The Shirehorses are a spoof band comprising two BBC Radio DJs from Manchester, Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley (known collectively as Mark and Lard).

As part of their radio show, they have produced pastiches of recent chart songs, such as "Lardy Boy" for Placebo's "Nancy Boy", and "Why Is It Always Dairylea" for Travis's "Why Does It Always Rain On Me", using the band names 'Gazebo' and 'Travisty' respectively. When they rewrote The Seahorses' "Love is the Law" as "(Now) I know (where I'm going) our kid" they chose the stage-name Shirehorses, which then stuck.

The band has toured extensively, playing many university gigs because of their popularity with students. However, they have played large venues, supporting Blur on their 1997 tour of the UK, which took in several stadia, and even played Glastonbury in 1997.

Marc Riley was formerly a member of The Fall and later The Creepers before embarking on his current career as a radio personality with Mark Radcliffe. Formerly a double act on BBC Radio 1, in March of 2004 they went their separate ways, Radcliffe to BBC Radio 2, Riley to BBC 6 Music.

The Shirehorses have released two albums to date:

• Worst album in the world ever.....EVER!, a parody of the long string of compilation albums released in the UK since the 1990s called The Best (genre) Album in the world ever!.
• Our Kid Eh, a play on the name of Radiohead's album, Kid A.

External links

• Mark Radcliffe's page at Radio 2
• Biographies at the BBC site
• Marc Riley's page at 6 Music
• FAQ for uk.media.radio.radcliffe newsgroup