The Lancashire Hotpots - Achtung Gravy

You just can't beat the British for their sense of humour - and The Lancashire Hotpots sees that wonderful comic capability in fine health as they deliver their 5th studio album Achtung Gravy.

The art of parody, as simple as it might seem at times, is a very precise thing. Looks pretty easy right? Just throw together a couple of witty reposts and make it slightly relevant to current affairs? The trick is of course finding those crucial ingredients to elicit that key reponse - those deep, rumbling belly laughs that show you've worked your magic yet again.

The Lancashire Hotpots are clear pros - a career this long and illustrious proof of that. At its heart, parody in this format still revolves around good, quality songwriting, and that's here on Achtung Gravy for sure. And to be honest, the band have got me right there - before the first track has even started - with that title.

You can just imagine Bono twitching in frustration at the wryness of it all. As the man himself and his merry group of musicians took to the Pyramid stage at Glasto, the Lancashire Hotpots were simultaneously playing the Croissant Neuf stage. A neat little bit of union if ever there was one.

With their folky charms and endearing Northern accents, I'd dare anyone with a full functioning sense of humour not to at the very least break into a smile at the likes of You Could Get Hit By A Bus Tomorrow.

My personal favourite has to be album opener Mek Us A Brew, an anthem to all things 'oop North', if you will. In a hilarious assault on 'creamy lattes', this track takes on a more Brit-pop inspired sound, harking back to the likes of Wonderstuff or The Charlatans at their most poppy.

The accents, the Lulz; it's all here. You feel like the album has been cooked up in some rural pub; glass of ale in one hand, guitar in the other, rather than being spawned from any traditional recording process - and in this instance, that bears countless dividends.

With The Guardian proclaiming the band 'masters of parody' and a whole heap of other lovely praise surrounding them, Achtung Gravy is the sound of a group riding the wave of success, feet standing steady on the finest of comedy boards. Only in Britain could you have something so cheerily funny as the Lancashire Hotpots, and you can chalk that up as another point on the list of what makes this country so great.

Achtung Gravy is available to download from iTunes now.

Weird Al's Gaga Saga... 'Perform This Way'

I've always had a soft spot for Weird Al Yankovic. Ever since I watched the World of Warcraft version of his track Amnish Paradise, I've been a fan of his quirky parodies - aided by Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles' constant playing of them on his breakfast show. It's fair to say Weird Al is a Bit Of A Legend.

And how he's done a parody of Lady Gaga's anthemic Born This Way. Say hello to Perform This Way...

The only trouble is, after recording the song, Al sent it to Gaga's management for approval. By law, he doesn't even have to, he just does so out of sheer nicety. What a gentleman.

The answer he got back? A firm 'no'. They did not approve. So Al blogged about the whole business and uploaded the song on YouTube so that while it might not recieve an official release on his next album, at least it would be heard.

But the best bit about this whole story? Not long after the parody was uploaded on YouTube, Weird Al provided a new update to the whole dizzy chain of events, it went as follows:

"Apparently the fact that she didn’t approve it was news to Lady Gaga herself! Gaga’s manager has now admitted that he never forwarded my parody to Gaga – she had no idea at all. Even though we assumed that Gaga herself was the one making the decision (because, well, that’s what we were TOLD), he apparently made the decision completely on his own."

This really does make me rejoice, but also turns my stomach a little too. It's nice as it means Gaga has been a darling and there's a happy ending to the whole story, but it doesn't quite erase the highly unsavoury taste in my mouth resulting from her manager saying 'no' to the track withot consulting Gaga. Very shady!

Going back to the parody itself, with the YouTube video's Doctor Who-title-sequence-esque pulsating colours and Al's inspired and immensely funny lyrics stamped over the top, karoake machine style; the whole thing is as suitably 'weird' as his name suggests. In other words, brilliant.

The production is rather endearing too, all euro-techno synths and bleepy effects. As always with Al's parodies, the lyrics lie at the heart of the hilarity - My personal favourite from Perform This Way? 'I strap prime rib to my feet / cover myself with raw meat.'

Amazing.