快乐星期一

Happy Mondays are an English alternative dance band formed in Salford in 1980 by brothers Shaun Ryder (vocals) and Paul Ryder (bass), with Gaz Whelan (drums), Paul Davis (keyboard), and Mark Day (guitar). Mark "Bez" Berry later joined the band onstage as a dancer and maracas player. Rowetta joined the band as a vocalist in 1990, initially credited as a guest vocalist, and performed with them until 1993 and again from 2012 until December 2024. They were originally signed to Tony Wilson's Factory Records label.

The group's work bridged the Manchester alternative dance music of the 1980s and the emerging UK rave scene, drawing influence from funk, house, and psychedelia to pioneer the Madchester sound. They experienced their commercial peak with the releases Bummed (1988), Madchester Rave On (1989), and Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches (1990), with the latter going platinum in the UK. Happy Mondays disbanded in 1993. They reformed several times and released the reunion album Uncle Dysfunktional (2007).

History

First incarnation

The band were signed to Factory Records after passing a demo tape to Phil Saxe, a trader at Manchester Arndale who was on friendly terms with Mike Pickering, a DJ at the Haçienda nightclub. Saxe became the band's manager.

Their first release was the "Forty Five EP", often called the "Delightful EP" after its first track. It was released on Factory Records in September 1985. Their first album, Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out), was released in 1987 and was produced by John Cale. This was followed by two further albums: Bummed, in 1988, produced by Martin Hannett, and Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, in 1990, produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne. The latter, recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, went platinum in the UK, selling more than 350,000 copies. Singles "Step On" and "Kinky Afro" from the album both reached number 5 on the UK singles chart.

By the late 1980s, Happy Mondays were an important part of the Manchester music scene and personified rave culture. The line-up of the band during this first and most important ten-year phase never changed, and the six original members Shaun Ryder, Paul Ryder, Gaz Whelan, Paul Davis, Mark Day, and Bez remained a tight unit until the first incarnation came to an end in 1993. Rowetta sang on "Step On" and on Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches tracks including "Kinky Afro" and "Bob's Yer Uncle"; Radio X has described her soulful vocals as an integral part of the band's sound, and Bez said the group was transformed by her arrival: "Overnight, we couldn't imagine ourselves without her." Rowetta shared an agent with the band and had spent months pressing its management to take her on; having recorded "Step On", she was brought on stage for the band's two G-Mex shows in Manchester in March 1990, having met Shaun Ryder only the day before, and later said she had expected to be joining a much smaller band and had not anticipated appearing on Top of the Pops within weeks. Factory Records initially told her it would not be "cost effective" for her to tour, and she won a newspaper competition to join the band's Ibiza dates in the summer of 1990. She went on to sing on Yes Please! and to join the band for three world tours. The band headlined the Friday night at Glastonbury Festival 1990. In November of that year, Paul McCartney commented in NME: "I saw the Happy Mondays on TV, and they reminded me of the Beatles in their 'Strawberry Fields' phase."

Musically, the band fused indie pop guitars with a rhythmic style that owed much to house music, Krautrock, funk, and northern soul. Much of their music was remixed by popular DJs, emphasising the dance influences even further. In style and dress, they crossed hippy fashion and ideals with 1970s glamour. Sartorially and musically, the band helped to encourage the psychedelic revival associated with acid house. One of their most popular songs is "Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer)", featuring a surreal duet between Ryder and Karl Denver. In February 1991, Happy Mondays played in Rock in Rio 2 at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and went to meet Ronnie Biggs in Brazil with Piers Morgan, who at the time was a writer for The Sun newspaper. The Mondays influenced many bands around the Northwest and beyond, including the Stone Roses, Oasis and the Charlatans. A multi-city US tour followed, with the group returning home early in May 1991. In 1991, they played to 30,000 people at Elland Road, Leeds, said to be Happy Mondays' own Spike Island. By July that year, they revealed details of a fourteen track 'official bootleg' live album, Baby Big Head, recorded at the Elland Road concert. The official record label release, Live followed later in the year.

Yes Please! followed in 1992, produced by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, recorded at Eddy Grant's studio in Barbados. The album was a commercial failure that bankrupted Factory Records.