Saucy Haulage Ballads is an extended play recording released by Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

 group Half Man Half Biscuit

Half Man Half Biscuit

Half Man Half Biscuit, often "HMHB", are an English rock band from Birkenhead, Merseyside, active since the mid-1980s, known for satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs. The group comprises Nigel Blackwell , Neil Crossley , Ken Hancock , and Carl Henry...

. Released in August 2003, it contains 6 tracks with a total play time of 17 minutes 54 seconds.

Track listing

1. "Jarg Armani"
2. "Tending the Wrong Grave for 23 Years"
3. "It Makes the Room Look Bigger"
4. "On Finding the Studio Banjo"
5. "Blood on the Quad"
6. "I Went to a Wedding..."

Track 4 "On Finding the Studio Banjo" is a re-recording of Half Man Half Biscuit's well-known song Trumpton Riots. This time it is set to a folky bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 tune with banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 accompaniment.

Character references

As in many Half Man Half Biscuit songs, satirical and sometimes comic references are made to a range of celebrities. Some of the people mentioned in the tracks are:

• 2. Claire Rayner
  Claire Rayner
  Claire Berenice Rayner OBE was an English nurse, journalist, broadcaster and novelist, best known for her role for many years as an agony aunt.-Early life:...
  
  
• 3. Benny Goodman
  Benny Goodman
  Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
  
  
• 5. Talvin Singh
  Talvin Singh
  Talvin Singh Matharoo , is a producer and composer and tabla player, known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music and drum and bass...
  
  
• 6. Brad Friedel
  Brad Friedel
  Bradley Howard Friedel is an American soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League....
  
  , William Pitt the Elder, William Pitt the Younger
  William Pitt the Younger
  William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
  
  , Thomas Tallis
  Thomas Tallis
  Thomas Tallis was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English...
  
  , and John Dowland
  John Dowland
  John Dowland was an English Renaissance composer, singer, and lutenist. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep" , "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe" and "In darkness let me dwell", but his instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and has...