Do It Long Long

This has bubbling around on social media and some DJ mixes for a few weeks and has now been released digitally with a vinyl release to follow- Ewan Pearson's remix of Hallelujah, the lead song from the Mondays breakthrough release at the tail end of the 80s, the Madchester Rave On e.p. Across three different mixes Ewan has taken parts from the 7" version (the MacColl mix where Kirsty's husband Steve Lillywhite pushed her backing vocals forwards a bit and smoothed out some of the sheer lunacy of the Mondays' sound in '89) and some of the Club Mix (where Paul Oakenfold and Andrew Weatherall sampled some chanting monks, added some Italo piano stabs and dusted it down for dance floors) and added a snippet of Tony Wilson talking about twenty- four track recording. Shaun sounds as dangerous and off it as he did thirty years ago over the enormous re- figured bassline and Mark Day's guitar lines still sound unique. The past rebuilt for the present. Double double good.

Given that this song was produced in its original mix by Martin Hannett, sung on by Kirsty MacColl, released on Tony Wilson's record label and remixed by Andrew Weatherall it's also a tribute to four people who have gone before their time.

This five minute edit version is good, a five minute bug eyed dance but if you're going to go full Bez you're going to want the nine minute mix, available from all the usual places. There's a nine minute dub mix too.



Just so you can compare and contrast, here's the Oakenfold/ Weatherall remix from 1990, the Monday's ramshackle Little Hulton funk streamlined and intensified, hypnotically.

Hallelujah (Club Mix)

Lie Down Beside You Fill You Full Of Junk

Mediafire have removed Technova's cover of Atmosphere. Bit random isn't it?

One of my brothers, currently working for a large international sportswear corporation in Nuremberg, has got into the habit of sending me a Youtube link every Monday. The only rule seems to be that it has to be connected to Monday. One of his emails prompted me to post the wonderful cover of Blue Monday by The Times several weeks ago. Yesterday I got sent Happy Mondays performing Hallelujah on Top Of The Pops back in 1990. That episode of TOTP has grown in status, which tells us something about pre-internet, pre-satellite TV days (let's face it, no-one I knew had MTV at home). It seemed like a genuine 'stop what you're doing' moment- Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses appearing on the same show, signifying a seachange in tastes and musical and clothing styles. The idea that one pop TV show could have that importance seems very odd now.

The Mondays bit is hilarious. Shaun makes no attempt to pretend he's singing live, lipsynching with the mic held at arms length and clearly slightly worse for wear, Bez doing his saucer eyed Bez thing, and Kirsty MacColl doing backing vocals at the front of the stage. Kirsty dressed down in jeans, denim shirt and Reeboks, the Mondays dressed up. Hallelujah was a chaotic, messy song but brilliant with it, especially the guitar part. When Vini Reilly first came across the Mondays he stomped out, stopping Anthony H Wilson to tell him Horse's guitar playing was hideous and unlistenable, but possibly the most interesting and original guitar playing he'd heard for years. Hallelujah niggles it's way inside your head frazzling brain cells. The rest of the Madchester Rave On e.p. was equally messy and they never really sounded like that again. After Hallelujah they became more streamlined, more radio friendly, and more polished, Steve Osbourne and Paul Oakenfold's production nous ensuring Pills 'n' Thrills was a hit album (and a really good album) but at the expense of the some of lunacy of their sound- six men sounding like they're playing four different songs at the same time, while a drunk shouts and mutters brilliant nonsense over the top.

Hallelujah isn't on the hard drive at the moment and I can't be bothered ripping and uploading so I'm posting the Club Mix, remixed by Paul Oakenfold and our old friend Andrew Weatherall. Weatherall's first time in a studio I think. The Club Mix starts with a high pitched vocal scream, then some lovely monastic chanting before bringing the bass drum well to the fore, some house piano and then pumping up the bassline. Again it loses some of the ramshackle charm of the original but it's a quality remix of a band about to get big.

Hallelujah(Oakenfold & Weatherall).mp3