B-Side Music Festival in Murcia

Written by Julie Messenger Friday, 12 September 2008 T he fourth edition of the B-Side Festival will take place at the Campo de Fútbol Sánchez Cánovas in Molina de Segura, Murcia this Saturday (Sept 13). Each year, the festival has attracted top artists such as Ocean Colour Scene, Echo and The Bunnymen, ASH, The Freestylers and Lori Meyers, and the trend continues with top 80’s band Happy Mondays and 90’s successes The Charlatans headlining this year’s event. Happy Mondays formed back in 1980, when they were discovered by the late pop impresario Tony Wilson. They had their biggest hits in the early 1990’s with tracks “Step On” and “Kinky Afro,” before splitting shortly after. Shaun Ryder and Bez temporarily went out under the name Black Grape, before reforming Happy Mondays in 1999. The reform was short-lived and the band’s current incarnation is said to have been entirely down to Damon Albarn after the success of his Gorillaz single “Dare”, which featured the vocals of Mondays’ frontman Shaun Ryder. In 2007, Happy Mondays went back to the studio and recorded their latest album “Uncle Dysfunktional” and they are currently working on a new album which is expected to be released some time next year. The Charlatans, who hailed from the West Midlands, achieved commercial and critical success with the release of UK top ten single “The Only One I Know” in 1990 and the song is still regarded as an indie classic today. The band had a resurgence in the mid-nineties with the release of the album “Up to Our Hips” and single “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over,” but they were left devastated when keyboardist Rob Collins was killed in a car crash in 1996 during recording of their fifth album “Tellin’ Stories.” The album was released the following year and the band had their biggest UK hits to date with the singles “One to Another”, “North Country Boy” and “How High”. The Charlatans also played a number of high-profile gigs for during the summer of 2007, supporting bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones. Tickets: 13/09/08 – Murcia (Molina de Segura - Campo de Fútbol Sánchez Cánovas) Ticktackticket.com (902 15 00 25), FNAC (Murcia and Alicante), Cafetería Ateneo or Pub Lemon (Molina de Segura), Discos Tráfico (Murcia), Discos Carrots (Cartegena), Sampler (Elche), Cheminal (Orihuela), Spunkfunk (Alicante). Tickets can be collected from the venue’s ticket office from 1 hour before the show. Price: 15 euros in advance, 20 euros on the door. Starts: 21.00 (doors open 20.30) You can listen to Charlatans’ Complete Control and forthcoming single Oh! Vanity at Tim Burgess’ MySpace page: www.myspace.com/timburgess www.b-sidefestival.com www.happymondaysonline.com www.thecharlatans.net