The world’s most famous maracas player talks to Ben Newman about the values of nostalgia raving, life in a reunited Happy Mondays and raving it up.
“If anyone told me thirty years ago we’d still be out on the road, selling out shows, rock and rolling and still pulling off the same dance moves I would have never believed it” says Bez, the ever-youthful Happy Mondays percussionist and poster child of the Madchester movement, with a laugh. “Crazier things have happened, I suppose”, Bez concludes meditatively. Ever-humble, Bez’s surprise that the Happy Mondays can still pull huge crowds shouldn’t surprise him: the Mondays always have and always will have massive crowd-pulling potential.
Of course, the venues have gotten smaller over time, but that isn’t necessarily a negative thing. Bez has played venues of all sizes, but that doesn’t really matter: “I’ve always [formed] a relationship with the audience and made contact with everyone who is in the front. You can never really see past the first ten rows anyway!” His passion for performing and for his fans is still strong; he’s tangibly excited about touring again.
Is touring still the same? In fact, the recent tours have been an improvement for Bez and the Mondays, away from the comedowns and the drama: “I’ve always enjoyed going out with the band. Since the old line-up reformed it’s been really good fun. If anything it’s better. There’s a little less drama.” Maturity has been kind to the Happy Mondays, able to balance their youthful appeal with years of acid-tinged wisdom. “I do miss the drama, sometimes”, he adds, again with a laugh, cheeky as ever.
The spirit of the rave culture is still very alive in Britain, although much more under the radar than thirty years ago. In many ways, the Happy Mondays personified the spirit of the rave movement and borrowed a lot of the movement’s most endearing qualities.
Asking Bez what it was like to be a part of that movement, he lit up:
“It was a great time to grow up in. I remember as a kid growing up we wanted to be in the sixties and recreate that psychedelic time. To be involved in that whole movement and scene at the time was a dream come true for us”.
There’s something to be said about the cyclical nature of music movements. The Happy Mondays and Bez’s adoration for the sixties mirrors the current youth’s cultural obsession with the nineties. The societal romanticism for a cultural movement of 20 years prior is common, and there’s a certain irony currently in replicating a movement that was – at its core – an attempt to recapture and replicate the psychedelic movement. Could something akin to the rave movement happen again from youth culture’s current nostalgia?
“Hopefully!”, Bez says, but it won’t be as easy. “What we had was the record industry supporting us. The support from the record industry ain’t there no more, so the bands aren’t breaking through via record labels. It’s not fair – the digital era has taken away from the old industry, in a way. Youth culture is always happening, though, it’s never going to go away. That’s the power of the young for ya, always re-creating their own thing.”
A cursorily glance at the crowd at a Happy Mondays show will reveal an incredibly diverse crowd of young and old, and the band have noticed: “It’s amazing, actually. To see young and old together, all having it, but I suppose that’s the power of music – it can cross ages and borders”.
Bez’s appreciation of fans new and old loving the music he was a part of is refreshing. It’s further proof that beneath the narrative of drugs and partying, The Happy Mondays are all about the music; their passion for music has always been their foundation, a foundation that’s still solid 27 years after their formation.
Happy Mondays, The Great Hall, Cardiff University Fri 17 Nov. Tickets: £29.50/£32.50. Info: +44 (0) 29 2078 1400 / https://www.cardiffstudents.com/venues/great-hall/
