sign in sign up
<<
Home , Black Grape, Bummed, Factory Records, Happy Mondays, Kinky Afro, Madchester Rave On

DOUBLEDOUBLE

The ’ and – ringleaders of the generation GOOD

TALES OF PILLS, THRILLS AND BELLYACHING STOLE THE HEADLINES, BUT IT’S TIME HAPPY MONDAYS WERE LAUDED AS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BANDS OF THEIR ERA. CLASSIC POP MEETS FRONTMAN SHAUN RYDER, GUITARIST MARK DAY AND VOCALIST ... STEVE HARNELL

very decade gets the double Roses had the mesmeric while our tunes from our childhood,” Shaun tells bill of bands it deserves. The the Mondays’ trump card was the laconic Classic Pop. “You could say we ripped off 60s gave us and Shaun Ryder – a surrealistic double- or stole from those artists, but we saw it as Stones; the 70s spat out the speaking lyricist and main focal point a homage. I wouldn’t dream of doing some and The Clash while alongside boggle-eyed talismanic of the things now musically that I did then, the 90s served up Oasis and dancer Bez. just the naivety of taking a David Essex tune Blur. For the baggy generation Like Noel Gallagher, Ryder was happy to and sticking it in the middle of one of ours of the late-80s, The Stone wear his influences on his sleeve, routinely for a laugh. Roses and Happy Mondays dropping in snatches of other artists’ songs “[Guitarist] Mark Day was the only positioned themselves at the forefront of and creating smash and grab mash-ups. musician among us who could really play Ea new dance rock movement that united “When we started, kids were listening to his instrument. He was into Rainbow and the head, heart and feet. Both bands were Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Culture Deep Purple, but was up for anything that led by unconventional frontmen – the Club, but we were throwing music into would make his playing sound different.”

52 53 © Getty Images In 1990, Happy HAPPY MONDAYS Mondays joined forces with DJ and producer Steve Day – now back with the band after the Signed to , the skewed Lazyitis, by now the band were Osborne for the original line-up reunited in 2012 agrees: “I post-punk of the Forty Five EP (often fully hitting their stride. Ryder classic Pills ‘n’ Thrills THE KEY was into heavy rock. Shaun and his brother incorrectly called the Delightful EP) was could see they were at And Bellyaches Paul invited me around to have a jam at their first flowering, followed by debut a crossroads and needed to theirs. I did have a Queen t-shirt on, which (deep breath) – Squirrel And G-Man make commercial headway: SQUIRREL AND was not the thing to have in them days. Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face “We’d made two great indie G-MAN TWENTY They were into people like . Carnt Smile (White Out) – produced by albums that were getting written FOUR HOUR PARTY Anything that had guitars from the 70s, Velvet Underground legend . about in the music press, but we PEOPLE PLASTIC FACE that was me all over. Then I got into Frank “ came up with the idea of needed to make a record that CARNT SMILE Zappa – I was always changing, listening using John Cale as they were friends. John would cross over, one to make (WHITE OUT) (1987) and learning. Then the 80s came along did that album for £6,000. It was a favour some money and get us on to Top Producer: John Cale and I got used to keyboards taking to Tony, really,” explains Ryder. Of The Pops. There was nothing Mutant angular from a band still over from the guitar. Long guitar solos Each Mondays album saw a bigger than being on Top Of The learning the ropes. Packed with Ryder’s went out of the window. I had distinct change in direction. The Pops. It was big for The Beatles, it inscrutable lyrics, brother Paul’s fat to adapt.” rough-around-the-edges funky was big for the Stones. It was the basslines and Mark Day’s scratchy, Formed in 1980, it post-punk of their debut real big fucking thing.” unconventional guitar playing. was five years before mutated into an acclaimed Day adds: “It was funny that just the Happy Mondays follow-up a couple of years earlier journalists BUMMED (1988) released any material. a year later, which saw rejected us cos we looked like Producer: But even then, Ryder Joy Division producer hooligan scallies.” The band find their feet on a darkly believes it was too Martin Hannett at humorous sophomore LP. The much, too soon. the controls. HALLELUJAH MOMENT songwriting is more coherent and “We got to making Dropping in The Madchester On Ryder’s surreal non-sequiturs start records way too references to Mick and Hallelujah EPs were the making sense. Key songs emerge early,” he says. “I was Jagger’s cult movie breakthrough releases, with the including Performance, Mad Cyril, still learning how to Performance and swiping latter title track being performed Lazyitis and most pertinently, Wrote write songs and the melodies from Lennon on the same edition of Top Of The For Luck, which shows them how their lads were learning and McCartney on Pops in November 1989 that saw future could sound. how to play.” swagger through Fools Gold. PILLS ‘N’ THRILLS Erasure’s got AND BELLYACHES involved as a remixer but it was DJ (1990) Paul Oakenfold who would prove © Elspeth Moore Producers: to be the next major player in the and Paul Oakenfold band’s upward trajectory. The Mondays at their most focused, “Vince had five fucking tunes in all from . Shaun would joke: ‘go on, polished and commercial. A nigh-on the charts at the same time, but they all all taking drugs – the summer of love was give us a nosh’. I thought he wanted me to perfect blend of eminently danceable had his stamp on it,” adds Ryder. “A few a particularly happy time in . cook! I just told them not to treat me like a indie that elevated them to major really cool ‘on it’ DJs started playing the Everybody was raving and dancing – no girl and put the kettle on every two minutes. players. They’ve built their legacy Oakenfold of us instead. We heard fighting at all. They were actually more respectful than on its stand-outs Step On, about Paul mixing The Woodentops in with “All of a sudden it was more soulful and some of their girlfriends.” and Loose Fit. A melon-twistin’ classic. Balearic Spanish gay dance music. If we’d dancey. I saw myself like when Gloria The Osborne and Oakenfold partnership have been on a major label they would Jones joined Marc Bolan and T.Rex. When worked perfectly on Pill ‘n’ Thrills as YES PLEASE! (1992) never had allowed someone like him to you hear Get It On with her vocal on it, too, Rowetta adds: “Steve – who doesn’t get Producers: produce us.” it lifts the whole thing.” a lot of attention really – was running the and As leaders of the E-ed up generation, the Despite the pills and thrills alluded to studio every day and Oakey would be Much maligned at the time – typical Mondays’ melting pot of dancified indie in the album’s title, DJing all the time. It was waggish headlines read ‘No Thanks!’, “PEOPLE rock made them chart stars – something recording sessions were all done in the day when there are diamonds among the rough they fully capitalised on with the Oakenfold productive, smooth and Paul wasn’t there. It was here, though. Don’t write it off. STARTED and Steve Osborne-produced classic relatively chaos-free. That more about his ear for it CALLING ME album Pills ‘n’ Thrills And Bellyaches in was to come later... all. Steve was the proper 1990. Another key component in their “We were doing music man that did A NATIONAL breakthrough? The inimitable co-vocalist interviews for magazines everything with us.” Rowetta Satchell. like Smash Hits and you’d The album featured the TREASURE. “I’d been a fan of the Mondays for years never have seen bands singles Step On, Loose since I saw them on [Granada TV show like the Mondays in there Fit and Kinky Afro, all IT’S BETTER The Other Side Of Midnight] doing a live previously,” Rowetta seminal hits. By now a version of Performance,” she explains. adds. “I realised this cult major chart act who’d THAN BEING “Tony Wilson had called them the greatest band that I’d joined was broken through (at least band in the world and said the same thing becoming more commercial.” on a minor level) in the States, too, the LABELLED about the Sex Pistols years before. I always Satchell had managed to seamlessly cracks (pun intended) began to show when A JUNKIE wanted to be in a punk band – I’ve been infiltrate what appeared on the outside like a follow-up was needed. Then it gets dark. a punk since I was a teenager but my the most laddish of bands. NOBHEAD” voice doesn’t really lend itself to that “I’ve always gone around with the boys TOTALLY TROPICAL TASTE SHAUN RYDER type of music. so that bit was easy,” she laughs. “But they As Ryder’s heroin habit began to become “I was determined to sing with them. could be a bit crude – a lot of Manchester an increasing problem, Factory’s boss Tony I had to persuade them, though. Getting lads are. I went to a posh school, Bury Wilson decided to send the Mondays to all the different remixers involved really Grammar. I just didn’t understand a lot of record their new album on the smack-free changed their sound. The rock guys were what they were talking about. They were island of . Two things made that a

54 55 It’s been a bumpy ride, HAPPY MONDAYS BACK TO LIFE… but Happy

Mondays are © Paul Husband now celebrating BACK TO REALITY 30 years since The on-off nature of Happy Mondays has seen various members embrace reality their debut “IT’S A PLEASURE TV to keep the wolf from the door. With former managers taking 100 per cent of album with a greatest hits TO BE WITH his earnings in a legal dispute, Shaun Ryder handed over an offer to take part tour of the UK in the 2005 series of Celebrity Big Brother to Bez – and the maraca-wielding EACH OTHER. WE vibemeister duly walked away with the title. Rowetta finished fourth inThe X Factor in 2004 and also appeared in a REMEMBER THE celebrity rehab series where she laid bare her battle with alcoholism. The only new material of the reconvened Mondays’ line-up came from a SHOWS NOW! BACK Watch documentary Singing In The Rainforest, which saw the band travelling to to record a track (Ooo La La To Panama) with an isolated tribe called IN THE DAY YOU’D the Embera. And who could forget Shaun Ryder’s appearance in the 10th series of I’m A BE UP ALL NIGHT... Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! where he was famously bitten by a snake? He YOU CAN ONLY DO certainly won’t. IT SO MUCH.” ROWETTA

major tactical error. Firstly, Ryder smashed there. But the tour that followed was really For Mark Day, his situation was rather his supply of methadone in the airport en not good and the band didn’t know the different. “I set my own company up selling route to the Caribbean; secondly, the island songs that well. crap for 10 years and ditched the music may not have provided a ready supply of “Previously, on a good night something business. Then I applied to teach music with heroin, but crack cocaine was rife. Ryder, like Wrote For Luck could go on for 15 the local council – once they found out who though, is quick to deny the now legendary or 20 minutes and we’d get the crowd I was I had to audition. stories that the druggy excesses during the on stage with us. All that seemed to have “I hadn’t played in 17 years and had to recording of 1992’s Yes Please! ultimately gone. Shaun started using an autocue.” perform in front of three classically-trained led to Factory’s demise. The Mondays split for the first time in people. I just about managed to scrape “Fleetwood Mac did more fucking drugs 1993. For Mark Day, those final moments my way through Blackbird by The Beatles. “I was determined Xxxxx than we did,” he argues. “Pink Floyd, Led in the original line-up still sound traumatic: RETURN TO THE SOURCE I ended up teaching in high schools and to sing with the Mondays, but I Zeppelin – they had more fookin’ money. “I don’t know whether it was not being Ryder kept hold of the band name and playing in orchestras. I still do that now. had to persuade Those stories about us in Barbados... used to fame or not being told how to various incarnations resurfaced with a “When I got the phone call [about the them...” Rowetta yes, we smoked a bit of crack. Crack deal with it, but psychologically I had real rotating membership. Fans were thrilled, reunion] I was pretty skint and my company joined the band in in Barbados costs £2.50 an ounce. In problems with the band. I was always upset though, when a full reunion of the original went under. In the end, my daughter made 1990 singing on Pills ‘n’ Thrills... England, it was £20 for a little stone. So, and miserable, thinking it was madness, members was announced in 2012. the decision for me after she’d bumped and Yes Please! there wasn’t this large amount of money that it couldn’t carry on. When we went to Keyboardist Paul Davis made the into Shaun. © Angie Wynne spent on anything – it’s bullshit. We didn’t Barbados, it was a drain. The first day we opening tour but was the first casualty “I love it now. I haven’t looked back and ruin Factory. We went platinum. got there I was in tears, just thinking ‘this of the comeback, leaving after a year: enjoy it more than ever.” “The thing that Factory didn’t have was is mental’. I woke up the first morning we “Paul Davis can’t play keyboards,” Ryder Hints of a new album have surrounded a massive PR department behind it like all were there and there was a crack dealer says bluntly. “He never could. I like Paul, the band since the 2012 reunion but to major labels do as that costs money. So, we waiting outside... he’s a boyhood friend, but when we got date nothing has surfaced and could be made our own fucking press with the drugs “It was when we lost a potential record really successful, Tony [Wilson] would take delayed by the success of the latest Black stories and rave thing. deal with EMI – and the things on board that Paul would say. But Grape album, Pop Voodoo. “When I hear that Tony only one on the table Paul was an absolute fookin’ fruitcake. Mark Day says he’d “do it tomorrow”, Wilson wasn’t a good actually – when Shaun “The only bullshit that Tony ever told me but Ryder hints that after the forthcoming businessman, it’s bullshit. went for his infamous was to split everything equally with the winter tour, there will be a lengthy hiatus. He would have put all ‘KFC’. You could just tell writing royalties so that there wouldn’t be “A new Mondays album is still a possibility the other fucking muppets everything was crumbling any arguments. And I did. I didn’t take but other than a few festivals, the band to bed. If he was still all around us. That old what was mine. have got to go to bed for a couple of years. alive today, he’d be saying about ‘when the “But do you know what, did it stop the We’ll be promoting the album sitting next to Simon going gets tough, the arguments? Did it fuck. It’s not frustrating around the world for the next two years.” Cowell on The X Factor.” tough get going’, with now, cos everyone gets a tickle in terms of Work has been started, though, as “We didn’t feel that us it was the opposite. the songwriting. Rowetta reveals: “I’ve still got all the ideas much pressure at first,” People just stopped “It’s great that we’re all getting on and on my laptop. They’re great. I think Alan Rowetta adds about the talking to each other. playing better than ever now, though. It’s McGee who manages us wants an album atmosphere surrounding the Yes Please! “I never thought about leaving the band. quite difficult to talk about how it was in in 2019. So as long as we’re still together, sessions. “It was only when it all went But everyone had their own personal the past without still rubbing people up the then it could still be possible.” wrong in Barbados that we started to feel it. problems and demons to fight against. I just wrong way.” Busier than ever, Shaun is juggling We realised there was nothing that Shaun couldn’t walk into another band because Rowetta, who now also appears with two bands and revelling in a new-found did out there vocals-wise that could be I had such a distinctive style.” the Hacienda Classical touring band and status as being an elder statesman of used. When he came back, he went into “Me and Bez fought to death to keep has a forthcoming collaboration with Fun indie. “After I came out of the jungle, rehab. I got a call asking if I could be free our friends and little gang together,” says Lovin’ Criminals on the way, agrees that people started calling me a national for six weeks – it was going to be just me Ryder. “Jealousy crept in – it was a case of the reunited Mondays finds them older but treasure. It’s better than being labelled and Shaun in the studio with the producers the door stays open for me and Bez then it’s wiser: “It’s a pleasure to be with each other a junkie nobhead, though, so I’ll take Tina [Weymouth] and Chris [Frantz]. let go of when the rest of the band walk in. and play. We remember the shows now! that any day.” “Shaun lost his confidence a bit but we You know what, that’s how it was. We’re all “Back in the day because of the were in a lovely manor house studio in older and wiser now. But the rest wanted to adrenaline you’d go straight to a party and l Happy Mondays’ 30th . The worst we did was go into the split up that band and cut their own noses be up all night drinking. You can only do it anniversary Greatest Hits tour kitchens to see if there was any sherry in off to spite their face.” so much.” traverses the UK until 23 December.

56 57