S/D: Madchester!

I liked a lot of it but can't quite remember a lot of it.

Part of me wants to consider Madchester as the last real hurrah of British pop. Everything after it seems imitative, or isolated and pigeonholed in its own subcategory - whereas a lot of these bands had a wildly expansive vocabulary that (at the time) was refreshingly modern and forward-thinking. They absorbed (and spat out) DJ culture/drum loops/sampling, psychedelia, classic pop hooks, absurd fashion, waves of noise, gibberish lyrics, and on and on.

I always rated Blur as bandwagon-jumpers right from their first (very Madchester) single. I'd say history has proven me right = they're horribly slavish imitators with no ideas or POV of their own (outside of outright pillaging of whatever's popular). Fuck 'em says I!

How so? I'm not disagreeing with you - I think the collected output of Pulp, Blur, and Oasis are pretty fucking middle-of-the-road compared to how unique and weird a lot of the Madchester stuff was. I wanna hear it from you tho...

World of Twist's Sons of the Stage and Paris Angels' Perfume are the best buried nuggets.

Intastella were rgeat live though all the records f theirs I've heard were patchy, did a great song called "The Past" circa 1996.

Of the well-known bands, "Life" era Insiprals were the best. That album still sounds good now - how many other Madchester albums can you say that about? Back together and playing gigs this year I believe.

KOTS were ace, yes. 'Fanciable Headcase' particularly.

the interviews are OK but the Peter Saville gallery is a bit of a bore as well...partly cos its not comprehensive enough

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The 100 best Manchester musicians ever
Pride Of Manchester, with help from you, are compiling the ultimate chart of Manchester music. The first 1300 votes have provided us with a popular Top 10 with the battle for the number one spot swapping regularly between The Smiths and The Stone Roses.
To vote for your favourites, just click here.
last updated 11pm Tue 21st Jan 2003

1st The Smiths

2nd The Stone Roses

3rd New Order

4th The Happy Mondays

5th Joy Division

6th James

7th Oasis

8th The Fall

9th Doves

10th The Buzzcocks

Heh, he does. Miranda Sawer keeps pointing at the screen and saying "did this happen?" to which he grumbles "did it fuck". There are some fairly good Factory/Wilson/etc anecdotes though, if you're interested in that sort of thing.
I do quite like the Wilson comm as well though.

Buzzcocks 'should' be above Stone Roses. Amongst other things.

'Madchester' was a mixed up time for me. Fresh out of college and confused about what I wanted to do, yet the music and the atmosphere were so thrilling.

Best records - Voodoo Ray, Wrote for luck, This is the one, World of twist's "She's a rainbow". I even have a soft spot for Northside's "Take five", because it so unashamedly ripped off "More than a feeling" and that is a GOOD THING.

Some of the Mondays and Stone Roses gigs still rank as the best live shows I've seen in my life, the sense of knowing we had something special on our doorsteps and the rest of the country was only just catching up. Spike Island was something of a letdown, even if RICKAY! from Eastenders did sit behind us.

What would have been the result if late 80s indie bands had put down their guitars and started making house music? The incredible Vince Clarke mix of "Wrote For Luck", that's what. What would have been the result if late 80s indie bands had kept their guitars, shoved a lazy saggy-arsed excuse for a beat in the background, and thrown in a snatch of sampled movie dialogue? The godawful Paul Oakenfold mix of the same track. Guess which one was adopted as the baggy blueprint? (Ironically Oakenfold's recentish mix of Mansun's "I Can Only Disappoint You" is a stormer.)

Search: Bummed; the first Roses album; Inspirals -"Joe"/"Commercial Rain", "Move", "Find Out Why", "we've done ten minutes"; Charlatans - "Indian Rope", "The Only One I Know"; New FADs - "Big"; The Fall (yes, that's right) - "Telephone Thing". Good calls on World Of Twist. Non-Madchester but related: Flowered Up - "It's On", "Take It", "Weekender", and what a fantastic trio of singles that is; That Petrol Emotion - "Abandon (Boy's Own)", "Hey Venus (Mad Thatcher)"; Moonflowers - "Get Higher (Rocky & Diesel)", that's a lost nugget for you; The Beloved, an ex-indie band doing house properly - the Happiness LP plus associated remix album, "It's Alright Now", top UK house track there.

Revive!

OK, i was at a rooftop barbecue party in Hoxton (yeah I know) and the DJ played the club mix of Halelujah (which is fantastic), in amongst all the new disco and balearic stuff and YES it makes perfect sense.

So, I'm saying that Madchester, particularly the Mondays remixes and EPs between Bummed and Pills 'n' Thrills, are the OTHER great unstated influence on the multiple bearded and balearic and disco trends.

Someone got cross with me on the Studio thread when I said they sounded like the Mondays, but they do! And that's great. The Rose by the Laughing Light of Plenty could be on the second Stone Roses LP. Love the Night Away could be on Pills N Thrills (but would have better lyrics). Listen to the bongos on Dennis and Lois! The spanish guitar on Bob's Yer Uncle! Classic.

So this isn't surprising, as they were obv one element of first-time round balearic, along with other indie bands like the woodentops etc, and oakenfold production etc, but never seem to be aknowledged as an influence, and appear deeply unfashionable. Yet the actual sound of these records is everywhere: the dance-rock combination, but in a baggy way, rather than the tightness of disco-punk; tempo - all the remixes of this stuff are SLOW; and, er bongos.

Discuss.

Or, as another take, does the balearic revival overturn the conventional wisdom that Pills n thrills isn't very good in comparison with Bummed, that it's too glossy.

I've always loved it. Gloss is good.

One of the guys from Studio also posted here asking about Stockholm Monsters lyrics, fwiw.

Where is that conventional wisdom? Not round my house.

Yeah...http://www.nme.com/reviews/name/9248

First line: "Despite its historical status as lesser sibling to 1990’s ‘Pills’N’Thrills And Bellyaches’, ’88s ‘Bummed’ has actually dated best of all the Mondays’ albums."

I've finally 'GOT' Bummed courtesy of the 2CD De-Luxe version. I've owned the bloody thing on vinyl and CD and never been convinced that it hasn't been totally ruined by Hannett's production. Maybe it's hearing it in context with all the myriad Oakenfold mixes that's done it. I think Jamie is OTM about the Hallelujah club mix, the slowness etc.

yeah like i said on the mondays album poll, i think their absolute peak was the madchester/hallelujah eps (depending on which side of the atlantic you were on), that midpoint between bummed and pills (which i think are both great albums but they're basically two sides of an equation that is consummated on those intermediate tracks and remixes). and sure you can make a balearic connection without forcing it. punk balearic, maybe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cteh5QVaHdw

man i really wish i still had my "cool as fuck" t-shirt. i wonder what happened to it?

bongos

oooh, that reminds me, was the slow bongo floyd album ever officially released ?
i used to have a cracking remix ep of theirs, but tis lost in the midst of time.

I think Studio do acknowledge the Mondays (along with the Cure) as a major influence don't they?

OK, i was at a rooftop barbecue party

was this the Queen Of Hoxton thing? i was gonna go

Yeah it was the Easter one, not the last one. Really good afternoon and night. They lost their music licence for the roof terrace at the last minute, so they had those "silent disco" headphones, which was actually really fun, and I don't know who it was DJing, but he was excellent.

Anyway, been listening to loads of Mondays since then, hence thread revival.

Gosh, Dr. C, that's a wonderful development to hear! I'd like to think that if you can come around one day to Bummed, maybe I can too. As it is every time someone praises it, I just grit my teeth and you know it's like...God killed another kitten or something.

You don't like Bummed? Do you like Squirrel and Gman? I don't understand not liking Bummed.

Yes I like Squirrel. Please refer to Dr. C's post re: Hannett's production ruining Bummed. He & I were in total agreement on that point.

An 'umble list

thanks, alfred. no 'voodoo ray' tho????