Happy Mondays

Formed in Salford, England, Happy Mondays were one of the most influential groups of the 80s and 90s. Led by frontman Shaun Ryder, the group fused the UK’s indie and emerging acid house scenes to help mint the genre-defying sound that would be termed ‘Madchester’ come the end of the decade. Whereas contemporaries such as The Stone Roses or Inspiral Carpets played indie music with a dance shuffle, The Mondays concocted a brew that was far more adventurous and potent. Everything from 70s funk, Detroit techno, psychedelia, hip-hop and even country music could be pulled into the group’s intoxicating grooves. Leading the melee was Ryder and his genius wordplay – a surrealist blend of drug slang, Lancastrian idioms and his own bizarre sense of humour. Following unwieldly-titled 87 debut, Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out), the band found their swagger with 88’s Bummed. A gleefully debauched fever dream of a record, if The Stone Roses’ debut album from the same year produced a second summer of love-ready burst of chiming indie rock, on tracks such lurching opener Country Song or Wrote For Luck’s hypnotic clatter, Bummed still sounds today like the work of a bunch of funkadelic scallies from another planet. 90’s Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches emerged from its predecessor’s heady fug, tightened up the band’s sound and produced some of their best-loved tracks including perennial indie disco staples Kinky Afro, Loose Fit and Step On.