Day 51: The Housemartins – London 0 Hull 4

Album cover courtesy of Go! Discs

Today’s album was a recommendation from someone who knew that I was both too young and too Nordic to have grown up listening to the Housemartins. I’d heard some of their songs in the past but not on purpose, so I had to give them a proper go. The exact words used were “You’re gonna love it. It’s got Fatboy Slim!”

Released in 1986, London 0 Hull 4 is the debut album of The Housemartins. The band was formed by Paul Heaton and Stan Cullimore, a busking duo from Hull, and were later joined by Norman Cook and Paul Hemingway. They were a socialist Christian band, as evidenced by the text on the back of the album, saying “Take Jesus – Take Marx – Take Hope.”

Each of the band members had an interesting career trajectory after the Housemartins had disbanded: Hemingway and Heaton went on to found the Beautiful South, while Cook founded Beats International and became Fatboy Slim. Cullimore became a journalist and a children’s book author, and he says he sometimes tells kids that he used to be a pop star when he’s working at primary schools.

Reader, when I tell you it’s about the last type of music you’d expect from hearing the words “it’s got Fatboy Slim”, I mean it. But it’s very good, it’s riffy, guitar heavy political indie rock from the ‘80s that reminds me a lot of The Smiths. It’s one of those albums where you need to listen to the lyrics to fully appreciate it, and the opening track is a perfect example of it: “Happy Hour” sounds like a jolly song about having a nice time, but it’s a song about misogynist office culture and sexual harassment, as explained by Paul Heaton:

I don’t know if many people realised that the song was about feeling miserable in a happy hour, or that the lyrics make loose statements about women being harassed. After the song became a hit, I started getting letters from pub landlords saying: “Your song smashed up my pub! As soon as it came on the jukebox people started jumping on the tables.”

For a debut album, London 0 Hull 4 is definitely not bad. But the overwhelming feeling that I have is wanting to compare it to the Smiths, maybe it’s the riffs or the style of singing but to me, they’re similar. The biggest difference I hear is maybe the fact that the Housemartins have more overt gospel music influences that you hear in some of the songs.

It’s a good record, nothing I’ll go crazy over but I’m happy I listened to it. I like “Sitting On a Fence” and “Get Up Off Our Knees”. London 0 Hull 4 is a solid, enjoyable 7/10 – a decent record, but I’m sure I’ll find something in the band member’s discographies that I’ll like even more.