According to the mythos of the isolated Nuttum tribe of east
Africa, The Hard was said to have originated from the nebula Pheltnowt
within a star system some 17.8 light years away from the epicentre of
South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England. The earliest recorded depiction
of The Hard can be found etched on hard cave walls at Lascaux, France
estimated at some 12,000 years old and the earliest artwork of its
kind. The drawings clearly show a primitive Man wearing a black and white
striped loin cloth holding aloft a metal cup. It is thought that this
is a representation of the last time Newcastle United won a major
trophy. The original inhabitants of Pheltnowt were allegedly
responsible for the genetic engineering of what is known upon Earth as
the Geordie race. Their first experiment produced strange thick neck
creatures speaking in an undecipherible language, their bodies covered
in ink, smoke billowing from their nostrils and a breath smelling of a
brown ale. Their heads were capped and their movement gyroscopic,
hence their energy supply coming from the Giro. Thousands of years of
evolution appears to have failed in any change of the race. In the
first instance, these creatures were named the 'Gods' but through the
fullness of Time the title has corrupted into 'Geordies' - 'Ge' from
the Greek meaning 'earth', and 'Ordies' referring to their peculiar
audio vocal. To moniter their progress on earth as a designer race,
The Hard was sent as an emissary, falling out of a cosmic cracker to
land on his head in Australia in 1956, the indent creating the world's
largest crater. Whereas his descent was meant to introduce the concept
of hardness to the planet, his entry into earth's alien atmosphere
meant, rather like Supeman in reverse, he suprisingly and unexpectedly
lost his hardness, this transformation causing problems with his
newly acquired dense physical earth ego and relegating him from being
Reet Hard into a retard, although providing him with the consolatory
side effect of a fascination in pursuing tasty female newsreaders..
The Hard's contribution, as Ambassador to the Geordie race and
their culture, has been to recommend to Government that as a work
incentive all Geordies should only receive their unemployment benefits
if they can hit a bullseye within three throws of a dart, and he was
the instigator of another Geordie race, the national Great North Run
marathon, whereby 50,000 Geordies are given a 100 yard head start
before running the 15 miles from Newcastle to South Shields pursued
by TV Licensing Officers and County Bailiffs.
THE FORMULAE
'There are conflicting legends concerning the origins of The Hard upon
the earth, the hardest indicating that he may be a time travelling
Hard Time Lord from the star Pheltnowt, in his HARDIS time machine.
Some extremely hard scolars argue that his reported free fall to earth
in 1956 was actually caused by his mother throwing him out hurling him
into a parallel dimension and that The Hard as we know him from
Channel 4's The Tube is, actually, as hard as he says. Earlier
attestation attributes him with personal responsibilty for the
extinction of the dinosaurs, having kicked them all in one Friday
night after consumng approximately 500 gallons of beer. Other
historical mysteries solved according to his influence is the building
of the Egyptian pyramids, lifting the three million stone blocks into
place whilst doing his weights - the Sphinx a representation of his
hard cocker spaniel. Scrapping with his parallel dimension counterpart
is alleged to have caused the inexplicable famous Siberian Tunguska
explosion of 1908, a bang far more ferocious than the A bombs dropped
at Nagasaki. In occult lore, according to the ancient text 'The Dead
Wrong Scrolls' found in a hard cave in Mesopotamia in 1947, there is
an alchemical invocation based on the Art of Whizzcraft and Blank
Wajic for summoning The Hard into your kitchen. However, there is a
problem with this dangerous undertaking. It is impossible. One further
headache is the uncertainty of an unclear glyph in the original codex
which makes it unsure as to wether a required ingredient is Bonnie
Prince Charlie's bedsheets or an Ursula Andress bra from 1965.
A transcript from the ancient Aramaic text is as follows;
The pupil must first face the North East, and with a grasp of the end
of his/her nose, stretch it out exaggeratively in a diagonal line
whilst repeating the mantra 'Hoota, Beak, Conk, Sneck, Durante,
Hooter, Pinnochio' over and over until a state of light headedness is
achieved. Next, the pupil is to place in a pit boot the following
items in this order -
2 dirty teatowels (brought to the boil)
1 cowboy boot (either foot)
1 tin of Tomato soup (454g)
Bonnie Prince Charlie's bedsheets/ 1965 Ursula Andress bra
To conclude the summoning the pupil is to then prounce the word
'ginger' in under 0.3 seconds. The ritual MUST be performed on the eve
of a Newcastle united away win at Old Trafford.'
Eee Wavis, I am reet jealous of your encounter with Annifrid. I bet you were the real Dancing Queen in your Hobnail boots. Did you put spangles on them in memory of your Swedish Lady?
Dear Wavis, herp yee hev a grand dyah. Weh Aussies just can't compete in the hardness stakes. Wi aal wear flip-flops fre God's sake. Not a hobnail in sight!
Wavis, you are a legend.
Those first 2 EPs were essential listening for me and my mates back in the day.
And those Tube appearances defined the term 'cult status' for my money.
A big "Ta" to Wikipedia for leading me here, and cheers for the add.
You Hard bastard......
Mark