No… come back! I’m a huge fan of the first couple of Happy Mondays albums (the first produced by John Cale, the second Martin Hannett’s last great flourish) sound like intricate, impossibly complex Art-Rock compared to what came later (the band would disagree – ‘Pills n’ Thrills’ is what they intended to be all along). Shaun Ryder’s reinvention as a sort of lovable rogue/national treasure via the tabloid press/Loose Women/Reality TV is a bit baffling – but as Iggy Pop proves – we all love an ex-drug loon who is secretly a big softy.
Can’t say I was eagerly awaiting the return of Black Grape – but this caught my ear and it’s a big slab of utterly daft, stupid, bouncy fun. Talking Heads filtered through the suburbs of Salford. I’m DJing at a party on Saturday and this is definitely going in the set.
Black Grape – Pop Voodoo! (No Clue-doo!)
“Some disease with a fishy smell” – oo er…
– Hey Shaun, the people from Pot Noodle are on the phone. Yeah, loads of money – but they want you to sing it wearing a pot round your neck
– F**k that, I’m not boiling me ‘ead for no f**ker!
Splendid.
Black Grape are the group the Mondays could have been.