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Urge for Offal

2014 studio album by Half Man Half Biscuit

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ18357413
Source-derived summary

Urge for Offal is the thirteenth album by UK Wirral-based rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released 20 October 2014 on Probe Plus Records. The album reached #68 on the UK album chart.

Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit has discussed the album in one of his rare interviews.

The cover art depicts Neil Crossley, the band's bass player, and a ride from an obsolete decommissioned merry-go-round.

Track listing

Critical reception

In an early online review, Jon Bryan rated the album 9.5/10, and wrote:The increased emphasis on guitars means that Urge for Offal is a considerably more accessible album for newcomers to HMHB and that’s no bad thing, as they deserve to finally have recognition as one of the UK’s greatest bands.

In an online review in The Quietus, Luke Slater wrote:Perhaps the least surprising thing about their thirteenth album is the lack of surprises. Urge For Offal does not represent a new or even vaguely modified HMHB. Nor are there any unexpected turns or diversions of musical style. [...] Musically, things continue where 2011's 90 Bisodol (Crimond) left us. It is fundamentally rocky and occasionally loud, with prominent bass aplenty. There are almost all of the elements you would expect to find in a HMHB album.

Editorial summary

“Urge for Offal” enters the record as 2014 studio album by Half Man Half Biscuit. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Urge, Offal and studio can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2014, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2014. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Urge, Offal and studio.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Urge for Offal” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Urge, Offal and studio provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18357413. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2014 and 2011.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Urge for Offal”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Urge for Offal primary sources, Urge for Offal archive and Urge research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Urge for Offal”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Urge for Offal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.