Happy Mondays - O2 Academy, Liverpool, 13/11/20115
by Richard Lewis
published: 25 / 11 / 2015
intro
Richard Lewis watches Happy Mondays, touring their classic album 'Pills 'n’ Thrills and Bellyaches' for its twenty-fifth anniversary, play a stunning show at a sold out Liverpool Academy
"I’m not late. I’m not late. That was just the intro," Shaun Ryder jokes walking onstage to a full capacity Liverpool Academy following a climatic build-up. With pre-show anticipation slowly racking up, the set opens with an Italian House track featuring co-lead singer Rowetta on solo vocals as the Mondays assemble on stage one by one. With the atmosphere in the room suggesting the show is as much a celebration as a gig, the strings that herald the start of 'Kinky Afro' kick in and over a thousand voices chorus Shaun’s opening lyric "Son, I’m thirty/I only went with your mother ‘cos she’s dirty." An album that truly seized the 1990 zeitgeist, combining Ibizan club beats, UK indie, New York disco and the band’s idiosyncratic energy into one glorious mélange, the Mondays' mainstream breakthrough 'Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches' has dated preternaturally well. With the disc being played in sequence, the wonderfully scabrous riff that powers 'God’s Cop' second prompts roughly sixty grand’s worth of footwear to start moving in unison. With the original line up minus keys player Paul Davis in place, Rowetta (who seemingly hasn’t aged since the early 1990s) adorned in a dress made from the cover of the album’s sweet-wrapper themed cover, provides soul- inflected vocals, while Bez remains the band’s mascot, an amiable presence endlessly prowling the front of the stage, working the audience. The core of the band’s engine room, the rhythm section that supplies their off-kilter juxtaposing Paul Ryder’s deep basslines and Gaz Whelan’s loose P-Funk beats, is hugely under appreciated compared to their more feted contemporaries. Guitarist Mark Day meanwhile is similarly under-rated, his barbed riffs powering the likes of ‘Grandbag’s Funeral’ and ‘Donovan’ with individualistic style. The slow shuffle of ‘Loose Fit’ and the sundrenched pop of ‘Denis and Lois’ are brilliantly rendered while a short delay before a lascivious rendition of ‘Bob’s Yer Uncle’ meanwhile sees Shaun turn round to ask Gaz Whelan what the delay is - "What are yer doing? Turning the record over?" To no-one’s great surprise ‘Step On’ draws the biggest response of the evening, the fulcrum track of a million indie discos still sounding newly minted despite near endless radio play over quarter of a century. ‘Holiday,’ concerning the troublesome US customs officials the band encountered on their visits to the States, and album closer ‘Harmony’ conclude the main set. The treacle-ly slide guitar motif of the latter is the nearest the band ever came to espousing hippy sentiments. "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony/Cut it up in little tiny bits/And give it all away for free," Shauan sings on it, the residue of 1988's Second Summer of Love in 1988 seeping through to ‘Pills 'n’ Thrills’. Bez meanwhile requests one of the maracas launched into the crowd earlier to be returned to he can give it to a kid fetched up on the stage from the front row. His wish is granted as said percussion implement is quickly thrown back towards him. Returning for the encore, maxi-proportioned versions of 'Wrote for Luck' and the extended club mix version of 'Hallelujah' are essayed with the band departing as Bez assists Mark Day in wringing guitar noise from his axe. An ebullient showcase of a totemic LP all told, with the hint that there may well be more to come from the septet. "Double, Double Good" as a lyric on its predecessor went. Photographs by Keith Ainsworth www.arkimages.co.uk
Also at O2 Academy, Liverpool
Band Links:-
http://www.happymondaysonline.comhttps://www.facebook.com/HappyMondaysOnline
https://twitter.com/happy_mondays
Picture Gallery:-
interviews |
Interview with Shaun Ryder (2019) |
With festival dates over the Summer and a Winter Tour due in December, Richard Lewis talks to Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder about the group’s formative early years and future plans. |
Interview with Shaun Ryder (2015) |
live reviews |
Mountford Hall, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, 6/12/2019 |
Richard Lewis enjoys a set of classic hits and more obscure early tracks from the Happy Mondays at the Liverpool date on what might be their last full-scale tour for a while. |
Roundhouse, London, 16/11/2017 |
Olympia, Liverpool, 1/12/2017 |
photography |
Photoscapes (2024) |
Andrew Twambley takes photos of Happy Mondays at a homecoming gig at the 02 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. |
most viewed articles
current edition
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities - #15- On Being Dignified and Old aka Ten Tips From Jah Wobble On How To Be Happy.Elliott Murphy - Interview
Dennis Tufano - Copernicus Center, Chicago, 19/7/2024
Wreckless Eric - Interview
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities - #16: Living in the Minds of Strangers
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities - #17: Tom Robinson
Adrian Gurvitz - Interview
Norman Rodger - Interview
Chris Spedding - Interview
John Mayall - 1933-2024
previous editions
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities - #5 - ‘We all have good intentions/ But all with strings attached’: Music and Mental Health Part 2Heavenly - P.U.N.K. Girl EP
Trudie Myerscough-Harris - Interview
Nerve - Interview
One Thousand Violins - Interview
Dwina Gibb - Interview
Allan Clarke - Interview
Beautiful South - Ten Songs That Made Me Love...
Oasis - Oasis, Earl's Court, London, 1995
Joy Division - The Image That Made Me Weep
most viewed reviews
current edition
Groovy Uncle - Making ExcusesJules Winchester - The Journey
Philip Parfitt - The Dark Light
Ross Couper Band - The Homeroad
Hawkestrel - Chaos Rocks
Deep Purple - =1
Bill Wyman - Drive My Car
Popstar - Obscene
Splashgirl and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe - More Human
Richard Hawley - In This City You Call Love
related articles |
Black Grape: Live Review (2017 |
Richard Lewis watches Happy Mondays' front man Shun Ryder's other band Black Grape make an excellent return to form in a comeback gig at the O2 Academy in Liverpool |
Black Grape: Interview (2016) |
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart