The Curse of HMHB?

Been mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit song? Be afraid.....


Titmus, Fred

first mentioned 07/10/1985 – died 23/03/2011

outliving the curse by 25 years and 167 days



Bongo, Ali

07/10/1985 – died 08/03/2009

23 years and 152 days



Kitt, Eartha

07/10/1985 – 25/12/2008

23 years and 79 days



Bastable, Tony

07/10/1985 – 25/05/2007

21 years and 230 days



Puskas, Ferenc

??/01/1986 – 17/11/2006

c.20 years and 300 days



Farm, George

??/01/1986 – 18/07/2004

c.19 years and 180 days



Quinn, Harry

??/10/1991 – 1/10/2009

c.18 years



Hird, Thora

07/10/1985 – 15/03/2003

17 years and 159 days



Mount, Peggy

07/10/1985 – 13/11/2001

16 years and 37 days



Wolstenholme, Kenneth

03/03/1986* – 25/03/2002

16 years and 22 days



Moore, Brian

08/09/1986* – 01/09/2001

14 years and 359 days



Roddick, Anita

25/10/1993 – 10/09/2007

13 years and 320 days



Vandross, Luther

??/10/1991 – 01/07/2005

c.13 years and 260 days



Hull, Rod

08/09/1986* – 17/03/1999

12 years and 190 days



Vine, David

02/02/1997 – 11/01/2009

11 years and 343 days



Spencer, Di

??/01/1986 – 31/08/1997

c.11 years and 230 days



Beefheart, Captain

25/04/2000 – 17/12/2010

10 years and 236 days



Most, Mickey

25/10/1993 – 30/05/2003

9 years and 217 days



Ball, Ernie

??/06(?)/1995 – 09/09/2004

c.9 years and 90 days



Rayner, Claire

04/08/2003 – 11/10/2010

7 years and 68 days



Todd, Bob

07/10/1985 – 21/10/1992

7 years and 14 days



Mortensen, Stanley

??/01/1986 – 22/05/1991

c.5 years and 130 days



Jackson, Gordon

07/10/1985 – 15/01/1990

4 years and 100 days



Yashin, Lev

??/01/1986 – 20/03/1990

c.4 years and 60 days



Pope JP2

25/06/2001 – 02/04/2005

3 years and 281 days



Queen Mother, The

29/06/1998 – 30/03/2002

3 years and 274 days



Monopoly, Tony

??/10/1991 – 21/03/1995

c.3 years and 160 days



Gerulaitis, Vitas

??/10/1991 – 17/09/1994

c.2 years and 340 days



Dali, Salvador

08/09/1986* – 23/01/1989

2 years and 138 days



Savalas, Telly

??/10/1991 – 22/01/1994

c.2 years and 100 days



Lee, Arthur

26/09/2004 – 03/08/2006

1 year and 311 days



Warhol, Andy

07/10/1985 – 22/02/1987

1 year and 138 days



Rushton, Willie

05/08/1995* – 18/08/1996

1 year and 14 days



Moult, Ted

20/11/1985* – 03/09/1986

287 days



Rous, Stanley

??/01/1986 – 18/07/1986

c.180 days



*Peel session dates have been given, if these preceded the particular track going on sale.

Courtesy of:
Those No Longer In Need Of Season Tickets


From: Half Man Half Biscuit: Those No Longer In Need Of Season Tickets - lyrics http://www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/because-i-aint-got-a-job/those-no-longer-in-need-of-season-tickets/#ixzz1IB9u6fiu

Godzilla in Mexico by Roberto Bolaño

Listen carefully, my son: bombs were falling
over Mexico City
but no one even noticed.
The air carried poison through
the streets and open windows.
You'd just finished eating and were watching
cartoons on TV.
I was reading in the bedroom next door
when I realized we were going to die.
Despite the dizziness and nausea I dragged myself
to the kitchen and found you on the floor.
We hugged. You asked what was happening
and I didn't tell you we were on death's program
but instead that we were going on a journey,
one more, together, and that you shouldn't be afraid.
When it left, death didn't even
close our eyes.
What are we? you asked a week or year later,
ants, bees, wrong numbers
in the big rotten soup of chance?
We're human beings, my son, almost birds,
public heroes and secrets.

Popcorn Superhet Receiver

The Magik*Magik Or­ches­tra per­forms Jon­ny Green­wood's "Pop­corn Su­per­het Re­ceiv­er" at Herb­st The­atre as part of the Word­less Mu­sic Se­ries on Au­gust 21st, 2008. Con­duc­tor: Beni Shwartz.

Nathaniel Mellors- 'Our House'

If there was any justice in the world Nathaniel Mellors' insanely brilliant 'Contemporary Art Soap' would be on telly, every night, with an omnibus on sundays. NOW SAY 'MOUTH'!

'Ourhouse' trailer 02 from NOMAD on Vimeo.
'Ourhouse' from NOMAD on Vimeo.
'Ourhouse' trailer 01 from NOMAD on Vimeo.
'Ourhouse' from NOMAD on Vimeo.
'Ourhouse' trailer 03 from NOMAD on Vimeo.
'Ourhouse' from NOMAD on Vimeo.

Susan Hiller - Magic Lantern 1987 (Audio)

If you close your eyes and imagine 3 coloured circles, gradually growing and changing (see pic), then you too can re-create Susan Hiller's fantastic 'Magic Lantern' art work in your own home. The 'Voices of the Dead' come from a Freebie flexi-disc that came with issue 1 of The Unexplained magazine from the early 80's (vid here). Being forced to listen to it as a 10 year old by my older brother was pure nightmare fuel and it was duly chucked in the bin. I'd completely forgotten about it until 30 years later when I experienced 'Magic Lantern' at Tate Britain in 2011. Scary.

Susan Hiller - Magic Lantern, 1987 .mp3
Found at bee mp3 search engine

Slow Action by Ben Rivers

Saw the whole of this recently at Matt's Gallery in London and it blew me away- wish it was available on DVD!

Slow Action, Ben Rivers from Kate MacGarry on Vimeo.


Slow Action is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film that brings together a series of four 16mm works which exist somewhere between documentary, ethnographic study and fiction.

Continuing his exploration of curious and extraordinary environments, Slow Action applies the idea of island biogeography - the study of how species and eco-systems evolve differently when isolated and surrounded by unsuitable habitat - to a conception of the Earth in a few hundred years; the sea level rising to absurd heights, creating hyperbolic utopias that appear as possible future mini-societies.

Slow Action is filmed at different sites across the globe: Lanzarote - a beautiful strange island known for its beach resorts yet one of the driest places on the planet, full of dead volcanoes and strange architecture; Gunkanjima - an island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan, a deserted city built on a rock, once home to thousands of families mining its rich coal reserves; Tuvalu - one of the smallest countries in the world, with tiny strips of land barely above sea level in the middle of the Pacific; and Somerset - an as yet to be discovered island and its various clades.

This series of constructed realities explores the environments of self-contained lands and the search for information to enable the reconstruction of soon to be lost worlds.

The film’s soundtrack - narratives by writer Mark von Schlegell - detail each of the four islands’ evolutions according to their geographical, geological, climatic and botanical conditions.

Slow Action, inspired by novels such as Samuel Butler’s Erewhon, Bacon’s The New Atlantis, Herbert Read’s The Green Child and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, embodies the spirit of exploration, experiment and active research that has come to characterise Rivers’ practice.