It's Great When You're Straight...yeah - Black Grape

...Father and their debut album, It's Great When You're Straight, Yeah. But the group, which mixed dance beats with Ryder's anarchic vocal style, saw their popularity slump with poor sales of their last album Stupid Stupid Stupid. Ryder told the paper: "There won't be another Black Grape record. I wanna carry on and make CDs every now and again but I don't want to tour, man. I can't swing my little skinny butt any more." He said he was in ...
...before he got old ... it's just that he always looked haggard beyond his years...

You got the standard NME hyperbole: "It is now 1995 and seldom can Satan have been so richly rewarded by an investment. Black Grape have made the record that could've blown the Mondays' 'Pills'N'Thrills And Bellyaches' out of the water, the record that should've been Primal Scream's next rootsier step to glory after 'Screamadelica', a record drenched ... more

After the classic pop sound of the Happy Mondays, the hedonistic fiend that was Shaun Ryder re-emerged in 1995 with a new band and a new sound. He announced his arrival with the two single blast of Reverend Black Grape and In the Name of the Father, which open this amazing album.

It’s Great When You’re Straight -Yeah was an in your face and screaming blast of rapping pop with the energy and power of Ryder driving the whole thing. Kelly’s Heroes was the other single release, but there could just as easily have been several others. Shake Your Money and A Big Day in the North are other huge slabs of pop rock noise that would have graced the charts and should have been massive hits.

The cover picture of Carlos the Jackal, the infamous terrorist is symptomatic of Ryder’s whole approach to life - “Like, who gives a f**k, man!”

I loved Happy Mondays and I love Black Grape - Ryder is a larger than life character who demands your attention and certainly deserves it. This album is a belter and should be in every record collection.

If you have the wonderful good fortune never to have happened across the stumbling mumbling Ryder and his Happy Mondays sidekick, the manically dancing Bez, then you've missed a real treat. These guys are the sort of rabid nutters you get a lot in Manchester - well seasoned nutters for whom a sentence without c*** or f*** in them is a rare treat indeed and one reserved for specially eloquent days.

But don't get thinking that Ryder is yer average everyday thicko, he's just so spaced out by pills and thrills and bellyaches that communication in the standard manner is just that little bit too challenging for him.

No matter, the insistent beat and addictive Madchester sound of the Mondays was a wonderful thing in which to be immersed and when Ryder upped sticks and formed Black Grape, it seemed the most natural thing in the world to replace the most splendid rock pop triumphs imaginable for the more hip hop rap style of the loose groove that was Black Grape and this debut album captured the Grape magic to perfection.

Wednesday July 15 1998 - "The indie band Black Grape have signed off for good, according to the controversial frontman Shaun Ryder. The singer told Melody Maker magazine he will continue to make music, but there will be no more records or live shows under the group's name. Black Grape achieved chart success with singles such as Reverend Black Grape and In The Name Of The Father and their debut album, It's Great When You're Straight, Yeah. But the group, which mixed dance beats with Ryder's anarchic vocal style, saw their popularity slump with poor sales of their last album Stupid Stupid Stupid. Ryder told the paper: "There won't be another Black Grape record. I wanna carry on and make CDs every now and again but I don't want to tour, man. I can't swing my little skinny butt any more." He said he was in no rush to release any more records." bbc.co.uk

Aah no, perish the day when the incendiary brilliance of Black Grape blazed on the music scene - cherish the madness in the drink and drug soddened baggy eyes of Shaun Ryder and cry in shame at the popularity of S Club 7, Steps and Big Brother - the man was rock and roll ... but he never died before he got old ... it's just that he always looked haggard beyond his years...

You got the standard NME hyperbole: "It is now 1995 and seldom can Satan have been so richly rewarded by an investment. Black Grape have made the record that could've blown the Mondays' 'Pills'N'Thrills And Bellyaches' out of the water, the record that should've been Primal Scream's next rootsier step to glory after 'Screamadelica', a record drenched in so many different styles and influences that it puts the recent achievements of Blur and Oasis in sharp perspective. Only Tricky's 'Maxinquaye' rivals 'It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah!' for lyrical, musical and sonic invention this year. And we all know where he got his cue from..."

Que? But I guess you know what they're trying to say ... Black Grape were/are shit hot and Shaun Ryder is hot shit... eh?
 

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