In November 1988, FAC 220 was unveiled to the world and just about every review in the UK weeklies and monthlies panned it. Fourteen months later, it was high-up on all the lists of ‘Best Album of the 80s’ in the same publications….a classic example of why you should make your own mind up about music and not just go with what’s being written or said by the influential commentators.
It’s no real surprise though that Bummed got such a poor reception and not just because it was quite different from anything else which had come beforehand and there weren’t many reference points to go by. There was a bit of a backlash at the time against Factory Records and some were getting fed up of with the never-ending proclamations from Tony Wilson. So when he said that Shaun Ryder was a poet who deserved to be looked upon in the same light as Keats and that Happy Mondays, along with a number of other Manchester bands, were making something distinctive and history-making that would see a perfect marriage of club and indie music, those in the media, particularly in London, just sneered.
I’m not going to make any huge claims on Bummed being one of the best records ever – after all it didn’t find its way into the recent Top 50 albums rundown over at TVV – but there are some songs on it which remain staggeringly brilliant more than a quarter of a century on. Particularly this:-
mp3 : Happy Mondays – Wrote For Luck
Years after helping to make stars of Joy Division and New Order, the production genius of Martin Hannett comes to the fore as he throws the kitchen sink at the songs and proves that sometimes the drugs do work….and yet it was a couple of cleaner, less murky remixes which gave birth to Madchester as prophesied by Tony Wilson:-
mp3 : Happy Mondays – W.F.L. (the Vince Clark Mix)
mp3 : Happy Mondays – W.F.L. – Think About The Future (the Paul Oakenfold Mix)
As available on the single FACD 232.
Club classics both of them to go alongside the original version which surely has a place on every indie-disco playlist.
Enjoy!!
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
A good album with quite a few memorable tunes but Wrote For Luck is the tune. The Vince Clark mix is often cited as the mix but for me it has to be the original lp mix. I always found the video quite disturbing.
a good album, of its time…
and the phrase:
YOU’RE RENDERING THAT SCAFFOLDING DANGEROUS
has entered common parlance between me and my friends… i’m sure we aren’t the only ones
scarey inner sleeve though
Do It Better on Snub did it for me. Good luck with the new blog location, excellent stuff, ta
The ‘Collector’s Edition’ ads the Rave On EP and other assorted remixes, etc, some of which are definitely of their time while others still sound brilliant. Agree with WFL being the most significant. Collector’s Edition cleans up the sound some as well.
E
Your first paragraph says it all JC. Most of those who work in the media are total dimwits. This is a fact (I have worked in said industry so I speak with authority. It’s why I got out of it!). They constantly try and dictate our tastes and opinions based on their own narrow minds and agendas. They’re nearly always wrong, but then jump on the bandwagon as if it were all their doing in the first place. This is why I only take notice of blogs by amateur writers nowadays.
As for Hannett – one of the great producers of all time. A very difficult guy to work with by all accounts, but then aren’t all geniuses a bit mad?
I was never quite convinced by Happy Mondays, but then I wasn’t that convinced by indie/rave culture as a whole. WFL is a great track and I enjoy the Rave On EP.