Mondays to showcase new album in Highland Capital

HAPPY Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder is looking forward to moving into new territory next Tuesday when he brings his band to The Ironworks.

"I have been there, but I'm pretty sure I haven't played there," Ryder said.

"I've definitely been to Inverness, definitely, but I must have been on holiday."

Not only is this the first time the Mondays have brought their music to the Highlands, the Inverness audience will be the first in Scotland to hear material from the band's forthcoming album, their first studio release since 1992's "Yes Please!"

"I'm looking forward to it because we're doing all the new stuff," Ryder said.

"It should be pretty good to work where we haven't been before. We're not doing any of the old stuff, so that's good. It's part of showcasing the new album, doing these little shows. Back to rock 'n' roll."

The Mondays' own rock and roll roots lie in the vibrant 1980s period in Manchester. It was the Happy Mondays who coined the term "Madchester" in their track "Hallelujah!" and also provided the title for the Steve Coogan film about the Manchester music scene "24 Hour Party People", but Ryder's well publicised drugs problem eventually led to the band breaking up after the release of "Yes Please!"

Ryder and bandmate Bez went on to form Black Grape. An unsuccessful Happy Mondays revival followed in 1999, but since 2004 Ryder has performed with Bez and Gary Whelan in a new incarnation of the band without the involvement of Ryder's brother Paul, who played bass in the original line-up.

"We got back together in 1999 and the only thing that prevented us doing albums were legal problems, mainly with me brother. We finished the album last summer and again legal problems prevented it coming out until June," Ryder explained.

"I'm glad to be doing new stuff with the Mondays. It was almost getting to be cabaret doing all the old stuff. We were lucky enough to keep doing the big shows, but it gets irritating after 18 years just doing the same stuff. We even started throwing Black Grape songs into the set."

As to how the new album will sound, Ryder promised it will be great, but described it as: "Same old crap, more cartoon stories. The songs that I write, all of them have a sense of humour."

Early exposure of the new material has been positive, but Ryder revealed that the publicity side of promoting a new album, especially at the end of a day when he had conducted 10 interviews, was much less appealing.

"We got back from the Coachella Festival (in California) a few days ago, and we've done about four shows and it's been good," he said. "The interviewing and all that, I'm not so keen on. I'm not very good at plugging myself and that. It used to be different in the old days when we were all off our heads and didn't care what we were saying — that was great. My job is to go in, make the music and that's it. Get somebody else to do the plugging."

Nor, he confessed, was he very keen on getting back to the smaller venues of his early days.

"You must be joking!" he responded.

"It's good for keeping you on your toes, actually touching noses with your audience, but it's terrifying. Big shows are easy. They're not real, they're more showbusiness, so you don't mind putting on a show. But when you do the smaller venues it's really back to where you started. If you were doing the old stuff every night, it would be a complete nightmare.

"It's great doing shows, then you stop for a while and after a year or so you're dying to go out and do some more again. Then, after two years, you don't want to do any more in your life."

In over 20 years since the Happy Mondays came together, the band has been an influence on many groups which have followed, but Ryder's personal listening taste still runs along the same eclectic lines it always has.

"Just the same as I've always listened to. Just a bit of everything. There are some OK bands around now. The Arctic Monkeys are all right, but I'm more into hip-hop and soul and punk. That's what I grew up with," he said.

18th May 2007
The Inverness Courier