Brian Sweeney’s Happy Mondays Texts have led us to rediscover this classic 1990 documentary. Madchester – The Sound of the North.
We stumbled upon this classic bit of telly during a bout of Mondays influenced Manchester research involving perusing the absolutely superb Cerysmatic Factory website. Well worth spending some time on that website if you don’t know it already. It is as comprehensive, entertaining and informative an archive of Factory Records as you’re likely to find online.
Here’s what they’ve got to say about the, Granada Television produced, documentary from 1990:
At the height of the so-called ‘Madchester’ scene or ‘baggy’ if you will, this captured everything in all its glory. For a start Northside featured in a major item. Footage shows the band in interview, rehearsal, live in concert and even at work (well, the one band member who worked); Central Station Design in their studio creating something out of a pane of glass and loads of ephemera; Happy Mondays in Amsterdam – including Derek Ryder soundchecking for his son!; also includes 808 State and MC Tunes; Celebration was a Granada Television arts strand and undoubtedly Anthony H Wilson (So It Goes, The Other Side of Midnight, Remote Control, Content) must have had some influence in the making of a programme featuring Northside from his own record label.