Since forming somewhere in Salford in the 80's, Happy Mondays have earned their title as trailblazers of indie-rock. With a four-decade-long career under their belts, the rock legends grace the stage of Rock City for an intoxicating headline set...
South Central LA, The Bronx, Ruddington – it’s quite the claim to fame that our very own Rudd has made a sizeable contribution to the hip-hop genre, but it has.
Opening tonight’s triumvirate of acts, Stereo MCs get things off to a flier - led by chiselled local lad Rob Birch. It may be only 7pm, but the place is soon bouncing to their rap-electronic crossover grooves. Birch, bedecked in a black boiler suit and woolly hat, bestrides the stage in typically ebullient fashion, flanked by powerhouse vocalist Cath Coffey.
Connected and Step It Up are lapped up by a buoyant crowd lucky enough to have got the memo about the early stage time and there’s no doubt that the MCs - almost 40 years into their career - remain a stellar live force.
The crowd has noticeable swelled by the time The Inspirals take the stage (with a few clearly miffed at having missed the MCs judging by the conversations I overhear) and the psychedelic Oldham garage rockers don’t disappoint. They may be sadly shorn of original drummer, the late Craig Gill, and bassist Martyn Walsh, but the current incarnation are on fine form.
Now featuring Kev Clark on drums and a shaggy-haired Oscar Boon (son of keyboardist Clint Boon) on bass, it’s a hit-packed set brilliantly orchestrated by Boon Sr from behind his impressive bank of organs and synths. She Comes In The Fall and Saturn 5 are both rapturously received while This Is How It Feels (cheekily introduced by Boon ‘we’re going to play a new one now, hope that’s ok?’) soars despite its poignant lyrical content.
By the time headliners Happy Mondays arrive, Rock City is rammed with every possible vantage point secured and the bars dishing out two-pint glasses by the truckload.
Drummer Gaz Whelan and guitarist Mark Day are the first to arrive before the madcap Holy Trinity of Madchester stride on to the stage to huge acclaim. Frontman Shaun Ryder in shades, vibes-master Bez with trademark maracas and a sequinned Rowetta with twirling streamers.
Is there a more remarkable trio of survivors than these three? Yet, despite living enough lives for all of us during their six decades on the planet, they, it has to be said, are on cracking form. Mark ‘Bez’ Berry, must have made a pack with the devil at some juncture. There can’t be a more unlikely police officer’s son, surely? He bounces around the stage orchestrating the crowd having as big a ball as the rest of us. Kinky Afro, God’s Cop, Hallelujah and Step On are quickly rattled off ,while career high point, Wrote For Luck, brings things to an intoxicating end.
It's fair to say enduring friendships run through the seams of all three bands (and the crowd) tonight, whether its Rob and fellow Nottinghamian DJ Nick Hallam from the MCs; Clint, guitarist Graham Lambert and singer Stephen Holt from the Inspirals; or Shaun, Bez, Gaz, Mark and Rowetta from the Mondays; there’s 120 years combined of ups and downs, scrapes and tales up on that stage tonight. Yet, they keep on keeping on. Heart-warming stuff indeed.
Happy Mondays performed at Rock City on 16th March 2024.
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