London 0 Hull 4 is the debut album by The Housemartins, released in June 1986. It contains the singles "Flag Day" (#124 UK), "Sheep" (#54 UK), "Happy Hour" (#3 UK) and "Think for a Minute" (#18 UK).
The title refers to the band's home city of Kingston upon Hull and is in the format of a football score. It also refers to singer Paul Heaton's assertion that the Housemartins were only the fourth best band in Hull, suggesting London had no great bands at all. The other three Hull bands in question were Red Guitars, Everything but the Girl and The Gargoyles. The title "London 0 Hull 4" was used by various newspapers as a headline in October 2008 after the city's newly promoted football team, Hull City, beat West Ham United to take a fourth win out of four against London-based clubs (having previously beaten Fulham, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur).
The liner notes and lyrics reflect Heaton's interest at that time in Christianity and Marxism. For example, the back cover of the album contains the message, "Take Jesus – Take Marx – Take Hope".
The CD release of the album featured four additional tracks along with the front cover phrase, "16 songs – 17 hits!".
The album was re-released on 22 June 2009, as London 0 Hull 4 Deluxe, containing a second CD of bonus tracks, B-sides and live recordings.
I had completely forgotten The House Martins. This album with classic tracks "Happy Hour", "Sheep" and "Flag Day" is an energetic and happy album. The lyrics are great and funny. Also somewhat engaged, especially in "Sheep". The story about the album title is quite funny too.
Flawless, and definitely a band (along with The Beautiful South, and Paul's solo stuff) deserving of many places in the book. I might have nominated their greatest hits, or the shared compilation with TBS, but this is a cracking suggestion!
Wow, I had to go back to the Barenaked Ladies first album just to check and see if they covered any of these songs. They sound so much alike. Obviously BNL was heavily influenced by the Housemartins. I do see they gave a nod to the song Happy Hour in their song Hello City, I guess it's the least they could do. Anyway, this is great. 4 stars.
Not sure why this needed to be added when the main 1001 was already oversaturated with tepid Britpop contributions. Points for being a bit more uptempo and lively than usual for this genre, but still falls into the usual tropes and feels much, much longer than it should for the album's brief runtime
I really love some of the albums from The Beautiful South, and while I knew that this group was formed by former members of The Housemartins I did not realize that the bassist of this group is Fatboy Slim - that’s a bit of a surprise.
I’m excited this came up because I really haven’t explored The Housemartins’ music at all. As it turns out, it very much sounded like The Beautiful South, without the female vocals. Excellent album!
This more than many albums from the list makes me feel old. Forty years, just about, since this came out.
It was never in regular rotation for me when I was in my teenage years - The Beautiful South had come about and there's enough crossover in styles for me to have had that itch scratched.. But Happy Hour is a hell of an album opening.
The religion is a bit too overt in this album to go unmentioned.
Good album. Worth listening to.
After reading on the band an its members this came as something of a surprise as it struck me, musically at least, as pretty solidly middle-of-the-road pop guitar rock, on the lighter side of the rock spectrum. There's more going on lyrically but the music doesn't really reinforce that well. It is all very well-performed and I didn't dislike it, but I don't think I'd seek out more, just not my style.
This was a pleasantly enjoyable album to listen to. It starts off either a great hit that should be played ubiquitously through bars during happy hour like closing time was/is. The remainder of this album has pretty good upbeat tempo with quick songs reminiscent of 50s pop. This was like an old time album with 80s character. It’s a fun album front to back and a good listen for sure. 7.1/10
London 0 Hull 4 is pretty enjoyable, solid to good lilty and bouncy sounds with clever lyrics and stories. Bass slaps throughout too, it lacks some punch to my tastes but an easy 3 that might get to a 4, it's really well put together.
Read more on Wikipedia