The Hymn for the Cigarettes PURE93CDS

The Hymn for the Cigarettes, Grandmother Dies, Lisa and Me, You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone

CD and 7" released on 21st June 1999

7 inch has just Grandmother Dies as a b-side

The Hymn for the Cigarettes

No one called, no one wrote, no one phoned,
So no one knew that I was with her on my own.
She smoked on my bed cause she thought it would annoy me,
But I love to watch the girls smoke in my bed.
I love to watch the girls smoke in my bed.
I love to watch the girls smoke in my bed.

How can she love me when she doesn't even love the cinema that I love.
What does she feel if she doesn't have the feeling that I have in my fingers.
This joy I have could lift this ceiling from its rafters but I'm not laughing.

We feel nothing, so we search for nothing, so we achieve nothing, love.

Lucky Strikes remind me of my friends out on the west coast,
Camel Lights remind me of my ex-girlfriend at Christmas time,
Marlboro Reds remind me of giving up in Berlin,
B&H remind me of not giving up but giving in.
B&H remind me of not giving up but giving in.
B&H remind me of not giving up but giving in.

How can she love me when she doesn't even love the cinema that I love.
What does she feel if she doesn't have the feeling that I have in my fingers.
This joy I have could lift this ceiling from its rafters but I'm not laughing.

We feel nothing, so we search for nothing, so we achieve nothing, love.

Grandmother Dies

'Grandmother dies, with a cup of dusty water by her bedside, My sweetheart rides her bicycle too fast, with shut eyes.

And please don't say you love me if you don't truly mean it, Cause words they lose their meaning when you use them too much,

I spent my week waiting for the Friday evening, when you come round and see me, And we drink wine from cups.

When the embrace of the family it smothers far too much, I am here for when you're feeling useless.

And all those curls that once hung around you face well they now fall to your feet,

And those arms that once cradled fools and thieves, they now hold me when I'm weak,

What do you know of your strength, what do you know of your warmth,

What do you know of your back, your legs, your lips, your eyes,

Oh your eyes,Your pretty eyes,

What do you know of the strength within your eyes.

Lisa and me

Lisa and me, we will not rest until we've beaten all the dumb fascists,
We will wear them down with our faithfulness and our patience,
Lisa and me, we will not sleep until with made the right wing weep,
Oh God will preserve our hearts if we live life this way,

I'm waiting for the light, waiting for tonight, waiting for Jesus to prove us right,
Waiting for Lisa to throw caution to the wind so tonight we will be sleeping like apostles and kings,

Lisa and me we will not dine with white supremacists and Nazi swine,
And anyone who reads 'The Times' they will rot in hell.
She taps her nose two or free times I suppose is should take that as some sort of sign,
that my mouth should far less chattering and speak more truth.

I'm waiting for the light, waiting for tonight, waiting for Jesus to prove us right,
Waiting for Lisa to throw caution to the wind so tonight we will be singing like apostles and kings,

Me and Lisa sure know right from wrong.

A Mess of Help to Stand Alone

Lyrics by Jack Reilly

Like many of the Fidelity Wars songs this pre-dates our first album, I remember playing it at the 12 Bar Club but for some reason went off of it quite a bit and only revived the song shortly before the recording of the second album. I guess I was wrong, it became a big favourite with our live crowd, with them often throwing cigarettes onto the stage. I have particularly strong memories of playing it on the British leg of the Fidelity Wars tour, which these pictures on this page are from. I was ,obviously, smoking when I wrote it, its just about how smells and stuff remind you of certain people or places. I gave up smoking half way through the Spanish /American legs of the Fidelity Wars tour again, and never started again. The Hymn for the Cigarettes and Mess of Help, show the rockier sound that we were beginning to get from all the live shows and also because Miti was recording us now (for more about Miti see 'The Fidelity Wars'.

'Grandmother Dies' is about my girlfriend at the time, Jen, and my Grandmother really did die around this time but many people have pointed out to me that apart from the first two lines, the song doesn't really refer to my grandmother dying again, I guess the song is a little unfinished. It has its routes in a much earlier unreleased song called 'Willow'.

'Lisa and Me' is a home recording from Edward Road, one of my first attempts at a political song. I think its just me on it.

'Mess of Help' is a Beach Boys song, this version here is taken from one of our many John Peel and/or Steve Lamacq sessions. We did so many of those, don't even try and get me to write all of them down.

After making FW we went on tour, for the first time we had a proper tour manager, a splitter bus, and t-shirts to sell, we also had a keyboard so we could do more of the songs. As previously stated the photos on this page are from the british leg of the FW tour. It was the first time we'd really played outside of London and the album had gone to NUMBER ONE! (in the indie charts). The gigs were sweaty and rocking, we never really intended to be a rock a band , it seemed after a while that the audience decided for us by just generally shouting and jumping up and down a lot.

I have particularly strong memories of the Bristol show, the promoter had put on far too many bands, we ended up going on 20mins before the curfew. The monitors had broken, down, after each song I kept saying to the audience 'Sorry, the monitors aren't working' until someone in the audience said 'Shut up'. and of course they were right, why should they care if the monitors aren't working? All my favourite Hefner gigs are the ones where tons of things went wrong, that show ended with the front row of the audience holding up my broken mike stand, whilst I sang on my knees. Good show, great audience, idiot promoter

.Manchester I also remember clearly. We were really surprised by how many people were coming out to see us, and how they wanted to hear all the fast songs, I think at first we may have been offended , but we got used to it. I remember this rather large overly made up woman came up to me at the t-shirt stall saying 'I'm Mark E Smiths sister, he came in but he thought you were rubbish, he's gone to see the bloke out of Inspiral Carpets instead.'

When we got to Leeds, John Hasket , the tour manager went down with kidney stones! Me and Jack had to drive the bloody truck and John Morrison became the tour manager. We were visiting Hasket in hospital between the soundcheck and the gig.

Photos; All from Fidelity Was shows taken from www.hellokitten.com and taken by fans; The photos where I have a sweaty blue shirt on are from, I think, Camden Dingwalls (though I'm not sure),and were taken by Paul Ackroyd, the photos of Jack in the grey shirt are by Nicola Goodchild but I don't know where from. The others I don't have credits for so email me if its you.  the bottom collage is made of photos of our tour manager John Hasket taken by the band.