Happy Mondays

Although the band made huge cultural music influences in the 1990s, the band origins began in the 1980s and they were soon to revolutionise the music and dance scene with there own brand of music that would see Madchester born.

The band consisted of 6 mates who were Shaun and Paul Ryder, Mark Day, Gary Whelan, Paul Davis and Bez. The band hailed from Salford, Greater Manchester and they came to prominence when local man by the name of Tony Wilson liked the look of them at a battle of the bands contest held at the Hacienda Club in Manchester.

There music consisted of a fused style of indie guitar, northern soul and house music. There music would encourage many DJ's to mix there music which would sound better in a club environment.

The Madchester scene had exploded and the clothes and style were equally important as the music, the Mondays style was more of a hippy and psychedlic look with baggy jeans and tops and the hairstyles were long hair. Suddenly long hair and flared jeans were cool again.

There popularity saw them as the face of the rave scene in the UK and also numerous tours saw them as one of the must bands to see where they played all over the world and also took part in the infamous Glastonbury festival.

The first album they released was the long titled 'Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile' (White Out), the title was the main theme for the 2002 film '24 hour party people' which documented the story of Factory Records and the whole Madchester scene. The album was released in 1987 but didn't make any impression on the charts but in 1988 they released 'bummed' which was produced by Martin Hannett of Joy Division fame. The album reached number 59 in the UK album charts and was seen as a positive moment in the Happy Mondays musical development.

They released 3 EP's in the 1980s and one of them was the key to there breakthrough. They released the '45' ep in 1985 but in 1989 they released the infamous 'Madchester Rave on' EP which broke through into the top 20 and featured 'Hallelujah' and 'Rave on' the EP was very influenced by Acid house and rave music which appealed to the clubbers.

Later on in the year they released 'Hallelujah' EP a 7 track EP which featured the title track as well as 'clap your hands' and 'WFL'. The 1980s saw Happy Mondays release 6 singles but only one reach the top 70 with 'WFL'peak at number 68. They also released 'tart tart' and '24 hour party people' but sadly they didn't make an impression on the charts.

They were soon to enjoy bigger success as the 1990s started and there influence could be seen as the whole club and rave scene developed.
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