There are few bands as inseparable from a time and place as Happy Mondays are from Manchester at the turn of the 1990s. Tonight at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, though, the distance between Madchester and Newtown feels minimised as the band celebrate 35 years of ‘Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches’.
By the time Happy Mondays hit the stage, the Enmore is primed for the collision of rock, funk, psychedelia and dance music that helped make them such an unlikely mainstream phenomenon. Decades later, that combination still sounds gloriously peculiar, belonging neither entirely to the indie world nor the dancefloor.
At the centre is Shaun Ryder, still the wonderfully unconventional frontman, alongside the equally unmistakable Bez, whose dancing and percussion remain as much a part of the Happy Mondays identity as any guitar riff. He stalks the edge of the stage, maracas in hand, interacting with the crowd, even stopping to read a message on a phone. Mark Day, Gary Whelan, Mikey Shine, Dan Broad and backing vocalist Firouzeh Berry complete the touring line-up, giving the music plenty of muscle while preserving its loose-limbed character.
‘Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches’ remains the record most closely associated with the band’s legacy. Released in 1990 through Factory Records, it caught the moment when Manchester’s indie scene collided head-on with rave culture, taking music that once belonged to clubs and alternative venues into the British mainstream.
More than three decades later, its influence is easy to hear in generations of bands that have treated the supposed boundary between guitars and dance music as something to ignore rather than respect. Happy Mondays were never interested in sounding pristine, and that sense of unpredictability remains central to their appeal tonight.
Images Deb Pelser
The tour moves to Adelaide, Brisbane and New Zealand next, tickets HERE.
