Happy Mondays life and biography

Happy Mondays are an English alternative rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1980, the band's original line-up was Shaun Ryder on lead vocals, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, lead guitarist Mark Day, keyboardist Paul Davis, and drummer Gary Whelan. Mark "Bez" Berry later joined the band onstage during a live performance after befriending Shaun Ryder and served as a dancer/percussionist. Rowetta Satchell joined the band to provide backing vocals in the early 1990s.

The first official release from Happy Mondays was the "Forty Five E.P.", often called the "Delightful E.P." after its first track. It was released on Factory Records in September 1985.

Musically, the band fused indie pop guitars with a rhythmic style that owed much to house music, funk, and northern soul. Much of their music was remixed by popular DJs, emphasizing the dance influences even further. In terms of 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.[citation needed] One of their most popular songs was "Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer)", featuring a surreal duet between Ryder and Karl Denver.

In February 1991, the Happy Mondays played at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and famously went to meet Ronnie Biggs in Brazil with Piers Morgan, who at the time was a writer for The Sun newspaper. The Mondays also 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. However, by July that year they revealed details of a fourteen track 'official bootleg' live album, Baby Big Head, recorded in Leeds. The official record label release, Live followed later in the year.

The Mondays disbanded in 1993, and Shaun Ryder and Bez formed Black Grape with ex-Paris Angels guitarist "Wags" (who would later go on to serve in the 1999-2000 reincarnation of the Mondays) and ex-Ruthless Rap Assassins star Kermit. Seven years passed, but in 1999 Happy Mondays re-formed, with founding members Shaun Ryder, Paul Ryder, Gary Whelan and Mark "Bez" Berry minus Paul Davis and Mark Day. In the place of Day and Davis were Wags and a number of other session musicians including Ben Leach who had once been a member of The Farm, Percussionist Lea Mullen and rapper "Nuts". Also joining the new line-up was soul diva Rowetta Satchell, who would go on to have solo success. The band toured extensively in the UK and internationally, selling out the 20,000 capacity Manchester Evening News Arena and two nights at Brixton Academy and released of a new single, a cover version of the Thin Lizzy hit "The Boys Are Back in Town".

A fictionalised version of the band is featured in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, with Danny Cunningham as Shaun Ryder and Paul Popplewell as Paul Ryder. Paul Ryder himself had a cameo role in the film as a gangster and Rowetta Satchell (who sang for the band on Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches and Yes Please!) appeared in the film as herself (according to Tony Wilson, she was the only one still good-looking enough to play herself).

2004 saw another re-formation, comprising Bez, Whelan and Shaun Ryder along with another crop of session musicians. (Paul Ryder was not present, having sworn to never perform with his brother again following the 2000 break-up, and also having gone on to have success with his new band Big Arm.[citation needed]) The trio of original members were joined by Kav Sandhu, and Danny Newman with the rest of his band Sonic Audio (bassist Mikey Shine, keyboard player Dave Parkinson, guitarist Jonn Dunn and Poss on decks). This new version of the group released a live DVD that year of a show in Barcelona. The Mondays played a variety of festival dates in 2005 (including Global Gathering), capping it off with a concert at the Manchester Evening News Arena in their hometown. Backing singers on the tour included Angie Brown and Ron Carroll.

In June 2006, the Mondays performed in Liverpool, and on 30 July 2006 they were special guests at The Fuji Rock Festival, a three day event held at the Naeba Ski Resort in Japan. They performed a sixty minute set, starting with "Loose Fit", and ending with "24 Hour Party People". In August 2006, the band announced that they had completed their first album in fourteen years, with producers Sunny Levine and Howie B, and had signed to Sanctuary Records. A single "Playground Superstar", from the soundtrack for the football film Goal!, was released a few months prior to completion of the new album, Uncle Dysfunktional released in mid 2007.

Happy Mondays performed before another re-formed act, Rage Against the Machine, at the 2007 Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California. They were introduced by Tony Wilson. Bez missed the show because he could not get into the US due to "passport" issues. The band then toured throughout the summer of 2007. They played Splendour in the Grass in Australia in July 2009, and the UK V Festival in August 2009.

The Happy Mondays toured the US and Canada with The Psychedelic Furs in late 2009 with Paul Ryder's son and Shaun Ryder's nephew Jake Ryder filling in for Gaz Whelan on drums.

On Sunday 29 January 2012, Shaun Ryder exclusively announced on radio station Xfm that the band would return with the original lineup, despite Shaun's brother stating in 2000 that he would never return for a reunion. They are due to tour around the UK, with dates planned for London, Bournemouth, Glasgow and their hometown Manchester along with many others. To coincide with the band's reformation gig will be a re-release of Step On - Live in Barcelona as a special CD/DVD pack to be called Hallelujah It's The Happy Mondays.

Discography:
- Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) (1987)
-Bummed (1988)
-Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches (1990)
-Yes Please! (1992)
- Uncle Dysfunktional (2007)

Read more