Tony Wilson Says

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that Happy Mondays have not got the props that JD/NO have got, and are not recognised for just howgood they were. i agree with him, and find it strange how low their profile actually is (considering). even at 'madchester' clubs you get very little of their stuff played.

will the film 24hr party people change how they are perceived, do you think? i don't think it will myself. it is odd how they are simultaneously famous and not known (perhaps famous for celebrity/antics?). i think they are incredibly underrated

― gareth, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Most 'jokers' in pop are underrated. You have to be sullen or pouty to get full props. cf. Madness.

― N., Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry but the Happy Mondays have dated not so much music, but the music is associated with a certain time 1989/ and 1990 - although it must be mentioned that Melody Maker gave Happy Mondays their first front cover way back in 1987 circa Squirrel and G-Man. I was 20 at Uni in 1990 and the Happy Mondays were at the height of their popular/ cool then - particularly on the dancefloor. I am now nearly 32 - I can't remember the last time I listened to a Happy Mondays album - a band of their time - but really not a band that time will remember.

Maybe that after the big album in 1990 they should have followed up with another album in 1991, the follow up album late 1992- bombed commercially and criticaly - baggy had fizzled out and Happy Mondays were irrelevant.

It was 1995 when Black Grape emerged - but again that has not lasted.

― DJ Martian, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They are 'dated' now because of associations but I'd bet my bottom dollar they won't be consigned to the dustbin forever. A new generation will discover and love them. They'll be the Big Star of the 2010s, God help us.

― N., Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

He's right that they were better than Joy Division (my entire ILM career seems to be spent saying bands are better than Joy Division, which is a bit unfair. Maybe JD are the worst band I still really like.)

― Tom, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

HM were good n' entertaining, but all that's really worth hearing these days is the fantastic singles trilogy Step On/Loose Fit/Kinky Afro and a couple of early greats like Kuff Dam and Tart Tart. Oh, and the best thing they ever did - Freaky Dancin'/The Egg 12".

Bummed = one of the most inexplicably over-praised Manchester/Madchester/Factory albums ever, and that's coming from someone who's inclined to look through rose-tinted spex at vitually anything with a FAC catalogue number or a Hannett production credit.

HM were pretty splendid live though.

― Dr. C, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

bummed is the best album of the 80s

― gareth, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Good as they were, even at the time I thought them overrated (never caught them live). Some great singles, but totally with Dr. C. on 'Bummed', just dull. Gareth, tell me what I'm not hearing?

― stevo, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

sometimes i prefer the scratchy fall funk of squirrel and g- man

but, anyway, bummed. i just think its everything a record could be, wrote for luck and bring a friend sound out of place though, it is the first 6 and then lazyitis which are best (the run of fat lady wrestlers - performance - brain dead, is just sublime). i cant explain what is so good about this, part of me wants to suggest its the way it tries to be country and funk at the same time and fails both, but this isn't right, that makes it sound too 'worthy', idiot- savant cliches aren't helpful either, it was not just shaun, the sound was so good they could have had a mediocre singer and still been ace. perhaps the hannett production (which i didn't like at first, took me a long time to love this album) - i see this also in some of john cooper clarkes work. the lyrics, as ever, are fantastic, only MES at his best beats this. somehow, Bummed is all the things you don't expect. perhaps the sound of a band, pre-acidhouse/in the process of discovering acid house, making some kind of ramshackle sound that just doesn't fit, what other bands can you hear in Bummed? sly stone? rolling stones? maybe, at a push, but lets be honest, not really. still to this day, i cant see what made them make a record like that

and, overrated? these days i never ever see it mentioned anywhere

― gareth, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Bummed' has got to be the best alb ever released on Factory - it sounds like Can w/ less 'chops' and more downers. Cool!

― Andrew L, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Always thought Bummed had an Electric Warrior influence for some reason esp. the first track on that Mambo Son.

Like DJ Martian I was 20 during the summer of 1990 and it's easy to forget just how era defining they were. They headlined Glastonbury that year during Italia 90, back when the festival still had some cultural significance. I think a lot of indie types struggled with Bummed though around that time It sounded like it was recorded in a big empty warehouse and lacked tunes. They really only took off after The Stone Roses album came out and Paul Oakenfold got hold of them.

― David Gunnip, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Shaun Ryders voice is absolutely fantastic. I mentioned before that there's a dirty house remix of Kinky Afro going around. It's worth hearing.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I never liked them at the time, but when I hear their stuff in clubs - especially the singles - they sound glorious

Quality rock and pop does not need to be signed off by irrelevant and fickle music papers to assure you of HMs stature. Just listen to them and you will be unable to match their awkwardness anywhere else in your collection.

― Sonicred, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Didn't like them all that much, other than the cover artwork and title for 24 Hour Party People... By the time they got to Elektra and were doing the good ol' psychedelic dance thing, I had no use for them whatsoever, and still don't...would much rather go back to Soup Dragons' Lovegod album.

― Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sean

that is the most ridiculous conclusion I could imagine... the Soupdragons were okay, but not exactly leaders or talked of like the HMs

― Sonicred, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

Tony Wilson also says

An interview from last year about the Smiths, why they didn't sign to Factory, their part in 24PP, and what he thinks of Morrissey. I lap up all this stuff.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 31 July 2004 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Especially anything about mad dog Rob Gretton.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 31 July 2004 00:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Gretton, man, he's the guy I would have loved to have met from that whole circle, above and beyond Ian Curtis even. Say what you want about the film, the fact that they gave him a prominent enough role makes me ridiculously happy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 31 July 2004 02:44 (twenty-one years ago)

He seems very beloved and central to everything of interest that went on in that city around that time. Ned otm -- I'd definitely rather have a few beers with Gretton than Curtis, Sumner, Wilson or both the Ryders any day.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Saturday, 31 July 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

am interviewing tony wilson this week - anything you want to know about?

― doomie x, Sunday, 1 August 2004 09:07 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah - where the fuck are all the master tapes?!?!

― purple patch (electricsound), Sunday, 1 August 2004 09:10 (twenty-one years ago)

for what?

― doomie x, Sunday, 1 August 2004 09:11 (twenty-one years ago)

the distractions 45 and some early section 25 stuff for one. i gather james nice from LTM has gone through all sorts of hassle finding tapes for quite a few factory bands (most memorably the stockholm monsters)..

― purple patch (electricsound), Sunday, 1 August 2004 09:15 (twenty-one years ago)

jim, i do find you truly shocking! i will ask but am not going to have it as part of the interview. who else would care about that. ok.. am arranging it for this week. so will pop onto the board with the answer.

― doomie x, Sunday, 1 August 2004 09:16 (twenty-one years ago)

yay!

― purple patch (electricsound), Sunday, 1 August 2004 09:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Ask him if he still thinks that had Ian Curtis live, JD would have been as big as Pink Floyd.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 1 August 2004 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Ian Curtis lived

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 1 August 2004 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

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