the fourth best band in Hull

More memories raked from the back of the cupboard. Digging through these scuffed teenage badges, it struck me that The Housemartins have become a bit of a forgotten band. Self-depracating, very 80's, left-wing 'light-weight' indie-pop with their quirky mix of Marxist and gospel references, and save the one hit everyone remembers (Happy Hour), they were later overshadowed by the commercial success of The Beautiful South. Read back through their lyrics however, Paul Heaton was never shy of having a pop - sexism in the workplace, trendy lefties, Southerners, bankers, builders, students, the music biz... few escaped his barbed falsetto warblings.

I remember seeing the band at Moray House in Edinburgh in November 1985 when their debut single 'Flag Day' was out. They were supported by The Proclaimers and Phil Jupitus, who in those days was not particularly well-known as Porky the Poet. The band had put out photocopied flyers beforehand looking for members of the audience to "adopt-a-Housemartin" and let them kip on their floor.

Much to my later embarrassment, during the band's set, I was involved in a half-hearted drunken scuffle with a friend of a friend and they stopped mid-number. Worse still, Stan the bass player jumped into the audience to pull us apart - and proceeded to give us a ticking off. I don't remember a huge amount else apart from feeling very sheepish afterwards and him telling me not to worry, it hadn't been my fault.

After the band split, Stan went on to write children's books and kids TV scripts. Paul Heaton now enjoys modest solo career and the occasional 'controversial' outbursts on Facebook. Hugh Whitaker, the aimiable drummer, was replaced by Dave Hemingway and bizarrely went on to become the most notorious ex-Housemartin for his infamous axe-attack and five year jail sentence. What exactly became of the bass player Norman "Fatboy" Cook, well that is anybody's guess...