Happy Mondays (GB)

About

Also known as: The Happy Mondays

Few bands soundtracked the late 1980s Manchester scene quite like Happy Mondays. Formed in Salford in 1980, the core of the group was brothers Shaun Ryder and Paul Ryder, alongside Gaz Whelan, Paul Davis, Mark Day, and the inimitable Bez, who joined not as a musician but as a dancer and maracas player. Signed to Factory Records, they fused indie guitar textures with house, funk, Krautrock, and northern soul, helping to define the Madchester sound. Their peak run, from Bummed in 1988 through to Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches in 1990, is the stuff of legend. That last record went platinum in the UK, and both Step On and Kinky Afro hit number 5 in the singles chart. The 1992 follow up Yes Please!, recorded in Barbados and produced by Talking Heads rhythm section Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, was a costly disaster that contributed to the collapse of Factory Records. The band split in 1993, with Shaun Ryder and Bez going on to form Black Grape. Multiple reunions followed over the years, and in 2007 they put out the comeback record Uncle Dysfunktional. Paul McCartney once compared them to the Beatles in their Strawberry Fields phase, which tells you something about the spell they cast.