Call the cops and twist my melon, man: Happy Mondays are bringing the party to Australia in October as part of their 'Twenty-Four Hour Party People – Greatest Hits Tour'.
The shows will be their first in Australia in over four years; having last played a run of headline concerts as well as a slot at Golden Plains festival in early 2019. It will also be the band's first appearances here since the death of bassist and founding member Paul Ryder last year aged only 58."We're thrilled to be heading back to Australia and New Zealand," frontman Shaun Ryder said via press release. "The fans there have always shown us so much love, and we can't wait to give them a show they'll never forget."
The Manchester band, formed in the early 1980s, achieved significant global success as leaders of the 'Madchester' scene, fusing elements of indie, acid house, '60s pop, and psychedelia alongside like-minded bands including The Stone Roses, The Charlatans, and James.
Drugs, particularly ecstasy, and fashion, particularly the 'baggy' look of flared jeans, became almost as important to the scene as the music.
These days, the Mondays are re-living the songs and moods that still captivate audiences across the world 30 years after the fact.
Following on from the band's previous tour, which saw them play their classic 1990 album 'Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches' in full, the greatest hits set will see the sextet pull chart smashes and deep cuts from 1988's 'Bummed' and 1992's 'Yes Please!'; the album that ended the band's original incarnation.
"We may even go out and play 'Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)'," Ryder told UK Music Reviews. "The tracks on that album, I haven't heard since 1986."
The band, and most especially Shaun Ryder and dancer/ percussionist Mark 'Bez' Berry, were known almost as much for their kamikaze-level hedonism as their hit music through the late '80s and '90s.
Ryder's autobiography describes him taking LSD every day for a year, downing ecstasy for breakfast, and prepping for a headline festival set by smoking heroin for 48 hours.
"When we recorded 'Yes Please!' in Barbados, I often found Shaun either upside down on a road somewhere or offering another piece of furniture he'd stolen from the studio to swap for crack," Berry told NME.
"It was fun at the time, but the islanders weren't too pleased, because we were on the news when we left. The first day we got there, the leading dignitaries were out to welcome us, and by the time we left everyone from the Chief of Police to the Prime Minister were readying the flaming torches."
The 2023 Mondays may have cleaned up in middle age but remain determined to bring the party on their Australian tour.
"People always ask if I miss the drugs and the partying," Ryder told The Guardian. "I'm a 58-year-old man – no, I don't! It was great when I was 18 but things are f...ing great now. They're better now."
"We are playing better than ever," he told The Big Issue. "We are older and wiser, and the bullsh.t is gone. We go on stage and do a professional job because the sex and drugs have gone out the window. It's just pure rock and roll."
Happy Mondays 2023 Tour Dates
Thu 19 Oct - The Tivoli (Brisbane)Fri 20 Oct - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Sat 21 Oct - Forum Melbourne* sold out
Sun 22 Oct - Forum Melbourne
Tue 24 Oct - The Gov (Adelaide)
Wed 25 Oct - Metropolis (Fremantle)
