The Lancashire Hotpots

History

Bernard Thresher and Bob Wriggles met each other while working at Knowsley Safari Park and subsequently formed their first rock band together, 'Korova'. Whilst working at St Helens College, Bob met Dickie Ticker who was producing electronic music and light hearted remixes under the name 'Diffusion'. The three became interested in working together and after Korova disbanded, Bernard and Bob joined forces with Dickie to create electronic dance music under the new guise of 'Emmet'.

They first dabbled with comedy music producing a remix of Coldplay song 'Clocks' for Radio one DJ Chris Moyles in the style of the band German dance group 'Scooter'. In a play on words they named the side project 'Moped'. The track proved popular with listeners of the show and they went on to produce several more remixes as well as playing live in various clubs around the country. On the request of Chris Moyles, they produced a remix of songs by Norman Cook aka Fat Boy Slim in order to perform them at an outside broadcast in a pub in Brighton. Cook was a guest on the show and Moped performed the remix live on the show for him. Whilst being interviewed on the show he said he 'felt as though his whole life had flashed before him.'

Emmet and Moped continued to perform live shows and make records with limited success. One day whilst sat on the toilet, Dickie had the idea of a folk band who write songs and tell stories about modern life. Not about orchards and craft fairs but online dating and modern technology woes. Originally conceived to be called 'The Bolton Weavers' (after folk band 'The Houghton Weavers') the band eventually was named 'The Lancashire Hotpots'. They made their first recordings in Bernard's front room in Coventry after an unsuccessful Emmet gig at a comic convention in Birmingham where they played to a completely empty room.

Billy McCartney was in Liverpool band Lyons and Tigers who supported the Hotpots numerous times around the North West of England. Kenny Body was in several St Helens based bands including Jessica's Ghost, The Ups and Giant Root Attack. Both were enlisted to play in the band following death of original drummer, Willie Eckerslike. Incidentally, Kenny Body briefly appeared as an audience member in their "Carry You Home" video.

Festivals

As well as touring nationwide, the band are a regular staple at major music festivals playing events such as Glastonbury Festival, Kendal Calling, Y-Not Festival, Chris Evans’ Carfest and Beatherder Festival on multiple occasions.

Television

Television appearances for the group include performing their song ‘Dibnah’ live on BBC2’s Too Much TV on 28/3/2016

Olympic Controversy

The group were contacted by the International Olympic Committee in August 2016 over their 2008 song The Beer Olympics. The IOC claimed copyright over the word Olympics stating that Hotpots’ use of the word was a breach of their copyright. To avoid further problems, the band subsequently retitled the song ‘The Beer 'International Non-Profit, Non-Governmental Sporting Quad Yearly Event'. The band received Nationwide coverage of this story with articles in The Sun and Sunday People newspapers and with radio interviews on Talk Sport and BBC Radio 5 Live.

Albums

Live Albums

DVDs

Singles