I was considering posting.

Have got 'Back In The DHSS' which I understand to be just about the best place to start, but for the sake of both of us:
Where do we go now?

Nigel Blackwell is the mainman, but they are a band. As for recommendations, I'm not the man to ask. I've only got Trouble Over Bridgwater. I chose it on the strength of it's title!

because of the cultural references. If you don't know Trumpton or Dickie Davies, or if you don't like football, then it probably isn't for you to be honest.

Have a bash at this.

CSI Ambleside - which they released in 2008 - is as good a place as any. The cultural references are more up to date and the production is nice and clear so you can hear the lyrics (always important for HMHB). Their earlier stuff sounds a bit tinny to the modern ear.

You can get most of their albums on eMusic. If you take advantage of an eMusic introductory offer then you can get them for next to nowt.

Enjoy.

..advertising a 'HOSPICE QUIZ NIGHT'. It sounded like the best HMHB song title there never was.

has the best tunes

They're all good and as Nigel remarked in a recent WORD interview the songs have become more bitter as time has progressed. For me, my favourite is "This Leaden Pall" which includes the classic "Running Order Squabble Fest". The site below contains all the lyrical references that the songs make and can be quite useful to the neophyte!
http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/

Eseentials:

Back In The DHSS - if you have any memory of the 80's this will still hit home. Never mind the ramshackle playing and the strictly demo lack of fi, it's a riot

This Leaden Pall - probably the bleakest album, containing the most overtly political thing they have ever done (Turned On, clocked On, Laid Off). However, it also contains Running Order Squabble Fest and Improv Worskhop Mimeshow Gobshite

Trouble Over Bridgewater - provides 24 Hour Garage People and the ultimate rebuff to Nick Drake wannabes (Used To Be In Evil Gazebo)

CSI Ambleside - chock full of interesting lyrical flights like National Shite Day and Blue Badge Abuser and the slightly tangential (but great) Took Problem Chimp To The Ideal Home Show.

Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral - if only for the deliriously good A Country Practice, including the song lyric that inspired the name of my insipid blog.

Cammell Laird Social Club - The Referee's Alphabet and Breaking News - genius. I know that 'genius' gets overused, but this really is. Kershaw's right, it really is true modern day folk music. It also happens to be hilarious.

All of the rest (and there are several) are worth a listen, though I happen to think Some Call It Godcore is their weakest album overall, superb final track notwithstanding.

All this said, if you are looking for virtuoso muso playing, this ain't the place, though they have got markedly better over the years and picked up a variety of interesting influences (including old gospel and Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie). I lent a Zappa fan mate some a long while back and he was a bit disappointed. The lyrics are the thing.

I would agree that Godcore is probably their weakest album. Even though it gets off to a stonking start with Sensitive Outsider. But all 12 of their albums have moments of true brilliance. The last three albums – Cammell Laird Social Club, Achtung Bono and CSI Ambleside are arguably their strongest and best produced sets. But once you've snapped up these you'll want to delve deeper into the weird psyche of Nigel Blackwell and end up buying the lot. Wish I was in that position again – knowing the sonic pleasure that lay ahead of me. I can guarantee that EVERY song has at least one line (though it's usually dozens) that'll live in your brain for ever. ENJOY!

Bad review (from Voyage to the bottom of the road LP)
Breaking news (from Cammell Laird Social Club)
Camra man (from Voyage to the bottom of the road)
Even men with steel hearts (from Some call it godcore)
Friday night and the gates are low (from Some call it godcore)
Improv Workshop Mimeshow Gobshite (from This Leaden pall)
Paintball's coming home (from Voyage to the bottom of the road)
The referee's alphabet (from Cammell Laird Social Club)
Tonight Matthew I'm going to be with Jesus (from Voyage to the bottom of the road)
Twenty four hour garage people (from Trouble over Bridgewater)

There are no stand-out LPs but Trouble over Bridgewater and Cammell Laird Social Club come close.

The Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project is a great source for lyrics and gig recordings

http://www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/

But I'd go and see them live - you won't be disappointed.

(Does anyone know why they don't release any live LPs?)

If you're coming to HMHB cold, and want one album for starters, I'd recommend Achtung Bono(2005). Some of their best tunes, and as someone else pointed out, for the most part the cultural references will be more recent and less obscure...or not, it usually requires an extensive knowledge of music, sport, Welsh hills, and much else besides to get them all first time. Anyway, if you miss one, fuller explanations can always be found at http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/index.htm

That said, I don't think there's any album that's a terrible place to start. It's not as if there's one which is utterly atypical, so if you like one, you'll almost certainly like any.

Also, if you ever get the chance to see them live, take it. It's worth it not just for the music, but the - often surreal - extras, which will usually include a discourse from Nigel on obscure local history, shout outs to an unlikely range of celebs ("Cornelius Lysaght in the house"), tales of the improbable things the band encountered on their journey to the gig, and the now virtually theatrical setting for Twenty Four Hour Garage People.

..supply absolutely genius song titles, which the tunes invairably fail to live up to.

In a similar way to Nick Hornby opening the door to the modern obsession with, ahem, footie; did HMHB plant the acorn that the great shitty oak of the nostalgia industry grew from? When they first surfaced it wasn't really done to hark back to toys, TV and the mundane details of the past - yet now...

They usually have a selection of sessions that you can download on the website, which is a good place to start - particularly the Andy Kershaw one. But I'd say try Vatican Broadside - it's only 30 seconds and if you don't laugh outloud HMHB are probably not for you.

and came up with the "National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB)" web site. Sounds like new material to me.

With CSI Ambleside, Achtung Bono and Cammell Laird as suggested by others above.

I would also suggest dipping your toe in the water with the 'Saucy Haulage Ballads' ep - there you will find my favourite HMHB ditty - "Tending The Wrong Grave for Twenty Three Years"

That's the Wish List updated, and now a sonn to be reduced Bank Account!

Are also a good introduction, roughly 40 or so songs covering all of the albums up to Achtung Bono. There's a link to them from the HMHB website.

Looking at the list above of "favourite songs" that someone else posted, my reaction was that none of those would be in my list. That's the thing - everyone has their own top 10. For example, no-one has mentioned "The Ballad of Climie Fisher" which reduced me to tears of laughter when I first heard it (I cannot now see a lorry containing mixed aggregate without smiling)

This is the HMHB primer I put together for a friend, covering pretty much their whole career:

I Hate Nerys Hughes
The Bastard Son Of Dean Friedman
Trumpton Riots
27 Yards Of Dental Floss
Everything's AOR
Faithlift
Paintball's Coming Home
San Antonio Foam Party
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train)
Tonight, Matthew, I'm Going To Be With Jesus
Twenty Four Hour Garage People
Uffington Wassail
The Best Things In Life
A Country Practice
Turn A Blind Eye
You're Hard
Vatican Broadside
Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes
Bob Wilson, Anchorman
Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess
Paradise Lost (You're The Reason Why)
Totnes Bickering Fair
She's In Broadstairs
Surging Out Of Convalescence
Gubba Look-a-likes

If I was going to pick a single album for a Biscuits novice, though, I'd say Cammell Laird Social Club. If that doesn't do anything for you, I doubt anything else will.

The usual Stump liking, Evening Session frequenting concensus that HMHB ceased trading after the impressively under-titled `Back Again In The DHSS` (or indeed, BITDHSS again...for pedants) is a Phil Cool-esque irritant.

"Shane Pacey is a misinformed opinionated weatherman" is HMHB`s most obscure (therefore best) song (and undisputed best title (for the benefit of a man whose moniker suggests he is the afro-ed bassist in Napalm Death; a band with titles who last longer than their songs))

Titles better than their music, Shane? Canard. As in `you should be slapped with a wet fish far` Canard.

There's a map of places mentioned in their lyrics here :

http://tinyurl.com/hmhbmap