{"id":2419,"date":"2013-11-09T11:55:57","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T16:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nowthissound.com\/ntsib\/?p=2419"},"modified":"2013-11-13T17:11:05","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T22:11:05","slug":"name-face-happy-flowers-vs-happy-mondays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nowthissound.com\/ntsib\/2013\/11\/09\/name-face-happy-flowers-vs-happy-mondays\/","title":{"rendered":"Name That Face: Happy Flowers vs Happy Mondays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Name That Face: the series inspired by Jennifer’s adventures in musician misidentification over the years. For anyone who has ever misremembered a band name at a crucial record purchasing moment and tragically bought Patty Smyth rather than Patti Smith; melded “Arctic Monkeys” with “Wolf Parade” and Googled in vain for “Arctic Parade” or “Wolf Monkeys”; or been unsure whether they want something by Swiiim or SWIMM. To tell your own tale of woe, drop Jennifer an email.<\/a> <\/i><\/p>\n

Happy Flowers VS Happy Mondays<\/center><\/p>\n

The Time:<\/strong> November 1988<\/p>\n

The Place:<\/strong> A hospital in suburban Virginia<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was 13, and recovering from major surgery. My parents, being dear, sweet, people, offered to bring me some new music to listen to while I was trapped in bed. I requested: The Happy Flowers. They checked the name several times. Yes<\/i>, I said, I’m sure.<\/i> I was very, very keen to get hold of their music. I had been waiting for months for it to be released. The new Happy Flowers tape was absolutely the one thing I wanted.<\/p>\n

A day or two later, a brand new copy of I Crush Bozo<\/i> was delivered to my eager little hands.<\/p>\n

I felt a pang of disquiet just looking at the cover. But I pressed onwards – I mean, bands but all sorts of random things on album covers, right?<\/p>\n

This is the first track on I Crush Bozo<\/i>:
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\nhttp:\/\/youtu.be\/ysMSuUgVdDQ
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I listened to it in a state of baffled shock. Maybe just the first song is bad<\/i>, I thought, and kept going.<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

They were all<\/i> terrible. <\/p>\n

(I was not an experimental noise fan at the time. I am, now, and I still don’t like it.)<\/p>\n

I hit the “stop” button and sat there, glaring at the tape in horrified confusion, wondering what had gone wrong.<\/p>\n

Eventually I put it away; it sat in my music collection for years, a stone on my mental shoe. I wondered, frequently, what I had really been looking for.<\/p>\n

Twenty years later, I was making my way through a Stuart Maconie book – I think it was Pies and Prejudice<\/a><\/em> – when, thanks to one of his musical digressions, I realized what I had done.<\/p>\n

My clue was Maconie mentioning that the Flowers had gotten some US press in the late ’80s, which was approximately the same time I was ducking into the magazine section at Tower Records to read Circus<\/i> and anything else involving guitars and\/or tattoos in rushed 10 minute bursts, while my parents picked out movies to watch.<\/p>\n

Somehow, between relying on jumbled memories of hastily read material and trying to think around the last of the anesthetic fog, I had confused the Happy Flowers<\/a> with the Happy Mondays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This Wrote for Luck<\/i>, a song from Bummed<\/i>, by the Happy Mondays, released in, indeed, November of 1988:
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Happy Mondays - Wrote For Luck<\/div><\/div>
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