Happy Daze Comp (a Madchester poll)

this Wiki description is too much:

The Madchester sound had been developing during the later 1980s, from its nascent jangly sounds originally showcased on the NME's classic C86 cassette. By 1990, Madchester and related music was becoming more mainstream, but Happy Daze's release helped to crystallise awareness of the new overall Madchester sound by featuring tracks from several different yet converging forces. Although all have the 'Madchester spirit', by no means all the bands were from Manchester: Primal Scream, The Shamen, and The Soup Dragons being Scottish, The Charlatans from Northwich and the Pixies American. Likewise, not every group on the compilation performed the dance rock style typical of Madchester bands: e.g. Ride were a shoegazing band.

This has been seen as a criticism of the album, along with the glaring omission of songs by New Order or The Stone Roses and for not anticipating the imminent arrival of Grunge music. However the album's mythical aura continues to inspire nostalgia in fans of Madchester era music with some bloggers still remembering the 'happy daze of 1989/1990' in a semi-conscious reference to this album.

don't understand them putting the Pixies on here at all.

this comp is priced at $902.81 in America for a new copy, WTF?

in the Amazon American site that is...

my pick for this is probably also my overall `madchester` pick: "wrote for luck." absolute classic.

I have never heard of this album.

"Hippychick" (a few years too late) followed by the clean version of "Short Dick Man" was a big hit at every one of my 7th grade dances.

I like most of these songs and love several, but I'm also team "Wrote for Luck." I love the Mondays overall, but especially that mid-period of Bummed and the Oakenfold remixes.

Loaded, She Comes in the Fall and The Only One I Know all uber-classic too. And I still carry a torch for Carter USM.

this compilation got mentioned here:

SHINE: 20 Brilliant Indie Hits

Only know two or three of those, but I've always liked "Hippychick" a lot.

I have a cassingle of Hippychick somewhere.

I like most of these songs and love several, but I'm also team "Wrote for Luck." I love the Mondays overall, but especially that mid-period of Bummed and the Oakenfold remixes.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, March 3, 2021 5:44 PM

i always knew you were cool.

Progen every single time

That song more than any other is responsible for turning me into a race kid

Progen every single time

voted Wrote For Luck, no one tune summarizes that entire scene, both the popular and underground stuff, quite like this one

When I was a high school freshman in Boston, I went to a concert featuring Soho, Jesus Jones, Iggy Pop(?!?), and Happy Mondays. It was an extremely confusing experience.

I was on a plane with Soho once and spent the entire trip staring at them and wishing they were my girlfriends

The only time I saw Happy Mondays was at a club in Newark. It was weird. They seemed totally out of context, and there couldn't have been more than a few hundred people there. They were fine — clearly fucked up but capable of playing — but the vibe didn't really translate.

I saw 'em in Milwaukee in like...2009. with the Psychedelic Furs. maybe it's because I was expecting it to be a disaster but I thought they were actually pretty good.

man. i missed out.

this is the show i saw:
https://i.imgur.com/1o64NTO.jpg
with Bongwater too!

i have told this concert story before on this board and will tell it again on this thread. but need to do it a bit later.

as you can see by the closing time, 4AM, it was a party to end all parties!

"DJ's flown in from Manchester's Hacienda club"

sounds like a restaurant boasting about its fish

Don't order the DJ on Sunday, they're starting to get ripe.

Happy Mondays were by far the most baffling part of that concert in 1990, especially since they were the only band that I was just completely unfamiliar with. Why were they headlining instead of Iggy Pop? Why were they so loud? Was it any good? Total mystery.

Why were they headlining instead of Iggy Pop? Why were they so loud? Was it any good?

it was their tour, Iggy was just there for the ride.

haha, it was a party and believe me i had all those same feeling at the time. wtf is this, as i had zero espouse to everything that was happening to me that night.

not sure but fun as hell. again a story later.

tour was called: Call the Cops

lol

I just had zero context for any of it and only can barely comprehend now

This comp had a bunch of stuff that were not hits but became hits later..

"Hippychick" from being on this compilation.

I'm sure this was a VHS video as well

The video for Wrote for Luch is absolutely extraordinary. It's just exactly what it's like...

My favourite Soho fact is that one (or two?) of them later turned up in the Bluetones.

The version of Circle Square is actually this mix and it was a total pisstake supposedly. They hated dance mixes and even made a cheapo promo in a Trocadero make-your-own-video booth where some of them had Mani hats on, to take the piss even more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S6DQbHy1No

To be fair the original was pretty nifty.

the 'Paranoia Mix', to be clear.

The New FADs track is good, still.

Seriously though, if you only know “ProGen” as “Move Any Mountain”, you don’t know it at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhA3Dlg83XI

Mondays by a million miles.

Prompted by this thread I played the deluxe/bonus track edition of Bummed last night, with all the remixes. Such a great record, such a weird band. Half the songs start out seeming like utter shambles and then a groove emerges, and somehow Shaun Ryder is a totally compelling frontman despite not being able to sing and mostly spouting free-associative gibberish.

ProGen by a million miles.

I have it on good authority that this will form the basis for the new Scottish National Anthem post independence, now that the contingent pushing for using Soup Dragons' "I'm Free" have bowed out of the proceedings.

oh thank god, I was beginning to feel like I was on a deserted island

The New FADs track is good, still.

it is!

oh thank god, I was beginning to feel like I was on a deserted island

sanity shall prevail.

Yeah, I found the VHS video, is great too.

There was a vol2, it's less but.

Oh, and it's all compiled by Gary Crowley

oh thank god, I was beginning to feel like I was on a deserted island

sanity shall prevail.

― stirmonster,

and then there were three.
as i there was any doubt re my vote here.

* i = if

Despite ProGen also being personally the more significant record I'm not sure how this can't be WFL as the epitome of the 'scene' as frogbs rightly says. Might vote Carter for shits though.

wrote for luck for me

Prompted by this thread I played the deluxe/bonus track edition of Bummed last night, with all the remixes. Such a great record, such a weird band. Half the songs start out seeming like utter shambles and then a groove emerges, and somehow Shaun Ryder is a totally compelling frontman despite not being able to sing and mostly spouting free-associative gibberish.

absolutely it straddles the line between trainwreck and incredible so well. so many 'wtf am I hearing right now' moments

like there's this uh "band" called Legion of Rock Stars where they all wear noise-cancelling headphones and try to play popular songs without being able to hear one another and half of this record sounds like that

Voted for WFL but New FADs are wonderful but not really part of the scene. They were less candy-colored and more dour than the Madchester bands and definitely more of an heir to the non-Joy Division factory roster. “Big” is as close to an anthem as it gets.

Funny the FADs were one of those bands that had one album that I loved to death since 1991 (the US version of the debut with the bonus track) but never checked out the other albums until a couple years ago...They’re great of course just not as skeletal as Pigeonhole.

You know The Pixies are gonna win this anyway

The Pixies track would probably be my choice if I were to base it purely on songs I listen to the most, but it clearly does not fit much with the overall record.

I like the Charlatans song well enough but Opportunity 3 is their bagg-e-psych best and would be my vote if it was here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZXOwWwQPtg

Ugh, pre-loudness wars version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgHlWlNbVlA

Loved Ride most at the time. Not really that song and it certainly doesn't fit in here.

Yeah, WFL.

i remember "Taste" being on the US copay of Nowhere and always felt it was part of their debut album. still love that song but like the Pixies, not voting for that here as it doesn't go.

In fairness the comp's remit isn't explicitly "Madchester", the blurb talks about "indie guitar pop finally leaving the bedroom and hooking up with some strident dance grooves." Whether it succeeds on those terms or if it's a coherent notion to begin with are other questions.

good point

WFL.
honourable mentions for New Fads and James.

I think I own records by every artist here bar Soho.

I do think somewhat frequently of the Nicholas van Whatshisface bars of sheriff Fatman tbh

That's the only part of the song I can remember. I'm sure it had a chorus, but...

Fatman's got something to sell to the capital's homeless
The crossroads motel for the no fixed aboders

iirc

This album was compiled to reflect the events/music of 1990. Fifteen tracks in all, but it could easily have been a double album — who knows, maybe next time. Without waxing lyrical, we tried to pick and mix the grooviest music. Most reached the nation's ears, some didn't — but it's not about chart success/sales figures, it's about good music. No other long player contains all these bands together on one record. We feel it sums up the year that Indie Guitar Pop finally left the bedroom, hooked up with some strident dance grooves and had one hell of a bender/night out! It's a unique album for the discerning eardrum. I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed compiling it.
Gary Crowley

Slightly off topic, there’s a terrific mix of WFL by Ewan Pearson which came out last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5CFHUygZ4o

great version, but not on vinyl or cd, so who cares.

i had the US copy of Bummed and always loved the remix version of WFL. i think it was from Vince Clarke too.

i have also never listened to Black Grape, am i missing anything?

there are a slim few that would suggest that the black grape albums were better than anything that the happy mondays released.

That Ewan Pearson remix of WFL is rad, it's unreoognisable as the same song ;-)

First Black Grape album is better than anything on Yes Please; Stinkin' Thinkin' is better than Fat Neck, but even England's Irie is better than most of the rest of the album.

That initial run of Grape stuff is also better than most of the early Mondays singles and EPs.

I dunno, I loved pretty much all the Mondays stuff. Never thought "Yes Plz" was a terrible album, maybe one or two tracks were fillerzone but still..

Also, the first Black Grape album gets rated whereas the second gets trashed. I don't know those well enough to say if that's right or wrong, can anyone else apply some nuance to this received wisdom?

Second album is a few steps down from the first, but not trash-worthy at all. "Dadi Was a Badi" and "Marbles" wind up on pretty much every rando playlist I make for myself. Plus lots of horn sections on various songs, which I'm a sucker for.

I don't know the second Grape album, but I like the first one. I wouldn't say it's better than the Mondays, or at least the classic Mondays, but it was a lot better and livelier than we had any reason to expect from Shaun in the mid-90s.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i'm way more into the mondays than any sane person (hiyoooo!) and i have to say that i've always thought yes please was a solid album. its reputation proceeds it, which works against it. definitely reminiscent of the mixed-but-ultimately-lukewarm sentiment of the second stone roses album in that sense. "stinkin thinkin" was a terrible choice for a single. shoulda went with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQrjiDr9Ok

in the past, the black grape albums were something i was aware of, but they were too inaccessible to me logistically. i haven't thought about their existence in many years obviously, and now that i'm realizing that spotify exists once again, i'm off to take in some music now, tah.

Sunshine & Love was a single, a few weeks after the album.

Here's the video, here's one of the two Lionrock mixes, and here's one of the two Farley/Heller mixes from the US-only 12" (original typo by Elektra in 1992: should be Fire Island obv).

The US CD single also included both Judge Fudge and Staying Alive, as that single didn't get released in America.

i'm way more into the mondays than any sane person

^ not rly mad for it after all

Some slightly older work pals I'd been to Northern Soul disco and ska things with came along to a small Carter gig with me, I think in 1989. When the band 'blew up' I received some indavertant pop picker cred. It was really unexpected that they got quite so big.

Still not sure I can vote for them over WFL in good conscience. Sorry guys.

I like the second Black Grape album - "Get Higher", "Marbles", and "Money Back Guaranteed" are all top tunes. no idea why it gets treated like Yes Please

I just discovered recently that there is actually a 3rd Black Grape album - released in 2017, apparently flew under everyone's radar. I only listened once but thought it was pretty decent!

The Black Grape recipe is a solid one — set up a groove, let Shaun and Kermit yap, throw in a chorus somewhere, it's hard to dislike.

ended up voting for the Mondays too, just too much history there. i could have voted for about five other tracks too.

i have also always felt that "Groove Is in the Heart" to be the most iconic song for this so called Rave music. tho i understand its not Madchester either.

i have never heard "Groove Is in the Heart" referred to as Rave music before.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

skipped over Groovy Train when it was on totp last week, good to know I'm not alone in that sentiment

will always retain residual fondness for Groovy Train bcz of referring to a raw fish chain restaurant in Sydney as "get on, get on , get on, get on, get on the Sushi Train"

I'm Free beating Loaded is surely a bit of an upset. Andrew Weatherall is remarking wryly from beyond.

Wait till Boab hears.

wtf I was the only NFADs vote? correct top two tho