The Happy Mondays Are Back!
Those mainstays of 80s Indie rock and co-founders of the Madchester scene The Happy Mondays are back, with a brand new album and full UK tour. First, there’ll be playing two warm-up gigs, at Bristol Academy on April 20th and the Nottingham Rescue Rooms on the 21st, before going over to California to play the Coachella Festival on the 29th of this month.
The legendary Factory Records band have also finished work on their first new album for 15 years, with the suggested title of ‘Freaky Funky Fish & Chips‘. Although the name may be unconfirmed, it will be released some time in the summer on Sanctuary Records. The album has been produced by Howie B and Sammy Levine (Quincy Jones’ grandson) and will be preceded by a new single release in June.
The band, most famous for their Hacienda nightclub days and being signed by Tony Wilson (also behind New Order and Joy Division), reformed for the 2nd time in 2004, after Bez’ infamous performance on that year’s Celebrity Big Brother. The band were also immortalised in the film ‘24 hour party people‘ which explored the explosion of music coming out of Manchester during that era.
The new line up is Bez, Gary Whelan, Kav Sandhu and the master lyricist Shaun Ryder, once described by Tony Wilson as “The best poet since Keats“. He always sounds like he’s either drunk or on something to me, but he has reportedly kicked drugs for the first time in 20 years and embarked on a strict fitness regime for this latest comeback.
The Happy Mondays will be touring the UK during May and June before hitting countries around the world later in the year to promote the new material. So if you want to see if Shaun has turned in to the new Ozzy Osbourne from the amount of abuse he’s done to his body, or if Bez really does look like a dying fish on stage, be sure to get tickets!
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