Plain Or Pan

I find this hard to believe, but 2007 sees the 20th anniversary of the release of the Happy Mondays’ debut album. It originally came out to widespread indifference in April 1987 and was snappily titled  ‘Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)’. I remember asking for it in Our Price, but they didn’t have it. I eventually got it about a year later in a second hand shop and was won over by the band’s scuzzy funk and stream-of-conscience nonsensical lyrics. Many of the songs borrowed heavily from other records and the track ‘Desmond’ was withdrawn quicker than Michael Jackson’s lawyers could say “beat it.” Michael Jackson owned the rights to the Beatles catalogue by this time, and he didn’t like the similarities between ‘Desmond’ and ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’. Plastic face carnt smile indeed. You can listen to it here. Like all good record trainspotters, I noticed that the album was produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground. I read years later that despite being no stranger to chemical abuse himself, he was shocked by the band’s unruly behaviour and drug intake. Shaun Ryder slagged him off at the time for being high on nothing more than tangerines. After ‘Desmond’ was withdrawn from the album it was replaced by ’24 Hour Party People’ and that single took the band onto bigger and better things, but you probably know that.