Nice brew, Cocker!
The Lancashire Hotpots are totally bonkers! But that’s what we love about them. Having had two great albums in ‘Never Mind The Hot Pots’, and this years, ‘Pot Sounds’, and having played at last weeks Glastonbury Festival on not one but two stages, here they release their EP entitled, ‘The Beer Olympics’.
The title song is pure genius (really, would you expect anything less?). Telling the story of having beer drinking as an Olympic sport, and how Blighty folk would be good at it, along with the Folk-shuffle band in the background like a Northern version of The Wurzels. As usual there are many choice lyrics but I’ll give you the chorus of, ‘I wanna put drinking beer in the Olympics // We’d all be world class athletes, you and me // We’ll drink until we’re unstable // And we’ll top the medal table // I’m going to the bar for Team GB!”. Then just so as to appeal to the kids there’s a Dance Version on track 3, with one of those boom-boom baselines! Nice.
‘Mek Us A Brew’ sounds like a Folk version of Jet’s one-hit wonder (that interestingly had the same riff to Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust For Life’), however with comical lyrics about how good the nation’s drink is. Naturally I have mixed feelings being a big coffee drinker, but it is a catchy tune. “Come on, put the kettle on, I said // Oi you, make us a brew, I said!” the sing-a-long chant goes. The last song is ‘I Won’t Eat Egg’ whereby Bernard takes us through all of the things he doesn’t like. At one point he says, “You might think that they’re lovely // But they’re slippery and rubbery // And they’ve got quite a sulphurous pong // They come from a chicken // and they make you feel quite sick, an’// You know that they just taste wrong…”
Whether you look at them as a comedy novelty band or just a good source of fun and entertainment, The Lancashire Hotpots have the ability to raise a smile and the odd chuckle, and in these hard financial times you can’t ask for a lot more from your money!