There are so many things to amuse you at a Happy Mondays gig, although the crowd is not one of them. In a room filled with Stone Island coats done up to the top, and phones with babysitters on speed dial, Manchester’s rowdiest played the second night of their ‘hits’ tour, billed as a two-hour show but actually ending up more like an hour and fifteen minutes.
Still, there was humour, and behind the humour, the resilient timelessness of the Happy Monday’s best work, which has not aged. In the Brighton press earlier in the week Rowetta had admitted frontman Shaun Ryder rarely did soundchecks, often turning up exactly at the time he was due on stage. This might explain the section at the start, where he spoke into a microphone offstage for five minutes, berating drummers, guitarists, dancer Bez and the sound levels.
A net covering the stage, presumably for suspense (though you could clearly see through it), dropped to the floor when the band took the stage to cheers and hollers – and Ryder walked round greeting the other band members as if he’d just arrived, like a visiting nan.
All joking aside, it was a stellar setlist. Opening with ‘Loose Fit’ and ticking all the ‘hit’ boxes you’d expect, the 14-song show largely focused on 1990’s ‘Pills And Thrills And Bellyaches’. It wasn’t all singles either, with ‘Dennis And Lois’ and ‘Holiday’ welcome inclusions.
Ryder often seemed at a loss, leaving the still stunning sounding Rowetta to fill in, and sometimes even she left the stage when not needed, with backing tracks filling her role. Bez too operated a revolving door policy, laughing at Ryder’s asides (“What’s next? Alright then, drag me through it”… “This one’s dedicated to shoplifters – you’ve gotta earn a living”… “That one developed from a porno mag in Amsterdam in about 1982”). Only virtuoso guitarist Mark Day, a man seemingly capable of playing lead and rhythm guitar at once, remained constant up front.
Closing inevitably with ‘Step On’, and Ryder wondering aloud if it was an encore (it wasn’t, ‘Wrote For Luck’ filled that role), the Mondays then quickly exited, heading into waiting taxis or backstage for mineral water. The best thing to do then was exit the venue as quickly as possible, dodging past geezers laughing at the Dome’s gender neutral toilets and pissing in the sinks. A gig then, of ups and downs – suitably enough – but also one that endures stronger than any Stone Roses reformation shows, to these ears.
Happy Mondays, Brighton Dome, Wednesday 15th November 2017
Words by Jake Kennedy
Photos by Xavier Clarke
