'Ticket's There' – Irish and International Music Blog

It’s a cold Monday evening as I approach the Olympia. There is no-one around the front doors and Dame street is nice and quiet except for people making their way home from work. Its a nice relaxing feeling. I’m on my way over to make sure that legendary Madchester band ‘The Happy Monday’ have in fact arrived and are still playing tonight. I had all these thoughts that a ‘Monday’s’ show could only be an entertaining experience at best. However, once I reached the side of the building I could instantly hear that not only had the Mondays arrived but sounded amazing as new song ‘Jelly Bean’ was blaring out from a sound check. The group sounded tight with Shaun’s vocals soaring above the band. The Mondays were back and the show hadn’t even begun.

I spent the next few hours in a fantastic pub around the corner called ‘Rouge’ with a barman who was quite willing to let our group play all the ‘Happy Mondays’ tracks we wanted on the jukebox, as well as some NIN, Def Leppard and others for good measure.

There still wasn’t many around the Olympia however, many had already arrived. We managed to get inside in time to get the last four pit passes and got our front row positions.

The support band came and went, I cant recall their name and anybody I asked couldn’t either. They weren’t bad, just victims of being a support band to a legend like The Happy Mondays.

Around 9.30 the house lights dies, the spotlight came on with the Mondays arriving on stage in full force. Bez worked up the crowd immediately while the band warmed up ‘Kinky Afro’ Shaun appeared last to a rapturous roar from the whole theatre which instantly made him look more relaxed and calm.

Playing for a mere one hour and 20 minutes, the band somehow managed to cover almost all of the their biggest hits from their early career with songs such as ‘Loose Fit’, ‘Step On’, ‘24 Hour Party People’, ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘WFL’ while also including a great selection from their latest album ‘Uncle Dysfunctional’ which included the title track, my personal fav. ‘In the Blood’, ‘Cuntry Disco’, ‘Angels and Whores’ and possible single ‘Jellybean’. Despite the amount of hits covered, it became very clear the albums ‘Bummed’ and ‘Yes Please’ were being ignored on this set which may have annoyed any ardent Monday’s fans out there, however, after a 15 absence from the scene, This has to be considered the first real strike of a Mondays comeback so I don’t think anyone can complain.

All in all, as gigs go I don’t think this show can be compared as of the situation. It was a great feeling watching a band most of the young people there (including myself) only heard of from the movie ’24 Hour Party People’. It was made all the better when the show didn’t turn out to be some sort of nostalgic circus, but instead, was a highly fused performance from an incredibly tight and talented group of musicians and to see Shaun Ryder on stage, Sober, looking and sounding great made it one of the true highlights of the year and one of the most enjoyable shows I have seen in my life. It was no gig, this was an experience of a life time.

SET LIST:

Kinky Afro

Angels and Whores

Gods Cops

Uncle Disfuctinal

Loose Fit

Hey Dude

rev Black Grape

In The Blood

Halleujah

Rats with Wings

Step On

Jelly Bean

24 Hour Party People

Photographs

WFL

This entry was posted on March 14, 2008 at 12:40 am and is filed under Gig Review, Music with tags The Night MADCHESTER came to town. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.