‘That’s the end of 35 years of that bullsh*t’ – Happy Mondays Live At Victoria Warehouse

HAPPY MONDAYS - 02 VICTORIA WAREHOUSE 11.04.26

‘The band are getting better, Bez is getting younger and I’m shrinking,’ declares Shaun Ryder to a packed-out Victoria Warehouse as the Happy Mondays bring their ‘35 Years of Pills ‘N’ Thrills and Bellyaches’ tour, a year late, to the city where it all began (Salford). A full album run-through was no mean feat for a band who are arguably just as infamous for their chaotic escapades as their music, but nearly 40 years on from their debut it was a pleasant surprise to watch the Madchester pioneers perform one of the most important, influential and timeless British albums in its entirety with a somewhat disappointing lack of mishaps.

Support came from The Farm, who, despite introducing themselves as ‘everyone’s favourite scousers’, fit much more into the Madchester scene. Pulling an impressively sized crowd for a support act, the band went straight into their 1990 hit ‘Groovy Train’ before running through a mix of new and old songs, along with a fantastic cover of The Clash’s classic ‘Bank Robbers’.

As they reached the end of their set, frontman Peter Hooton paid tribute to Dermo of fellow baggy outfit Northside, who were originally last on the bill for all nights of the tour but ultimately had to pull out due to Dermo’s ongoing ill health. ‘All Together Now’ closed the set, sparking a huge singalong from the crowd and setting the stage for the naturally late Mondays. A timely entrance to the stage for a band like the Happy Mondays would be a ludicrous suggestion, with what appeared to be multiple false starts and a smoke screen building so thick it started to become unclear if it was intentional or coming from Bez and Shaun’s dressing room…

Eventually, though, the smoke cleared and on came the band — or half of them, at least. Opening with an instrumental jam accompanied by powerful vocals from newcomer Firouzeh, it was another few minutes before a beaming Shaun Ryder and ever-energetic Bez greeted the crowd. Ryder began with a thank you to ‘the twenty of you who actually bought tickets, everyone else was on the guestlist’ (guilty as charged) before the opening bars of album opener and Manchester anthem ‘Kinky Afro’ kicked off the set. A huge part of what makes the song, and the rest of the album, so iconic are the powerful backing vocals provided by Rowetta, a band member for thirty years and a Manchester legend in her own right. Her departure from the band in 2024 raised serious doubts in my mind over the quality of the performance, especially in the wake of the tragic loss of bassist Paul Ryder in 2022, whose acid house-inspired basslines were integral to the Happy Mondays sound. However, both their absences were negated by the addition of more than capable stand-ins, with the band sounding tight and getting the crowd going from the get-go.

Opting to play through the album in order, the crowd’s energy remained high as Bez sauntered around the stage with his signature maracas to classics like ‘God’s Cop’, ‘Donovan’ and ‘Loose Fit’. If their hilarious appearance at the Brit Awards in March hadn’t already shown, age doesn’t appear to have had too much of a detrimental effect on the charisma and performance of Bez or Ryder, with the latter hardly famous for his pristine vocals even at the height of the band’s career. The mere fact both are still with us is a miracle in itself, with a history of escapades so ridiculous they rival the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Keith Moon, Keith Richards, etc. Indicative of the time that’s passed since the release of Pills and Thrills, and this show, however, was Bez’s decision to have a sit-down during ‘Bob’s Yer Uncle’, seen dancing on a chair to the side of the stage throughout the song. He soon returned, though, as the iconic intro of the band’s joint highest-charting single ‘Step On’ stirred up the loudest reaction from the crowd all night, sending the sea of bucket hat-laden punters into a frenzy imitating Bez’s hallmark ‘freaky dancing’. Despite the frustration of one old-school raver overheard ranting about the venue’s strict drug policy, the atmosphere during this song and throughout the gig was nothing short of euphoric, with one particularly excited bloke throwing his arms round me during the chorus and proudly exclaiming, ‘I’m 55 years old, I’ve been coming to see this band since I was 21!’ The vast mix of age groups throughout the venue hammered home that the Mondays have gained one of the highest accolades an older act can achieve — remaining relevant and beloved by a new generation not even born when their careers were at their peak.

Approaching the end of the album, an encore of sorts was confirmed by Ryder moaning, ‘If we’d have only done Pills ‘n’ Thrills we’d have been done in 35 minutes,’ before closing off the main set with ‘Holiday’ and ‘Harmony’. Assumedly, to avert the risk of any band member not being able to find their way back to the stage, the band didn’t choose to walk off before the encore and instead asked the crowd to imagine they had done so. The rest of the night was soundtracked by six songs from the band’s earlier ’80s albums, including classics such as ‘Hallelujah’, ‘Twenty-Four Hour Party People’ (during which Ryder managed to mistake a water bottle for a microphone) and closer ‘Wrote for Luck’.

Thirty-five years on from its release, Pills ’N’ Thrills ’N’ Bellyaches still stands as a fantastic album and remains an integral part of Manchester’s ever-expanding musical canon. With the physical legacy of the Hacienda and Factory Records as a whole all but reduced to a gentrified tower block and a naff student nightclub, it’s bands like the Happy Mondays that continue to prove that, in the end, it always was and always will be about the music and the weird and wonderful characters who produce it. For now, at least, the misadventures of Bez and Shaun continue to entertain both new and old fans, and the band are still more than capable of delivering an energetic, memorable performance well worth the money for the ‘twenty people who paid for tickets’.