1990

Rowetta joins
Notes: Rowetta saw the band perform at Widnes (17 November 1989) and joined soon after.
From 23 June 2014 Monday 16.46 BST theguardian.com Interview, Happy Mondays: How we made Kinky Afro, Interviews by Dave Simpson. Rowetta, singer, said: When I first saw the Mondays on TV, I thought they were amazing. Then I realised Bez had chatted me up the week before – the manager of the band I was singing in had an office right next to the one used by the Mondays. So I popped in and told their manager I wanted to sing with them. He came to see me performing at Legends in Manchester, where the Mondays had filmed their video for Wrote For Luck, so it felt like serendipity. I had a bottle of whisky in my handbag and was wearing a little fur coat and nothing else. Two weeks later, I was in the band.

1990 - Up All Night - Shaun Ryder Interview
Notes: Semi-official Interview CD. The CD saw the shelves of HMV and was later packaged with a CD Single. Bootleg Clear LP Pressing.
Bootleg: Up All Night (1990) - Clear Vinyl LP
Bootleg: Up All Night CD
Bootleg: Up All Night & Step On (3inch Rough Trade) CD Single.

M - January 1990 - The Face Magazine, Issue 16
Notes: Ian Brown features on the cover. The Stone Roses Interview and Happy Mondays feature in the article too. Article by Nick Kent. Interview was conducted backstage 23 November 1989 - Top Of The Pops. This article and Nick Kent was rubbished by the Roses, who said Kent made a lot of it up. Kent later admitted that he made the Wilson quote about Ian Curtis up completely.
Gareth Evans later said that he whispered in Tony Wilson's ear "If you mention drugs, I will shoot you."
Article: After a year of underground success, Stone Roses and Happy Mondays crowd into a Top Of The Pops dressing room to celebrate their entry into the national charts. With Britain at their feet, the world will surely follow, and if you're looking for the sound of the nineties, these are the Mancunian candidates.
"Last night his bed caught fire 'cause of smoking that. There were flames comin' up from 'is pillow. He didn't know owt about it tho'. He were too fookin' comatose!"
The Happy Monday's infamous dancer, Bez, whose bed it was, holds aloft a pellet-sized lump of hashish the colour of wan excrement towards the gaze of the Stone Roses' drummer, Remi [sic], then flashes him a good conspiratorial 'mad' look without any intended irony: "Aye, when your bed's on fire, you know you're dealin' with top fookin' draw!"
Across the room, the Monday's singer Shaun Ryder is being asked by a journalist just exactly what he and the rest of the band want out of "the drug experience". Ryder squints his weasel eyes and gives the question due thought.
"Uh… well… uh… illumination pal. Yeah! Illumination, definitely. Well illumination, like, half the time anyway. Cos t'other half we just like to get fookin' roarin' shit-faced, y'knowharramsayin'?"
Welcome to the new power generation. A hundred years ago, most of this mob would've ended up on a pressgang. Today, one month shy of 1990, they're the two great dark British hopes of pop for a whole new decade.
So what does that tell you about civilisation and the nineties?
"The nineties actually began during the six weeks that 'Ride On Time' by Black Box was the number one in England," says Factory Records supremo and Happy Mondays' pet Goebbels, Tony Wilson. "Happy Mondays and Stone Roses entering the charts together the same week and getting their first Top Of The Pops together as a result… that makes this decade now well and truly declared 'open'. This makes it official."
To boost these young Mancs' jubilant moods further, a big black beatbox stands proudly at one corner of their communal dressing rooms blaring out alternate selections. The Stone Roses boys instigate a session of The Beatles from one speaker played against some acid house whooping and looping out of the other. Every now and then the Happy Mondays change the music as Shaun Ryder simply turns off The Beatles and leaves the tape of atonal honks and scrambled rhythms to ricochet through the room. One can't help but see something symbolic in all this.
"They're the only other group we can just sit down and have a drink with, like," says Stone Roses' singer Ian Brown, indicating Ryder and his cronies. "The Mondays and Stone Roses have the same influences really, 'cos we've been to the same clubs. Blues nights, reggae nights, house nights, a bit of Parliament, a bit of Funkadelic… we're all takin' it from the same record collections, just doin' it up different."
"You'll find no rivalry here, pal," mutters Shaun Ryder, before pausing to think. "Well, the only rivalry between us and the Roses, like, is over clothes really. There's always been a bit of a race on to see who's got the best flashiest clothes, right, and what part of the world these clothes come from. 'Cos we're both flash coonts, y'knowwharramean!"
"They're dead brilliant, Stone Roses. They're more tuneful than us but we're a top band too so it works great together. I reckon. I mean I can call 'em mates. Ian! Fookin' Mani! Remi! [sic] Friends, y'knowwharramean. And particularly fookin' Cresser, man! Whooray, we taught him everythin' he fookin' knows."
Talk turns to the subject of another shared experience - producer Martin Hannett, the troubled Phil Spector of the North. "We went into the studio with him in 1985 and he produced the first version of 'I Want To Be Adored', Brown is telling Ryder, "and a bunch of other stuff. Riffs that weren't songs. It was a disaster. He were only half there."
Shaun Ryder counters: "He's a fuckin' mate to the Mondays, Martin. He's great when he's with us, man. Mind, he likes workin' with us 'cos we give 'im a lot of E during sessions right! E sorts 'im right out! During the 'Hallelujah' sessions, we were givin' him two a day and this were when they were 25 quid a go, right. But it were worth it 'cos he kept saying, 'I can't feel anything but I'm in a great fookin' state of mind'. Plus it stopped him getting bladdered."
Most members of both groups are paying little attention to the music and the conversation, preferring to huddle over this week's music papers, notably the pages that tend to feature themselves (which, at the moment, is a lot). Each review they doggedly peruse seems to have signed off with some excitable reference to the Mondays-Roses progress being akin to "the North rising again", but the only rise Shaun Ryder is concerned about at the minute is situated somewhere inside the overgenerously well-ventilated crotch of his black Oxford bags. He sidles up to the statuesque make-up girl brought in to make him and his band mates look 'presentable' to a peak-viewing audience and mutters appropos of nothing in particular. "So do you reckon me willie'll look big enough to the world hangin' in these fookin' strides, then luv?"

The Stone Roses would like to take this opportunity to clear something up. At least their manager would. We're all in the bar now and Tony Wilson is busy pulling all the stops out in another of his overgenerous Mouth Almighty routines when he turns a bit patronising on the Stone Roses and accuses them, in front of this writer, of unprofessionalism at a certain gig due to excessive drug use. The easy camaradie freezes for an instant as the Roses manager reaches out his hands and places it softly but firmly over Wilson's mouth. Then he whispers something in his ear that causes Wilson to stiffen momentarily. Then he turns to me: "You should know the Stone Roses don't take drugs." What he's trying to say is that the Stone Roses don't take drugs in remotely the same way the Happy Mondays take drugs. But then, no-one takes drugs like Happy Mondays. The Monday's recent trip to the States was highlighted a) by the lads introducing themselves generously to PCP ("Top fookin' gear, man! If it's good enough for James Brown, it's good enough for us"), and by yet another drug bust, this time on their second day in New York where several of them were busted smoking "something inflammable" with "a bunch of black geezers in some park, like."
The reviews they received were mixed and troubled. Americans evidently found it hard dealing with the concept of real Northern hooligans on Ecstasy, but that didn't stop Tony Wilson from egging on Factory's press officer to wangle Happy Monday's every drug transgression into the tabloid press. All of which begs one inevitable question. "Do I have any problem with any of Happy Mondays dying on me?" he looks at me while both the Mondays and Stone Roses contingent look on a little aghast. "I have absolutely no problem with any of these guys dying on me! Listen, Ian Curtis dying on me was the greatest thing that's happened to my life. Death sells!"
Doesn't that make you a voyuer? "I've got news for you, pal. I AM a voyeur!"
"Tony's just a businessman, really," Shaun Ryder opines shortly after Wilson's outburst. "Someone like him… I mean, he likes us… at least, I think he does… but he's got to use the drugs angle to sell us, y'knowwharramsayin'? I mean, what the fook could Gaz, Bez or me be like without someone like Tony exploiting us? We wouldn't 'ave jobs 'cos we can't do fookin' jobs. That's just a fookin' fact, right."
"I mean, he's exploiting us, right, but we're exploiting the situation he's given us 'cos like two years ago we had to have drugs on our person 'cos we were sellin' 'em, right. So if you got caught, then it were a bigger problem. 'Cos it were bigger amounts we were carryin'. But like, now we always carry the name of a good solicitor around with us. I've got this card, right, and I just show it to the filth, when they come pryin'. Whereas before when they'd search me they'd always find, like, 47 plastic bags and no solicitor's card… fookin' hassles, y'knowwharramean!"
"We've chosen to live like this and that's it. We're just playing a game, the same game we've been playing for a long time. That's the one trouble with being on Top Of The Pops, though. Someone in the force might get clever. The police are thick. They're dirt thick. We all know that. Bez's dad's a nasty fuckin' high-rankin' CID officer. A real nasty bastard. One of those fookin' working class coonts 'as likes to dish it out. Now this bastard hasn't seen Bez for five or six years. He doesn't know anything about him or Happy Mondays. Until he sees us on Top Of The Pops…"

"We just see Happy Mondays as this license to do what we want right now as much as possible. The police and that can't do worse to us than they've already done, like. And if I do get banged up, it's not like it's something that's never happened before. Jail's nothing new to me, man. 'Bird', like, it's all down to how you use your time really. I mean, you can read a few books. Or study a foreign language. It's a bit of a lark really. The Mondays, we've been friends for over ten years, pal. There's no-one else we'd rather be with for doin' the things we wanna do. When you've been friends that long… well for a start you can take this piss and get away with it. Gaz can call me some right snide things an' I won't fookin' crack 'im one."
"But, like, our keyboard player's off 'is fookin' trolley! Daft as a fookin' brush! He's a top lad, our Paul, but he don't half talk some fookin' toss sometimes. If he were 'ere right now, he'd be over here talkin' daft! And you'd probably hate 'im, 'cos he's a bit of a bastard too. You just 'ave to say, 'Shurrup our Paul and listen to what yer sayin', ya great fookin' knobhead.' But he's daft. That's just his way."
"People keep askin' us about Manchester… we never really stayed in Manchester. We get around pal… London, Paris… Bez was found livin' in the fookin' Sahara Desert in a fookin' cave, man. It's the fookin' truth, that. Manchester's just where we're from."
"Well our sound's allsorts really. Funkadelic, 'One Nation Under A Groove', being eaten by a giant sandwich… that were fookin' tops, that… Northern Soul… punk rock… Jimi Hendrix… fookin' Captain Beefheart. And a lot o' drugs on top o' that. It was thru' Bez with E… just get 'em down yer throat son! More! More! Go on! Throw 'em down your neck!"… That's how we really got to see how E can get you, like, right out there. You've just got to pelt it down yer."
"I don't want to get serious with music. Our music is about not even thinking about havin' a future. It's all going now. Right now, we're it. When it stops, it stops. We're just doin' what we're doin'."
"Me old bloke he works for us, right. He's basically one of those workin' class geezers who never 'ad a fookin' clue, always getting banged up or fucked over. Me mam was a nurse… she's like a three year old really… good woman an' all… but she's a worrier… too nervous… well, y'can't blame her what with the phone goin' all the time and the police tellin' her I've been booked, y' know… but me old bloke always instilled in me this belief that we may not be big hard blokes but there's not a situation we can't handle. And that's how we live our lives, for better or worse."
"I mean, I'm in this for the fookin' money, man. I was more interested in money than learning at school. Money, wearing the flashest clothes and cookin' around! Nowt's changed, really. We all wanna make a fookin' pile."
"But at the same time I think we've got, like, principles… a fookin' sense of loyalty. You can't buy our loyalty. We'd never leave Tony and Factory, like (pauses). Well, not unless someone offered us seven million or summat dead tasty like that!"
"Positive thinking. That's all we've ever really believed in. You've got to make things happen for you… positivity comes from inside. We can see right from wrong. Why be glum? Why celebrate sitting round being lonely in bed-sits? You should encourage people to go out and talk to each other. Communication makes things go round."
Stone Roses make statements like that with a straight face. In the company of Happy Mondays and their walking Viz cartoon workshop of personal magnetism, they seem a bit vacant. But here in isolation in some other room in a hotel, their vague statements come across bouyed by a certain quiet authority. The main thing about the Stone Roses is that, unlike Happy Mondays, they're going to be huge - foreseeably as-big-as-U2-huge.
"It started in February really with 'Made Of Stone' coming out. We played the Hacienda then and sold it out. It was just the atmosphere. People were willing us to go on." Then came the album on Silvertone and everything seemed to explode. Mick Jagger purportedly asked them to support certain dates for the Stones on their American tour last year: "But we said no, 'cos everyone else would say yes. We're against hypocracy, lies, bigotry, showbusiness, insincerity, phonies and fakers… there's millions of them and they're all pricks. People like Jagger and Bowie… they're so insincere now they're just patronising."
Then came Europe and Japan, where "everything was boss. It was all getting chased around train stations. And havin' our hair pulled. It was mad. Unreal. It was like being in Help."
Being bigger than U2? "Well they're empty anyway - what does all that emptiness say to all those people? But, yeah, I think we can deliver on that. We've always felt we could be the top group in the world. It's only now that others are saying the same thing. We can handle it."
"From now on it's just gonna be the five of us sealed off into our own little world," states singer Ian Brown, whose face bears the sculptured cuteness of a perfect pop idol. "It's inevitable, really, isn't it? But the bonds are strong enough. I've known John since I was four. Manni and Reni [sic] for ten years… nothing can stop it. We were on the dole for five years. Now we're earning, so we've got to stay and take it all."
"We wanna keep moving. The world's too small. It's doesn't end at Manchester. I don't see us as part of a Manchester scene as such. I want to get out as fast as I can. I've seen it all. Still, it's home. And there's always been that scene. Before it was the Boardwalk and all the bands that played there and knew each other. And we were not always included. Now we're the scene but in fact we were always outside the so-called 'Manchester scene'."
"Tony Wilson, he's alright, I suppose. He put the Pistols on, didn't he. Built the Hacienda. But he shouldn't go round like he's the spokesman for Manchester 'cos he's out of touch. And Jonathan Ross is a tosser. We're saying we're going to do his show now (Ross had been disparaging about the Stone Roses on his show two days before). Then at the last minute we'll pull out. Don't wanna be treated like a fookin' monkey."
John Squire, the group's guitarist, declares, "The next album will be more positive, tidier, looser, better. The idea with the first album was to make each song extremely different from the last, but we didn't get it. So that's the aim with the second. We don't want to sound like a band."
"It's not about bands with us," adds Brown. "It's always been about records. That's our big aim. To make some of the best records anyone's ever gonna make, and still come out of it all with our self-respect."
"Our vision of the nineties?" asks Squire.
"Time to see who's who, isn't it" says Brown.
Well it was time to see who was who in the Eighties, but nothing happened.
Brown looks at me and suddenly he hasn't got a real answer. "Yeah, I suppose you're right," he offers.
"You can't say it hasn't done some good, Ecstasy." Ian Brown is still talking, and somehow the conversation doubles back to the topic of this strange designer drug and how it appears to hold the key to unlocking the essence of both the Monday's demonic howl and the Stone Roses' tricky mega-pop. "Ecstasy has loosened people up who maybe weren't really in touch with their own spirit. But I was in touch with me own spirit before, so I don't believe it's changed me. But I can see it's changed a lot of other people. Only last year, people were taking it to extremes using it to dance themselves into a trance with. I mean, fook that. You've got to stay conscious, stay awake. Or else you're just like some old hippie… am I right?"
"E were great two years ago, y' know." Shaun Ryder is pausing for his last reflection of the afternoon. "It made everything peaceful. But now the violence is coming back in the Manchester clubs. There's too much freebasin' goin' on. It's takin' over in Manchester… like everyone in Manny had a binge on E right, only the people who had a binge on E from the start are now having a freebase binge on cocaine. All the lads we know in London… it's the same. Y' know, two years ago I'd have said legalise E. But now… I don't know, like. 'Cos E… it can make you nice and mellow but it's capable of doin' proper naughty things to you as well. E can get you into big fookin' bother! Fook, if we legalised E man, we'd probably have a race of fookin' mutants on our hands!"
"So I says to him, 'Just 'cos you got hairs round your lips, our kid, there's no need to talk like a coont'."
Finally, most of the Stone Roses and Mondays have exiled themselves off to the make-up room when a haughty Home Counties BBC employee strides into the dressing room and demands of those present, specifically the groups' two drummers and myself, to start dismantling the sacred black beatbox toot sweet.
"It's not just that noise," she gestures at some mind-warping rendition of "Ballad Of John And Yoko" currently being sampled and cross-taped into hyperspace. "It's… all this." Her hands wave neurotically at the gargantuan powerchord running out into the reception hall that the groups' roadies rigged up for the occasion.
It's a moment to savour, this: Ms Jodphurs vs. mangey Gaz, the beetroot-faced Happy Mondays drummer, not so much human being as apprentice troglodyte. For if there is a moment for the North to 'symbolically' rise into the Nineties and tell the South to stop sitting on its face, then why not let it be this one? But it doesn't really register with old Gaz, who just turns a bit sheepish before sloping out to do as he is told. Welcome to the no-power generation.

January 1990 Wednesday - Shaun appears at Royal Court, Jersey
Notes: The importation and possession of a controlled substance charges are dropped. Shaun's lawyers contended the quantity of cocaine was too small for personal use or to sell.
From 31 March 1990 - Melody Maker magazine: "We're not immoral, are we?" says Shaun. "People who call us immoral are immoral. We don't do anything wrong, we don't f*** with little girls or little boys. And that's it, noncing, that's about the most immoral thing. We don't nonce, do we?" he says, turning to Bez and confirming what we'd always known to be true. The Mondays don't nonce. "We' re not paedophiles are we?" he Continues. "We don't wear wigs and whip little boys and make the laws up"

1990 - Shaun is dating Tricia

M - 06 January 1990 - Happy Mondays appear in Melody Maker Magazine, Readers Poll 1989
Happy Mondays voted tenth, last place, for ACTS YOU'D LIKE TO SEE MORE OF IN MM

M - 13 January 1990 - Happy Mondays appear in NME Magazine, Readers Poll 1989
They got second place in BAND OF THE YEAR, just behind The Stone Roses. Wrote For Luck is voted second place for SINGLE OF THE YEAR, again, just behind The Stone Roses with Fools Gold. WFL though is voted number one in the DANCE RECORD catergory and Madchester Rave On is placed ninth. Stone Roses/Happy Mondays on Top Of The Pops was voted fifth place for EVENT OF THE YEAR (MUSIC).

1990 - L.A. Ruffs, Capitol Records, Los Angeles, Hollywood, CA, U.S.A
The Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne Sessions
Groovy Afro (Kink Afro) / Gods Cop / Donovan / Bobs Your Uncle / Grandbags Funeral / Holiday / Texture (C/F) / Stove Pipe / Unknown (Instrumental)
Notes: The TDK tape innner noted '1750 N. Vine St. Hollywood. California'. Black TDK SA90 tape noted, on the sticker, 'Happy Mondays L.A. Ruffs'.
The initial Pills 'N' Thrills & Bellyaches sessions did not include Step On. Holiday is an alternate version. The Capitol Studio sessions lasted 8 weeks, they used the same room that The Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds' LP was recorded.
Bobs Yer Uncle dates back to 1985. The track was known as ''. It was radically different but featured the same melody.
Holiday dates back to the Bummed Sessions in 1988.
Groovy Afro would later be renamed Kinky Afro to avoid any confusion with The Farm's single 'Groovy Train'.

God's Cop was written, in regards to Manchester Chief Constable Christian James Anderton.
From January 1990 - The Face Magazine, Interview was conducted backstage 23 November 1989 - Top Of The Pops: "I mean, he's exploiting us, right, but we're exploiting the situation he's given us 'cos like two years ago we had to have drugs on our person 'cos we were sellin' 'em, right. So if you got caught, then it were a bigger problem. 'Cos it were bigger amounts we were carryin'. But like, now we always carry the name of a good solicitor around with us. I've got this card, right, and I just show it to the filth, when they come pryin'. Whereas before when they'd search me they'd always find, like, 47 plastic bags and no solicitor's card… fookin' hassles, y'knowwharramean!"
"We've chosen to live like this and that's it. We're just playing a game, the same game we've been playing for a long time....The police are thick. They're dirt thick. We all know that. Bez's dad's a nasty fuckin' high-rankin' CID officer. A real nasty bastard. One of those fookin' working class coonts 'as likes to dish it out. Now this bastard hasn't seen Bez for five or six years. He doesn't know anything about him or Happy Mondays. Until he sees us on Top Of The Pops…"
"We just see Happy Mondays as this license to do what we want right now as much as possible. The police and that can't do worse to us than they've already done, like. And if I do get banged up, it's not like it's something that's never happened before. Jail's nothing new to me, man. 'Bird', like, it's all down to how you use your time really. I mean, you can read a few books. Or study a foreign language. It's a bit of a lark really. The Mondays, we've been friends for over ten years, pal. There's no-one else we'd rather be with for doin' the things we wanna do. When you've been friends that long… well for a start you can take this piss and get away with it. Gaz can call me some right snide things an' I won't fookin' crack 'im one."

Steve Osbourne said: 'We went to LA so Shaun could get away from all the dealers' 'I think suddenly they felt everything was possible and wanted to concentrate and work and get away from people coming down the studio all the time'.
Paul Oakenfold said: 'They ain't the greatest players in the world, that's no secret' 'We found the best way to work was with them individually. That way they could focus on their parts and we could tell them what to do, how we wanted it and the sound we were looking for. That was much easier than having them all there, because it was hard for them to concentrate'
Paul Ryder said: 'We could write and it would instantly go on to tape instead of having the idea in a reahearsal room and then it hanging around for a few weeks and going back to it'
From 23 November 2015 - Record Collector Article 'Penicillin For The Soul' by Jim Keogha: “Most of the songs we wrote emerged from jamming,” according to Shaun. “Ideas would come from everyone and we’d get something together. For some of the tracks, we even got inspiration from the shit-load of beats thrown at us from Oakey [Oakenfold] and Osborne. Loose Fit was like that. Oakey gave us a beat and before you knew it, we had this track ready to go.”
“I felt good writing at that time. I think Loose Fit took something like an hour to knock up. I was just on a roll,” says Shaun.
23 June 2014 Monday 16.46 BST theguardian.com Interview
Happy Mondays: How we made Kinky Afro, Interviews by Dave Simpson.
Paul Ryder, Happy Mondays co-songwriter: 'We thought we were doing cannabis. Then Shaun said: "You've been smoking opium for two weeks"'
Paul Ryder, bass/co-songwriter "Kinky Afro was our biggest hit in the US, but people still go crazy wherever we play it. It started off with us just jamming. We’d moved into this massive rehearsal space, and our kid [singer Shaun Ryder] turned up with a big fridge full of beer. We got stuck in. I’d been listening to Hot Chocolate’s greatest hits, so played a bassline with a similar feel, and Gaz [Whelan] came up with a drumbeat. We had a title – Groovy Afro – but changed it after the Farm had a hit with Groovy Train. At that point, though, it was just one of several unfinished ideas that we took to Los Angeles to work on with producers Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne for our third album, Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches.
Out in LA, we lived in apartments, and all went a bit crazy. Paul Davis [keyboards] and Gaz had never lived away from home: after four days, the kitchen was infested with ants because they’d just been throwing rubbish in the corner. It was like a cartoon, with ants carrying away the chicken carcass.
Compared with that, the studio was a sanctuary of calm. We worked 10-hour shifts getting the music ready for Shaun to add the lyrics. On the third day, he arrived with a bag of opium. It turned out he’d already shared it with some of the band, who’d assumed it was cannabis. He suddenly said: “You’ve been smoking opium for two weeks!” Our early stuff was recorded on speed, but opium made us more laidback.
We were using in Capitol Studios, where the Beach Boys and Frank Sinatra had recorded. The staff let Shaun use Frank’s microphone. I don’t know if that inspired him. Tony Wilson used to compare him to WB Yeats, which is a lot to live up to, but he had started writing poetry when he was 13. He’d never show us his lyrics or explain them. He’d just come up with something on the back of a beer mat, start singing, and you’d think: “He’s done it again.”
I think Kinky Afro’s opening line – “Son, I’m 30, I only went with your mother cos she’s dirty” – is about me, because I had a kid young. Because I’m Shaun’s younger brother, he was always observing me up close. When he sings, “I had to crucify some brother today”, he points right at me. And the line “Dad, you’re a shabby, you run around and groove like a baggy” has got to be about our dad. He was on tour with us all the time, let loose from Manchester, and enjoying himself all over the world. “I don’t have a decent bone in me” could be Shaun singing about himself. For a while, he was called Evil Uncle X. He was up to a lot of bad things at that point. “I never help or give to the needy” is another line like that.
Looking back, we were dysfunctional, but at the time we didn’t realise how big we were. People still say our appearance on the same Top of the Pops as the Stone Roses changed their lives. I wish I’d been at home watching that.
From Happy Mondays Top 10 from Shiiine On Blog, Gaz Whelan said: 2. Kinky Afro - Was originally titled ‘Groovy Afro’ but whilst we were in the studio recording it the Farm release ‘Groovy Train’, so we changed it….I remember when we had written and recorded it – No vocals yet, when Shaun was ready to record his vocal we were leaving the studio when I heard his first attempt , all I heard was ‘Son i am 30”…. and I knew instantly that this was a classic lyric that would resonate forever…
Bootleg: T Archive Volume 1 (CD-R) - See The Sorrow (1983/84 demo recording) / Freaky Dancin' Jam (pre Squirrel album rehearsal/jam) - Guitar Solo Jam (pre Squirrel album rehearsal/jam) / Fat Lady Wrestler (Blistred Rabbi Demo Tape 1988) / Do It Better E2 Mix (version 1) / WFL LSD Mix 2 / Holiday (Pills LP LA Sessions, Capitol records, 1990) / Mad Cyril Rehearsal (unknown session) / Unknown Instrumental (Pills LP LA Sessions, Capitol records, 1990) / Step On (live at Pinkpop Festival 1991) / Stinkin Thinkin (alternate version, Barbados Sessions) / Total Ringo (alternate version, Barbados Sessions) / Bass & Drum Idea 2 (1993 final session)

1990 - L.A Ruffs, Capitol Records, Los Angeles, Hollywood, CA, U.S.A
The Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne Sessions
Loose Fix / Kinky Groovy Afro / Bob's Your Uncle
Notes: Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne. Tony Castro joined the sessions on percussion. Simon Machan provided additonal original programming too. Tony Wilson thought Shaun's lyrics to Kinky Afro was the best observation of parenthood since Yeats' A Prayer For My Daughter.
06 August 2019 - Happy Mondays - Interview with Shaun Ryder by Richard Lewis from pennyblackmusic.co.uk published: 6 / 8 / 2019: “We started working in different ways. The tunes in the early days really did come from the basslines,” Shaun says of songwriting in the group. “I would write to basslines and then Mark would put guitar to it and Gaz would do drumbeats to it. The thing about making ‘Pills N’ Thrills’, it’s good making these indie records y’know but you’re not gonna fucking be able to make a living. You’ve got to have a big pop album and that’s what ‘Pills N’ Thrills’ is about. When we made it Oakenfold turned up with a load of beats and basically he had a beat for all those tunes. In fact we probably only went in with three not completed songs to make that album. Oakenfold had all these beats and he’d lay them down one after another. We’d put guitar to it, put bass to it whatever and that’s how it was done. We worked really quickly.”
Interview with Shaun Ryder by Richard Lewis from pennyblackmusic.co.uk published: 25 September 2015:
"I got hold of Oakenfold ‘cos I’d seen him in Ibiza, playing (UK indie act) Woodentops and all the Spanish gay disco and trippy club stuff," Shaun recalls. "When I went back to Manchester I suggested him to Tony (Wilson) and our manager Nathan (McGough, son of poet Roger) when we were talking about producers. The good thing about being on an independent like Factory was that if we’d been on Sony or Warners they’d have said, ‘Fuck off, you’re not having an Ibiza DJ producing our flagship album!’ Obviously they’d didn’t and we gave them (1988 single) ‘Wrote for Luck’ to fanny about with. That was great and that ended up on the B-side to (Erasure keyboardist) Vince Clarke’s remix, who was having hits back then and then it went from there with ‘Step On’ really. It just took off."
From 23 November 2015 - Record Collector Article 'Penicillin For The Soul' by Jim Keogha:
“I don’t know whose idea it was to record the album at Capitol Studios in LA but I was up for it. It was an iconic studio and hada massive history, with everyone recording there, from The Beach Boys to The Beastie Boys,” grins Shaun.
“He’d done such a good job on that single that Factory let us have him, even though it would be his first album,” says Shaun. “That was so typical of the way that Factory trusted bands. So with him, and his collaborator Steve Osborne, we had exactly who we wanted to create the sound we wanted.”

1990 - Oakwood Apartments, L.A, U.S.A.
Notes from Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 Booklet "Shaun Ryder: "For years, we'd been struggling musicians, and then we were living this pop-star life in LA at Oakwood Apartments. It was full of porno stars - Dirk Diggler, people like that - and funky bands. It was pretty cool. I think Mick Hucknall was out there at the same time - him and Gaz, our drummer, were going to play tennis every day while we were looking at porn stars. Brian Tilsley (Coronation Street Character, Soap Actor's real name - Chris Quinten) was there too, trying to make it as an actor. He was roaming around in his porn thong-leaf - the only guy in America who was shorter than I am"
From 23 November 2015 - Record Collector Article 'Penicillin For The Soul' by Jim Keogha:
Holed up at the Oakwood Apartments in Burbank, the band made the most of LA life, as Shaun recalls: “We quickly got to know all the kids out there, mainly Mancs and Scousers, the lads who were running all the raves and dealing E. The Yank kids were funny because they talked to us like these raves were a new thing that hadn’t got to England, like it was all new to us. They didn’t seem to realise we’d been at it for ages and that all their raves were organised by lads from the North West.”

1990 - L.A Ruffs, Capitol Records, Los Angeles, Hollywood, CA, U.S.A
The Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne Sessions
Judge Fudge
Notes: Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne.
Notes from Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 Booklet Regarding Shaun's preference of drug at the time (Ecstasy), Paul said: "Shaun couldn't get what he wanted, so a massive round ball of opium arrived, which was quite nice. There was quite a lot of opium smoked, and it's LA, there's tons of cocaine, and we had six or seven delivery gys who would bring it to the studio." Nathan McGough said: "Until that point, he'd (Shaun) never written down any lyrics in his life - he carried them round in his head, or just put stuff in a tape recorder. He'd go back to the Oakwood Apartments and he'd sit there at his desk and work diligently on shaping his lyrics. He was very, very focused."

1990 - L.A Ruffs, Capitol Records, Los Angeles, Hollywood, CA, U.S.A
The Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne Sessions
Tokoloshe Man / Step On / Step On (Monitor Mix)
Notes: Studio could be incorrect, conflicts with the recording session in Chiswick, London. Tony Wilson persuaded the band to record the covers for the U.S. only compilation release.
Both John Kongos covers, Both recorded for an Elektra 40th Anniversary compilation, but 'Step On' was so good that Paul Oakenfold said it needed to be a single. Produced by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne. Engineered by Dave Burnham.
Step On noted as Monitor Mix, sounds like the official Step On (U.S. Dub Mix).
Notes from Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 Booklet "Paul Ryder "You had to do a cover of their big names, but all the stuff we had chosen, like The Doors and Womack & Womack had gone. We got sent a cassette with 10 tracks on it, and there was He's Gonna Step On You Again. There was a drum and a chant on it that I thought we could loop and make it sound good."
From Happy Mondays Top 10 from Shiiine On Blog, Gaz Whelan said: 6. Step On - Or Strap On as we refer to it. I know – very childish. We only heard the original once in car en route to studio in London. P.D. was playing that piano intro – he was trying to play the Lisa Lisa tune “Tonight I’m gonna take you home”, if you listen to that tune and slow it down and break it up you have that intro. It took him ages to do and was done in sections and sounded amazing. I put this drum beat down I nicked from a northern soul song that had been stuck in my head since my youth. I slowed it right down and it sounded groovy and sluggish… perfect! Then Mark Day went in and did this amazing new guitar part, we were all sat in the control room saying we got Mark wrong – he is a guitar genius, we were in a awe! He then walked back into the control room to hear back what he had just created and entered with the words ‘I need a shit’ .and left! He is a very original guitarist & never gets enough credit in my opinion. He is nothing like the rest of us – which is why it works so well..

From North Fork Sound, Howard Thompson, New Suffolk, NY 23rd St, NYC, USA:
For ‘Rubaiyat’ (Elektra’s 40th anniversary project) Bob Krasnow, wanted our current artist roster to cover the songs that made the label famous. (A couple of examples: The Gipsy Kings did a pretty funny, phonetic version of The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’, John Zorn did a manic take on The Stooges ‘TV Eye’ and The Cure did 2 versions of The Doors' 'Hello I Love You', (A short, mid-tempo take was used instead of an infinitely better long, slow, psychedelic reading).
I called Tony to invite the Mondays to be part of the project and he agreed. The band had just broken in the UK with their ‘Madchester Rave On’ EP and the lead cut ‘Hallelujah’ had scraped into the top 20. Tony suggested I speak to Nathan McGough to get it sorted. Elektra had released 'He's Gonna Step On You Again' by John Kongos in America in the early 70s and, it being a favourite single of mine, I really wanted someone to cover the song. So I threw some tunes and another Kongos UK hit, 'Tokoloshe Man', on a cassette and sent it to Nathan. A week or so later, he called to say the band are going with 'He’s Gonna...etc.' and Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osbourne were lined up to produce it, along with the new album.
Once recorded, it didn’t take a genius to realize (the now re-titled) 'Step On' had ‘smash’ written all over it and it wasn’t long before Wilson called to say, “Sorry, H, we’re keeping the song for the album and a single over here. How about we give you something else instead?” A feeble version of Tokoloshe Man was quickly recorded and stuck on ‘Rubaiyat’, only to be ignored by everyone. Factory Records scheduled 'Step On' as the first single from 'Pills ‘n’ Thrills & Bellyaches' and it ended up reaching # 5 in the UK, their biggest single ever. Shows at Wembley Arena and Manchester’s G-Mex Center were certified thrillers and, for the briefest of moments, it looked like there was actually going to be no stopping them. Both 'Step On' and 'Kinky Afro' became huge hits on CMJ’s Alternative and Billboard’s Modern Rock charts when we released the album in America.

From 23 August 2019 - Uncut Magazine, Issue/Take 157 by John Lewis -
Happy Mondays on “Step On”: “It was dead easy!” How a bunch of melon-twisting Mancs turned a political folk song into a dance classic By John Lewis.
It started out as a trenchant political protest song by two white South African folkies, a song that drew parallels between the oppression of black South Africans and the genocide of Native Americans. It ended up in the hands of a bunch of fried Scallies and a south London wide-boy producer who turned it into an Ecstasy-soaked dance classic, the acme of early-’90s Madchester.
The Happy Mondays, who recorded it just as they were on the verge of being the biggest band in Britain, didn’t even want to do it at the time, but ended up having their arms gently twisted by their late, great mentor Tony Wilson. In the end everyone was seduced by the track, one that kicked off with an Italo-house piano fanfare, a thunderous funk shuffle, an incendiary guitar riff and Shaun Ryder’s random exhortations to “call the cops”. And it set the tone for their following LP, Pills’N’Thrills And Bellyaches.
Even the lyrical observations – about how the oppressor “can make you forget you’re a man” – became retooled for the ’90s dancefloor. Instead of being about the dehumanising effect of racism, it morphed into a reflection of the way in which psychotropic drugs can break down divides of race, gender and sexuality. As Shaun Ryder observed: “I suppose it’s about how Ecstasy made the white man dance, innit?”
SHAUN RYDER (vocals): The initial thing was that Elektra, our record company in America, wanted us to do a cover version of a song by an Elektra recording artist for this fucking tribute album they were putting together, to commemorate 40 years of their label. They sent us a shit load of tunes on tape. “Tokoloshe Man” was the first one and “Step On” was the second. I don’t think we got past those two. At first we just said, “Fuck off, no, we’re not doing it, we don’t do covers. We haven’t got time ’cos we’re writing our own gear.” But Tony [Wilson] was saying, “Hey lads, let’s just do it, it’ll keep us nice with the American label.” He said it wasn’t going to be coming out in England, just on a compilation in America.
GAZ WHELAN (drums): It wasn’t our idea, it was Tony Wilson who convinced us. We all got given Omega watches from Elektra, who were being nice to us. The initial idea was that we did “Tokoloshe Man”. That was quite easy, it was a tribal riff, based around a single chord. After we did it, Tony suggested we do “Step On”, as it was next on the tape of suggestions Elektra gave us. So we played it in the studio once, and it seemed like a good idea.
JOHN KONGOS (co-writer): These were two big hits I had in 1971. They were co-written with a fellow South African called Chris Demetriou, my musical partner for many years. Me and Chris moved to London together in around 1967, but Chris had written the lyrics for “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” when we were living in South Africa. It started out as a protest song about the political situation under apartheid, and it was drawing connections between that and the abuse of the Native Americans. So we had that Native American theme running through it, those drums, the lyrics and that strong guitar riff. The lyrics are still very political.

1990 - Step On and Tokoloshe Man, mixing and overdubs session, Eden Studios, London
From 31 March 1990 - Melody Maker magazine: We meet Shaun, his girlfriend Tricia, and Bez in a pokey little pub in Chiswick. Shaun, who's not particularly familiar with West London, remarks that, "It looks like bloody Salford". The rest of the group are a couple of hundred yards up the road recording the new single, "He's Gonna Step On You" , a cover of the early Seventies John Kongas hit. The song was initial intended for a compilation to mark the 40th birthday of their American record label, Elektra. The Mondays were sent a tape of possible tracks for reinterpretation and, with typical obtuseness, chose the most obscure. "We're iust banging it out," says Shaun, adding that it'll take them no more than a day to record.
Bootleg: Step On (Monitor Mix) 4:42

1990 - Eden Studios, London
23 June 2014 Monday 16.46 BST theguardian.com Interview
Happy Mondays: How we made Kinky Afro, Interviews by Dave Simpson.
Rowetta, singer, said: When I first sang on Kinky Afro, at a gig in New York, there wasn’t much to the song apart from Shaun repeating that “Yippee, ippee, ey, ey, ay, yey, yey” refrain inspired by Labelle’s Lady Marmalade, but I loved it already.
After they’d recorded it in Los Angeles, I added my vocals at Eden Studios in London. By then, it had proper verses and choruses. It was the first song they’d written themselves that sounded like a massive pop song – Step On had been a cover. Mark Day’s guitar was a big part of it. He’d just come up with these riffs. We’d tell him they were fantastic and he’d go: “What did I do?”
When we played Kinky Afro live, I wanted something to do with my hands. Bez had his maracas and I wasn’t a dancer, so I got a whip and used it on the boys. Eventually, I had to stop because they’d say: “You don’t realise how much it hurts!” I like to think Shaun wrote the song about me. “I wrote them all for you, Ro,” he says. We were seeing each other for while: friendship overlapped into whatever. I’ve asked him about it but he says he can’t remember.

1990 - U.S. Tour

05 February 1990 - SNUB TV, TV Show, Studios, London
Hallelujah / Interview / Wrote For Luck
Notes: Footage was introduced as 'From their recent tour', unconfirmed but could be '25 November 1989'. Interview was by DJ and Journalist Dave Haslam, Shaun tells Dave he is 'Stoned but happy'. Wrote For Luck was included on 1991 - SNUB TV Vol.2. The official release remains exclusive to VHS and has never been re-released on DVD.
From Indie City Youtube user: 'This item also contains a short interview with Shaun Ryder conducted by journalist and DJ, Dave Haslam. Because Snub TV was usually aired before 9pm, the show originally edited out the "stoned" comment but then showed the uncensored interview a few weeks later during a post-watershed broadcast. I've edited it back in.'

01 March 1990 - Step On video shoot, Hotel Subur Maritim, Spain
Notes: Video footage on the roof of Hotel Subur Maritim was used in the Step On promo video. Kevin Cummins was on set to take photos too. Revised credit 'All songs written, arranged and played by Happy Mondays'
Notes from Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 Booklet "Step On Video Produced and Directed by The Bailey Brothers, March 1990"
Official: Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 CD & DVD

March 1990 - Squirrel And G-Man Twenty-Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carn't Smile (White Out) U.K. Re-Release
Artwork by Central Station Design
1990 - CD FACD170
Kuff Dam / Tart Tart / Enery / Russell / Olive Oil / Weekend S / Little Matchstick Owen / Oasis / 24 Hr Party People / Cob 20
Notes: Their debut album finally sees a CD release. Bummed is also re-issued on CD too. The white faced disc pressing of FACD 170 lists track '11. Little Matchstick Owen's Rap' but it is not included on any of the CD pressings.

M - March 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of International Musician and Recording World magazine, Volume, Issue 3, £2.00

M - 03 March 1990 - Happy Mondays appear in Record Mirror Magazine, Volume 37 - Number 9, 75p and on Various Artists 7inch Vinyl 'The Fame And Fortune' E.P. U.K. Release Date
7inch Vinyl, Catalogue Number: Record Mirror – fame 1. Design by Ian Middleton.
A1 - Brother Delphi – I'll Be With You
A2 - The Beloved – Your Love Takes Me Higher (Depth & Desire Mix)
B1 - Rave On (Live 27 November 1989 Monday - Top Rank, Top Rank Suite, Brighton)
B2 - Adamski – I Dream Of You
Notes: The band appear with various artsists on a free 7inch vinyl E.P. 'The Fame and Fortune'. From sleeve notes: Track B1: "Exclusive track from the mad mancunians" - Recorded live at Brighton Top Rank, November 1989 Published by London Music. Happy Mondays appear courtesy of Factory Records © 1990.

03 March 1990 - Le Truc, Venissieux, Lyon, France
Rave On / Do It Better / Tart Tart / Step On / Performance / Hallelujah / Clap Your Hands / Kuff Dam / Moving in With / Lazytis / Mad Cyril / Wrote For Luck
Notes: Sometimes noted as 12 March 1990, possibly mistaken for the broadcast date?
Bootleg: Live at Le Truc 1990 (2012, Sangatte Records, Made In The EU, Limited Edition to 1000, www.livefromparis.webs.com, Les Archives De La Maison De La Radio Paris France) - FM
Bootleg: FM Broadcast - Live (2002 Project Releases ?- PRT 39) Cassette *Tape shared with - Inspiral Carpets L.A, U.S.A., 2/10/1993

08 March 1990 - Garage, Valencia, Spain * Doors Open: 23:30 * Ticket Price: 1,500 IVA (Advance), 2,000 IVA (On The Door)
Notes: Jueves 8 Marzo 1990

March 1990 - Sputnik TV Show, Studios, Spain
Notes: Shaun & Gaz interview. Muzzer (Happy Mondays P.A.) was at the TV Studio too. They joked about the word Sputnik, in Espana it's a TV Show, Russia it was the first satellite to obrit the Earth and in Madchester it was the name of a potent form of hashish.
From NME (24 March 1990) 'EC Riders, Hit The North' by Jack Barron and (photographer) Kevin Cummins:
What Is Happy Mondays?
Shaun: Dunno, haven't worked that one out yet. Probably something suitable for Club 18-30'ers.
So Where Would Happy Mondays Be Without Ecstasy?
Shaun: Much richer.
You've Spent Eight Years Together As A Band. How Have You Managed This?
Gaz: By being heavily sedated.
Shaun: I don't like talking. I can't since I've got my hair cut.
How Did Happy Mondays Invent Their Musical Style?
Shaun: We just stole it from everybody.
Have The Music Press Been Useful In Building You Up In England?
Shaun: Yeah, they like us because we give them drugs.
So What Is Happy Mondays Philosophy?
Gaz: To have a good time all the time.
Excuse Me, Our TV Programme Is Called Sputnik. Could You Say Something About Sputnik, Like I Love Sputnik Becase...?
Shaun: Sputnik? Did you say this programme is called Sputnik? Well, I don't know what I can say about it.
Gaz: How about' give us an quarter'
Shaun: Nah, how about give us an ounce. And, do you want it brown or black?

08 March 1990 Thursday - Garage, Valenica, Spain * Doors Open: 23:30 * Ticket Price: 1,500PST (Advance) 2000PST (On The Door)

09 March 1990 - Barcelona Arts Studio (ARS), Barcelona, Spain
Soundcheck: Derek Ryder bassline
Rave On / Do It Better / Tart Tart / Step On / Performance / Hallelujah / Clap Your Hands / Kuffdam / Moving In With / Lazyitis / Mad Cyril / Wrote For Luck
Notes: One of the last times Kuff Dam would be played for nearly 30 years. An article/review featured in the NME (24 March 1990) 'EC Riders, Hit The North' by Jack Barron and (photographer) Kevin Cummins. Apparently it was 36 hour coach journey from Lyon, to Valencia and then to Barcelona and it included an over night stay in Sitges. The band visited Ricky's club, which turned out to be a popular gay bar. During the soundcheck Shaun and Paul's dad Derek Ryder does an impression of Peter Hook. Shaun shouts 'Oi Dad! A bigger pair of boots and a smaller knob and you could be Peter Hook'.
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)

12 March 1990 - Le Truck, Venissieux, Rhone, France *Doors Open: 21:00 *
Moving In With /
Bootleg: Recording

13 March 1990 - Bataclan, Paris, France * Ticket Price: 120 Francs*

1990 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tart Tart / Step On
Notes: Amsterdam must have been paradise for the band.
Bootleg: T Archive Volume 2 (CD-R) - 1981 Demo #1 (attic rehearsal) / 1981 Demo #2 (attic rehearsal) / Happy Side Of You (1983/84 demo recording) / Delightful (1983 Bungalow Tape) / Comfort & Joy (Spirit Studios Sessions 1985) / 24 Hour Party People (Vocal Demo) / Desmond / Yahoo (Bristol Bierkeller, Soundcheck 1987) / Do It Better (Driffield Sessions 1988) / Clap Your Hands (Hillsborough Benefit Gig 1989) / Rare Interview (includes conversation regarding the debut album and the bummed album, including talk of song titles and recording) / Wrote For Luck (Rehearsal) / Tart Tart - Step On (Amsterdam Paradiso 1990) / Monkey In The Family (Barbados Session 1992) / Opportunity Knows (Final ever session 1993)

24 March 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Sounds Magazine 60p
Notes: 'Rock Nutters! Coach Trippin''

From The Rave Is On...Happy Mondays Party Official Programme:
Shaun Ryder
Paul Ryder
Mark Day
Paul Davis
Gary Whelan
Mark Berry
Tour Manager - Ian Killough
Tour Manager Assistant - Anthony Murray (aka Muzzer)
Sound Man - Simon Machin
Band Crew: Ben Knott, Derek Ryder
PA Crew: Edward Hallam, Diane Barton, Keith McCormac (OZ)
Lighting Crew: Mike Howard, Jeff Buckley
Managment: McGough Managment, 48 Princess Street, Manchester. Contact Nathan McGough, Ian Killough.
Record Company: Factory Records, 86 Palatine Road, Manchester, M20 9JW. Contact Tracey Donelly.
Press: Jeff Barrat Publicity, Room 10 Panther House, 38 Mount Pleasant, London, WC1X0AP
Sound: OZ PA, 17 Rosenheath Road, Urmston, M31 3AX...
Lighting: Bruce Mitchell Productions, 77 Central Road, Manchester, M20 97D
Merchandise: Nightime Promotions, 1-3 Stevenson Square, Manchester. Contact: John Kenyon, Jimmy Sherlock.

This Rave Is On - 24 March 1990 Saturday - This Rave Is On...Happy Mondays Party, G-Mex Centre, Manchester * Doors Open: 18:30, Music Starts: 19:30 * Ticket Price: £12.00 * Support Act(s): 808 State, N-Joi, DJ Mike Pickering & DJ Paul Oakenfold
Notes: Sold Out Show. Karl Denver joins the band onstage for a Lazyitis duet.
Kenji Kubo took several photographs for the media.
The Rave Is On...Happy Mondays Party Official Programme went on sale.
Paul Ryder said: ''The first night we definitely hold the record for the amount of people in there'' 'A door was opened at the back and there was a lot of snide tickets. We bootlegged our own T-Shirts so why not do some tickets as well? There should have been 8,000 people there, but I heard there was 12,000'

This Rave Is On - 25 March 1990 Sunday - This Rave Is On...Happy Mondays Party, G-Mex Centre, Manchester * Doors Open: 18:30, Support: 19:30 * Ticket Price: £12.00 * Support Act(s): 808 State, Paul Oakenfold
Rave On / Do It Better / Tart Tart / Step On / Performance / Hallelujah / Clap Your Hands / Kuff Dam / Lazyitis (with Karl Denver) / 24 Hour Party People / Mad Cyril / God's Cop / Wrote For Luck
Notes: Second of two shows at the G-Mex. I think Factory Records used audio from both nights to make the 'best' performance. Includes early arrangments of Step On & Gods Cop, which the band had recorded in America for their upcoming third LP. Karl Denver joins the band onstage again for Lazyitis. Billed as 'Party At The G-Mex'. The Rave Is On...Happy Mondays Party Official Programme was still on sale.
Official Release: July 1990 - The Happy Mondays Party G-Mex 25.3.90 - VHS

26 March 1990 - 'Step On' U.K. Release Date
Produced by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne. Engineered by Dave Burnham.
Artwork by Central Station Design.
12inch Vinyl White Label Promo FAC 272r
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
7inch Vinyl FAC 272/7
Step On (Stuff It In Mix) (Edit) 4:16
Step On (One Louder Mix) (Edit) 4:24
12inch Vinyl FAC 272
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
Cassette FAC 272c
CD FACD 272
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
German 3inch Mini CD - Rough Trade ‎– RTDCD 072, Factory
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix) (Edit) 5:09
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer)
German 12inch Rough Trade ‎– RTD 072T, Factory ‎– RTD 072T M1-1000
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer)
Spanish 12inch Factory ‎– 31 519 M, Nuevos Medios
Step On (One Louder Mix) aka (UK Guitar Mix)
Step On (Stuff It In Mix) aka (UK Piano Mix)
Step On (US Dub) *unlisted on sleeve
Notes: The song Step On is based on the John Kongos song 'He's Gonna Step On You Again'. Originally recorded for a cover version compilation, Paul Oakenfold said it was good enough for a single release and even made it to the album too. None of the band knew how big of a hit this would be. It became the Happy Mondays' biggest hit and most requested song, despite the fact it is only a cover.
Shaun’s "You’re twisting my melon, man" hookline was a quote ripped from Steve McQueen film ‘The Cincinnati Kid’ (1965), In a documentary about his life, Steve would use the phrase when he was tired or angry. The single reached number 3 in the UK charts.
From Happy Mondays Top 10 from Shiiine On Blog, Gaz Whelan said: 6. Step On - Or Strap On as we refer to it. I know – very childish. We only heard the original once in car en route to studio in London. P.D. was playing that piano intro – he was trying to play the Lisa Lisa tune “Tonight I’m gonna take you home”, if you listen to that tune and slow it down and break it up you have that intro. It took him ages to do and was done in sections and sounded amazing. I put this drum beat down I nicked from a northern soul song that had been stuck in my head since my youth. I slowed it right down and it sounded groovy and sluggish… perfect! Then Mark Day went in and did this amazing new guitar part, we were all sat in the control room saying we got Mark wrong – he is a guitar genius, we were in a awe! He then walked back into the control room to hear back what he had just created and entered with the words ‘I need a shit’ .and left! He is a very original guitarist & never gets enough credit in my opinion. He is nothing like the rest of us – which is why it works so well..

31 March 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Melody Maker, 55p
Notes: 'Ryder on the storm' headline. Photos by Tom Sheehan.

02 July 1990 - 'Step On' U.S. Release Date
U.S.A 1 Track CD Promo - 2 PR-CD 8228-2 SRC=02 M1S21990 Printed In USA
Step On (Stuff It In Mix Edit) 4:16
U.S.A. 12inch Vinyl - Elektra ‎– ED 5469
U.S.A. 12inch Vinyl - Elektra ‎– 9 66624-0 (Recycled Paper Sleeve)
U.S.A. Cassette - Elektra ‎– 9 4-66624
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
Step On (U.S. Dub It In Mix)
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
Canadian 12inch Factory ‎– 846 592-1
Canadian Cassette Factory ‎– 846 592-4
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
Step On (7inch Mix) 4:20
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
Step On (Dub Mix)

30 July 1990 - 'Step On' Australian Release Date
Promo 12inch White Label DJ Only
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
7inch Vinyl FAC 272/7 K 10160 - Limited Edition.
Step On (Stuff It In Mix) (Edit) 4:16
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix) (Edit) 4:08
12inch Festival Records ‎– X 14859, Factory ‎– FAC 272/12
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
Cassette (Red Tape) - Festival Records ‎– C 14859, Factory ‎– FAC 272c
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
Cassette (Yellow Tape) - Festival Records ‎– C 10160, Factory ‎– FACC 272
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
CD - Festival Records ‎– D10160, Factory ‎– FACC 272
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
Notes: Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix) (Edit) is unique to this release. Release Date sometimes noted as '29 July 1991'.

March 1990 - Top Of The Pops, TV Show, BBC Studios, London
Step On

Happy Mondays - 27 March 1990 - Hallelujah FACD260 Release Date
All songs written by Happy Mondays.
All Produced by Martin Hannett for Jay Hatt. Engineered by Laurence Diana. Mastered by Barry Woodward.
Artwork by Central Station Design, Manchester.
CD U.S.A.
CD FACD260 Made In Austria, Marketed by Play It Again Sam-Brussels
CD / Cassette
Hallelujah (MacColl Mix)
Clap Your Hands
Holy Ghost
Rave On
Hallelujah (Club Mix)
Rave On (Club Mix)
W.F.L. (Think About The Future Mix)
Notes: The U.S. pressing was also available in Europe too. Limited edition promo packs of sweets, made to look like pills, were given away to promote the release. The pack noted 'Happy Mondays Hallelujah Specially priced 7 song EP In stores March 27th ''GET ON ONE''. The promo pack of sweets were quickly withdrawn from circulation.

M - 31 March 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Melody Maker magazine, priced at 55p
Notes: 'Ryder On The Storm', article noted as 'Power Corruption and Lies'. Shaun praises Steve McQueena and compares his blagging stlye to Bez. The article reveals the myth of Bez's dad being a copper, and how Bez spent time in prison before fleeing to Morocco, where he spent three months in a cave with an ex-Oxford philosophy don. Phil Sachs had an even more colourful version of the story. Apprently Bez was involved in a wage-snatch in Market Street, Manchester - he sped past a motorbike, grabbed a sack of money then hightailed it to north-west Africa. Here, befriended by local bandits, he lived happily in the hills for four months before the bandits stole what was left of his ill-gotten gains and left him to rob his way back to Blighty...
RYDER'S on his third Pils and probably not
much else. Tricia's drinking vodka and orange. Bez
looks like he's iust swallowed a chemistry-set, God only
knows what he' s been up to.
Is this manufactured Manchester scene a good or bad thing? "It's cack!" says Shaun. "It's not even worth getting
yourself riled up about or having a big opinion about because it's f***ing daft and it's funny. It's good for the lads who haven't got a clue what they're doing — they've only been together for three weeks, but they've just been signed up for f***ing years. But, at the same time, you've gotta think that it's F***ing stupid because, out of the 30 bands that've been signed, there's only two that've got anything or are gonna have anything."
Isn't it pissing you off? "You can laugh at it. I mean, I'm not a jealous person. I just think there's a group of kids and they're a load of shit and they get signed up and then their attitudes are totally different. They think they're stars and they and they're just dickheads. I mean, we had to work a few years, but those years don't even seem long to us and we've been at it for eight years. We've done it how we
like it, exactly how it should be for us."
"There's still a lot of dickheads in Manchester. I mean,
it's all right, it's wher ewe live and I like it, but I wouldn't say it' s better than London or worse than anywhere
else." Bez contemplates this. "Mm ... it's better than Hull though innit?" "Yeah, yeah, it's a nice place," says Shaun.

M - 31 March 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of NME Magazine
Notes: 'Happy Mondays issue'. Iconic photo with Shaun scaling a sign for the Happy Mondays step on video. Shaun is wedged between the letter E.

M - 07 April 1990 Wednesday - Shaun & Bez appear on the cover of Record Mirror Magazine, Volume 37 - Number 14, 75p
Notes: Cover shows them in a outdoor 'sauna' in Iceland. 'Scallies with attitude. Happy Mondays make a splash in Iceland'.

M - 07 April 1990 Wednesday - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Sounds Magazine, 60p
Notes: 'Mondays Bloody Mondays 'On the way to WembelEy''

This Rave Is On - 07 April 1990 Saturday - Wembley Arena, London * Ticket Price: £12.00 * Support Act(s): Gary Clail & The On U Sound System, DJ Paul Oakenfold, M.C. Buzz B *
Rave On / Do It Better / Tart Tart / Step On / Performance / Hallelujah / Clap Your Hands / Kuff Dam / Moving In / Lazyitis (with Karl Denver) / 24 Hour Party People / Mad Cyril / Gods Cop / Wrote For Luck
Notes: Karl Denver joins the band onstage for a Lazyitis duet. Apparently Shaun spent most of the set sat down on the drum riser (raised stage for the drums).
Boy George, Sonic Boom, Bobby Gillespie and Jona Lewie all attended the show.
Last night The Rave Is On...Happy Mondays Party Official Programme went on sale.
Media Photographs taken by Warren Power.
From 31 March 1990 - Melody Maker magazine: Didn't you ever dream up a Wembley Arena for yourself? "No," says Shaun. "ws nice that 6,000 or 9,000 people want to come and see us, but it doesn't really matter. I mean, I know the band makes good music, but when you hear girls saying things like, 'Blimey, he's fit, Bez is fit, he's nice' and all that, ifs funny." Bez cackles approvingly. You wouldn't mind being sex symbols then. "Wouldn't mind, no. It's funny, isn't it?" "We take it all in our stride," giggles Bez.
From 21 April 1990 - Melody Maker magazine, Simon Reynolds wrote:
A gig at Wembley Arena is generally a hollow demonstration that a band has reached a certain statistical stature. But everything about tonight has been set up to proclaim, loudly, that this is an Event, a crucial benchmark indicating that Happy Mondays are a bona fide "phenomenon", in the ascendant. The tickets and ads enthuse that "the rave is on"; the Arena's stagefront seats have been removed, leaving a giant mong-pit swarming with the herds of expectant ravers and fashion casualties; dry ice pumps out of vents and lazers spell out the bands logo; stars of the lustrous calibre of Boy George, Sonic Boom, Bobby Gillespie and Jona Lewie are to be spotted. And a grizzled, paunchy roadie who looks like Peter Hook's elder brother keeps coming on and brandishing a cardboard cut-out Number One figure at us meaningfully. Presumably this is meant to suggest that if we all went out and bought three copies of "Step On" it might top the charts. Quite why this would be such a triumph, in aday and age when being Number One in the Hit Parade means less than ever (the present occupants are a German rap group) is not made clear.
Finally, after much heralding from Gary Clail and the On U Sound System, and a fanfare of fireworks, Happy Mondays shamble on.
Shaun Ryder greets the crowd with the cryptic query "where's me pickled herrings?". It's in this kind of lapse into bathos that Happy Mondays' "significance" has come to reside. They've come to be esteemed merely for unprepossessing details: for Shaun's refusal to trim his untamed nose hairs and bum fluff, for Bez's glazed vacancy.
Similarly, the Mondays' gatecrashing of the Top Of The Pops party has been celebrated in terms suspiciously reminiscent to the approbation meted out to The Wedding Present and The Pogues. The Mondays are reprobates soiling pristine pop with their warts-and-all anti-charisma, making a mess on the carpet and vandalising the fittings.
I say: Happy Mondays the indisputably magnificent underground band, make for a piss-poor pop group. No sex appeal, no style, no melodies, bar the one by the dodgy South African, and the chunk of "Ticket To Ride" in the middle of "Lazy-Itis". At the same time, the crystalline proto-funk of Squirrel And G-Man and Bummed has declined into a right dog's dinner of a quasi-pop sound, a garbled and gurned confusion of pop tinsel, Acid house production and rock grunge, with Ryder's scabby gibberish bobbing about queasily amidships.
I saw Happy Mondays' once before, in '87, when Melody Maker was practically alone in heralding them. They were crap. Nothing has changed, except that they have more technology and more volume at their disposal. The Mondays still can't funk to save their lives, but what they can do is set up a lobotomised groove somewhere between a scuffed and shabby House and the deadbeat stomp of The Fall: a rhythm simple enough for white people to shuffle about to. And shuffle they do, sluggishly and earnestly, willing this to be the Event it's cracked up to be.
What's the Mondays have lost is readily apparent. An early song like "Tart Tart" is still an irrestible surge of glacial trance-rock, somewhere between The Velvet Underground and The Fatback Band. But the new tracks are, at best,an endearing shambles, at worst, a bloody, boring mess. "Hallelujah" remains a real sow's ear of a song. On "He's Gonna Step On You Again", the Mondays guitarist can't manage the moderately sublime, fuzz-boogie riff of the original, so emits a feeble, doodled gesture at same, that's completely lost in the turmoil. For "Lazy-Itis", a silver-haired and bewildered Karl Denver is wheeled on, to duet inaudibly with Ryder. Through it all, Bez who looks like Hugh Laurie after three years in a concentration camp) continues the endless, moronic traipse that is his dance, his feet retracing
the same listless steps as though he's crushing grapes.
Somewhere along the line, a distinction has to be made between the radically mindblowing, and the merely mindless. That's what the Mondays have degenerated into: a massive levelling down of consciousness, a bovine pleasure, pop music to masticate, like chewing gum or cud. Only the closing "Wrote For Luck" lives up to the hype: the tumultuous avalanche of cultural garbage that is the Mondays' sound suddenly escalates to 'white light white heat', and what we have is the "Sister Ray" of Acieeed. By the end, it's reached a transcendent plateau of sheer de-evolution, with Bez and the saucily attired backing singer rolling about like protozoan creatures in the primordial soup. But then it all fizzles out like a damp squib, with the Mondays snubbing the audience's calls for a second encore, and punters exiting disgruntled.
So wherein lies the Happy Mondays' "significance"? They are significant,
but largely because they've been willed into a phenomenon, pushed from the hip by the Hip. There are other factors, of course: the perennial con of Manchester mystique, plus various sociological vectors. The Mondays have been proclaimed as the first, truly working class band to emerge since punk: real kids in possession of the truth that's "only known by guttersnipes". But it's closer to the truth to call them lumpen-proletarian pop. This was Marx's term for the underclass who've lapsed from dignified labour into a lifestyle of shifty shiftlessness, petty crime, conniving, and other opportunistic means of survival. Not for nothing did Marx regard the lumpen-proletariat as a counter-revolutionary class, a sewer spawning illiberalism and sometimes support for tinpot dictators. Indeed, a crucial element of the Thatcher programme is the systematic debasement of the proletariat (bound together by solidarity and the discipline of labour) into a lumpen proletariat (indigent and faithless, except to kith'n'kin and mates).
Where Mark E. Smith's lyrics are oblique observations of Northern underclass grotesquerie, Shaun Ryder's drivel is more like the Id of the lumpen-proletariat speaking its bloody mind aloud: discredited knowledges, warped notions, bigotries and balderdash. This is fine up to a point, a sign of the times, a new thing in pop (the revenge of the plebeian upon pop's aristocratic pretensions). But when I listen to Happy Mondays now, I don't think otherworldly like I once did, I think: eating at the Golden Egg, acid casuals, terrace anthems, dog-fights and hunting rats with air rifles, Hofmeister, betting shops. Pickled herrings. Reality, for sure, nose hairs and all. But who needs it?
Bootleg: (Tape / CD-r)
Bootleg: WembelEy (CD-r)

01 May 1990 Wednesday - Rollins College, Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. * Support Act(s): Jam MC's

May 1990 - The Peel Sessions E.P. U.K. Release Date
21 February 1989 - John Peel Session, BBC Radio 1, BBC Studios, London. Transmitted 28 February 1989.
CD
Cassette
12inch Vinyl
Tart Tart / Mad Cyril / Do It Better

29 May 1990 - Lazyitis / Mad Cyril Re-release U.K. Release Date
Notes: From Promo poster 'Happy Mondays. Karl Denver. Lazy Itis - Mad Cyril. You Missed Out First Time Round, Here We Go Again. Re-Release May 29 1990.'

1990 - SNUB TV Vol.1 U.K. Release Date
Picture Music International ‎MVP 9912133.
Do It Better (21 March 1989 - SNUB TV)
Notes: Various Artists VHS Compilation. The official release remains exclusive to VHS and has never been re-released on DVD. From VHS Blurb 'Screened by Britain's BBC2 early 1989, SNUB TV was the first pop music television show to survey the underground. Originating much of their own footage & eschewing the tired studio format of most TV, SNUB went to rehearsal & recording studios & filmed live to Capture the real excitement of the music. Subsequently recommissioned by the BBC, this is the best of the first series.'

1990 - Happy Mondays feature on Various Artists Compilation 'Manchester - So Much To Answer For - Peel Sessions'
Mad Cyril (21 February 1989 - John Peel Session, BBC Radio1, BBC Studios, London)

1990 - Fac 292 Shaun Ryder 'Colours'
Notes: Unreleased Donovan cover. Shaun went to watch Donovan play live in 1990 (pre-June 1990), they met after the show. Donovan would later tour with the band and Shaun would marry his daughter. This unreleased track was recorded with Johnny Marr & Bernard Sumner (currently in the band Electronic). The instrumental was played in Gaz's car on a road trip to a photo shoot in June. Derek Riders (From 23 June 1990 NME Article.) described the track as 'It sounds a bit mellow', Shaun said "Of course it's fookin' mellow...It's a summer single. It's got to be the mellowest"

OSM Other Side Of Midnight, TV Show, ITV, Granada Studios, Manchester
Notes: TV Show hosted by their label manager Tony H. Wilson.

Other Side Of Midnight Party
Notes: The Final Ever Show Party. TV Show was hosted by their label manager Tony H. Wilson.

June 1990 - NME Stone Henge Photo Session
Notes: Ridgers photo session. A mock Stone Henge set, made 18 inches of polystyrene, was late to the photo shoot. The Stone Henge was a mock up of the model used in Spinal Tap.

22 June 1990 - 24 June 1990 - Glastonbury Festival (of comtemporary performing arts), Worthy Farm, Pilton
The Cure / De La Soul / Sinéad O'Connor / James / Paul Oakenfold / Happy Mondays / Del Amitri / Ry Cooder / Deacon Blue / Hawkwind / Lush / Ladysmith Black Mambazo / Jesus Jones / Aswad / World Party / Mano Negra / Adamski / Hothouse Flowers / Pale Saints / ozric tentacles / Mojo Nixon / Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. / Galaxie 500 / Attila the Stockbroker / The Lost T-shirts Of Atlantis / ARCHAOS
Notes: Glastonbury Festival's 20th Anniversary. The band had a photo of Wendy James (Transvison Vamp singer) stuck on their portable office wall.
The band copied and bootlegged the 'Pyramid Performer' AAA pass. The copies got into the hands of several unwelcome guests and security lost control. Backstage was flooded with unusual scallies.
Broadcast: KITS FM U.S.A. Radio
''Tickets £38.00 Advance only, not for sale at the gate, includes camping, car parking, VAT and all on-site events. Accompanied children under 14 admitted free of charge.'' Oh how times have changed.
From 23 June 1990 NME article by Derek Ridgers: "...An open fan letter to Shaun lies on a desk top singled out, presumably, because of its perv content. On pink notepaper, the single mother-of-two gives Shaun some jocuar drug counseiling and describes her pyschical attributes: 'I haven't got big tits or anything, but I've got the best arse a white girl can have, if you know what I mean...". Her phone number is printed prominently at the end of the letter. 'You've always got the odd pervy girl' says Shaun. 'We've had all them letters for years. You know, girls writing to you, wanting to do things. I've got a stack of letters like that..But that's why I dont talk to a lot of girls anyway' Why not? 'Most of 'em are dickheads. Especially the fookin' glamorous ones' Is there a secret to your sex appeal? 'Fookin' no'.
'Some stoopid fooker just stopped in front of my outside. He's going "giz yer autograph, you're in Happy Monday aren't you?" I told him to fook right off, so he drives round the back and comes back again...stupid fookin' coont!'
07 Jul 2020 06.00 BST Tuesday The Observer, Guardian, Joe Muggs article:
Of the Happy Mondays’ era-defining Glastonbury triumph in 1990, frontman Shaun Ryder says: “I only remember the sex and drugs. I had a bird in me hotel. I’d see her, then I’d go back and sit in the luggage compartment of the tourbus with my smackhead buddies doing gear. The intro to our set was so long because they had to drag me out of the boot of the bus.”
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)
Bootleg: KITS U.S. FM Broadcast Recording (Tape / CD-R)

M - 23 June 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of NME Magazine 60p
Notes: 'Monumenta-A-L! Happy Mondays tap into Glastonbury'

28 June 1990 Thursday - KU Club, Ibiza, Spain * Support Act(s): DJ Paul Oakenfold *
Notes: The show was sponsered by Radio Ibiza FM 98.1 and Radio Diario 102.8 FM but it is unconfirmed if any of the stations recorded or broadcast any of the show.
07 Jul 2020 06.00 BST Tuesday The Observer, Guardian, Joe Muggs article: “My first song with them went in at No 5,” laughs Rowetta, “then the first tour took in Glastonbury and Ku Club Ibiza. Bloody hell, that’s not the band I went to see in Widnes six months before! It was great in 1989, people were dancing, but it wasn’t the phenomenon it was by the middle of 1990. When the Mondays played the G-Mex Arena in Manchester, or Glastonbury, it was like the whole of Manchester was there, seeing their own up there on stage singing about real things. It was such a celebration.”
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)

29 June 1990 Friday - Ibiza Festival '90, Hippodrome, San Raffael, Ibiza * Doors Open: * Ticket Price: £210 (Package) * Support Act(s): DJ Alfredo, DJ Paul Oakenfold
Notes: U.K Package included accomodation, flights, coach travel to UK Airports and return, free entrance to Pacha, Amnisia, KU Club and Es Paradis (Guaranteed) plus tickets for the Ibiza Festival.

July 1990 - The Happy Mondays Party: G-Mex 25.3.90 U.K. Release Date
Windsong International ‎– WIV 001. Granada TV.
Artwork by Central Station Design. Directed by Charles Lauder. Produced by Steven Lock & Happy Mondays.
25 March 1990 Sunday - G-Mex Centre, Manchester
Rave On / Do It Better / Tart Tart / Step On / Performance / Hallelujah / Clap Your Hands / Kuff Dam / Lazyitis / 24 Hour Party People / Mad Cyril / God's Cop / Wrote For Luck

09 July 1990 - Metro, Chicago, Illinois, USA

12 July 1990 - Diamond Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M - 14 July 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Sounds Magazine 60p
Notes: 'Happy Mondays in Ibiza. The agony and the ecstasy.' The caption would later become the title of the BBC 3 documentary about Shaun Ryder in 2003.

U.S. Tour Merchandise
1990 Happy Mondays USA Tour T-Shirt - Brand/Tag: Screen Stars Best - Fabric Blend: 100% Cotton - Color: White - Pit-to-Pit: 23" - Length: 30" - Label Size: XL - Type: Long Sleeve
1990 Happy Mondays USA 90s Call The Cops Tour T-Shirt (Includes the Call The Cops logo as seen on the front of the VHS video of the same name) - Brand/Tag: Screen Stars Best, 100% Cotton, XL Long Sleeve White T-Shirt.

Call The Cops Tour - 18 July 1990 - Sound Factory, 542 W 27th, New York, NYC * Doors Open: 0:00 (Midnight) * Ticket Price: $15.00 * Support Act(s): 808 State, Adamski
Step On / Clap Your Hands / Kinky Afro / Lazyitis / Rave On / Do It Better / Performance / God's Cop / Hallelujah / W.F.L.
Notes: All nighter. The colorful posted noted 'Join The Hacienda In NYC'. Kinky Afro from this show would later appear on the Kinky Afro single too.
23 June 2014 Monday 16.46 BST theguardian.com Interview
Happy Mondays: How we made Kinky Afro, Interviews by Dave Simpson.
Rowetta, singer, said: It was weird going on stage with Shaun at first. He said: “You’re gonna hear things about me, but I’m all right. I don’t do acid any more.” They’d just started working with Oakenfold and Osborne, and their sound was getting more commercial. When I first sang on Kinky Afro, at a gig in New York, there wasn’t much to the song apart from Shaun repeating that “Yippee, ippee, ey, ey, ay, yey, yey” refrain inspired by Labelle’s Lady Marmalade, but I loved it already.
Official: Kinky Afro () October 1990 - Kinky Afro (Live)
Official: Call The Cops (VHS) 1991 - Step On / Clap Your Hands / Kinky Afro / Lazyitis / Rave On / Do It Better / Performance / God's Cop / Hallelujah / W.F.L.
Official: Call The Cops (Laserdisc) Japan Release Date 25 May 1991 - Step On / Clap Your Hands / Kinky Afro / Lazyitis / Rave On / Do It Better / Performance / God's Cop / Hallelujah / W.F.L.
Official: Call The Cops (DVD) - Step On / Clap Your Hands / Kinky Afro / Lazyitis / Rave On / Do It Better / Performance / God's Cop / Hallelujah / W.F.L.
Official: Call The Cops CD & DVD - Step On / Clap Your Hands / Kinky Afro / Lazyitis / Rave On / Do It Better / Performance / God's Cop / Hallelujah / W.F.L.

Call The Cops Tour - 20 July 1990 - Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA, USA * Support Act(s): 808 state / A Guy Called Gerald *
Rave On / Gods Cop / Do It Better / Step On / Clap Your Hands / Lazyitis / Performance / Hallelujah / Kinky Afro / Wrote For Luck
Notes: Often noted as 17 July 1990, 19 July 1990, Unconfirmed additional date.
Bootleg: Hollywood Babylon (Catalog Number: YTH-089, 1991, Youth Records, Geonninger Strasse 12, 8920 Pfullingen, Germany) - Audience Recording
Official: Call The Cops (VHS) 1991
Official: Call The Cops (Laserdisc) Japan Release Date 25 May 1991
Official: Call The Cops (DVD)
Official: Call The Cops CD & DVD

23 July 1990 - New York, NYC, USA
Notes: The band are photographed on 42nd Street and around New York City. The album sessions continue.

24 July 1990 - The Fillmore, San Francisco, California, USA

17 August 1990 - L.A. Ruffs, Capitol Records, Los Angeles, Hollywood, CA, U.S.A
Harmony
Notes: One of the last tracks to be recorded for the album. There was a couple of mixes floating about for the track. The white label test pressing included a slightly longer version with a lighter fade out. The original Factory cassette has a lighter fade out. Apparently Total Ringo started during the L.A. sessions too.
Official: Pills, Thrills 'n' Bellyaches - Cassette / White Label Vinyl

20 August 1990 - L.A Ruffs, Capitol Records, Los Angeles, Hollywood, CA, U.S.A
Notes: Shaun records overdubs and additional vocals for the album.

N - 1990 - Shaun and Trish celebrate the birth of daughter Jael.

M - October 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of VOX Magazine, 90p
Notes: 'Shaun In The USA'.

October 1990 - Kinky Afro video shoot
Notes: Only Keith Jobling worked on this video, although often credited as a Bailey Brothers production. Notes from Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 Booklet "Kinky Afro - Video Produced and Directed by Keith Jobling of The Bailey Brothers, October 1990"
Official: Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 CD & DVD

Happy Mondays - October 1990 - Happy Mondays feature on Various Artists Compilation 'Rubaiyat (Elektra's 40th Birthday Anniversary)'
Tokoloshe Man
Notes: Step On was also recorded, this is the second John Kongos cover which was originally made exclusive for this release. Various Artists Compilation.
Paul Ryder "You had to do a cover of their big names, but all the stuff we had chosen, like The Doors and Womack & Womack had gone. We got sent a cassette with 10 tracks on it, and there was He's Gonna Step On You Again. There was a drum and a chant on it that I thought we could loop and make it sound good."

Happy Mondays - 08 October 1990 - Kinky Afro U.K. Release Date
FAC 302
Kinky Artwork by Central Station Design.
Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne. Recording Engineer Ray Blair and assisted by Cam. London Music Ltd.
Kinky Afro - Tony Castro plays percussion. Simon Machan on original programming. Performed and written by Happy Mondays.
Kiny Groovy Afro (Live) Recorded and mixed by Simon Machan *12inch 869 243-1 label credits 'Steve Machan'.
Artwork by Central Station Design
7inch FAC 302/7 / Cassette FAC 302c
Kinky Afro (Radio Mix)
Kinky Afro (Live 18 July 1990 - Sound Factory, 542 W 27th, New York, NYC)
12inch FAC 302 / 12inch 869 243-1 (Europe Pressing, France & Germany)
Kinky Groovy Afro
Kinky Groovy Afro (Live 18 July 1990 - Sound Factory, 542 W 27th, New York, NYC)
12inch FAC 302 /
CD FACD 302
Kinky Afro (Radio Mix)
Kinky Afro aka Kinky Groovy Afro
Kinky Afro (Live 18 July 1990 - Sound Factory, 542 W 27th, New York, NYC)
12inch Remix FAC 302r
Kinky Afro (Euromix) 7:33
Kinky Afro (Euromix Edit) 4:15
Step On (U.S Dub Mix) 5:55
12inch DJ Promo FAC 302r/KINKR-1
Kinky Afro (Peter Lorimar 12" Remix)
Kinky Afro (Live 18 July 1990 - Sound Factory, 542 W 27th, New York, NYC)
Promo 7inch White Label / USA CD
Kinky Afro (Radio Edit) 3:48
Promo VHS FAC 302 8/10/90 (Signal Vision, Knutsford Cheshire)
Notes: Kinky Afro and Kinky Groovy Afro are the same song. The track was originally titled 'Kinky Groovy Afro' but was shortened to just 'Kinky Afro' due to The Farm's song Groovy Train being released around the same time. Initial pressings mention Kinky Groovy Afro on the sleeve (see the European 12inch release).
From Happy Mondays Top 10 from Shiiine On Blog, Gaz Whelan said: 2. Kinky Afro - Was originally titled ‘Groovy Afro’ but whilst we were in the studio recording it the Farm release ‘Groovy Train’, so we changed it….I remember when we had written and recorded it – No vocals yet, when Shaun was ready to record his vocal we were leaving the studio when I heard his first attempt , all I heard was ‘Son i am 30”…. and I knew instantly that this was a classic lyric that would resonate forever…

Happy Mondays - 1990 - Kinky Afro U.S. Release Date
12inch Vinyl
Kinky Groovy Afro (Mix)
Kinky Groovy Afro (Live)

October 1990 - Top Of The Pops, TV Show, BBC Studios, London
Kinky Afro

M - 06 October 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of NME Magazine 60p
Notes: 'Excess All Areas. Happy mondays back in the frontline'. 'Afro Divvy Act'.

M - 27 October 1990 Wednesday - Shaun Ryder appears on the cover of Record Mirror, Volume 37 - Number 43, 75p
Notes: Cover photo by Coneyl Jay.

TV - 1990 - ITV News, Granada Studios, Manchester
Notes: ITV News report regarding the upcoming G-Mex show. The news report included an interview with Shaun Ryder & Karl Denver. The interview may not have been recorded in the news studio.

Happy Mondays - November 1990 - Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches U.K. Release Date
Art by Central Station Design
Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne.
Recording engineer - Ray Blair. Studio assistant - Cameron. Assistant mix engineer - Dave Burnham.
Thanks to Rowetta - guest vocals. Tony Castro - percussion. Simon Machan - original programming.
FACD 320
CD FACD 320
Vinyl FACT 320
Kinky Afro
God's Cop
Donovan
Grandbag's Funeral
Loose Fit
Dennis and Lois
Bob's Yer Uncle
Step On
Holiday
Harmony
White Label Vinyl
Cassette FACT 320c
Kinky Afro
God's Cop
Donovan
Grandbag's Funeral
Loose Fit
Dennis and Lois
Bob's Yer Uncle
Step On
Holiday
Harmony (No Fade)
Japanese Release, POCD-1035 Made In Japan CD
Notes: The original sleeve had to be revised due to the copyright infrigement on the sweet wrappers. Subsequent U.K. pressings included the U.S. version of the sleeve. Apparently the sleeve is a collage of old birthday cards, sweet wrappers and postcards the family have sent over the years. Harmony does not fade out on the White Label Vinyl or Cassette FACT 320c.
There was large blue and yellow plastic pill released to promote the album. It contained several item from a standard first aid kit like plasters, bandages and even ramses condoms too. The item was for promotional use only. KEY 103 Radio were giving them away to listeners who called the Radio station when a Happy Mondays song was played.
Dennis and Lois was named in tribute to a couple from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, who were in the habit of befriending British musicians.
See 2007 for the Deluxe Edition with bonus DVD.
Interview with Shaun Ryder by Richard Lewis from pennyblackmusic.co.uk published: 25 September 2015: One of the band’s most melodic tracks, ‘Denis and Lois’, which kicked off what used to be known as Side 2 of the album, paid tribute to two of the band’s friends in the States. "Denis and Lois are two sort of very strange people who are still on the New York scene now, Denis was a Vietnam vet and Lois was his wife and they sort of collected toys. They used to hang out in New York going watch all the Brit bands," Shaun explains. "We just met ‘em outside a club and they sort of became Manchester’s biggest sort of groupies! They followed all the bands and they came over here. They ended up staying at me Mam’s."
Elsewhere on the LP, celebrated album track ‘God’s Cop’ was a tongue in cheek ‘tribute’/sly dig at James Anderton, the notoriously hardline Chief Constable of Manchester. A figure who had attracted notoriety for his 1987 statement that he was effectively "doing God’s work", Anderton had attracted controversy for his overly determined efforts to stamp out largely harmless unlicensed parties around Manchester.
The reasons behind Anderton’s attitude according to Shaun were likely to have been both personal and political. "His daughter at the time was E’d off her face in the fucking Hacienda!" the singer recalls. "She was a big swinging lesbian. I mean he wasn’t too pleased about that. So that was one of his reasons for getting a bit angry with the whole scene. At the time as well he was getting a lot of stick off the breweries and club owners because everyone was doing their own shit. ‘Cos everything had to end at 2 o’clock and everyone was E’d up and carried it on all night into old buildings and doing the house party thing, normal pubs and clubs were losing out and there was a lot of complaints about it."
With critical acclaim for the band slowly building as the music press vocally championed the group and the previous year’s ‘Madchester: Rave On EP’ cracked the Top 20, the Mondays were set to go overground. Did you anticipate how big a hit the album was going to be? "We knew that there was something there. We were on a roll," Shaun states. "You can only hope twenty-odd years later people are still listening to it, so we did something right. It’s the same with ‘Bummed’. I’d not listened to it since I walked out of the studio in Driffield," Shaun recalls. "A couple of years ago when we were going out performing that album, we were rehearsing it and I had to listen to it. I thought, ‘Fucking hell man, pat yourself on the back, there’s some good stuff there’."

Happy Mondays - 1990 - Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches U.S. Release Date
U.S CD Elektra 60986-2
Cassette
Notes: Revised arwork to avoid any legal issues.

M - 10 November 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Melody Maker Magazine 60p
Notes: 'Shaun Ryder: Portrait of the artist as a young man(ia)c' 'Licensed to Thrill'

Pills 'N' Thrills Tour
23 November 1990 Friday - Whitley Bay Ice Rink, Whitley Bay, Tyne And Wear, NE258HP * Doors Open: 18:45 * Ticket Price: £10.00 * Support Act(s): Donovan
Donovan / Kinky Afro / Clap Your Hands / Loose Fit / Bobs Yer Uncle / Do It Better / Holiday / Rave On / Dennis and Lois / Hallelujah / Gods Cop / W.F.L. / Step On
Notes: Date taken from the 'Pills 'N' Thrills Tour postcard'. Tickets went on sale 03 September 1990.
A poor quality amateur audience video exsists for the entire show.
Video Bootleg: Live Glastonbury 2000 - Whitley Bay Ice Rink - June 2000 - Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton (Channel 4 TV Footage, Incomplete, approx 30 minutes) / 23 November 1990 Friday - Whitley Bay Ice Rink, Whitley Bay, Tyne And Wear, NE258HP (Amateur Audience Recording) - DVD-R

Pills 'N' Thrills Tour - 25 November 1990 Sunday - Wembley Arena, London * Doors Open: 19:30 * Ticket Price: £15.00 * Support Act(s): Donovan
Notes: Tickets went on 03 September 1990.
Unconfirmed Happy Mondays management tried sacking Shaun's dad Derek, when an argument over the sound led to the senior Ryder walking onstage at Wembley and punching his son in front of 10,000 people. Shaun said “Right in the fucking nose, blood everywhere … but you can only sack your dad for a day.”

Pills 'N' Thrills Tour - 27 November 1990 Tuesday - S.E.C.C. (Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre, Hall 5) Arena, Glasgow, Scotland * Doors Open: 19:30 * Ticket Price: £10.00 * Support Act(s): Donovan
Notes: First date of the tour to sell out. Tickets went on sale 03 September 1990.

Pills 'N' Thrills Tour - 29 November 1990 Thursday - G-Mex Centre, Manchester * Ticket Price: £15.00 * Support Act(s): Donovan
Notes: Recorded for official release. Tickets went on sale 03 September 1990.
November 1990 - NME Magazine article, Paul McCartney said Happy Mondays reminded him of the Beatles during their Strawberry Fields phase...
Official Release: VHS Video

Pills 'N' Thrills Tour - 30 November 1990 Friday - N.E.C. (National Exhibition Centre) Arena, Birmingham * Doors Open: 18:00 * Ticket Price: £12.50 * Support Act(s): Donovan
Notes: Tickets went on sale 03 September 1990.

Pills 'N' Thrills Tour - 02 December 1990 Sunday - S.E.C.C. Arena (Scottish Exhibition & Confrence Centre), Hall 3, Glasgow, Scotland * Ticket Price: £10.00 * Support Act(s): Donovan
Notes: Additional date added due to popular demand.

December 1990 - Central Station Design feature in The Face Magazine.
Notes: The Central Station team are made up of Matt Carroll, Pat Carroll and Karen Jackson. Matt and Pat, Shaun and Paul's cousins.
Dave Haslam (Stone Roses support/Hacienda DJ/NME writer) penned this article:
Central Station Design’s record sleeves and graphics helped shape the image of this year’s Madchester boom. Soon they’re launching their own clothing range; first, their portraits of British entertainers are to be shown in London, as Dave Haslam reports…
Central Station Design’s unshackled, colourful art, which first hit the public on record sleeves from Manchester, can currently be found on the walls of the Decorative Arts Group in London, in an exhibition of 234 portraits of British entertainers, including the likes of Arthur Askey, Ken Dodd and Bernard Manning. “The people were chosen because of their character you can see in their faces, not because we like them all,” explains Matt Carroll, one third of the Central Station team (his brother Pat, and Karen Jackson complete the line-up), “And because everyone remembers them, everyone remembers the Carry On films, Tommy Cooper, The Golden Shot. They’ve never been replaced in comedy”.
Latest in a decade-long tradition of innovative designers based in Manchester, but unlike most of their predecessors, the Caroll brothers trained not at Manchester Poly but at Salford Technical College. They met Jackson in the club, and the three work together as a collective.
“In strict art and design terms their work doesn’t say a great deal, but within pop culture – which is where so much good work is done by young British musicians and artists – it makes a big impact,” says Tim Chambers, who had made a study of the Manchester pop designers since the days of punk. Chambers praises Central Station’s work of Peter Saville. Saville’s austere, classical, black and white designs on Joy Division album sleeves were a close summation of the early Factory years just as Central Station’s bold, ragged, vivid art matches the mood of contemporary Factory bands like Happy Mondays and Northside. Says Chambers, “Saville is clinical, whereas with Central Station there are no boundaries, no straight lines. The painting of Shaun Ryder on the Bummed LP sleeve is still the great image”.
It was while working on the Bummed sleeve that Central Station began applying the same kind of technique – which involves colour photocopying, painting and overlaying – to portraits of entertainers from the Sixties and Seventies. Manchester is a city where successive summers of love and winters of work have made every entertainer an entrepreneur, where everyone participates in some form of creation and enjoys some kind of colourful life, both day and night. The way these icons of the artists firmly attached to Manchester in 1990 is great; funny even.
Jeff Horsley, the prime-mover behind the exhibition when it was first mounted at the City Art Gallery in Manchester earlier this year, is pleased that although they apply similar techniques to each of the portraits, they can get quite different effects. “The Kenneth Williams portrait is stark. Norman Wisdom is much more visually disorientating.” In the late Seventies, the Liverpool artist David Knopov produced a wonderful series of portraits in a kind of homage to Warhol’s Marilyn Series, including an ultra-vivid Hilda Ogden. Horsley reports that gallery visitors to Central Station Manchester exhibition made connections with Warhol, especially in reference to the Barbara Windsor portrait, but he himself compares them with Gilbert and George: “In the way Central Station fracture the images, and in some of the garishness of the colours.” To Matt Carroll, though, the colours are realistic, without the artificially of pop. “If you see the nose or the cheeks of some old bloke who’s a bit the worse for drink, or you see a woman who’s got her make-up on then the colours are very vivid.” What’s more, the icons being presented in the exhibitions are reconstituted from old photographs mediated through the distortions of memory and recalled from the era of the early colour TV According to Matt, “The early colour televisions were pretty weird.”
Central Station Design’s work isn’t distinctive, or even tongue-in-cheek. There’s a sense of reminiscence, and of appropriation. It’s not meant to be an exercise of nostalgia; it’s meant, says Matt, to give you pleasure.

M - 22 December - 29 December 1990 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of NME magazine, 95p
Notes: 'Just Say Noel! Happy Mondays: The band that lit up 1990'. Bez is dressed as Santa with massive spliff, Shaun has a bottle of J.D. in his hand.

1991
M - January 1991 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Select Magazine £1.50
Notes: 'The year of living dangerously. Shaun comes clean.'.

M - January - February 1991 - Happy Mondays, Shaun, appears on the cover of Les Inrockuptibles Magazine Issue 27. Priced at 28F.

M - 1991 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Siren (Monthly Music Matters) Magazine, Issue 3, priced at £1.95

January 1991 - One Louder - Live at Manchester Free Trade Hall U.K. Release Date
VHS Wienerworld Presentation. DAT (2) DAT. Artwork: Design by Peter Hill & The Fisherman. Photography by Ian Tilton.
1991 - Laser Disc Japan KILM-101 CLV. JASRAC. Y 4,800 / Y 4,600.
Rave On Tour - 18 November 1989 - Free Trade Hall, Manchester
Intro Tape (Hallelujah) / Rave On / Do It Better / Tart Tart / Performance / Bring A Friend / Hallelujah / Clap Your Hands / Kuff Dam / Lazyitis / Mad Cyril / 24 Hour Party People / Wrote For Luck
Notes: VHS Video Release. Recorded 18 November 1989 - Free Trade Hall, Manchester.

18 January 1991 Friday - The Great British Music Weekend, Arena, Wembley, London * Doors Open: 18:00 * Ticket Price: £12.50 (Ticket sold for £14.50) * Support Act(s): James / The Farm / Soho / 808 State / Beats International / Candyland
Donovan / Step On / Kinky Afro / Loose Fit / Dennis and Lois / W.F.L.
Notes: "Purchase indicates an understanding that the shows are to be filmed and recorded for Radio broadcast" Jakki Brambles, BBC Radio 1 presenter, was the host for the evening. Most of the festival was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 FM Broadcast.
The show was created and co-organished by Jonathan King for B.P.I. 1991 in conjunction with BBC Radio 1 presents The Great British Weekend. Candyland played after Beats International, who opened the show, despite not being advertised on the advance promo posters.
Still unconfirmed if Beats International replaced by Soho, Soho were due on after 808 State. Each band had about 30 minutes. The Farm played Altogether Now with loads of peace vibes as the first Gulf War had just broken out.
Bootleg: FM Recording ()
Bootleg: FM Recording (TDK Type 1 D120) Double Cassette Set - British Music Festival - Wembley Arena, London, 18th-19th January 1991 - Cassette 1 - SIDE A: Beats International: Echo Chamber * Candyland: Precious / Kingdom / Rainbow / Fountain O' Youth * Northside: My Rising Star / Tour De World * 808 State featuring MC Tunes: Full Set with MC Tunes. - SIDE B: The Farm: Hearts And Minds / Steppin' Stone / Groovy Train / All Together Now (with Pete Wylie) * James: Come Home / How Was It for You / Johnny Yen / Sit Down / Stutter * Happy Mondays: Donovan / Step On
Cassette 2 - SIDE A: Happy Mondays: Step On (Cut due to tape flip) / Kinky Afro / Loose Fit / Dennis and Lois / W.F.L. * 19 January 1991 Saturday - The Great British Music Weekend, Arena, Wembley, London - Mew Model Army: Vagabonds / Stupid Questions / Get Me Out / Green and Grey / I Love The World - SIDE B: The Wedding Present: Dalliance / Corduroy / Crawl / Brassneck / Don't Talk, Just Kiss / Kennedy / Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) * The Cure: Picture of You / Fascination Street / Just Like Heaven / Lullaby / The Walk / Let's Go To Bed / Why Can't I Be You / In Between Days / A Forest / Never Enough / Encore: Three Imaginary Boys / Boys Don't Cry / Disintegration

January 1991 - 27 January 1991 - Rock In Rio II Festival, Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil * Supporting: A-Ha
Kinky Afro
Notes: Kinky Afro was broadcast. Probably the band's largest audience known to date, approx 198,000 people attended the festival. The band came onstage to monsoon, rain flooded the stage but the band carried on and Bez danced through the weather too.
The band shared a hotel with Guns 'N' Roses, spending five days in Rio de Janeiro. They also met Ronnie Biggs during their time in Brazil.
Bootleg: TV Broadcast () Kinky Afro
Interview with Shaun Ryder by Richard Lewis from pennyblackmusic.co.uk published: 25 September 2015: Wrapping the phone interview up, Shaun mentions his next interviewer is from South America, where the band are heading out again soon on tour. Aptly enough, if ‘Pills 'n' Thrills’ represented the Mondays’ highpoint on record, the summit of the band’s live career arguably took place a few months later in Brazil. Appearing at the colossal Rock in Rio II festival held at the vast Maracanã Stadium in January 1991, the Mondays were main support to headliners A-ha. The pop legends proved to be the biggest draw of the festival, with the Mondays' legendary set directly before them watched by a staggering 198,000 people, a world record for a paying concert audience. Despite coming onstage during a torrential downpour, the Salfordians succeeded in getting the entire crowd dancing according to the laudatory press reports at the time. Frustratingly, only one track (‘Kinky Afro’) from the gig is available on YouTube. "I’m going to be looking now!" Shaun enthuses of the event. "I totally forgot about that! Thinking about it, someone’s got to have filmed it surely."
Hopefully someone has, but the opportunity to see the original line-up at a nearby venue (albeit in front of an understandably smaller crowd) this winter meanwhile will more than suffice.
16 July 2019 Bez Interview Article written by Mark Millar for XSNOIZE.com: Talking about buzzing looking back, what are your favourite memories from the early days of the Mondays?
Bez: The two times that always stand out for me were when we got to play Rock in Rio in Brazil, and we were in a hotel with Guns N Roses, and we were there for five days - it was a great stand out time. We got to spend time with the great train robber Ronnie Biggs, who made sure we were all sorted. Yeah, we got up to all sorts of debauched behaviour – that was one of my favourite times on tour.

February 1991 - Loose Fit Video Shoot
Notes: Only Philip Shotton worked on this video, although often credited as a Bailey Brothers production. Notes from Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 Booklet "Loose Fit Video Produced and Directed by Philip Shotton The Bailey Brothers, Feb 1991"
Official: Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 CD & DVD

N - February 1991 - Shaun Ryder is offered the role of Tim Page (the Vietnam Photographer) in Frankie's House
Notes: Apparently Shaun lost the role to Paul McGann.

M - 16 February 1991 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of NME magazine
Notes: 'God's copacabana. Happy Mondays: Licensed to (Braz)ill'. Features Bez in a Brazil shirt and Shaun with a pint in his hand on a beach.

23 February 1991 - La Cigale, Paris, France * Doors Open: 20:00
Notes: Tickets were available from FNAC, Virgin Megastore
24 February 1991 - La Cigale, Paris, France * Doors Open: 20:00
Notes: Tickets were available from FNAC, Virgin Megastore

25 February 1991 - Loose Fit U.K. Release Date
All tracks produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne. Published by FFRR Music Ltd. T/A London Music.
Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne. Tony Castro plays percussion. Simon Machan on original programming.
Artwork by Central Station Design.
Factory Records 1 Track VHS - Loose Fit (Promo Video)
7inch FAC 312/7
Cassette FAC 312c
Loose Fit (Edit) 4:01
Bob's Yer Uncle (Edit) 4:26
12inch FAC 312
Loose Fit (Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne Mix)
Bob's Yer Uncle (Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne Mix)
CD single FACD 312
Loose Fit (Perfecto Mix)
Bob's Yer Uncle (Perfecto Mix)
Kinky Afro (Euromix) (Pete Lorimer Edit)
Notes: Originally planned to be released 25 February 1991.
Shaun Ryder Fanmail was addressed to: SHAUN RYDER c/o Factory Communications, Charles Street, Manchester , M1 7EB
From NME 02 March 1991: Ryder bemoans 'small fry' Beeb HAPPY MONDAYS' singer SHAUN RYDER has attacked Radio 1's Gulf War broadcasting restrictionsm which led to the band's single being edited for radio play. "People who decide these things are arseholes who don't know anything about people or real life" ...ITV's video programme The Chart Show also drew fire from "They said they'd show it unedited then changed their minds." However, he was heartened by MTV's the satellite pop taking the Shaun; Dad hits Auntie Version. Ryder said: "Loads of people have got MTV. Even little pups in Salford have got it. But Radio 1 is pathetic - just small fry."
Meanwhile, Ryder has lost the role of wars Vietnam photographer Tim Page in a US mini-series - to Liverpool-born actor Paul McGann...
Interview with Shaun Ryder by Richard Lewis from pennyblackmusic.co.uk published: 25 September 2015: One of the band’s greatest tracks, the song was the third single lifted from the LP and contained one of Ryder’s most memorable lyrics, "Gonna buy an airforce base/Gonna wipe out your race/Get stoned in a different place/Don’t you know I’ve got bad taste?," which was inspired by the endless footage of the unfolding first Gulf War on CNN in 1990. The BBC under government pressure to remain impartial removed the lines from broadcast. "Pretty much, yeah," Shaun states. "Everything was getting censored. Heh heh, the Beeb eh?" the singer chuckles.

1991 - Loose Fit U.S. Release Date
12inch Vinyl
Loose Fit (12" Version)
Step On (1991 Edited Remix)

1991 - Bob's Yer Tune White Label Promo Only U.S. Release Date
12inch Vinyl
Bob's Yer Tune (12" Version) 6:53
Bob's Yer Tune (The Grid Remix) 6:46
Notes: Bob's Yer Tune appears, incorrectly listed, on the 'Double Easy: The US Singles' compilation CD.

1991 - Top Of The Pops, TV Show, BBC Studios, London
Loose Fit
Notes: Ride appeared on the same show.

February 1991 - Shaun's first child Jael Otis Ann is born
Notes: Shaun & Trish's first child was born just before Shaun had to leave to play in Europe.

M - 23 February 1991 - The Farm appear on the cover of the Record Mirror Magazine, Volume 38 - Number 8, 80p
Notes: Cover photo by Phil Ward. This issue came with 2 postcards of Deee-Lite and Happy Mondays.
Record Mirror closed on the same day, 02 April 1991, as the sister paper Sounds with the last issue, dated 06 April 1991. The owners, United Newspapers, sold off most of their consumer magazines in order to concentrate on their newspaper business. Eleanor Levy, the final editor, believed the decision to close the magazine was "taken by accountants rather than people who understand music. When I explained to one of the management team that our strength was dance music, he thought I meant Jive Bunny."

26 February 1991 - Dusseldorf, Germany
Donovan / Kinky Afro / Clap Your Hands / Loose Fit / Hallelujah / Holiday / Rave On / Dennis & Lois / Gods Cop / Wrote For Luck
Notes:
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)

01 March 1991 - La Cigale, Paris, France

March 1991 - Loose Fix (Grid Remixes) U.K. Release Date
All tracks originally produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne. Published by FFRR Music Ltd. T/A London Music.
Remixes by Richard Norris and Dave Ball. Tony Castro plays additional percussion. Simon Machan on original programming.
Artwork by Central Station Design.
7inch Remix FAC 312r/7
Loose Fix (The Grid Remix)
Bob's Yer Tune (The Grid Remix)
12inch Remix FAC 312r
Loose Fix (The Grid Remix)
Bob's Yer Tune (The Grid Remix)

M - March 1991 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Crossbeat, Japanese Magazine, Issue Number 34, No. 3

04 March 1991 - Theaterfabrik, Munich, Germany
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)

06 March 1991 - Vooruit Gent, De Morgen, Woe Maart Mer 6 Mars * Doors Open: 20:00
Notes: Info taken from promo poster.

10 March 1991 - Plumhurst, Copenhagen
Loose Fit / Clap Your Hands / Holiday / Rave On / Wrote For Luck
Notes: Part of the show was broadcast on FM Radio.
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)

16 March 1991 Friday - The Brain Club presents A Weekend Trip To Rekjavik Iceland, * Support Act(s): A Guy Called Gerald, If? & Audio 1 *
Notes: Date could be 17 March 1990. £200, Holidaytickets included 2 nights in a hotel with transport and return flight from Heathrow.

22 March 1991 - Elland Road Contract is signed.
Notes: The draft was written in January 1991. Nightime Promotions aka Blast Hard were based on the 2nd floor, 1-3 Stevenson Square, Manchester, M1 1DN. 17 page contract between Nightime Promotions and Phil McIntrye Promotions on the behalf of Nathan MGough (Happy Mondays' manager) and Happy Mondays.
Happy Mondays and their management were based at 1st floor, 48 Princess Street, Manchester.
The band agreed to appear at the 01 June 1991 show at Elland Road Football Ground for 'a guaranteed fee of' £75,000 against 60% of Nett door receipts after expenses whichever is the greater, plus VTA, plus PA & Lights to their specification.
The clases included 'Settlement to be made by cash/cheque payable to Artist on night'. 'The guarantee of £75,000 is to be paid up front in three instalments of £25,000 on 25th March, 1st April, 1st May. Payment to be recived by Happy Mondays on these dates.' 'All artwork and designs for publicity materials and wording of press releases etc. must be seen and passed by Happy Mondays management before publication.'.
According to the contract the band were only required to perform for 50 minutes, although the set went on for over 90 minutes. The contract noted all the specifacations of the required sound system and noted 'P.A. Must be capable of producing an average S.P.L. of 115db (Unweighted) between 50112 + 10KH2 at the mix position.' The contract also noted no recording equipment was allowed in the venue and demanded the venue display large signs at all entrances declaring the ban of recording devices, so maybe the band had already decieded on the show for eventual release with Factory.

1991 - Fans could write letters to Shaun
Notes: Fanclub letters were forwarded to Shaun Ryder c/o Factory Communications, Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7EB

1991 - SNUB TV Vol.2 U.K. Release Date
Virgin Music Video VVD837
Wrote For Luck (Live 05 February 1990 - SNUB TV)
Notes: Various Artists VHS Compilation. The official release remains exclusive to VHS and has never been re-released on DVD.

USA / Canada Tour
26 March 1991 - Ventura Theater Ventura, California, USA
27 March 1991 - Montezuma Hall, SDSU, San Diego, California, USA
28 March 1991 - Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, California, USA * Support Act(s): 808 State, A Guy Called Gerald

01 April 1991 - Moore Theatre, Seattle, Washington, USA

April 1991 - Sounds Magazine Closes

11 April 1991 - Milwaukee, USA.
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)

14 April 1991 - The Concert Hall, Toronto, ON, Canada * Support Act(s): Stereo MC's *
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)

April 1991 - Select Magazine features 'The Factory Tape' FAC 305c
Notes: Priced at £1.50. Features Northside, New Order, Cath Carroll, Happy Mondays, The Wendy's Revenge, Electronic, Vini Reilly & Durutti Column.

Stayin' Alive Sessions
Stayin' Alive (The Bee Gees cover)
Notes: Initally recorded for Malcom McLaren's film 'The Ghosts Of Oxford Street'. After the sessions, Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne told Nathan McGough & Tony Wilson they couldn't work with the band again.
Nathan McGough said: 'I got a call from Steve Osborne asking me to go down because Shaun was freaking out' 'He'd been wearing a ski mask for three days so that all you could see was his eyes and nose. I got down there and said, 'You've got to take the mask off'. He said, 'I can't' I said, 'What do you mean you can't? Why?' He said, 'I can't, it's keeping my head together.' Shaun thought if he took it off his head would literally fall apart.''

18 April 1991 Thursday - Martin Hannett dies.
Notes: James Martin Hannett dies. Born 31 May 1948, Martin died aged 42. He produced several Happy Mondays songs, including the 1988 Bummed LP.
Martin also worked with U2, Joy Division, New Order, John Cooper Clarke, Slaughter And The Dogs, Jilted John, The Buzzcocks, The Stone Roses, The High and more.

19 April 1991 Friday - Academy, 234 W. 43rd Street, New York, NYC, USA * Doors Open: 21:00 * Ticket Price: $20.00

20 April 1991 Saturday - Academy Theatre, 234 W. 43rd Street, New York, NYC, U.S.A.
Donovan / Kinky Afro / Clap Your Hands / Loose Fit / Holiday / Rave On / Dennis and Lois / God's Cop / Wrote For Luck / Step On
Notes: Unconfirmed date.

24 April 1991 - Madison Square Garden, New York, NYC, USA * Supporting: Jane's Addiction
Loose Fit / Wrote For Luck
Notes: The band came on stage half an hour late.
Simon Reynolds reviews both bands sets, the article is included in the 11 May 1991 issue of Melody Maker.
From North Fork Sound, Howard Thompson, New Suffolk, NY 23rd St, NYC, USA: In April ’91 the Mondays were invited to open for Jane’s Addiction at Madison Square Garden. This was to be their biggest gig in the US but they got to the venue 20 minutes after they were due onstage because some of the band had gone uptown looking to buy drugs. They were allowed to play for 25 minutes and were just warming up when they were forced leave the stage. Try explaining that to all the gathered Elektra department heads, some seeing the band for the first time. Backstage was never so frazzled...

28 April 1991 Sunday - The Citadel, 1649 Kalorama Rd NW, Washington, U.S.A. * Doors Open: 20:00 * Ticket Price: $20 (Approx £8 in 1991)

30 April 1991 - The Masquerade, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
01 May 1991 - Enyart Alumni Fieldhouse, Winter Park, Florida, USA * Support Act(s): Stereo MC's

1991 - The Big Smile Mega-Mix U.S. Release Date
On-U Sound Records
12inch Vinyl
The Big Smile Mega-Mix 13:49

1991 - Indie 90 Release Date
12inch Vinyl
Indie 90 Megamix (DJ Mix by Brian Butler) 9:25
Indie Dance Megamix (DJ Mix by Brian Butler) 6:33
Minimix (DJ Mix by Brian Butler) 6:03
Notes: Remixed in 1990, included an excerpt of Happy Mondays.

May 1991 - 'Step On' U.S Mix U.K. Release Date
'Step On' Written by Kongos/Demetriou
Step On (US Mix) - Remixed By Steve Osborne. Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne.
Step On (US Dub Mix) - Remixed By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne. Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne.
Loose Fix - Remixed by The Grid. Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne.
Hallelujah - Produced by Martin Hannett for Jay Hatt.
CD Promo
Step On (Edit) 4:37
7inch - Factory ‎– 869 410-7, London Records
Step On (US Mix) 4:24
Step On (Stuff It In Edit)
12inch - Factory ‎– 869 411-1, London Records
Step On (US Dub Mix)
Step On (US Mix) 4:24
Loose Fix (Remixed by The Grid)
French 12inch - London Records ‎– 869 433-1
Step On (Twisting My Melon Mix)
Step On (US Dub Mix)
Step On (US Mix) 4:24
CD - London Records ‎– 869 411-2 Factory (Grey Face Disc)
Step On (US Mix) 4:24
Step On (US Dub Mix)
Loose Fix (Remixed by The Grid)
CD - London Records ‎– 869 433-2 Factory (Silver Face Disc)
Step On (US Mix) 4:24
Step On (Twisting My Melon Mix)
Step On (Stuff It In Edit)
Step On (US Dub Mix)
CD Digipak Limited Edition to 3000, Numbered Sticker on sleeve - Factory ‎– 869 413-2, London Records
Step On (US Mix) 4:24
Step On (US Dub Mix)
Loose Fix (Remixed by The Grid)
Hallelujah 3:50

1991 - Step On Remix '91 U.S. Release Date
Promo CD - Elektra ‎- PRCD 8309-2
Step On (1991 Edited Remix) aka (Radio Edit) 4:24
Canadian Promo 12inch - Factory ‎– DJF 371
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Step On (One Louder Mix)
Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix)
Cassette - Elektra ‎– 9 4-64899
Step On (Remix '91) aka (1991 Edited Remix)
Step On (Instrumental) 5:52
CD Digipak - Elektra ‎– 9 66569-2
Japanese CD - Factory ‎– POCD-1048, London Records ‎
Step On (Remix '91)
Step On (Stuff It In Mix)
Loose Fit (12" Version) aka (U.S.A. 12inch)
Groovy Afro (Lorimer 12") (Remixed by Peter Lorimer)
Notes: Step On (Instrumental) is on available on cassette. Loose Fit (12" Version) is the U.S. 12inch version, which is approx. 20 seconds longer than the original UK 12inch.

11 May 1991 - Madison Square Gardens, New York, NYC * Supporting: Jane's Addiction

20 May 1991 - Pinkpop Festival, Megaland, Landgraaf, Netherlands
luka bloom / Lenny Kravitz / Primus / Trockener Kecks / Joe Jackson / Happy Mondays / Living Colour / The Tragically Hip / Walter Trout Band / An Emotional Fish
Step On (live at PInkpop Festival 1991)
Notes: Step On was broadcast on a Pinkpop Festival TV Show, sadly the recording is incomplete and cuts to credits.
Bootleg: TV Broadcast () Step On *Incomplete, Cut /
Bootleg: T Archive Volume 1 (CD-R) - See The Sorrow (1983/84 demo recording) / Freaky Dancin' Jam (pre Squirrel album rehearsal/jam) - Guitar Solo Jam (pre Squirrel album rehearsal/jam) / Fat Lady Wrestler (Blistred Rabbi Demo Tape 1988) / Do It Better E2 Mix (version 1) / WFL LSD Mix 2 / Holiday (Pills LP LA Sessions, Capitol records, 1990) / Mad Cyril Rehearsal (unknown session) / Unknown Instrumental (Pills LP LA Sessions, Capitol records, 1990) / Step On (live at Pinkpop Festival 1991) / Stinkin Thinkin (alternate version, Barbados Sessions) / Total Ringo (alternate version, Barbados Sessions) / Bass & Drum Idea 2 (1993 final session)

21 May 1991 - The Hacienda's 9th Birthday

1991 - Call The Cops VHS U.K. Release Date
VHS Central Station Design. Produced and Directed by Barbara Farmer and Tim Farmer.
25 May 1991 - Laser Disc Japan POLV-1704 Polydor. Central Independent Television PLC MCMXC under exclsuive licence to Castle Music Pictures/TAMT
Step On / Clap Your Hands / Kinky Afro / Lazyitis / Rave On / Do It Better / Performance / Gods Cop / Hallelujah / Wrote For Luck
Notes: U.S. Tour Documentary with live footage and clips. VHS Video. Castle Music Picture. Central Music.

TV - The Word, Channel 4 TV Show, Studios, London
Judge Fudge
Notes:

01 June 1991 Saturday - Elland Road, Leeds United Football Club, Leeds * Doors Open: 12.00 Stage Times: 14:30 - The High, 15:45 - Stereo Mc's, 16:30 - Northside, 17:45 - The La's, 19:15 - The Farm & 20:45 - Happy Mondays * Ticket Price: £18.50 (Advance) £19.00 (General Admission) * Support Act(s): The Farm, The La's, Northside, Stereo Mc's, The High, DJ Paul Oakenfold, Jamm MC's, DJ Mike Pickering
Hallelujah / Donovan / Kinky Afro / Clap Your Hands / Loose Fit / Holiday / Rave On / Do It Better / Tokoloshe Man / Dennis And Lois / God's Cop / Step On / Bob's Yer Uncle / W.F.L. (with all-star cast)
Notes: A massive backstage party went on all day. The show was recorded and released for Factory Records' 'Live'. The tape included Bob's Yer Uncle whilst the CD version ommitted the track due to space.
The Farm, Pete Wylie, Jamm MCs, members of The High and others join in on Happy Mondays set closer 'W.F.L.'
An official 'Match Of The Day' programme went on sale too, featuring stage layout, stage times etc. At the time, the Elland Road gig featured the biggest P.A of its kind ever assembled. See 22 March 1991 for the show confirmation. Ride were approached to play the show but declined due to other commitments.
Official Release: Live (FACD 322 CD) - Hallelujah / Donovan / Kinky Afro / Clap Your Hands / Loose Fit / Holiday / Rave On / Do It Better / Tokoloshe Man / Dennis And Lois / God's Cop / Step On / W.F.L.
Official Release: Live (FACTc 322 Tape) / (FACT 322 Double Vinyl) - Hallelujah / Donovan / Kinky Afro / Clap Your Hands / Loose Fit / Holiday / Rave On / Do It Better / Tokoloshe Man / Dennis And Lois / God's Cop / Step On / Bob's Yer Uncle / W.F.L.
Bootleg: Baby Big Head Bootleg Album (Sleeve incorrectly includes W.F.L. on the sleeve, which is missing from the record.) Vinyl - Hallelujah / Donovan / Kinky Afro / Clap Your Hands / Loose Fit / Holiday / Rave On / Do It Better / Tokoloshe Man / Dennis And Lois / God's Cop / Step On / Bob's Yer Uncle
Bootleg: Baby Big Head Bootleg Album (Australian Re-press had a little alien icon, where as the UK edition had a plain white label)
Notes: The sleeve says 'Made In Sardinia'. Apparently the bootleg was co-created by Shaun Ryder & Nathan McGough, for some extra money. The bootleg proved so popular that Factory released it officially.
Lord Mike Noon wrote a review of Happy Mondays bootleg LP for City Life magazine: Happy Mondays: Baby Big Head Bootleg Album (available from Eastern Bloc). Well, this is a bit of a joke isn't it? £14.99 for a record which is apparently going to be issued officially at £6.45 with an extra track!! A studio quality live document of the Mondays' Match Of The Day at Leeds, taking the Man U. message to the masses, this is pretty much what you'd expect, sounding a little touched up, if anything. Unless you're a total Mondays freak, I would save your money until the Factory version comes out, the pressing on this one is criminally quiet, so the CD's the thing to look out for. If the Mondays and Factory do have something to do with this, they should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting their fans, the only people who would shell out £5 over the price of a regular bootleg, and twice the price of a normal LP. Still, they've never pretended to be in it for anything but the money. So, wallets out, you suckers. Lord Mike Noon.

From Select Magazine review: a
It's eight hours earlier, and DJs The Jamm MCs are blathering away over various EMF B-sides as Elland Road slowly fills up past the halfway mark. "Indie dance music for the 90s!" they offer, and everyone looks askance at one another. The Jamm MCs have just broken the cardinal rule of Indie Dance game - as with Freemasonry , the Magic Circle and the Parliamentary Lobby system you must never admit to the existence of the I**** D**** phenomenon.
...openers High whose neatly sub-Stone Rosesisms fade into a riotous excursion into the hinterlands on 'Caramel on Crunch'. Even late additions The Stereo MCS, out on a limb as the only dedicated dance act on the bill, generated more vibe with Rob B's tough-nut-elevated rap.
Until... "Yah mon! 'aaRRRooOOooo'!' Yip! It's Northside, with the jiggly vocal talents of Dermo and a splatter-gun approach that finds the band all playing in closely-related but different keys. Not that it matters: 'My Rising Star' is the afternoon's first big-gusseted anthem, a mad thing whose ascending final bars could have gone on all and no one would have complained. The knot of 300 or so spaceheads in front of the stage has now swelled to 800 or 900 or a thousand. An overcast sky has melted away and Elland Road is finally starting to feel like an event.
'Take 5' dispenses with most of the lyrics in favour of multiple 'aaRRRooOOooos',
and, for a moment, the song splits apart. But Northside grab the pieces and slap them together, hauling it high above the pitch....
Which is when The La's blunder onstage. Bassist John Power, a hip new REDO T-shirt perhaps signalling a long overdue image update for the band, greets the masses. "Yer fuckin' wreck'eads" he quips with the characteristic Mersey lilt. But for some strange reason his cheery greeting falls flat. And The La's never really get it going afterwards, as if Power had affronted all the assembled Mancs and Geordies and members of the Yorkshire Republican Army, and somehow embarrassed the scousers as well. Only the opening bars of 'There She Goes' as crystalline and timeless as the record, generate of a response, but then Power breaks a handful of strings and they have to start all over again. The La's songbook is a model of beautiful clarity and a powerful argument for those who like to go about Proper Music. But their set is essentially still the same one they've been hawking around for the past four years, and it's too spartan to work in front of ten thousand people. All those embarrassed pauses, all those string changes and false starts...inauspicious to say the least. At half time the score remains: Manchester 1 - Liverpool 0.
"I'M REAL! YOU'RE REAL! ELLAND ROAD, YOU'RE gonnamake history!" It' s all a bit much for The Jamm MCs, who are so overwhelmed by their own ravetastic positivism that they're gnwing more unintentitmlly hilarious by the minute. Spike Islanders will nurse grim memories of ''Manchester viiibes in the areeeaaa!" Now Elland Road gets "ManchestOR! in the stadiUM!" And those bog-rolllls, timewarped from the Noman Hunter days, Start flying again as predicted...
Premier league candidates The Farm arrive. Loping on hopelessly late and blaming "Yorkshire Electricity Board, since it got privatised', The take their biggest gig yet full on. Their opener 'Don't Let Me Down', a disappointment on record and a curious choice for a single, fills out in a way nobody would have expected, and at last The Farm's much documented fondness for The Grand Working Class Anthem gets a context to suit. And even the random problems that have plagued today's massive but wayward sound system can't blunt 'Stepping Stone' or take the teeth from 'Groovy Train' Bez-dancing is old news, but surely 1991 will see the rise of the Hooton-bounce - a zero-G foot-to-foot groove born of too many long evenings rounded off with 'Little Old Wine Drinker Me'. "Eighteen months ago we were playing to ten people in Edinburgh," recalls drummer Roy Boulter afterwards, as The Farm relax in of the directors' boxes, converted for a day as dressing rooms. It overlooks an increasingly crowded pitch where over 20 thousand people who've just seen The Farm are now baying for Happy Mondays. "There's no way we would have thought it would come to this level. For us to do it...it's something you can't rush into, y'know, and once you have you can't go back." Elland Road surely represents the final nail in The Farm's old ill-deserved reputation as the scourge of West Yorkshire. Time was when only the most enterprising stroke-suicidal characters would book Hooton and co to play this side of the Pennines, after some unfortunate neo-Nazis felt the wrath of the Farm Angry Brigade in 1987. But Liverpool FC fan Peter Hooton leads portions of the crowd in the Leeds Utd anthem 'Leeds Leeds Leeds (Marching On Together)' - something unthinkable a couple of years ago. "We got banned in Leeds and York cos we'd got an audience, believe it or not," recalls Carl. "But also because we played York, the Arts Centre cellar, once,'' he continues, and a few of the British National Party turned up. Now the majority of The Farm audience is quite left wing, and a few of these BNP got chinned - quite rightly, as far as I'm concerned, I would never advocate violence, but if two Farm fans want to punch fuck out of some racist prick that's almost justified. "It's a shame you have to punch them, like. But really only way to talk to them leaded clubs..."
Which is when a roar to match Leeds Utd on match day comes through the windows to announce the Happy Mondays are onstage...
Has Bez changed his drugs? Have they all changed their drugs? Happy Mondays' ability to get hideously twisted and ruin the biggest is the stuff of legend, but it's not hapening here. Tonight they're working with preternatural co-ordination, cranking out a funked up, blissed out, super-charged 'Pills 'N' Thrills' as if by pure instinct - as tight as gnat's chuff.
Leather queen Rowetta flogs first Bez and then Shaun with a mock cat o'nine tails to 'Kinky Afro's greased Philly swirl and the filthy, squalling T-Rex jackhammer jam of 'Clap Your Hands'. 'Step on' suffuses the stadium in a mess of dub resonances, 'God's Cop' is a holy shag-metal riot and the Mondays have ripped out the roots of 'Loose Fit' to install The Grid's interstellar overdrive from their 'Loose Fix' mix. And throughout the mayhem strolls Shaun Ryder, hunched and ranting in white Armani kit and shades, like the only gnome in heaven. At the death, as the stage empties of various members of The Farm, their kids, The Jamm MCs and the inevitable Pete Wylie, and 'WFL's programmed bass stomp floods Elland Road, he grabs Mark Day's guitar and stands knocking random chords into the loudest PA in England...
Thirty minutes later Shaun Ryder poses for tongue-in-cheek shots for the Daily Star his lady Trish in one of those directors' boxes. Word has it that the Mondays were uncharacteristically nervous about this, their largest ever show - even to the extent that they were laying off the pre-match stimulants. Well, some of them anway... "Well yeah , We were a bit nervous, y'know," Shaun admits. "I mean, we'd practised in Manchester for the first time in fuckin' ages, when we got back from the America tour, right? And we practised in the rehearsal rooms pretty straight and did the show straight. We've just done 90 minutes, y'know, we've never done that before, so we knew we'd have to be as straight as possible. And we nearly are, heh heh."
Not the usualy Mondays mode of operation? "Most of the times when I've done gigs like Wembley and G-Mex, I haven't noticed the fuckin' crowd man, I've been that out of me fuckin' ead'...But we're dead pleased cos we wanted to prove to ourselves that we do it. This is loudest gig ever in England, y'know!"
So after rejigging live versions Of 'Loose Flt' and 'Hallelujah' in line with their dance remixes, will Happy Mondays - as has been strongly rumoured - be making records with The Grid - former Soft Cell man Dave Ball and one-time Select writer Richard Norris who mixed 'Bob's Yer Tune' & 'Loose Fix"?
"I don't know about doing more stuff with The Grid" Shaun muses. "But 'Loose Fit' come out really good so we might as well give 'em something else. When we heard that, right, We went, Oh, him out of fuckin' Soft Cell? Wait a minute! And Factory are going, You want to come down the Studio and put your ten pence worth in? We just said, No, let 'em do it, and it was fuckin' great."
And finally, before the tabloid hounds persuade him to get his kit off or whatever — What is this Shaun guitar hero business? "Ah, but when I've got a capo on, right," he snickers. "It's covering all the right strings, right, and it's a piece of piss to play...All I've gotta do is just fuckin' hit it in a time, y'know, when I've got me capo on? "And it looks good, it looks like I'm really playing good fuckin' stuff. Cos I always wanted to play guitar. I never wanted to be a singer." Yes Shaun.
Outside, in the darkened corridors usually haunted by by shady Football League luminaries, The La's entourage squeezes past Shaun and Paul Ryder's mum dad, various children of The Farm and the Mondays are dodging betweenTony Wilson's hairy Berumuda-shorted legs, and Pete Wylie is talking seasoned lig-talk with assorted security men. Buses are arriving to cart the entourage across the Pennines to the Hacienda. Propped against the wall is a shag-tired Mark Day, pleasently wilting beneath that felt hat. Is he off for the Factory back-slapping and elbow-bending session? "No, I'm going to play me game. Role-playing, y'know. I play it with the wife. It's called Talisman, I'm a Druid, right, and I've got loads of spell power. It's like a book, only you're a character in it and you're writing the story too." Now he must be Man U.

N - 1991 - Happy Mondays visit London Zoo
Notes: Apparently Happy Mondays, The Farm, Bananarama and Gary Davies wrecked the venue. They flung park benches in the carp tank, shouted abuse at the gorillas and went to the toilet on the flower beds. 'We won't be allowing the Happy Mondays back' commented London Zoo representitive.

24 June 1991 - * Supporting: Dee-Lite with Bootsy Collins
Notes: Happy Mondays are second on, Soup Dragons were first on stage.

30 June 1991 - Shaun Ryder appears on the cover of VOX Magazine

July 1991 - The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, The Farm, The Charlatans & Inspiral Carpets were all asked to play The Great Indie Festival - A Midsummer's Day Dream festival.
Notes: It was set to be hosted at 67,000 capacity venue Milton Keynes Bowl. Apparently the local authorities passed the festival but the show did not go ahead. The Stone Roses were never confirmed for the show and tickets did not go on sale.
From NME 02 March 1991 - THE STONE ROSES, HAPPY MONDAYS, THE FARM, THE CHARLATANS and INSPIRAL CARPETS will not now be playing a. music festival planned tor the 67,OOO capacity Milton Keynes Bowl, despite rumours circulating last week.
Termed 'The Great Indie Festival— A Midsummer's Day Dream', the event has not yet received the go ahead from local authorities. However, Nick Seller of promoters Total Control Events told NME: "We've met local police and they've given us unoffical permission. A dozen bands have agreed in principle to appear and we should be exchanging contracts with them soon. "

July 1991 - Six Doormen are stabbed at the Hacienda
13 September 2021 - The Big Issue EASY RYDER (7 MINUTES) Shaun Ryder Interview: TBI: Would it have been better if the ecstasy revolution you were part of had survived? SWR: Absolutely. But we know that a lot of pressure on the E was not on the drug itself but on the normal boozers and nightclubs missing out on business. Because people stopped going to those places and at raves no-one was drinking alcohol. So it was costing those businesses money. People were setting up their own parties because the pubs shut at 10.30pm and the clubs shut at 1am. The E effected a lot of other businesses and that’s why it was clamped down upon. Everyone knew the drug wasn’t dangerous. I knew a police chief’s daughter who was a regular in the Hacienda taking ecstasy. That was well known in Manchester. The authorities were just under pressure from breweries and hospitality industries. There was the odd isolated incident of people dying but I’ve always said how many deaths are associated with alcohol every year?

06 July 1991 - Rock Torhout '91, Festivalpark, Torhout, Flanders, Belgium * Supporting: Paul Simon / Sting / Iggy Pop / Pixies / Bonnie Raitt / Happy Mondays / Deee-Lite / Dave Stewart And The Spiritual Cowboys / The Scene

07 July 1991 - Rock Werchter Festival, Werchter, Flanders, Belgium * Supporting: Pixies / Sting / Paul Simon / Iggy Pop / Bonnie Raitt / The Scene / Dave Stewart And The Spiritual Cowboys / Lite / deee

10 July 1991 - Valencia Festival, Plaza De Toros De Valencia * Doors Open: 20:30 * Ticket Price: 2,000 PTAS * Supporting: Pixies
Notes: Happy Mondays were second to headliners, The Farm were first onstage.

27 July 1991 - Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal * Supporting: Santana

1991 - Happy Mondays feature on The Factory Tape FAC305c
Produced, arrangd and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osbourne. Remixed by Peter Lorimer. Published by FFRR Music t/a London Music. 1990 Factory Communications Ltd.
Kinky Afro (Euromix 12inch Version) 7:22
Notes: Tape was given away with Select Magazine, 1991.

03 August 1991 Saturday - Feile '91, Fiele Semple Stadium, Thurles, Ireland * Support Act(s): The Farm, Black Francis, That Petrol Emotion / Ride, Power of Dreams, The Mock Turtles, The Golden Horde
Notses: Unconfirmed if 03 or 02 August.
Sunday's line up included Van Morrison headlining with support from The Wonder Stuff.
Bootleg: Audience Recording (Tape / CD-R)

04 August 1991 Sunday - Cities In The Park, Heaton Park, Prestwich, Manchester * Doors Open: 12:00 Curfew: 22:00 * Ticket Price: £32 (Weekend) - £20 (Day Ticket) * Support Act(s): Electronic, 808 State, De La Soul, A Certain Ratio, Revenge, The Durutti Column, The Adventure Babies, The Wendys, Cath Carroll.
Kinky Afro / Hallelujah / Donavon / Loose Fit / Holiday / Rave On / Clap Your Hands / Tokoloshe Man / God's Cop / Dennis And Lois / Step On / W.F.L.
Electronic: Get the Message / Idiot Country / Try All You Want / Reality / Tighten Up / Some Distant Memory / Getting Away With It / Feel Every Beat / Free Will
Notes: Martin Hannett tribute festival, 'in memoriam Martin Hannett'. Martin died 18 April 1991. Price included booking fee and a 10% donation to African Famine Relief and Kurdish Trust Fund. Weekend tickets included access to the campsite too.
Electronic and Happy Mondays co-headlined the show. Electronic were the last band on stage though. At this point New Order had taken a break but both Bernard's & Hookys bands were playing the festival (Electronic & Revenge). Other Factory bands included The Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio and more. Johnny Marr, ex-The Smiths and current Electronic guitarist, would later play guitar for Shaun's band 'Black Grape'. 'Natural Life' were billed on the posters for the show but I don't think they played, unconfirmed.
New Fast Automatic Daffodils & AMOK were on the posters for Saturday's show but several attendees have claimed they played the Sunday show.
The two day festival covered the August weekend, with The Wonder Stuff & The Beautiful South co-headlining the Saturday night, supported by OMD, The Soup Dragons, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Buzzcocks, Cabaret Voltaire, Railway Children, Ruthless Rap Assassins featuring future Black Grape band member Kermit, Paris Angels, Ashley + Jackson, AMOK and more. Rumours at the time were The Stone Roses would headline the Saturday festival.
Official Release: Video VHS - Cities In The Park 1991 (09 November 1991, Palace) - Kinky Afro / God's Cop / Dennis And Lois / W.F.L. (excerpt)
Official Release: DVD - Cities In The Park 1991 (2012, Beckmann Visual Publishing BDV298) - Kinky Afro
Bootleg: VHS Audio - Cities In The Park 1991 () - Kinky Afro / God's Cop / Dennis And Lois / W.F.L. (excerpt)
Bootleg: DVD-R - Cities In The Park (Manchester's Music Festival) (2010, Acrobat Television) - Kinky Afro / God's Cop / Dennis And Lois / W.F.L. (excerpt)
Bootleg: FM? or TV? - Cities In The Park () Tape - Kinky Afro / God's Cop / Dennis And Lois / W.F.L (incomplete) - Bonus - (unknown location probably 18 October 1992 Sunday - Kilburn National Ballroom)Theme From Netto / Sunshine & Love / Stinkin' Thinkin' / Cowboy Dave / Angel - Mad Cyril (1989 - Warehouse, Manchester) - Step On (20 May 1991 - Pinkpop Festival, Megaland, Landgraaf, NL) - Kinky Afro (January 1991 - Rock In Rio Festival) - Loose Fit / Holiday (23 April 1999 Friday - M.E.N. Arena, Manchester) - Angel (27 April 1999 Tuesday - Academy, Brixton) - The Boys Are Back In Town (1999 - Paris, France)
Bootleg: Audience Recording ()

M - 28 September 1991 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of Melody Maker Magazine 60p
Notes: 'Face to face with Shaun Ryder' 'Alice and Kicking', Cover has six photos of Shaun.

199? Bez's and girlfriend Debs have baby Arlo

13 October 1991 - Shaun's male prostitute allegation - News Of The World Newspaper 'I was a rent boy says Happy Mondays star' Judy McGuire showbiz exclusive.
Notes: Shaun Ryder has issued a statement furiously denying a story in the News Of The World (13 October 1991) which alleged that he had worked as a male prostitute - The statement reads: "That's all made up....
19? October 1991 - NME: Shaun said: 'I've been really fucking pissed off since Sunday. We're sueing, our lawyers think we've got a really good case for libel, and no matter what it says in The Sun I'm not blaming MTV, you can still tell it was a joke on MTV.'
From 26 October 1991 - Melody Maker Magazine, article by James Brown: "Both Shaun and Trisha are deeply distressed by these disgraceful allegations, and are consulting solicitors with a view to instigating proceedings."
A spokesman for the band told the Maker: "What happened was that Shaun had an interview on MTV where he made a joke along the lines - but it must have been obvious to anyone watch ing that it was a joke. Both he and the interviewer were laughing, and Shaun winked at the camera but then the News Of The World picked up on the comment, took it out of context and turned it into this 'exclusive'."
Shaun saud: "I did a half-hour interview with Karen from MTV who I've known for a few years, who I can chat to like a mate. MTV had edited 35 minutes down to 3 minutes 22 seconds but it was so obvious the comment was a joke. If everybody was made to watch it on television they'd all know it was a joke. It's like Les Dawson making cracks about killing his mother-in-law and burying the body in the cellar, you can't put that on the fron of The News Of The World..."

13 October 1991 - Shaun and Bez visit Dry Bar, Oldham Street, Manchester.
Notes: The same night the News Of The World Newspaper published the prostitute allegation, Shaun and Bez wre involved in an incident at Dry Bar.
From 26 October 1991 - Melody Maker Magazine, article by James Brown: In what was described as 'an act of frustration' by both band and bar management, Shaun was seen to smash a 4' by 3' mirror with a bottle before leaving shortly afterwards...Leroy Richardson of Dry confirmed that the incident had ended without furthur trouble and said that Dry had picked up the repair bill of over £80. "It was very clearly not a direct attack on anyone so we sat down with the people involved, talked it through, and Shaun and his friends left of their own accord a short while after" explained Richardson. "The tabloid report saying he caused £1000 of damage was ridiculous, there's no problem with the band here. It was an act of frustration at what had been written about him, we were sympathetic to the position."

Happy Mondays - October 1991 - Live U.K. Release Date
Model Styling Wigs and Gigs by Central Station Salon. Photography Mick Green.
Recorded and mixed by Simon Machan.
Programming by Moist. Thanks to OZ PA Hire. Thanks to Encore PA. Published by FFRR Music T/A London Music Ltd. Except tracks 9 and 12 written by John Kongos and Christos Demetriov Published by Tapestry Music Ltd.
FAC 322
CD FACD 322
Hallelujah
Donovan
Kinky Afro
Clap Your Hands
Loose Fit
Holiday
Rave On
E (Do It Better)
Tokoloshe Man
Dennis and Lois
God's Cop
Step On
W.F.L.
Double Vinyl FACT 322 / Cassette FACTc 322
Hallelujah
Donovan
Kinky Afro
Clap Your Hands
Loose Fit
Holiday
Rave On
E (Do It Better)
Tokoloshe Man
Dennis and Lois
God's Cop
Step On
Bob's Yer Uncle
W.F.L.
Notes: Recorded Live 01 June 1991 Saturday - Elland Road, Leeds United Football Club, Leeds. The double vinyl & tape releases included Bob's Yer Uncle whilst the CD version ommitted the track due to space. Apparently the vinyl bootleg recording of this show 'Baby Big Head Bootleg' was co-created by Shaun Ryder, for some extra money. The bootleg was so popular that Factory released it officially.

Happy Mondays - October 1991 - Live U.S. Release Date
CD
Cassette

November 1991 - Judge Fudge Video Shoot
Notes: Keith & Philip work together again for another Bailey Brothers production.
Notes from Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 Booklet "Video Produced and Directed by The Bailey Brothers, November 1991"
Official: Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches Collector's Edition 2007 CD & DVD

09 November 1991 - Happy Mondays appear on the various artists VHS 'Cities In The Park 1991'
Palace, VHS Video.
04 August 1991 Sunday - Cities In The Park, Heaton Park, Prestwich, Manchester
Kinky Afro / God's Cop / Dennis And Lois / W.F.L. (excerpt)
Nots: The video was initially priced at "£10.99".

M - 16 November 1991 - Happy Mondays appear on the cover of NME magazine, 65p.
Notes: Paul tightening Shaun into a straight jacket appears on the cover of NME Magazine. 'Ryder Goes Strait. Happy Mondays tied and emotional.' & 'Working class zeroes'.

Happy Mondays - 18 November 1991 - Judge Fudge U.K. Release Date
Produced, arranged and mixed by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne.
Artwork by Central Station Design. Photography Mick Green.
18 November 1991 - Factory Records 1 Track VHS - Judge Fudge (Promo Video)
7inch Vinyl FAC 332
Cassette FAC 332c
Judge Fudge (7inch Edit)
Tokoloshe Man
Stayin' Alive (7inch Edit)
12inch Vinyl FAC 332
Judge Fudge
Tokoloshe Man
CD FACD 332
Judge Fudge (7inch Edit)
Tokoloshe Man
Judge Fudge (12inch)
CD Australian Release - Judge Fudge D10547
Judge Fudge (7inch Edit)
Tokoloshe Man
Judge Fudge (12inch)
Stayin' Alive (7inch Edit)
Stayin' Alive (12inch)
Notes:

1991 - Happy Mondays appear on the various artists compilation 'New Season (Peel Sessions 1983-1991)'
Freaky Dancin' (John Peel Session, BBC Radio1, BBC Studios, London)

Happy Mondays - December 1991 - The Original Peel Session 1986 U.K. Release Date
01 April 1986 - John Peel Session, BBC Radio 1, BBC Studios, London
Kuff Dam / Freaky Dancin' / Olive Oil / Cob 20
Notes: Transmitted: 09 April 1986. The Peel Sessions E.P. CD

M - 22 December - 29 December 1991 - Shaun Ryder & Bernard Sumner appear on the cover of Melody Maker magazine
Notes: 'Christmas crackers. Shaun Ryder and Bernard Sumner get kitted out for a cool yule...'