Four albums. Three you could call classic and one near miss. It’s odd as there is a weird symmetry between Happy Mondays and their fellow lauded Mancs The Smiths when it comes to their recorded output. You have the promising debut, the leap-forward cult classic follow up, the celebrated third and the could-have-been-great fourth. Yet you only seem to see think pieces or coloumn inches covering Moz and co with not as much coverage on the Mondays’ first life which is a shame as personally I feel the Mondays are more vital in understanding our recent past and especially our present where club culture is massive and dance music has become the biggest form of music there is. The working-class son of a postman and nurse, Ryder was born in Salford in 1964, and was a self-taught guitarist. He said it was only later in his career that he “learned what the different strings were. I’d call them the fat one, the thin one and the one down from the fat one.” Monroe, Jazz (15 July 2022). "Happy Mondays Bassist Paul Ryder Dies at 58". Pitchfork . Retrieved 16 July 2022. Between 10th and 11th – second album by contemporaries the Charlatans, released after Madchester/baggy's demise a b Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDFed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p.124.

That’s great, and the fact she recognises herself as an artist too is fantastic . How about the paintings that have stood out in the ‘Up’s & Down’s’ exhibition so far, and why would you maybe say that is? J.P.Gorman (26 April 2007). "Happy Mondays' Bez Denied Visa For Coachella" (News article). Pop Blend. Cinema Blend LLC . Retrieved 6 May 2012. Happy Mondays are always worth listening to and now they sound even better so devote a few hours to their swagger and slang and enjoy feeling part of one of our finest band of outlaws. We’ve just seen your amazing exhibition at salford gallery and were blown away by the art work we particularly like the cat with big ears, the tulips and the kids doing stuff and animals!!! Having always been fans of the Monday’s and the accompanying art work we were chuffed to find ourselves in Manchester this weekend when we read the article in the guardian.”In place of the kind of creative unity required to navigate such headwinds, the Happy Mondays had mutiny in the ranks. Reflecting on the group’s choice of producers, in Twisting My Melon, Shaun Ryder complained that “the rest of the band didn’t get it; they didn’t understand that our fans liked our sound. They thought that if we could incorporate Chris and Tina’s sound into the Mondays’ sound, then all the Talking Heads fans would get into it and we would break into a much bigger market. But it doesn’t work like that.” Unlike his showman brother, Ryder admitted: “I am embarrassingly shy – that’s why I used to take copious amount of drugs before I went on stage … with Shaun being a Leo and older he was so much more the extrovert, and from what I know he always loved the attention.” Wilson, Susan (1997). The Charlatans – Northwich Country Boys. London: UFO Music. ISBN 0-7535-0494-4. It perhaps goes without saying that the decision by the Happy Mondays to make their fourth album, Yes Please!, in the sun-kissed paradise of the Caribbean was not without incident. Recorded at Blue Wave Studios, a lavish complex owned by the reggae star Eddy Grant, its towering costs helped bankrupt Factory Records, the label on which it was released. With sales of 50,000 copies – far less than a quarter of its predecessor, Pills’n’Thrills And Bellyaches - it would be its authors’ last LP for 15 years. Robb, John (2009). The North Will Rise Again: Manchester Music City 1976-1996. London: Aurum Press. p.261.

As you might expect from the Happy Mondays at their chemical peak, it’s not exactly a sober affair – “Everything that’s ever been wrote about us is drugs, man,” says frontman Shaun Ryder at one point. “But then everything we’ve ever done is drugs.” – and in our opinion it deserves to be made into a movie at some point (a comedown response to 24 Hour Party People, perhaps). Happy Mondays toured the US and Canada with The Psychedelic Furs in late 2009 with Paul Ryder's son and Shaun Ryder's nephew Jake Ryder filling in for Gaz Whelan on drums. [24]

Happy Mondays had a meeting with McGough and Wilson, who gave the band three options on where to record: a studio in Amsterdam, which they all were against; a studio inside a formerly used church in Manchester, which was run by pop producer Pete Waterman; or a studio in Barbados. Waterman had made a pitch to produce the band's next album, which Ryder and Whelan were against while the rest of the band plus McGough were up for. Whelan stated if they went with Waterman, he would quit. All of them went with Barbados, bar Day who wanted to make the next album in Manchester. When asked by the band why he wanted to be in Manchester, Day reasoned that they all had families there. [22] As determinedly hedonistic as his bandmates in daily life, there was nevertheless something solid about his playing. In a outfit whose musicianship was occasionally called into question – Shaun claimed that former Smiths bassist Andy Rourke had attempted to form a band with the Mondays’ keyboard player Paul Davis, giving up when he realised “that lad can’t play a note” – Paul’s bass provided an anchor, something the listener could latch on to amid the confusion. Happy Mondays Confirm They'll Play 25th Anniversary 'Pills 'n' Thrills...' Tour video". NME . Retrieved 19 April 2015.

She especially shines on second single “Sunshine and Love,” which otherwise sounds like a bad Duran Duran rip-off and even contains these self-referential lines: “Ooh, we’d like to take credit for this/ We’d love to thank ourselves for this.” No idea if they were being ironic or sarcastic (it was the 90’s after all). But it does make you wonder whether they knew this album was going to bad — and if they even cared at that point. If you watch an MTV News feature from that time, it certainly looks like they don’t.Indeed it is, must be rewarding to recieve such reactions to the artwork. So which would you say are your stand out pieces from the exibition?