Entertainment For Lively Minds
“If it's me and your granny on Bongos...”
...a famous Salfordian once said, “..Then it's The Fall”.
The same cannot be said for many other bands, and indeed in the current climate when everyone suddenly needs to put bums on seats, and plastic glasses of warm lager into punters hands, the words 'Original Line-up' on a poster carries a huge amount of weight.
It's been thrown into sharp relief for me as the bands I followed in my youth queue up to tempt me down to my local Enormodome, hoping I'll part with some hard earned cash to see if they can still 'Rave On'.
The latest to join the party are the original Happy Mondays. Just as the Stone Roses would never have sold out any gigs with just Ian Brown, Mani and..er...Cressa on Bongos, so the Happy Mondays management know very well that, in spite of the fact that half the audience probably can't name more than two members of the band, nothing less than Shaun, Bez, Gaz, Clumpo, Baggsy and Clag will do.
So here they are, ready to entertain us. A heady mixture of two brothers who swore they would never share a stage again, a (brilliant and hugely under-rated) guitarist who Shaun Ryder hasn't got a good word to say about in his autobiography, a female backing vocalist who has 'history' with at least two other members of the band, a Maraca player from Urmston who last hit the headlines after being been convicted of assaulting his girlfriend, oh and a Keyboard player referred to throughout Shaun Ryder’s book only as 'Knobhead' or 'Penis'. It should be fun.
Elsewhere, New Order are about to tour without Hooky, who has asked m'learned friends to take out an injunction against them touring under that name without him.
So I'm sort of tempted to see the Happy Mondays, since Mark Day really was a tremendous guitarist and on a good day their Rhythm section could flatten a small village. I certainly wouldn't have been interested in the slick, funky session musician version that was gigging a few years back (the evidence is on YouTube).
But New Order I'm rather sceptical of. In spite of my aversion to nostalgia gigs and my vow not to go and see any reformed bands in 2012...I've fallen for the 'Original Line-up' crap!
What do you think? And who else would you definitely see an 'original line-up' of, but baulk at a partial version of?
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Bez
If someone had told me back in 1990 that 20 years on, the member of the Happy Mondays that would have aged less than the others would be Bez, I'd have looked at them rather sceptically.
New Order
Generally, I'm not too fussed about whether bands reform or not, nor about the ratio of original members to ring-ins. But New Order without Peter Hook is not New Order!
I am considering seeing New Order
Because it will be nice to see Gillian back and the fact that they seem to have a band with them that can play the songs live. New Order of old didn't seem a great live reputation, so I loved the records but didn't bother with any live shows.
that's the precise reason I don't want to see them
They could play live, but they would tend to decide the set list on the night and play under rehearsed material and occasionally put in a below par performance, particularly if Barney was over refreshed.
The current touring band will play a well honed set, and the extra musicians will deliver a polished, professional show but utterly lacking in spontaneity. Crowd pleasing stuff, but just a bit...ordinary.
They were distinctly average
at Glastonbury; I certainly wouldn't make much of an effort to see them again based on that performance.
Bez
looks suspiciously healthy, taking into account his lifestyle over the years. Although he looks like he's had some dental work.
I think I recognise the handiwork of the dentist concerned.
A Mr Armitage Shanks, I believe.
He'll have had a close facial acquaintance
With the products of said gentlemen over the years no doubt
Jeffrey Bernard said the toilet bowl could be oddly soothing when pressed against ones forehead
Lenny
Arf arf arf....very good!
They've got Baldrick,
(back row, shades) and he has a cunning plan…
It can't fail.
I thought
it was a beardless Ringo "Don't call me Ringo" Starr.
I saw the Mondays a couple of times in their heyday. They were a shambles but that was largely the point. Bummed is a masterclass in violent hedonism, music and lyrics spontaneously coming together, intuitively taking an instant shine to each other, having a few drinks, starting a crap fight, sustaining prolonged concussion and finishing with a quick knee trembler against the fire exit. It shouldn't work but it does, it makes you feel better about yourself, a bit like putting fingers down the back of your throat for a tactical vomit on an all-night bender. Allegedly it was a wasted Martin Hannett's beer-gut that pushed all the faders up on the mixing desk to create the hitherto unknown genre of Mancunian swamp funk.
There's a roll of fat in my gut that will always be the Mondays.
Yeah! Bummed still
has the power to startle and it still irks me that Happy Mondays are largely remembered for the vastly inferior (and horribly dated and over-engineered) 'Pills and Thrills' and Shaun Ryder's tabloid baiting antics.
Bummed is one long loud, lurching, drunken swagger and an almighty racket and still one of my all time favourite records
I may still see one of these gigs and I shall be the only person there hoping to hear 'Country Song', 'Fat Lady Wrestlers' or 'Moving in With',
and hopefully a couple of tracks from '24 Hour Party People..'.
How about this one:
Paul Davis & Mark Day (AKA Cowhead & Knobhead)
Get a fearful kicking in Ryder's biography. I can imagine the phonecall: "Alright Mark, you're a f*ckin' knob right, but there's a bit of wedge in it for all of us if you come back. Up for it kid?"
New Order
Reckon I'll try and get a ticket, I've never seen them.
I don't agree with Peter Hook's argument, I like him but if they could use the name as only 3/4 of the band on Get Ready and Waiting For The Sirens Call (which didn't feature Gillian) then they can use it without him. A shame he's not involved, but it's still New Order to me.
Hooky
I've never seen New Order, but if I saw them without Peter Hook I'd probably feel I still hadn't really seen New Order.
Just bought tickets
As far as I'm concerned, I'm off to see New Order!
(I have actually seen Peter Hook live, briefly, playing 'Ceremony' with Echo & The Bunnymen at Manchester vs. Cancer a few years ago.)
Good on yer
Age denied me the chance to see my favourite band, The Smiths, but I've now seen three of them live (Moz solo, Marr w/ The Cribs and Rourke w/ Proud Mary). Only need Joyce to collect the set!
New Order without Hooky
Has anyone seen them recently?
I ask as a bass playing fan of his, contempleting getting tickets for Manchester (on sale this Friday).They`ve had good live reviews of late but i`m worried how the new bass player fits in/copes/sounds.
Seen them recently...
Paris & London...and a lot of times before. Despite initial misgivings, really enjoyed both shows. New boy on Bass does well (playing very much in Hooky's style). Good set list too with a fair few surprises they haven't played for years (586, Age Of Consent, 1963). In an ideal world it would be Hooky up there with them, of course, but for me this line up is still well worth seeing (just as they were when it was Gillian who was missing last time out)
I went to see The Wonder Stuff in December
and the only original member was Miles Hunt. It worked though.
The Wonderstuff
I've hardboured a hatred of Miles Hunt and co since someone posted a story on here about them being arseholes in a record shop.
I hope the poster in question was telling the truth!
Didn't see that one
But I've heard a few times over the years that Mr Hunt can be a bit of a twat.
I just like the tunes.
Miles Hunt
I always assumed it was rhyming slang.
I saw New Order
...in 2001 at Brixton Academy and it was one of the worst gigs I have ever been to. We ended up in the bar for most of it, occasionally venturing in if we heard one of the hits, only to be compelled to leave once again by Barney's dad dancing.
I think it was the third gig in a week I'd been to at the venue that week (SFA and Pulp were the other two if memory serves), so maybe I was a bit gig fatigued.
I saw the semi crap line up of the Mondays supporting Oasis at Wembley Stadium in 2000 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I saw the fully crap version of them in 2004 at Clapham Common. It has the distinction of being the only gig I've been to where I saw a man set up by a gang, tasered and beaten up.
I will be buying tickets for the Mondays at Brixton though. I love them so much that I am prepared to risk it being shite.
Bez Bishop
Is Bez related to John Bishop? There's an uncanny resemblance...
Oh yes.. Oh yes yes yes...
Well spotted, Red..
There's some mileage in this one, surely!
Bez & John Bishop
Bez's parents are scousers too (his Dad was a copper, believe it or not!).
Maybe they're cousins?
Well their teeth are
Maybe there is a breeding colony of gnashers somewhere round Runcorn?
The Stranglers
My first ever gig was to have been Hugh Cornwell's last with the band but we decided against going. I've seen the performance since on video and Hugh looks like he was hating it by then. He quit, went solo, was replaced on lead vocals by the awful Paul Roberts. First album was decent tho, apparently most of it written before Roberts joined so makes me wonder how good it could've been if Hugh had remained.
Anyway, saw that Roberts fronted band several times and have also seen Hugh solo several times. The blood between the 3 Original Stranglers and Hugh is bad but if they ever reunited, which they sadly won't, i'd definitely buy a ticket.
Can't think of many others i'd pay to see.