Bristol’s Pigbag was an instrumental sextet with a four-piece brass-and-reed section. The music they played — mostly uptempo, Latin-tinged jazz-funk — was good fun for the length of a 1981 single, and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag” was duly a big dancefloor hit. Stretched out over an album, though, the band’s writing limitations become stultifyingly clear.
Dr. Heckle and Mr. Jive contains three variations on the “Papa” formula and a couple of slower cuts that reveal a band with plenty of technical know-how and nothing to say. Following a second studio album and a poorly received live set, Pigbag called it a day. Favourite Things and the CD-only Discology are retrospectives, the latter containing “Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag” in both its album and 12-inch remix versions.