica and Oasis.

HMHB - as i'll refer to them from now on - hail from Birkenhead, Liverpool and formed in 1984. Led by football mad singer/songwriter Nigel Blackwell, a year later they released their debut Back In The DHSS which topped the UK Indie Chart, received some good reviews and garnering the support of DJ John Peel; it is an album chock full of catchy post-punk gems with great pop-culture references from the time. They then took 1987 - 1990 off for fear of getting "too successful" before returning with a series of albums over twenty almost successful years, and with songs such as the hilarious "Joy Division Oven Gloves".

The gig was a fantastically enjoyable 90min blast of tight, acerbic post-punk/indie rock, musically not too unlike other Indie Post-punk bands The Jam and The Smiths but without the seriousness of the former or the self-pitying of the latter. And with the humour turned upto 11! Roadmender itself reminded me of some old venues I've been to in London, particularly the Astoria which sadly no longer exists, a good old fashioned small club where the place is packed and the atmosphere electric.

HMHB are a good reminder that there are many singers and bands who have largely been forgotten by mainstream media and for what ever reason didn't quite capture the mood or zeitgeist of the time. As they finish with "Everything's A.O.R.", bemoaning "how does your CD collection grow. With Sade and Whitey", it's a reminder that perhaps there's more fun to be had away from the same predictable mainstream artists and also...definitely a reminder not to take life too seriously!