Probing

The other day I picked up a copy of "Penance", the 1995 album by an outfit called The She. There were two reasons: it was only 20p, and it was released on the famous Liverpool label Probe Plus, best known as the home of Half Man Half Biscuit.

The She turned out to be nothing special. But it does give me an excuse to play not only the Biscuits but also the first - and probably still the best - record ever released by Probe Plus. Written about the Toxteth riots in 1980, and produced by Dennis Bovell, I played this obsessively for a bit when it first came out. Apart from the mildly cringeworthy attempts to say "man" in a Caribbean accent, it still sounds as good today.

"Piggie In The Middle Eight" - Cook Da Books

"D'Ya Ken Ted Moult?" - Half Man Half Biscuit

"Pour No More" - The She

Inexplicably, "Piggie In The Middle Eight" failed to achieve the same level of chart success as one of the records Dennis Bovell had written and produced the year before.