Nigel talked about the poem Myfanwy, and was possibly gossiping in Welsh about the other band members. He replied to a shout for Descent Of The Stiperstones with the standard “Yeah, that’s one of ours.” They were from Montgomeryshire. After a lot of this banter, someone shouted “Do a song!”“A song? Yeah, a good idea,” said Nigel, and they went into I’m Getting Buried In The Morning. Later that day, more Goth was on the agenda. The Webb live just down the road from HMHB, but they were headlining an evening at The Library in Leeds, called Carpe Noctem. The only Biscuit news was that Joy Division Oven Gloves got a spin during the interval. It felt a bit out of place, but it’s always good to hear. Having parked up in Llangollen, we went out to locate the venue. First Biscuiteer spotted was Andy, who was on his way to catch a ride on the Llangollen And Corwen Heritage Railway alongside the River Dee. Some Jehovahs Witnesses were maintaining a presence outside the venue entrance. We wondered if they might be trying to blag the support slot at the gig. We would find out later if they were successful.

Failing that, why not bribe the musicians at your local folk club to learn a couple of HMHB numbers and inevitably some of them will fall in love with the band and keep learning more? We saw an interesting post from Brian, who was in Warrington at the time. Paul Heaton was playing in the locality, and had put money behind the bar at various pubs to buy drinks for one and all, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Brian took advantage of this kind offer not once but twice. However, he got rumbled on the third attempt. Nice try. Wonder if Nigel will be doing something similar when he hits that landmark?

There were a few more Hellos in the interval. Drew and his mate Chris were down at the front. I’m sure I heard Drew right. They had cycled down from Liverpool. Admirable. And I exchanged waves with Howie who had taken up his place in the mosh pit.

Had an idea it would be something to do with 19th Century murders in the North West or as close as damn it.

The A to Z of HMHB

Tremendous start to new year! I’d assume whilst not ‘a Probe band’ anymore, there’d still be a few on the shelf on 18th Feb then a celebratory pint at the Post Office pub! OK Sue, got a feeling it could be a Birkonian landmark or somewhere within a 50 mile radius but…all will be revealed in just 6 weeks! Mr B also told a tale of his veteran cycling partner leading him up the Bwlch yr Oernant once, but turning right after the Britannia Inn to do the Old Horseshoe [average 13.8% for a fairly straight mile, as opposed to the average 5.5% of the modern route] They were deservedly applauded by all the bikers outside the Ponderosa cafe at the top. At the end of ‘Mountain Bikes’ the final line was – “That’s when I was saying, that’s when I was saying foot golf in the UK would never work.” NB then continued the diatribe after the song, basically advising us not to bother with foot golf, “as you just end up toe-poking the ball”. I can imagine this would irk a football purist with a silky left foot, but sounds fine to me. Scored some fine goals with the old toe-poke, I did. Not that I’m in any hurry to try it, though. In Roger’s report, he mentions NB telling me that my use of “deffo” was probably the first time that word had been used in Stowmarket – it was when I was loudly asserting that foot golf would be an Olympic sport by Qatar 2036. This is not my real opinion. I was in character. There’s plenty of others that could be worked on similarly but this one provides the best range of angles and best, most consistent quality.