During the mid-80s to the early-90s, the Happy Mondays were the living, breathing personification of Britains escalating rave culture. As part of Factory Records, home to fellow Manchester icons such as Joy Division and New Order, they will always be inextricably linked with impulsive label owner, Tony Wilson, and his New Order-owned brainchild of a nightclub, the Hacienda. Dressed in an industrial aesthetic that stayed true to the labels name, it became a hotspot for pioneering dance DJs and the ideal place to sample the new drug of choice, ecstasy. And fittingly, the Mondays funky music and E-influenced lyrical content reflected the hazy inner workings of the night club and its customers before becoming synonymous with twenty-four hour partying. Despite contributing very little (essentially nothing) to the Mondays acclaimed sound, honorary band mascot, Mark Bez Berry, embodied all of the traits of the quintessential raver. Relaxed, cheeky and inclined to dabble in the odd illicit substance, he became the everyman of the Madchester scene. Equipped with an array of memorable dance moves and a flawless handle of maraca-shaking technique, this happy-go-lucky party animal reinforced the drug-addled humour that flourished in Shaun Ryders trippy lyricism. However, the drugs finally caught up with him (and his band mates) in the midst of an ill-fated recording trip to the crack-soaked island of Barbados, an experience that produced the Mondays universally ridiculed Yes Please! and bankrupted the already sinking Factory label in the process. -->
A 22 year old English Literature graduate from Birmingham. I am passionate about music, literature and football, in particular, my beloved Aston Villa. Lover of words and consumer of art, music is the very air that I breathe.
