Happy Mondays, Glasgow review: 'pugnacious danceability'
The Madchester icons topped off performance of classic album with a dip into their rich back catalogue, writes Fiona Shepherd
Happy Mondays, Barrowland, Glasgow ★★★★
“Three nights,” said Shaun Ryder with the air of a man who wasn't sure he was going to make it through. But such is the demand to hear Madchester icons Happy Mondays performing their 1990 classic Pills n Thrills and Bellyaches, an album of its time and timeless, that Ryder and his bandmates just had to dive in and push on.
The 2026 iteration of Happy Mondays is missing a couple of key figures. Ryder’s bassist brother Paul passed away in 2022, while Rowetta’s place as longstanding powerhouse vocal foil has been taken by Firouzeh Razavi – a performer who was born ready and also, as it happens, married to dancer and all-round vibes controller Bez.
Ryder and Bez are a remarkably durable double act. The latter appeared in better shape than ever, while the former remains part diffident frontman, part freaky beat poet. Opening number Kinky Afro was one of the most fertile examples of his playful word association, while the wah-wah guitar-laden God's Cop was inspired by controversial Manchester police chief James Anderton and Donovan by the hippie troubadour who is the grandfather of one of his children.
Ryder then noted the sad serendipity that Loose Fit was originally written during a “mad war” and hardly needed to highlight the prescience of the line “gonna buy an air force base, gonna wipe out your race”.
The rogue energy of the set dissipated somewhat during album tracks Dennis and Lois and Bob’s Yer Uncle, with Razavi seizing her spotlight but lacking the charisma of Rowetta.
The band roared back with their low-slung cover of John Kongos’ Step On and rounded off the set with a foray into their late-80s catalogue, from the drawling mantra Hallelujah via the groovy, punky Mad Cyril and psychedelic odyssey Rave On to the pugnacious danceability of 24 Hour Party People and Wrote For Luck.
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