Forget Oasis, The Lancashire Hotpots are the North West’s premier band! It may have been broken up in the 70’s but many people who live in the North West are proud to refer to themselves as Lancastrians, me included! So its great to show that pride, when four college lecturers from St. Helens decide to set up a comedy folk band, singing about modern day life – they are The Lancashire Hotpots.
With songs such as ‘EBay Eck’, ‘Me PSP’ and the immortal anthem ‘Chippy Tea’ the lads have established a following in the local area. Recently, they’ve ventured all around the country, down to London and even to our rival county – Yorkshire!
With the help of the internet, the band have shifted many copies of their debut album ‘Never Mind The Hotpots’ and their live CD and DVD. All well worth checking out but I am here to review their latest album – Pot Sounds.
The album certainly sounds different to what we’re used to, with it taking on more of a country and western theme, as well as the tradition folk sound. It’s also easy to spot which songs they’ve ripped off (or ‘out of copyright’ – as the band call them) with the opener being taken from another Lancashire folk band – The Houghton Weavers. Although ‘Keys Wallet Phone’ sounds much better than the original! It’s a fine opener which leads nicely into ‘I Fear Ikea’, which underlines the bands anger at the Swedish furniture giant, nicely fitted in to the style of another well known folk song.
Track 3 is one of my favourites – ‘I Heart YouTube’. In the style of a barbershop quartet which a Lancashire accent, singing about the (in) famous video site. Wonderful! ‘Uncle Bernard’ is a lovely nostalgic trip back to the 80’s, with the lead singer giving his rather odd-sounding nieces and nephews a taste of the decade that time forgot! Track 5, ‘Dierdre’ (yes, that is spelt right!), is a piece of advice to people who download from the internet. The song deserves praise just for the line ‘Have a look for that Grand Theft Auto, Wigan edition’ at the end of the song!
Track 6 is the short but sweet, global warming-themed ‘Don’t Make The Polar Bears Cry’, which is probably the most political song the band has done! Track 7 ‘ESC ALT & F4’ is one of favourites. Backing vocalist Willie takes the lead vocals on this and warns us lads about the risk of watching ‘specialist European videos’ while the missus is out at the bingo. The chorus goes, ‘ESC ALT & F4 When your missus walks through the door. When you’ve been watching those naughty films that you don’t want to watch anymore.’ - Genius! (ESC ALT & F4 closes any window on your computer btw!).
Track 8 stands head and shoulders above most, as one of the best Hotpots songs. ‘Chav’ is the band’s statement about modern day Britain. The tracksuited terrors can’t escape the band’s lampooning, with the song being set to a Wild West theme! But the lyrics are superb, ‘Back in day when I where young, I remember very well, Boys where Boys and Girls where Girls, it where clear you could tell. But nowadays, I’m not so sure, the fashion’s up the wall – and it’s wrong.’ The chorus is easy to sing-along ‘C stands for Clone. H - horrible. A – Arrogant. V – Very annoying. CHAV! CHAV! CHAV! CHAV! If the band don’t release this as a single, I’ll be very disappointed!
Track 9 is probably my least favourite but it’s still a good one! ‘Indie Disco’ is a good description of the 21st century Indie kids, who are so far removed from ‘proper’ Indie music scene. Sorry just my personal hatred of everything 21st century! Next track, ‘BOGOFF’ is a wonderful romp about supermarket bargains. It’s very hard not to like this song, the lyrics and music just come together so well! That’s saying something as the chorus contains words such as ‘kitty-cat litter’ and ‘full fat yogurt’! ‘The Beer Olympics’ explores the bands ideas about getting drinking beer into the 2012 Olympics. At last! Something I can enter!
The final two tracks complete the album brilliantly well. ‘On The Box’ is a great moan about modern day television. ‘Stick your digi-box where the sun don’t shine’. I agree lads! However the final track is the Hotpots at their best. ‘The Girl From Bargain Booze’ is a wonderful skit of mushy love songs and Robbie William’s ‘Angels’. Which lyrics like ‘She gives me hope, she gives me dreams. She gives me free Harvey’s Bristol Creams. She’s amazing, she’s fine - she’s doing Gordon’s Gin at 10.99. And she whispers and calls me darling– as we roll around the cans of Carling.’ How can you not have an affair with this song?
Overall, I reckon the album is better than ‘Never Mind The Hotpots’ in terms of the overall production. The songs just sound much better, not that the first album is badly produced but I just feel that the songs on ‘Pot Sounds’ are in the best possible order, which maintains the quality all the way through. For me, ‘ESC ALT & F4’, ‘Chav’ and ‘The Girl From Bargain Booze’ are the standout tracks.
Rating 5/5
So get on ITunes, Play.com or wherever and grab yourself a copy. The band also tirelessly play gigs and you can check out where they’ll be (and listen to some tracks) at http://www.myspace.com/thelancashirehotpots
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