Pigbag – Dr Heckle and Mr Jive & Lend An Ear

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“Duh Duh Duh DUH! HOOPS!” Anyone who has ever visited Loftus Road will be familiar with the above refrain. In his misguided attempt to find out what pleasures lay in physical activity sports atheist Andy Miller, in his 2002 book ‘Tilting at Windmills’, became an occasional fan of Queens Park Rangers. His main observation when visiting the club was quite why they had adopted this piece of early 1980’s new wave as their unofficial signature tune, quite why it had been embraced with such vigour. At the Millennium Stadium in 2003, QPR were given the choice of what anthem they would have played. They did not choose God Save The Queen. They chose ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag’. Thankfully, Her Majesty was not in attendance.

Pigbag formed from the fractured pieces of The Pop Group, the political mishmash of funk, reggae and jazz that received much critical acclaim but little commercial success in the early 1980’s. Their biggest hit, and the song they are most remembered for by a country mile, is the aforementioned terrace treat ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag’, the startling mixture of brass and percussion that was much championed by John Peel, breaking the UK Charts at number 3 in 1982. Re-released are their first two albums, ‘Dr Heckle and Mr Jive’ from 1982, along with ‘Lend An Ear’ from the following year. They also include second CD’s, one with live tracks and the other with twelve-inch mixes and b-sides from the period.

The first album is definitely the better, technically impressive musically, full of brash, bold instrumental breaks and pounding bass and beats. #Sunny Day’ sounds like incidental music from any American cop show whereas “Brian The Snail” is slower and claustrophobic, layers of rhythm tightly overlaid. The second album saw a change, replacing the instrumentals of their debut with a singer, Angela Jaeger, giving songs like ‘Hit The O Deck’ more depth and character. This can also be found on the excellent ‘Jump The Line. The bands distinctive sound though is the main flavour here, though the second album is more reliant on rhythm than brass and horn licks.

The extra CD’s are reasonably good, the live CD though showing a lack of polish, with a squeal of feedback evident on ‘Shack of Scraps’ and a thin sound throughout. There is a nice burst of the Top Cat theme though before ‘…Brand New Pigbag’, their best known song again the shining moment on this CD. The 12” and B-sides CD is full of extended mixes of their songs and some rather weak additional tracks. This is a re-release that will only appeal to a very small percentage of those who fondly remember the height of new wave, a largely forgotten band with one hugely iconic song, just enough to mark them down in the history books.