Just watched the video for Step On on one of the music channels while waiting to go out and it struck me how shit it was how this was the single that made them 'break through ' for want of another way of putting it. Just seems a shame something like Kuff Dam wasn't a big breakthrough hit for em a few years earlier . Or maybe Kuff Dam wasn't released as a single? Can't remember now but you get my drift. The stuff on the 24 Hour Party People Plastic Face Can't Smile The White Out album was far more interesting and edgy. Step On just sounds shit. The guitars sound shit the twisting my Mellon thing is lame compared to ' Kuff Dam, Dam Dam, Dam Kuff'. The beats are shit- the drumming on The Plastic Face album are far more interesting and lively.And Shaun looked much better with his circa 87 crop than the floppy haired shenanigans circa 1990.. Just seems a shame that's all . But it's all purely academic now anyway . Rant over , as you were .
Happy Mondays
Archived24 replies · 1,737 views
well to be fair, Kuff Dam is mad fuck backwards, and does contain a graphic SWR description of oral sex.
But agreed, it is better in its shambolic madness. As was 24HPP.
Though have to say their spot supporting New Order at Brum Tower Ballroom Oct 86 did my head in. Cities In The Park in 91 however was a brilliant night- RIGHT DOWN THE FRONT BEZ-ING IT UP BIG
johnny wrote: Though have to say their spot supporting New Order at Brum Tower Ballroom Oct 86 did my head in. Cities In The Park in 91 however was a brilliant night- RIGHT DOWN THE FRONT BEZ-ING IT UP BIG
I was at that Brum gig and loved them from that day on! Bez's [pre-E] dancing, Derek Ryder on Harmonica for a couple of tunes. Bloke stood next to us said: "They're half-cut this lot". Saw 'em loadsa times after that night, similar to NO in that they could be a complete shambles or absolutely fucking electrifying often on consecutive nights. Here's probably my all time favourite Monday's tune: The Egg.
Burt Burterson wrote: well to be fair, Kuff Dam is mad fuck backwards, and does contain a graphic SWR description of oral sex.
Not sure how radio play would've copied with someone calling Jeezus a 'keyunt' as well. 
The Mondays blew up overnight just before Step On was actually released without really doing anything, didn't they? There was a lot of hype involved on behalf of the NME, etc.
They sold out two nights at G-Mex the very same week(I think?) as Step On was released without actually having a hit single prior to that. Hallelujah came out just before Xmas and got them on TOTP but that surely only made about no.20 in the charts? And they also had a big UK tour - 20-30 dates? - around that time as well, but at venues no bigger than the Free Trade Hall (released on video soon after) and the Town & Country club in London.
Next thing you know, after Xmas, they announce G-Mex and Wembley Arena dates ... and then went on to add a second gig at G-Mex as well.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Funnily enough, when they announced G-Mex I thought it could've only been as a New Order support slot - not as them headlining it themselves! I remember ACR doing something similar in 1988, well before the New Order G-Mex gig was announced. They had a big tour announced which included the likes of Colchester Arts Centre, and loads of shitty little Poly gigs ... then in the middle there was a gig at Manchester G-Mex!!!!
Yup, "Hallelujah" was released around the same time as The Roses' "Fools Gold" - they appeared on TOTP at the same time - the Inspirals' "Move" might have been released at the same time as well?
And then Madchester exploded - Stuart Maconie et al - and, as you say, the rest is history! :)
El Jarvo wrote:
Burt Burterson wrote: well to be fair, Kuff Dam is mad fuck backwards, and does contain a graphic SWR description of oral sex.
Not sure how radio play would've copied with someone calling Jeezus a 'keyunt' as well.
I forgot about that line 
El Jarvo wrote:
The Mondays blew up overnight just before Step On was actually released without really doing anything, didn't they? There was a lot of hype involved on behalf of the NME, etc.
Actually Rave on EP with Hallelujah was first to crash the charts in around October 1989. I remember being at Uni and having bets with someone for two weeks of beer, that the Mondays and Roses would hit the top 30 same week. It was the best ever TOTP that week, with Mondays, Roses, Orbital and Adamski (Killer) on it.
Step On i think followed early in 1990. March-ish?
I dunno. I was off me tits, like Jarvo. Still disappointed no one remembers police on horses entering the ULU gig.
Nick King wrote: Yup, "Hallelujah" was released around the same time as The Roses' "Fools Gold" - they appeared on TOTP at the same time - the Inspirals' "Move" might have been released at the same time as well?
And then Madchester exploded - Stuart Maconie et al - and, as you say, the rest is history! :)
It did.. same week... I didn't include that in the bet, cos I'm not sure it went top 40.
The Mondays got a fair bit of exposure on the widely watched Chart Show on ITV, I can remember them showing WFL & Lazyitis, then Shaun got arrested in Jersey and that hit the papers and various music programmes on telly and gave them a big bit of exposure.
Madchester was fucking brilliant, I was 13/14 and the only records I had bought previous were Joy Division/New Order natch. Fuckin loved the Mondays and people are still amazed when I say I rate them higher than the Roses, also bought all the Inspirals, Northside, 808, Charlies......even the Farm records! The two memorable gigs of that era for me were Elland Road 91 and Cities In The park......
Happy DAZE
I recall em being on the front cover of Melody Maker in May 1987 'Nuts In May' and liking the image but still struggling to get my head round the music. I guess my way in with them like many others were the WFL remixes in 89 before the Rave On EP. First album Squrrel And G Man is their best for me now though ,only one I ever stick on now. Could probably count the number of times I've listened to Pills N Thrills on the fingers of one hand.Think I was too obsessed with House Of Love's 1990 album Fontana/ Butterfly to give Madchester my full attention.
Burt Burterson wrote: Still disappointed no one remembers police on horses entering the ULU gig.
Tell me more! Why did police on horses enter the ULU?
That must've been a sight to behold.
I do believe the only Horse in ULU that evening was the one on stage firing out all those spunky/funky riffs. King of the Slums were toilet tho.
‘Bummed’ = Amazing record. Still.
Mother-in-law at the time pulled out its inner sleeve in Our Price on Holloway Road once and almost went into cardiac arrest. "Be Jesus" she ranted ...
Double good.
Ermmm.. ok
well the story goes that i remember the band coming back for Wrote for Luck, and Shaun and his brother having another onstage argument, at that point one of them invited the whole crowd onstage. A stampede occurred (I remember losing my tape recorder in the melee), the police were called etc etc.
I stuck around til the place emptied out to see if i could find my tape recorder, and after giving up, i was rather surprised to see a big fucking horse with rozzer on top coming through the slide doors...
No one else seems to remember this though. 
And yes, KoTS were bad.. kept supporting people at Dingwalls too...
With you on a lot of your points there Johnny boy.... I too am NOT a fan of their commercially successful era. P&TNB is a bit embarrassing to listen to after 1991 - a couple of good songs - God's Cop and Loose Fit, and that's about it really. I really loved that first Happy Mondays (note, NO definitive article when calling them by their full name!) album Squirrel and G-Man when it came out - but every mate of mine whom I used to rave about the album to thought I was off my face on drugs and refused to take me seriously.
Bummed was kind of the album that started getting their following established but the breakthrough when it came -for me personally - was a fucking anticlimax. Hallelujah was just a load of Can-cribbing bollocks and even Kirsty MacColl singing on the remix didn't win me over. Step On was a novelty song no more no less, and deserved its high chart placing simply cos it was a fucking cover version.
True, it brought back great memories for me of that long hot summer of 1990 (and the one the previous year weren't too bad either), but that whole Madchester thing the Mondays (you either call them THE MONDAYS or HAPPY MONDAYS - NEVER 'THE HAPPY MONDAYS'!!! COMPRENDEZ, LAZY FUCKHEADS???!!!) were part of along with the Roses, Inspirals, etc etc, really annoyed me - too many stupid bowl-haired flappy panteed fucks jumping on the bandwagon trying to get stoned and shagged for my liking....
The best Mondays songs were on that first album, Freaky Dancin/The Egg is their best single bar none, Little Matchstick Owen's Rap is a fucking hoot, and Tart Tart wipes the floor with ALL the post-Bummed stuff no contest.
There, I said it. 
johnny wrote: Pills Thrills & Bellyaches was shite
'Oasis' off Squirrel And G Man is ace
One of my faves as well.... love the way most of the tracks on that first LP had loads of unrelated melodies going on (guitars playing a different part to the keyboards, and bass, as well as the lumbering Fall-like drum patterns).
Definitely more interesting compared to what came later.
Do you also like the very rough, rockier version of OASIS from the first EP "Delightful"? It's raw as fuck - in fact that whole first EP is raw as fuck - pure yobbo rock in excelsis - and enough to send any post-1989 Mondays fan scurrying for cover!
El Jarvo wrote:
Burt Burterson wrote: well to be fair, Kuff Dam is mad fuck backwards, and does contain a graphic SWR description of oral sex.
Not sure how radio play would've copied with someone calling Jeezus a 'keyunt' as well.
The Mondays blew up overnight just before Step On was actually released without really doing anything, didn't they? There was a lot of hype involved on behalf of the NME, etc.
They sold out two nights at G-Mex the very same week(I think?) as Step On was released without actually having a hit single prior to that. Hallelujah came out just before Xmas and got them on TOTP but that surely only made about no.20 in the charts? And they also had a big UK tour - 20-30 dates? - around that time as well, but at venues no bigger than the Free Trade Hall (released on video soon after) and the Town & Country club in London.
Next thing you know, after Xmas, they announce G-Mex and Wembley Arena dates ... and then went on to add a second gig at G-Mex as well.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Funnily enough, when they announced G-Mex I thought it could've only been as a New Order support slot - not as them headlining it themselves! I remember ACR doing something similar in 1988, well before the New Order G-Mex gig was announced. They had a big tour announced which included the likes of Colchester Arts Centre, and loads of shitty little Poly gigs ... then in the middle there was a gig at Manchester G-Mex!!!!
And what really got me about this part of their career was there was a headline simply going BEGGING when they played there - based on their first album.... "Squirrel And G-Mex" - but, much as I was waiting for it come along, it didn't materialise - oh the slow SLOW music papers!!! 
By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote: Step On was a novelty song no more no less, and deserved its high chart placing simply cos it was a fucking cover version.
Aye, Eck.
Think my problem with it is that if you asked yer average Joe Bloggs to name one Mondays song he would most probably say Step On.The one song that yer average Joe would know em by is a bloody cover version.
johnny wrote:
By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote: Step On was a novelty song no more no less, and deserved its high chart placing simply cos it was a fucking cover version.
Aye, Eck.
Think my problem with it is that if you asked yer average Joe Bloggs to name one Mondays song he would most probably say Step On.The one song that yer average Joe would know em by is a bloody cover version.
Most post-Madchester Mondays fans probably wouldn't give a stuff about that first album anyway. Their loss, of course. Happy Mondays were meant to be as palatable as a bowl of peanuts washed down with razor blades, and the crappest thing of all was all these remixers trying to make their music more......yuck.....MAINSTREAM (spit) to appeal to the masses, smoothing out all of the rough edges that Bummed and S&G-M possessed. SO what we got was Steve Osbourne and Paul Oakenfold/Andrew Weatherall production job that made the Mondays into a slickly bland chart act.
Twisting My Fucking Melons, my arse!!!!
And you know what made it even MORE galling and nauseating?? Liverpool jumped in on the act and gave us the tenth incarnation of The Farm - this time a fourth rate Happy Mondays wannabe act (with Groovy Train, Stepping Stone, All Together Now, etc etc), complete with Peter Hooton's shameless Shaun-Ryder-by-numbers vocals. (Fuck me, THEY actually had a number 1 album, whilst Happy Mondays didn't!!! Oh, the irony!!!).
I really really detested Baggy and everything it stood for. Basically much of it was leery beery lagered up lads, thinking they could fucking do a Sly & The Family Stone...... oh fuck off!! I think Ian McCulloch was of the same opinion if I am not mistaken.....
johnny wrote: Well said by eck. And as I said the best album of 1990 was House Of Love's album
MY favourite album of 1990 was Bossanova by Pixies. Followed closely by another 4AD gem - Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins.
I remember the day I bought Bummed - mainly because I got the shock of my life when I unwittingly opened the CD inlay card on a packed tube train going home. I got some very, very strange looks from the people stood near me.
Great album though.
By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote:
johnny wrote: Well said by eck. And as I said the best album of 1990 was House Of Love's album
MY favourite album of 1990 was Bossanova by Pixies. Followed closely by another 4AD gem - Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins.
And even funnier to relate - by way of a belated addendum - that my THIRD favourite abum of that year was ALSO on 4AD (sheeesh, what a vintage year for THEM then!!!), namely: The Comforts Of Madness by PALE SAINTS.
FAC 33 wrote: I remember the day I bought Bummed - mainly because I got the shock of my life when I unwittingly opened the CD inlay card on a packed tube train going home. I got some very, very strange looks from the people stood near me.
Great album though.
You were buying CDs in 1988?? You posh get!! ;)
I got a CD player for Christmas so I thought I'd better get something to play on it. I remember thinking at the time "these bloody things will never catch on"!
