Amazon.co.uk Review
The group disbanded in 1992, amongst accusations of heroin addiction and numerous "I'll never work with them again" claims. However, against sizeable odds, such statements were to prove misguided, and the group's members were indeed to come together once more in one of rock's more unlikely returns. John Warburton's Hallelujah tells the story of how this comeback came about. Warburton and Ryder had first met when collaborating on the latter's column for the British tabloid "news"paper The Daily Sport, and the style of that publication heavily influences the amusingly illustrated book. With chapter subtitles such as "Shaun bites Gaz's head", "Stoned man sets himself on fire", "Lobster enters Shaun's pants", and "Author slaps out fire in socks", the tone is set for what is one of the more entertaining soap operas in rock's more recent past. The author uses a combination of lengthy quotations from such witnesses as Keith Allen, Chris Moyles, Steve Lamacq and Jo Wiley, and his own excitable, exclamation-mark saturated prose to capture the mood of the Monday's late 1990s reformation. Whether it be in describing staged orgies, (one), near-drownings (two), or the rendering of band-members/journalists as being "off their heads" (countless), Warburton's enthusiasm is both amusing and contagious, as he takes the reader through what emerges as the "return of the ultimate rock and roll lifestyle".
Overall, while readers desiring an analytical analysis of tonal coherence in the Monday's music may be forced to look elsewhere, those seeking an afternoon's top-quality amusement could do a lot worse than take a look at Hallelujah. --Steve Price
Review
Heat
Daily Mirror
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Book Description
Product Description
From the Publisher
FREAKY DANCING was the story from the monkey. Now, get ready for the organ-grinder...
When Shaun Ryder read Bez's literary efforts, his comments were curt: 'Let's just say I was amazed to read it were me that done all them things, and never Bez'. Miffed, he decided to set the record straight.
HALLELUJAH!, co-written by Shaun, is the story of one of the greatest reunion tours ever attempted. Happy Mondays are a legendary band, and at their centre stands the narcotic colossus that is Shaun Ryder.
The Mondays self-destructed in 1993, and their successor Black Grape went the same way and for all the same reasons. Soon after, Shaun found himself at an all-time low, living in a squalid flat in Burnley with only a one-bar electric fire and a mattress for company.
A heroic attempt to rid himself of a 15-year smack addiction led to suicide attempts, overdoses... and then things got really bad. He was given a weekly column for the Daily Sport. Slowly getting back on his feet, Shaun then went AWOL in Ibiza. Eventually boredom, and a massive tax bill, prompted Shaun to reform the Mondays. Characteristically, he informed the media before informing any of the band members, and it would take a man set on fire, motorbikes ridden through houses, and a trashed pub before everyone was back on board.
After recruiting some new members, and learning all the old songs from scratch once again, the Mondays were ready. And the tour that followed was unbelievable, selling out nationwide, and finally world-wide.
Along the way an Irish horse was sexually assaulted and Peter Schmeichel was forced to view dirty pants, as bailiffs pursued Shaun from city to city...
You'll never read another rock 'n' roll story like this again. There aren't any.
From the Author
Let’s get one thing straight… this is not a rock biog. It’s not an attempt to rehash all the old gubbins about how the Mondays changed the face of music and using words like juncture, genre, crossover, context and juxtaposition, at every, errrr… juncture!
Basically Shaun Ryder fell into my lot while I was working as a journalist for Britain’s most salubrious newspaper, the Daily Sport. Shaun had been taken on as a celebrity columnist, and let’s face it -- a paper which prides itself on the number of nipples it can squeeze into a 38 page edition is the perfect home for the man who almost single-handedly invented lad-culture.
Anyway, we became mates and after a dodgy detox Shaun decided he was going to reform the most roguish band the world has ever known. Easy? Not at all.
What followed made the Blues Brothers and Spinal Tap look like the Salvation Army. There were fights, arguments, a man set on fire, an indoor motorbike rally, a lobster, and… well then it starts to get silly!
Oh, and chemicals. There were also chemicals.
Someone once said to me it was impossible to write anything about the Happy Mondays which wasn’t funny, because the weirdest things just happen to them. This book, I hope, is testament to that fact.
As for me (if your interested), I’m now freelance, 29-years-old, living in Manchester, England, and I now count Shaun as one of my closest pals. That is of course until he reads this book.
From the Back Cover
Hallelujah is the story of the extraordinary, hilarious and triumphant second coming of Shaun Ryder and the Happy Mondays.
The Mondays were the band who had it all. Credited with a range of achievements, from creating Manchester and introducing indie kids to dance music to bringing ecstasy to Britain, they were the rock 'n' roll story that beggared belief. In Shaun they had an inspired gutter-poet; in his sidekick Bez they had a cultural icon.
Hallelujah is the story of how this hapless group of ruffians, thieves, thugs and dealers, prompted by boredom, drugs and a visit from the taxman, got their act back together after six long years and played a sell-out world tour. Along the way a man was set on fire, an orgy was staged, someone nearly drowned and every single band member got lost in Europe. There were guns, writs, jellyfish, fights, copious amounts of class As - and a skull on a stick.
Former Daily Sport jounalist John Warburton, Shaun's friend and confident, went along for the ride. He includes contributions from others who've witnessed the madness first hand, including Jo Whiley, Chris Moyles, Steve Lamacq and Fatboy Slim.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.