many's the time I've looked the other way and wondered whether artists get north of Wolverhampton on some tours.

I'm still chuffed though.

he's about 20 times better than any of them. In many ways, he's the Bill Bailey of yore.

is about The 81 to Crumpsall Green, it's from A Lancashire Lad, recorded in 1972. Here's the lyric (as best as I can transcribe it):

One night I was stood by the town hall bogs
Snoggin' with me financée
When all of a sudden up a bus conductor rushed
And he coughed - I say

Have you seen a bus, a big red bus
With faces peerin' out
There's no conductor 'cause it should be me
'Cause me bus I am witho-o-o-out

Without, I said, Have you gone stone mad?
Have you lost your bloody 'ead?
No, I've lost the 81 to Crumpsall Green
And I'm writing them in your business, he sa-a-a-a-aid

Ten minutes ago I rang the bell
And I shouted to me mate
Ee, 'Ang on a minute, lad, I'm goin' for a slash
He said, Right but don't be la-a-a-a-ate

Well, in the loo there was such a queue
I just 'ung on in anguish
When I came out, well, the bus 'ad gone
The bloody lot had va-a-a-anished

So we fetched a cop but 'e couldn't 'elp
For t' bus were nowhere in sight
And the polis and the sanitary cleansing department
Was searchin' all that ni-i-i-ight

Now it's seven long years since bus disappeared
The 81 to Crumpsall Green
And on moonlit nights down Cheetham Hill Road
Its ghostly shape can be se-e-e-een

It's red outside and lit up inside
The driver 'as a long grey beard
And the faces all peerin' out can be seen
And their plaintive voices may be he-e-e-eard

It's seven long years since 'e went for a pee
Since then 'e's never been seen
Does any bugger know where's conductor Joe
Of the 81 to Crumpsall Green

I think the great thing about Harding, like Billy Connolly, is that they could play. Discovering they were funny too was just this fabulous bonus. I like Carrott, for example, but Harding has so much more to offer musically. Some of the best bits on his albums are the "proper" songs. On Komic Kutz there's a fantastic version with his touring band of a trad arr called Jiggery Pokery (check out a sample at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jiggery-Pokery/dp/B002P9ZKDG).