History Music / HappyMondays

->"I saw the Happy Mondays on TV, and they reminded me of Music/TheBeatles in their "Strawberry Fields" phase."

->I saw the Happy Mondays on TV, and they reminded me of Music/TheBeatles in their "Strawberry Fields" phase.

The recording of the follow-up, ''Yes Please!'', however, was a disaster (check DevelopmentHell below), to the point that, at the time of release, it got mixed reviews (one of the more famous pans read simply "No thanks."), got poor album sales (at least compared to their previous album, and in the rise of {{Grunge}} music stateside and BritPop at home) and famously caused Factory Records to go bankrupt. The band broke up soon afterwards.

* ''Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches'' (1990)

* SpiritualSuccessor: Shaun and Bez's next band Black Grape. They pursued the sound of ''Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches'', focusing more on its Hip-Hop style elements, abandoning the House music elements.

* TwentyFourHourPartyPeople: The title of one of their most famous songs. TropeNamer

* AlbumTitleDrop: Except for the "Squirrel And G-Man" part, ''Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)'' gets its title from the chorus of "24 Hour Party People". However, "24 Hour Party People" itself wasn't on the original version of the album - it was only added to the track-list to replace the song "Desmond" (see MissingEpisode).

** Shawn also enjoyed quoting famous other songs but twisting them into something considerably more dissonant. For example, "Kinky Afro"'s chorus borrows from Labelle's "Lady Marmalade", except Shawn then sings ''[[{{Squick}} I had to crucify somebody today]]'', and "Donovan" twists the verse of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" into ''Sunshine shone brightly, through my asshole today''. Even when not quoting from other songs, Shawn's general {{Cloudcuckoolander}} lyrics had a way of causing [=WTFing=] among listeners: "Holiday"'s contrast between upbeat music and lyrics about being arrested by customs for smuggling drugs isn't helped by Shawn barking "Lemme look up your arse, you!" at the end of one verse.
* TheLoad: Bez. His entire contribution to the band was tambourine and "freaky dancing".
** Though some people think that such contribution was fundamental, both in terms of band chemistry and in order to show the crowds how to dance to their music. [[http://rulefortytwo.com/secret-rock-knowledge/chapter-6/bez/ One music writer]], who had interviewed Shaun Ryder and Bez when they were in Black Grape, even claimed Bez's dancing made their music sound better because he was "marking out the beat with his body", which gave the band "a visual focus that produced a musical groove."

* RecordProducer: Their debut album was produced by John Cale, ''Bummed'' by Martin Hannett, ''Pills 'n' Thrills'' by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, and ''Yes Please!'' by Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz (the CreatorCouple of Music/TomTomClub).

-->--'''Music/PaulMcCartney''', in the November 1990 edition of ''NME''

By 1987 they were already gathering a strong reputation for their live performances, which had "Bez" doing his freaky dance (there's even one of their songs called "Freaky Dancin' ") and Shaun singing while holding a lyric sheet. In the same year, they released their debut album ''[[LongTitle Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) ]]'', produced by [[Music/TheVelvetUnderground John Cale]].

Shaun Ryder then kicked his drug addictions and formed Black Grape in 1993 with Bez and two rappers, a drummer and a guitarist, achieving a relative success: their first album ''It's Great to Be Straight... Yeah'' (1995) went to #1 in the UK and spawned a few hits, but their second album ''Stupid Stupid Stupid'' (1997) flopped.

* BreakupBreakout

* TakeThat: "God's Cop" is directed at the controversial then-Chief Constable of Greater Manchester James Anderton, who became known as "God's copper" since he claimed to speak with God. (Anderton was a regular punching bag for Manchester bands thanks to his fundy craziness, which most notoriously included referring to gay people with AIDS as "drowning in a cesspit of their own making" and trying to get the city's best-known alternative publisher shut down for obscenity. Music/TheFall also took shots at him in "Hit the North", and Music/TheKLF defaced a poster of him and used that as the cover for the "What Time Is Love?" single.)
** "Step On" was originally written by Christos Demetriou as a protest against the apartheid regime in South Africa, where he lived at the time. (John Kongos himself was South African.)

* WordSaladLyrics: This didn't stop Tony Wilson from once praising Shaun Ryder as "the greatest poet since Yeats". (Presumably, he wasn't serious.)

-->I saw the Happy Mondays on TV, and they reminded me of Music/TheBeatles in their "Strawberry Fields" phase.

The recording of the follow-up, ''Yes Please!'', however, was a disaster (check DevelopmentHell below), to the point that, at the time of release, it got mixed reviews (one of the more famous pans read simply "No thanks."), got poor album sales (at least compared to their previous album, and in the rise of Grunge music stateside and BritPop at home) and famously caused Factory Records to go bankrupt. The band broke up soon afterwards.

* "Stinkin' Thinkin'" (single) (1992) (notably the last material released on Creator/FactoryRecords before the label's bankruptcy)

Discography:

''Studio Albums''

''Live Albums''

''Other releases''

* "Stinkin' Thinkin'" (single) (1992)

''Compilations''

The recording of the follow-up, ''Yes Please!'', however, was a disaster (check DevelopmentHell below), to the point that, at the time of release, it got mixed reviews (one of the more famous pans read simply "No thanks."), got poor album sales (at least compared to their previous album, and in the rise of Grunge music in the music mainstream) and famously caused Factory Records to go bankrupt. The band broke up soon afterwards.

** Though some people think that such contribution was fundamental, both in terms of band chemistry and in order to show the crowds how to dance to their music. [[http://rulefortytwo.com/secret-rock-knowledge/chapter-6/bez/ One music writer]], who had interviewed Ryder and Bez when they were in Black Grape, even claimed Bez's dancing made their music sound better because he was "marking out the beat with his body", which gave the band "a visual focus that produced a musical groove."

** Though some people think that such contribution was fundamental, both in terms of band chemistry and in order to show the crowds how to dance to their music.

* OopNorth
* OverlyLongName: Their debut album, to the point where it makes titles like ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'' sound brisk.

* RecordProducer: Their debut album was produced by John Cale, ''Bummed'' by Martin Hannett, ''Pills 'n' Thrills'' by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, and ''Yes Please!'' by Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz (the CreatorCouple of TomTomClub).

* ParentalAbandonment: * "Kinky Afro". Unlike most examples of said trope in popular culture, Ryder sings it in-character, and in a rather defiant and non-apologetic way:

But it was in 1988 that they started to hit big time. They released their second album ''Bummed'', produced by Martin Hannett. At the same time they released from the album the single "Wrote For Luck", which would later on be remixed famously by Paul Oakenfold and Vince Clarke (the latter known as former member of Depeche Mode, the former as one of the DJ's who started to bring House music to the UK via Ibiza). By this point, they achieved their particular sound, by mixing, besides Indie Rock and House, genres and styles such as {{Funk}}, Northern Soul and PsychedelicRock, as well as using Latin-style rhythms and Country music twangs. Compared to the more traditionalist songwriting and heavy psychedelia of their counterparts Music/TheStoneRoses, the Happy Mondays sound was more technologically modern, based on {{Sampling}}, and dancefloor-friendly.

However, it was only through the release of the ''[[TropeNamer Madchester EP ]]'', that the Mondays finally got into Top of the Pops. They played alongside Music/TheStoneRoses, who also got into the national charts through the "Fools Gold" single, transforming what was mainly a regional scene into a full-blown national craze which also got the nickname "Baggy" (largely due to the baggy clothes worn by both bands, though the label "baggy" was applied to the Mondays and similar bands that emphasised the funky elements of their sound, as opposed to the more psychedelic Madchester popularised by the Roses), at the same time that Rave culture, fueled by Acid House and Techno, started to cause interest among the nation in the so-called "Second Summer of Love".

By 1987 they were already gathering a strong reputation for their live performances, which had "Bez" doing his freaky dance (there's even one of their songs called "Freaky Dancin' ") and Shaun singing while holding a lyric sheet.
In the same year, they released their debut album ''[[LongTitle Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) ]]'', produced by [[Music/TheVelvetUnderground John Cale]].

In the same year, they released their debut album ''[[LongTitle Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) ]]'', produced by John Cale.

* CoverVersion: Music/TheBeeGees' "Stayin' Alive", [[Music/Blondie Debbie Harry]]'s "Rush Rush", John Kongos' "Step On" and "Tokoloshe Man" and Music/ThinLizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town".

* CoverVersion: Music/TheBeeGees' "Stayin' Alive", Muisc/DebbieHarry's "Rush Rush", John Kongos' "Step On" and "Tokoloshe Man" and Music/ThinLizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town".

* CoverVersion: The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive", Debbie Harry's "Rush Rush", John Kongos' "Step On" and "Tokoloshe Man" and Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town".

* ShoutOut: Marlene Dietrich's most famous line of ''Film/ShanghaiExpress'' is quoted in "Angel" ("It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily").

Happy Mondays is an Alternative/Indie Rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester, England. They were one of the most popular bands in the late 80s, early 90s, and one of the flagship bands of Factory Records. They are now considered the TropeMaker of the Madchester scene, by sucessfully mixing House music with an Indie Rock sound.

* ShoutOut: Marlene Dietrich's most famous line of ''Shanghai Express'' is quoted in "Angel" ("It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily").

HappyMondays is an Alternative/Indie Rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester, England. They were one of the most popular bands in the late 80s, early 90s, and one of the flagship bands of Factory Records. They are now considered the TropeMaker of the Madchester scene, by sucessfully mixing House music with an Indie Rock sound.