Achtung Bono by Half Man Half Biscuit

Achtung Bono, the tenth album from Birkenhead's Half Man Half Biscuit, came out on Probe Plus in 2005 with Carl Wark producing, two decades into a career spent taking the mickey out of practically everything. Nigel Blackwell sings and plays guitar, Neil Crossley holds down the bass, Ken Hancock adds guitar and Carl Henry drums, and with a title like that, nobody should expect reverence.

Blackwell's songs are sardonic, surreal and crammed with nods to British pop culture and place names, while the post-punk clatter underneath lets the band send up whole genres as it goes. "Joy Division Oven Gloves" is the one that got loose: in 2010 a Facebook campaign tried to push it to No. 6 in the UK singles chart as a protest against the threatened closure of BBC 6 Music. It came in at 56, reached 3 on the independent chart, and the station survived.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.