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Risk it for a Biscuit…...

Half Man Half Biscuit are a truly genuine band, blessed with a magical capacity to make the most jaded of listeners fall back in love with music again. Witty and dry, sardonic yet never cynical, these four lads who shook the Wirral remain an undiscovered national treasure.

Famed for making ill-tempered music with a social conscience, Half Man Half Biscuit, formed in the early eighties, ‘merely as a way of getting through the day’. In 1985, the band sat at the top of the indie album chart with an album that had been recorded in just a couple of days and for around £30. ‘Back In The DHSS’ became an instant success after it was championed by the late John Peel, for whom they did a total of 12 sessions over the years. As soon as he heard the white label test pressing, he was smitten. In his words, “It came at a time when music in general was starting to get a little bit po-faced”. Quickly picked up by the angst-ridden youth of the eighties, their punk driven, lyrical rants, and protests against all things celebrity and fake, became the unofficial anthems of the underground.

According to lyricist Nigel Blackwell, the reason he started writing songs, was due to the fact, that when he left school in Birkenhead, the only other option was to become a heroin addict. Nigel’s surreal observations on everyday life, set to a punk, garage and indie rock soundtrack, include song titles such as, ‘He Who Would Valium take’, ‘National Shite Day’ ‘Hair Like Brian May Blues’ and ‘The Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train)’.

“If Half Man Half Biscuit did not exist, it would be imperative to invent them… they are a counterblast to the processes of modern life” – The Quietus.

Andy Kershaw has described Half Man Half Biscuit as "the most authentic British folk band since The Clash", while Eliza Carthy praised the band for their "pathos disguised with wit and sarcasm", and described Blackwell as a "genius”. Despite making the top 40 album charts, their latest album Urge For Offal has been ignored in the reviews section of almost every major newspaper and magazine, however Guardian readers were impressed enough to make it their Readers’ Album Of The Year, 2014.

So grab your Joy Division Oven Gloves and don your Dukla Prague away kit, The Biscuit are coming to Bury St Edmunds!

The gig at The Apex is on Friday 12 June at 8pm. Tickets are £20 in advance, call the Box Office on 01284 758000, or visit www.theapex.co.uk for more information, or to book your tickets.