The Lancashire Hotpots are a comedy folk band from St Helens,, England, formed in 2006. The group record songs about Lancashire, technology and British culture. The group's songs make use of Lancashire dialect. Their first single, "He's Turned Emo", gained over 230,000 plays on MySpace and was featured on BBC Radio One by Colin Murray. Their debut album, Never Mind The Hotpots, was a minor hit, reaching number one comedy album on iTunes in the UK, and number two in the BBC 6 MusicAlbum Charts. The current members are Bernard Thresher, Dickie Ticker, Bob Wriggles, Billy McCartney Kenny Body, and Ron Seal. Billy and Kenny joined following the death of founder member Willie Eckerslike whereas Ron joined in 2016. Eckerslike died 11 May 2010, aged 38.
History
Bernard Thresher and Bob Wriggles met while working at Knowsley Safari Park and subsequently formed their first rock band together, Korova. Whilst working at St Helens College, Wriggles 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, Thresher and Wriggles joined forces with Ticker to create electronic dance music under the new guise of Emmet. They first dabbled with comedy music, producing a remix of the Coldplay song "Clocks" for Radio One DJ Chris Moyles in the style of the band German dance groupScooter. 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 clubs around the country. On the request of Moyles, they produced a remix of songs by Norman Cook aka Fatboy 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.' Ticker then 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. Originally intended to be called The Bolton Weavers the band was in fact named The Lancashire Hotpots. They made their first recordings in Thresher's front room in Coventry after an Emmet gig at a comic convention in Birmingham where they played to an 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. Influences include the Oldham Tinkers, George Formby, Hip hop and John Cooper Clarke, as well as the Houghton Weavers.
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 trademark rights over the word Olympics stating that Hotpots’ use of the word was a breach of their trademark. To avoid further problems, the band subsequently retitled the song "The Beer International Non-Profit, Non-Governmental Sporting Quad Yearly Event".
