Bummed is everything the Mondays musical legacy resides on and it is easy to see why when listening again. Shaun Ryder’s lyrics are even more snotty, obtuse and hilarious. His slang and cut/paste style ties him in to Gysin and Burroughs, Bowie and Bukowski. Scattered throughout the album are lyrics that make you laugh, make you cringe and also make you once again pore through them trying to decipher their meaning. Nadsat for the acid-house generation. a b "Happy Mondays Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021 . Retrieved 10 October 2021. One thing that this exhibition brings is that we all carrydisabilities in one way or another around with us all ourlife, but mostpeoplewith Downs don’t because they are free in some ways, from theoppressionofsocallednormal life. Maybe that’s why they are so loving, have the biggest smiles and give the best Hugs. That probably explains why it was a much darker and more somber album compared to the upbeat and carefree Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches or the euphoric Madchester Rave On EP. Clearly, they knew the party was coming to an end and the hangover was about to hit them like a locomotive. “Kiss me for old times sake/ Kiss me for making you wait/ Kiss me for screwing everything in sight/ Kiss me for never getting it right,” Ryder sings on the seductive and silky lead single “Stinkin’ Thinkin,’” which is one of the few highlights on the album. Ryder, whose brother Shaun fronted the group, was a founder member since their formation in 1980 and had rejoined for the group’s most recent reunion in 2012.

I’ve seen a lot of people who live life on the edge, but I’ve never before seen a group of people who had no idea where the edge is,” Weymouth recalled. 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. Ryder played with Happy Mondays for their peak era in the late 1980s, as the group communed with the rave scene of the time while innovating their own brand of psychedelic pop. After minor success with second album Bummed, they had a huge hit with the follow up Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches in 1990, buoyed by the singles Step On and Kinky Afro, which both reached No 5 in the UK singles chart.Released on August 31, the lead-off single from Yes Please!, Stinkin’ Thinkin’, debuted on the UK chart at number 39. Barely a month later, its parent LP stalled at number 14. The only international chart troubled by its presence was Australia, at number 99. According to Shaun Ryder, “it was not a good album. There were no catchy grooves… it had absolutely no character. Yes Please! wasn’t the Mondays. It could have been anyone.”

Brod, Doug; Krugman, Michael. "Happy Mondays". Trouser Press. Archived from the original on 3 December 2020 . Retrieved 27 September 2021. 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.” Warburton, John; Ryder, Shaun (2011). Hallelujah!: The Extraordinary Story of Shaun Ryder and Happy Mondays. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-0781-0.Rowetta’s powerhouse vocal performances on the album elevate the bands sound even further in the way she brings in an erotic gospel aspect which makes the bands sound feel again like a relative of the vocal driven House music that was popular at the time whilst also connecting them with the soul and funk bands that their sound is so obviously inspired by. Shaun Ryder’s vocals playing in and around Rowetta’s is a thrilling blend. There’s a sensuality to them singing together (most obvious on Bob’s Yer Uncle) and even though Rowetta brings an added femininity to the Mondays’ sound she never once feels like window dressing. In fact it is Rowetta’s famed “Yippee Yippee” on Kinky Afro is often the first sound you think of when thinking of Happy Mondays’ music. Rowetta adds sex, spirituality, power and harmony…wonder what Bummed would have sounded like with her on it???? Wills, Dominic; Sheehan, Tom (1999). The Charlatans: The Authorised History. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-0194-5.

In his years away from the Happy Mondays, Ryder released an album with another group, Big Arm, in 2008 and moved to Los Angeles in the late 00s. He also performed live with the New York funk group Tom Tom Club, whose members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth (also of Talking Heads) had produced Yes Please!. 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.” Interview: Paul Ryder on Life with the Happy Mondays" (Interview). Live4ever. Live4ever Ezine. 11 May 2011 . Retrieved 6 May 2012. This is also the ‘first’ collaborationExhibition held in the history of art between a (so called) established Artist and a person with Downs syndrome – so we are proud of that fact.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

a b Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDFed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p.124. Robb, John (2009). The North Will Rise Again: Manchester Music City 1976-1996. London: Aurum Press. p.261.

Happy Mondays Chart History (Dance Singles Sales)". Billboard. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021 . Retrieved 10 October 2021.

Top tracks

The greatest opening line to an album ever?? Has to be a contender. So here we come to the “classic”. The Mondays album which always gets cited in lists and music publications. This was the moment that Madchester took over the UK for a brief spell. The band were now linked with fellow Mancunians The Stone Roses and they had moved away from Hannett and into the studio with electronic producer and superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne. Here was the band and Factory Records explicitly connecting them in with the chems and dance world. Those that knew spotted it on Bummed but with Pills the band were not being subtle anymore. From the kaleidoscopic cover to the title itself here were Happy Mondays coming for the dance crowd…and they got them. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp.242–243. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. Painting and art has become important to Maria as she has got over the passing of your parents, and I know your parents were a big influence on you and Pat regarding art. Taking you to see Lowry’s work at Salford art gallery as kids, I guess your parents would be really pleased to see you and Maria come together to create such a fine collection.