Late Eighties leaders of working class dance culture as Madchester ruled the music world. Funky, sleazy, groovy and moody, the 24 Hour Party People, Happy Mondays, turned up the volume and switched the lights on…
Fusing rock ‘n rave ‘n’ funk, a new drug, deviantly bright fashion, zeitgeist lyrics and Central Station’s phantasmagoric art, Salford’s Happy Mondays defined the so-called Madchester scene with a barrage of tunes like Step On, Wrote For Luck, 24 Hour Party People and Hallelujah, and a lifestyle that shocked, from the Hacienda to New York.
The Happy Mondays, named because that was the day their dole cheque arrived, spun the misery of Margaret Thatcher daze into a positive, all-dancing, all partying period of music history, providing the radio hits, club re-mixes and Bez, the dancer, to show the way. Factory Records svengali Tony Wilson labelled Shaun Ryder as ‘Poet’ and the album Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches as the new Sergeant Pepper…Discuss…
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