supporting
Half Man Half Biscuit at
The Cheese and Grain, Frome
Wednesday 28th February 2007
review
| pics
| event
details
The Mangledwurzels managed to wangle a support slot at legendary
cult band Half
Man Half Biscuit gig at the Cheese &
Grain in Frome. HMHB don't gig too often, so it was a privilege
to provide the support for them in Frome. And we got to
see them perform for free - and had a long chat with the
band after the gig. How cool is that!
This
was organised very much at the last minute and was only
confirmed two days before the gig. As a result the HMHB
fans (who seemed to have descended from across the country)
had no warning as to what the support was until we hit the
stage. Playing
support to a post-punk band whose fans are brought up on
a diet of NME journalism was rather challenging. Still,
we crammed the best known Wurzels songs and our most accessible
Mangled songs into a short set and hoped for the best...
Here
are their comments, as reviewed on the HMHB
website:
...Had
a quick pint in bar downstairs, portion of chips over
the road, then got to the Cheese and Grain for 8pm, which
is essentially a well equipped large barn-like hall, and
eagerly awaited the support, a Wurzels tribute band called
the Mangled Wurzels....The Mangled Wurzels were vaguely
amusing for about half a song before the joke ran thin,
and the locals didn't seem too enthralled by their presence
either. [Gav Gotti]
Spoken
like a true music journo. Bored after half a song (about
90 seconds!) - speaks volumes... We're just not cool enough
for you, are we Gav? Ah well, can't win 'em all!
...I
also popped in to The Crown and The Blue Boar before heading
for the venue in time for the Mangled Wurzels. They did
an OK job, but as with all covers bands I wonder how much
mileage there is in what they do. [Roger Green]
'An
OK job'? Well 'OK' is good enough for us. How much mileage?
Several thousand miles a year, since you ask, Roger.
I
don’t often refer to the support, but ‘The
Mangled Wurzels’ deserve a mention...I am proud/ashamed
to confess that I knew the four Wurzels tracks when they
chimed in, but the novelty came with the three bastardized
uber-tribute songs. With apologies to the Sting, we had
a version of ‘Walking on the Moon’ that became
‘Walkin’ ‘Cross The Yard’. The
Stones would need to be stoned to fully appreciate ‘Hey,
Hey, You, You, Get Orf’a My Land’. Finally,
the Postman Pat harmony was used for a pop at 'Scrumpy
Jack', which is a load of cack. Draw your own conclusions.
[Mike Cresswell]
The set was designed to entertain and amuse a crowd who
came to hear something completely different; and Mike's
comment showed that we got though to some of the HMHB fans
- I don't think we could ask for a more positive review!
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The
Mangledwurzels on action on stage |
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The Mangledwurzels on action on stage |
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Hedge
Cutter in action on stage
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Hedge
Cutter and Seth Pitt in action on stage
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Jethro
Tool |
Seth
Pitt |
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Hedge
Cutter and Jethro Tool in action on stage |
Hedge Cutter |
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Rosie
Russett happily manning the MangledShop all night |
HMHB
fans totally bemused by The Mangledwurzels performance! |
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Support
slot
Thanks
to the promoter (whose name eludes me for the moment)
for giving us the slot, Geoff Davies at Probe Plus
(HMHB's management) for giving the thumbs up to the
idea - and especially to Nigel Blackwell and the rest
of HMHB for making us most welcome. Great to see that
there are some genuinely nice guys at the sharp end
of the music industry!
Rosie
would like to thanks 'Mrs Biscuit' (Nigel's wife)
for being equally friendly and approachable as they
worked side-by-side on the merchandising stalls.
And
many thanks to Paul Mancini who got into the gig for
free on the pretext that he would act as roadie but
was really there to take loads of pictures for us
to remember the night.
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Venue
Info
The
Cheese & Grain, Market Yard, Frome, Somerset
BA11 1BE
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