ONE of our nation’s great cult bands used to possess a great idiosyncrasy to match – they rarely played gigs on a Friday night.
Why you might ask? Friday is, after all, the unofficial start to the weekend and a longed for full stop on the dredgery of the working week.
So what better way to kick-start the festivities than performing for a host of your most fervent fans?
As, with so many people in so many walks of life, the beautiful game also has a lot of answer to for The Wirral’s Half Man Half Biscuit.
As the Birkenhead counter-culture veterans are long-time Tranmere Rovers fans, a team which traditionally played its home fixtures on… yep you’ve guessed it… a Friday night.
So while the rest of us were donning our best threads for a night on the razzle, frontman Nigel Blackwell and the boys were warming their hands with cups of Bovril and shouting themselves hoarse at Prenton Park.
And if anyone ever doubted their dedication, they even once turned down an appearance on legendary music showcase The Tube as it clashed with a home game.
Alas, the Rovers rarely play their fixtures on a Friday anymore, but it does mean HMHB fans can get their fill of one of indie demi-god John Peel’s all-time favourites on the best night of the week to see a gig (two days to recover and away from the all-day drinking amateurs who blight Saturday nights).
Blending folk, new wave and punk, HMHB are famed for fabulously titled offerings like I Love You Because (You Look Like Jim Reeves), Keeping Teo Chevrons Apart, Dickie Davies Eyes and The Trumpton Riots.
The ingenuinty and humour hasn’t dried up up 25 years on either – their latest LP, CSI: Ambleside, contains such magnificiently-monikered ditties as Took Problem Chimp To Ideal Home Show and Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess.
They should be in buoyant mood at the Academy on Friday night too, Tranmere beat local rivals Stockport in the week and with an away fixture at Crewe to look forward to on Saturday – it’s all gearing up for quite a weekend.

IT’S been a strange six months for Bloc Party.
The staggered release of their more experimental third LP, Intimacy, seemed to misfire while a very public spat with motormouth Sex Pistols’ frontman Johnny Rotten left them shaken.
All in all it means frontman Kele Okereke and the boys find themselves on uncertain ground in 2009, with much to prove.
Thankfully, they’ve always been an awe-inspiring live proposition and with two nights at the Apollo this week (Jan 28/29), it’s time for the talking to be replaced with performances, which reaffirm just why the London-based art-rockers’ passion and intensity captured so many imaginations in the first place.
Departing from their Gang Of Four-esque post-punk, Intimacy is packed with electronic sounds and broken beats, which one imagines, will come to life in a live setting too.
With three albums’ worth of material to draw on, the Apollo crowds should be in for an expansive, full-bodied treat.

IF there were such a prize, CityLife.co.uk would happily award the ‘Funniest Music Interview Of 2008’ gong to Miranda Sawyer.
The Observer Music Monthly feature writer’s piece on the utterly compelling and equally unpredictable Grace Jones was down right hilarious.
After arranging to meet her in a swanky Notting Hill eatery, the Amazonian-like Jamaican proceeding to turn up over two hours late and usher the prim waiter away with the strict instructions to return with shots of sambuca, which Jones quickly polished off.
At the end of the interview, Jones, a woman in her early 60s don’t forget, then grabbed a handful of one of Sawyer’s boobs pulled the stunned journalist in close and proceeded to lock lips with her.
Sawyer, so overwhelmed by such an outlandish display of public affection with one of the world’s greatest icons, was simply bowled over by the sheer chutzpah of the lady.
So goodness knows what fans of Jones can expect when she rocks up at the Apollo on Saturday night to showcase tracks from her first LP in 19 years?
Aptly entitled Hurricane (perhaps Human Hurricane would have been even more appropriate), over the last 40 years the super-model-slash-actress-slash-singer has built a name for herself as one of show businesses true characters – famed for her flamboyant dress sense, erratic behaviour (Russell Harty’s cheeks are probably still smarting from one televised attack) and outspoken antics.
One thing’s for sure, the world would be a much duller place without the former Bond girl and disco diva.
Ticket holders cling on to your seats, the Hurricane is about to blow into town.
*YOU can find out how the show went on CityLife.co.uk from Sunday.

MORRISSEY once said Manchester has a lot to answer for. So does Jools Holland.
As the boogie woogie pianist’s musical showcase has been responsible for putting an increasing numbers of once unknown artists on a rapidly increasing upward trajectory.
KT Tunstall, Adele, Paolo Nutini and more recently electro-pop bright hope Little Boots have all benefited from the shining exposure garnered by appearing on his Friday night staple, Later With…
Yet while the equivalent of career Viagra is perhaps more receptive to young starlets taking their first tentative footsteps in the business, it is more surprising to witness the affect the former Squeeze man’s backing has had on acts longer in the tooth.
One such performer is Seasick Steve.
Born Steve Wold, the former hobo and migrant worker appeared on the 2006 Hootenanny show and his rendition of Dog House Boogie brought the house down and since then the grizzled Californian bluesman hasn’t looked back, starring at festivals all over the world.
His appeal shows no sign of abating either and he returns to Manchester on Friday night for a sold out show at the Apollo to promote the fabulously-named new long-player, I Started Out With Nothing And I Still Got Most Of It Left.
*YOU can read a review of the show on CityLife.co.uk over the weekend.

THE musical spin-off, can be a much-maligned endeavour with even some of the world’s most revered musicians (Mick Jagger, Pete Townsend) coming a cropper when striking out on their own.
For others though, Blur’s Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn are prime examples, time away from the day job can be thoroughly revitalising.
Another contemporary band whose members will return to the fold in 2009 are The Strokes, and like their British counterparts, they too could reap the rewards of various side-projects.
Rhythm guitarist Albert Hammond Jr has long-been an admirably successful solo artist, while Nikolai Fraiture’s Nickel Eye (geddit?) project has been building up a head of steam for a while now.
The third Stroke to chance his arm at a secondary career is drummer Fab Moretti. Joined by Rodrigo Amarante and new beau Binki Shapiro, Little Joy’s debut album hit the shops late last year and they’ll be showcasing tracks from it at Academy 3 on Tuesday.
Their sun-kissed, folk ditties are the polar opposite of The Strokes’ Lower East Side garage rock and should warm the cockles on a chilly January evening nicely.

You can read a review of the show at CityLife.co.uk from Wednesday.

UNDOUBTEDLY, the gloomiest month – in every sense – of the year, the old adage of laughter being the best medicine does ring true.
Especially this weekend, when a host of top notch comics will line-up for your perusal across the city.
One of the circuit’s most single-minded, unforgiving stand-ups, Adam Bloom is current in the middle of four-night residency, which ends at the Comedy Store on Saturday and his sometimes caustic, yet utterly original material is a breath of fresh in a frequently tired and cluttered genre and it has taken him to festivals all over the world.
Elsewhere, Radio 4 favourite Robin Ince brings his tales of childbirth, astronomy and evolution to The Lowry on Saturday with as part of his Bleeding Heart Liberal.
At the same venue the next night the multi-awarding Welsh misery Rhod Gilbert (pictured) is back in town with a brand new show, The Award-Winning Mince Pie.
If.comedy-nominated, this cautionary yarn is about a mince pie that almost sent him over the edge.
Finally, further afield 8 Out Of 10 Cats captain Jason Manford will continue his well-received return to stand-up at Warrington Parr on Sunday and grand-daddy of them all, Knotty Ash master Ken Dodd will have his sprightly tickling stick in tow at Stockport Plaza the same evening.
*You can read reviews of Bloom’s, Gilbert’s, Manford’s and Ince’s shows on CityLife over the next fews days.

ONE of the current musical trends all fans seem happy to follow, Manchester punk survivors the Buzzcocks will return home on Friday and play their two most lauded albums back-to-back.
Following in the prestigious footsteps of Brian Wilson, Teenage Fanclub and Sonic Youth to name but three, Pete Shelley and Co will race through at typically breakneck speed their first two offerings, Another Music In A Different Kitchen and Love Bites.
And if that isn’t enticing enough for Buzzcock aficionados, then they’ll finish with a flourish of hits from the rest of their back-catalogue – not a bad way to round of the working week is it?
Inspired by the former Beach Boy Wilson’s beautifully recreating Pet Sounds at the Royal Festival Hall some years ago, Shelley recently told CityLife he’d also done it as he was sick of people chiding him for not playing long forgotten album tracks at the end of tour dates – despite their more than ample 30-strong set.
Friday’s mix should suit all tastes then.
Click here to read the full interview with Shelley and check back on the site over the weekend for a review of the show.

ONE of the circuit’s most single-minded, unforgiving stand-ups, Adam Bloom informed his parents of his projected comedy career path at the tender age of 10.
Seven sell-out runs in Edinburgh and fervent backing from such contrasting luminaries as Ricky Gervais and Sir Ian McKellen later and the mirth master has fulfilled this outlandish prediction with some style.
His sometimes caustic, yet utterly original material is a breath of fresh in a frequently tired and cluttered genre and it has taken him to festivals all over the world.
A regular panel show guest, Bloom has also penned a three series of ‘The Problem with Adam Bloom’ for BBC Radio 4.
If you are struggling to raise a smile with the deluge of daily doom and gloom currently being liberally tipped over us by the media, then a night out with Bloom could be just the ticket.
On Wednesday he’ll be joined by 2008 if.comedy Best Newcomer winner Sarah Milican and Kevin Bridges, Thursday will see Bridges joined by an open spot and former Xfm Breakfast Show host Paul Tonkinson will complete the line-up for the weekend shows.
*YOU will be able to review of Bloom’s first night on CityLife.co.uk

WHAT had you achieved by the age of 19? Passed your A-levels? Started university or work? Bought a house? Got married? All very possible. No many teenagers can claim to have achieved the following though:
- Top the US Billboard charts
- Released two hit albums
- Starred in hit TV series The O.C
- Sold out the M.E.N. Arena as well as a host of other hangar-like venues
Somewhat depressingly for the rest of us mere mortals, R&B whizz kid Chris Brown has achieved all of this and more.
And to top it all, he pulled it off after a tough start in a down-at-the-heel neighbourhood in Virginia’s Tappahannock.
He makes his M.E.N. Arena bow on Saturday to promote second long-player, Exclusive, in what will be the first big gig here of 2009.
Like so many of these prococious American starlets, Brown started early, very early.
A dancer from the age of two and went on to sign a record contract at the age of 15, putting out his self-titled debut offering in 2005.
Continuing the lineage began by Jacko and continued by Usher, Brown should dance the feet off the Hunts Bank venue this weekend.