Rave On

 

Happy Mondays - Madchester Rave On EP [FAC 242 1989 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC]

Likely the single which made and then broke Factory Records within a few short years. If Anthony H. Wilson still walked this mortal coil he would possibly keep reminding us that Shaun Ryder was the new voice of a generation ....the new John Lydon  ....a new youth icon. He may have been right, after all Ryder's lyrics were inspired - what Wilson didn't realise until too late, that despite all his hype and praxis, putting Ryder and chums into a studio with Martin Hannett would eventually lead to the musicians and their producer smoking and snorting away his record label's bottom line.

I grew up with Factory Records, in Manchester I remember when the Hacienda was an empty cavernous wasteland, a great place to see bands (I've seen quite a few there) but a crap nightclub. It was possibly also a crap place to see bands but I didn't care back then. The whole Madchester scene made Factory a mint and transformed their nightclub the heart of the city's youth culture ...a far cry from the grey dismal post-punk that were the label's foundations.

I met Ryder in the early noughties prior to boarding a flight south from Manchester. He was no longer the floppy fringed, baggy voice of a generation, we was now overweight, balding and scab-ridden. We had a good chat, I reminded him of how great the early Mondays' singles were, he replied....and that was then and look what it did for me now.

A1 Hallelujah

A2 Holy Ghost

B1 Clap Your Hands

B2 Rave On