Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches: The Story of Madchester – Part 3: The Rush

This is the third part of Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, a BBC documentary about the Madchester era. Listen to the previous parts here: Part 1: From Punk to Dance Music, Part 2: Large Trousers and Little Pills.

In part 3, Stuart Maconie recalls the swift rise of the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses from the dormant indie scene of the late 80s.

The Happy Mondays had their club mixes and extreme lifestyle, the Stone Roses had their Smiths-influenced dreamy pop and their best-band-in-the-world attitude. Both brought the Madchester sound to the mainstream, taking pop back from corporate America to return it to the british youth, inspiring many bands to come.

Listen here:

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Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches – Part 3

Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches: The Story of Madchester – Part 2: Large Trousers and Little Pills

This is the second part of Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, a BBC documentary about the Madchester era. Listen to the previous part here: Part 1: From Punk to Dance Music.

Madchester wasn’t only about music: loose trousers, bowl haircuts, anoraks… relaxed and deliberately uncool, the “baggy” style was a fashion statement that was quickly adopted by the music obsessed youth.
But music and clothes weren’t enough to bring together a city notorious for its fights and rough laddish culture. Indeed, summer-of-love type nights at the Hacienda had a magical ingredient that made it all work: ecstasy.

Listen here:

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Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches – Part 2