Happy Mondays - sounding better than ever

[runcible]

I mentioned them on a playlist thread but reckon more space is warranted.

Apart from the stuff made during and after they started to disintegrate their catalogue is pretty remarkable. The 1st album (I can even remember the name without having to look it up) 'Squirrel & G Man 24 Hour Party People Plastic Face Carn't Smile (White Out)', John Cale produced, is mostly a fairly harsh experience - aggressive and base in parts (not many bands wrote lyrics containing the words 'Jesus is a cunt'), but uplifting as well ('Oasis' is a fantastic track). It sounds like a debut LP from a band just settling into the rhythm.

I guess I was lucky as I found them relatively early. I was at a Loop gig at the Astoria in 1988 and Happy Mondays, unannounced, shambled onto the stage and proceeded to jam for the 20 minutes or so they were allowed before the hail of bottles, cigarette ends and abuse from the crowd eventually made them shamble off again. But they were fantastic - loose yet hitting a real rhythm. Wrote For Luck and Bummed were out and I'd heard a little about them but I was really taken with how good they were. I bought Bummed and loved it. So many fantastic songs, such a great sound and well psychedelic to boot. I went to a couple of gigs, the 1st at ULU. The place was filled with what were later called scallies - masses of people from Manchester, loads of people with foot high bongs toking in the middle of the crowd, an amazing atmosphere. The Mondays were extraordinary and I realised I was witnessing something special - sort of 'the next big thing' in the flesh. Not that long later they played at the Astoria and it was a similar story - they were fucking amazing and the place was jumping from the front to the back.

At that point I went to Australia and New Zealand but when I came back in 1990 all hell had broken loose with the Madchester and rave scenes running amok. Pills Thrills & Bellyaches came out and I remember a friend who I'd first seen them supporting Loop with ringing me saying how I was going to be blown away by the album. And I was. And I still am - some of the feel of that record gives me shivers still. Dennis and Lois, Loose Fit, Bob's Yer Uncle, Harmony to name but a few. Truly glorious and too good to have been made a bunch of hooligan types from the streets. For a short time they were untouchable - the expensive suits and clothes, that NME cover with Shaun Ryder and the huge letter E. Talk about a band being at the top of their game and loving every minute. The stories of them being pelted with missiles in the pissing rain at a festival in Brazil and not stopping playing until the crowd eventually took to them and roared their approval. Heady days. I saw them at Wembley Arena not long after and it was total chaos, people all over the pace, on the stage, lying down on the floor, drugs everywhere...

Of course it couldn't last and the debacle in Barbados took place. I still felt totally confident that they'd pull it off and somehow Yes Please would prove everyone who said they were losing it wrong. It wasn't to be and they blew it big style when they could have potentially clung on.

I bough the reissue of Pills Thrills recently even though I've played the original CD regularly for years. It's great to have the extra stuff. And I really don't think it sounds dated - big production and a huge sound keep it sounding fresh and it makes me smile every time I play it.

All in all a band who seem to be remembered for an out-of-it dancer who won celebrity Big Brother and a singer who took more drugs than almost anyone. But the music stands out to this day and I can't see myself ever growing tired of those first 3 records.

Rave on...

[Zenchan]

The modern discrediting of the Mondays as a novelty group of no real substance is something that annoys me far more than it probably should.

As much as I love Primal Scream, it has always slightly irked me that Loaded is hailed as this revolutionary crossover record when Loose Fit came out over a year earlier and, for me, is a far better song.

[Greeny]

Heh heh - I was at that Wembley gig, drunk only on Fuller's ESB bitter (although that's bad enough for most people), and I can remember the Mondays were dreadful - Ryder was so out of it he could hardly open his mouth.

Was good fun though, scallies charging the bouncers to get to the standing areas, etc etc. A girl pal of mine got so wasted she fell down the stairwway in seating area and broke her wrist!

I never got into the first LP but the next two are classics as you say. I've still got that Snub TV piece on them where they interviewed Ryder and showed Do It Better live - double double good, to coin a phrase.

But man, that Glastonbury Pyramid Stage appearance in, when was it, 2004 or 2005 - absolutely the shittest thing I have ever seen in my entire life (and I saw Black Grape sans Kermit!). Seven or eight guys all playing a different tune - badly - at the same time and Ryder at his incomprehensible worst....

[sunray]

As much as I love Primal Scream, it has always slightly irked me that Loaded is hailed as this revolutionary crossover record when Loose Fit came out over a year earlier and, for me, is a far better song.

Unless Loose Fit was out on some white label i'm sure you're wrong there, Loaded coming out early 1990 and Pills & Thrills later that year. Both top tunes anyway.

Runcible, you're right about that tune Oasis definitely one of their best. Still sing it to this day when out on my autumnal manoeuvres for our fungal friends! For me though it has to be Bummed and that album's version of Wrote For Luck that are their best moments. I remember that Snub TV piece as well, great times indeed.

Did get to see them at the Feile Festival in 1991 and they were awful save for WFL and again at some festival appearance a few years ago when they had someone dancing round stage wearing a Bez mask plus topless dancers! Actually better than i was expecting but not anything to get worked up about( the Mondays, not the topless dancers) Still, you can't go wrong with those early albums really.

[helterskelter]

i always liked kinky afro and Step On.

Also liked the first Black Grape lp lots - really mish mash of sounds- rev black grape and in the name of the father both go down well when i play them djing and my consession to the erection section has to be Shake Your Money

[spzretent]

I remember seeing them open for the Pixies in Cleveland one night. We got lost and walked in as the Mondays set was ending and saw the full on set ending Wrote For Luck and I was pissed. It was so good. I could only imagine what the rest of the set we missed was like. Saw them a few times after that and it just paled in comparison to that night inCleveland.

[BobSacamano]

at some festival appearance a few years ago when they had someone dancing round stage wearing a Bez mask plus topless dancers! Actually better than i was expecting but not anything to get worked up about( the Mondays, not the topless dancers)

That was Witnness 2000, yeah?

The story going around at the time was that Shaun had had a fight with the girl (Rowlanda?). Apparently Shaun tried to hit her, Bez took her side and neither were there that night, so they just got someone from the crowd before the gig to perform as "Bez". Not sure how true that is, but it certainly is believable. Gig was an absolute shambles. Shaun needed an autocue and earpiece to remember the lyrics, but he kept pulling the earpiece out, so roadies had to run on stage repeatedly to tape it to his head. Enjoyable...but a shambles

I caught them again at Roskilde in 2006 and this was a fairly different show. That was the year there was no Glastonbury, so there was a huge amount of English people at the festival, most of which seemed to be at this gig. It was also the day before the England/Portugal World Cup quarter final, which meant the gig had a real party atmosphere. It was an hour long greatest hits gig and was great. I was so glad I chose that over Bob Dylan, as the few minutes of his show I saw were terrible.

[Laz69]

One of the first bands i really got into back in those early 90s. Loved them to bits along with the Roses et al...

Only album i have left is the live one from Elland Road (i think) which has the most fantastical versions of Wrote For Luck and Tokoloshe Man... sound is a bit lost in an arena like that, but it really makes you think how good they would be in a smaller venue!

Great band!


p.s. i can remember my mum and dad buying me "Bummed" on vinyl for my Xmas that year and there being a heated discussion about whether i was allowed to have it due to the pic on the LP insert...

[mkb]

The story going around at the time was that Shaun had had a fight with the girl (Rowlanda?)

I think her name's Rowetta.

I saw them once, 2 or 3 years ago at Braehead Arena. Musically, they were great, a big long drawn out intro when they opened on Hallelujah which was fantastic, but Shaun was just awful. Can't really complain, I knew what to expect when I bought the ticket, but I can't help but think how good they could have been if Shaun was up to it. Still, I suppose his lifestyle/attitude has been as big a part of the Mondays story as the music.

[Laz69]

p.p.s. i met Rowetta in Manchester last year when i went to see Willie B playing in Manchester... a who's who of Manc has-beens...

[mkb]

Do you remember her stint on X-Factor/Pop Idol/Whatever-it-was?

I was tempted to watch out of morbid curiosity, but decided that I wouldn't be able to handle the sheer desperation of the situation. If Shaun was on X-Factor though, that would have made unmissable TV.

[runcible]

I have fond memories of the Mondays gigs I saw for sure.

I didn't like Black Grape at all. Just didn't get it. Not helped by encountering Kermit (I had no idea until a few years later who he was) at a mate's house before they got together (I've mentioned this before somewhere) when he was in the Ruthless Rap Assassins, and finding him a really nasty bloke. He sat on a sofa and smoked endless spliffs rolled by other nice people and didn't pass them on, instead choosing to glare at me before handing them back the other way. Ages later I worked out it was the same guy which made me like Black Grape even less. Wanker.

[plymwhites]

obviously knew you were Leeds mate...

It's great when you're hated.... yeah !!

[spzretent]

i have a pretty bad and funny Mondays story.
They were to scheduled to play a small bar in Ann Arbor and walked in and said they couldn't play there because the club/bar couldn't handle the sound they put out. Whatever that meant. There were about 10 people from Detroit who drove the 45 minutes and all Shaun Ryder was doing was bitching at anyone who would listen.
So one of my record shop customers walked in and asked what was going on and my friend said "no show tonight" to which my customer said "but the band is right there(next table)" to which my friend replied "apparently the singer is having his period".
The band laughed but knowing what I do now i'm amazed they didn't chase us out of the bar.
They just wanted to know the best place in Detroit to get drugs. Couldn't help them though. Not being an urban drug customer myself nor anyone we were with.

[Horrorflick]

i have a pretty bad and funny Mondays story.
They were to scheduled to play a small bar in Ann Arbor and walked in and said they couldn't play there because the club/bar couldn't handle the sound they put out. Whatever that meant. There were about 10 people from Detroit who drove the 45 minutes and all Shaun Ryder was doing was bitching at anyone who would listen.
So one of my record shop customers walked in and asked what was going on and my friend said "no show tonight" to which my customer said "but the band is right there(next table)" to which my friend replied "apparently the singer is having his period".
The band laughed but knowing what I do now i'm amazed they didn't chase us out of the bar.
They just wanted to know the best place in Detroit to get drugs. Couldn't help them though. Not being an urban drug customer myself nor anyone we were with.

Ha! That's funny as hell.

[spzretent]

its a lot funnier without us getting the shit kicked out us. Like I said knowing what I do now i'm surprised.
Hell even Shaun smiled at my friend's comment.

[Fuzzhead]

I love The Mondays. I listen to the first 2 albums more than 'Pills 'n' Thrills' though.

My first introduction to them was via my big brother's record collection. He was a full-on raver in the late 80's and his room was always stacked full of dance vinyl - which I was slightly too young to appreciate. I remember rifling through it one day when he was away and coming across the 'Hallelujah' 12". I stuck it on and was fascinated with it. From there on began the journey.

I've got pretty much everything they ever put on on vinyl now, including my brother's old cast-offs!

For anyone who has the 'Munster Dance Hall Favorites' compilation LP, there's a lovely pic on the inside sleeve of Jason weraing a Happy Mondays 'Bummed' T-shirt.

[sunray]

From this weeks Sunday Times Culture Magazine on a piece about Ibiza:

"It has been a magnet for hedonists since early history. The Carthaginians set up a cult to their goddess of sex there in 654BC, and named Ibiza after Bez, their god of dance, whose statues still litter the rocky coast."

[scratch]

He sat on a sofa and smoked endless spliffs rolled by other nice people and didn't pass them on, instead choosing to glare at me before handing them back the other way. Ages later I worked out it was the same guy which made me like Black Grape even less. Wanker.

things like that are worse than getting punched in the face - If I were you I wouldnt have bought the record even if it was the best record of the nineties - which of course it wasn´t!
I bought it, listened to it during a few months and sold it.. sad to hear I sponsored such an asshole.