Paul Ryder - Happy Mondays
Bassist and founder member of the Happy Mondays, Paul Ryder, has long been an Bass Centre Elites Strings user, ever since the band's early '90's "Madchester" glory days, when the band's hedonistic mix of streetwise humour, dance floor grooves and blissed-out rock perfectly captured the pulse of the acid-house generation and propelled them to massive worldwide success with the singles "Step On" and "Kinky Afro" and the hit LP "Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches".
Of course, the baggy bubble was soon to burst and, amidst drug-fuelled mayhem and the commercial disaster of their third album, "Yes Please!" (most famous for allegedly driving indie label Factory Records to bankruptcy, having cost so much to record) the band broke up in 1984. Since then, The Mondays' trajectory has been typically erratic, with various false-start reunions failing to ignite ...
So, The Bass Centre was pleased to see Paul Ryder re-join the original, definitive Happy Mondays' line-up for a triumphant return to live work in 2012... .and very happy to see him choosing a Bass Collection bass for the band's 2013 UK tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band's infamous "Bummed" album, the solid, deep, warm tones of the flat-wound strung Detroit Bass perfectly suiting Paul's rolling, punk-funk grooves on classic Mondays' floor-fillers like "Wrote For Luck" and "Hallelujah".
Graham Bush - Madness
Hired in 2009 as a stand-in for founding member Mark "Bedders" Bedford, Graham Bush enjoyed a remarkable 4 year tenure with perennial ska-pop favourites, Madness. One of the very first pro artists to choose Bass Collection, Graham's trusty purple Haze Detroit has been a mainstay of his touring and recording arsenal.
Although he missed out on playing two of Madness' most prestigious shows (Bedders rejoined the band for the band's 2012 performances at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace and the closing ceremony of the London Olympics), Graham contributed his sterling playing to the band's successful "Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da" album as well as to their extensive UK and European tours and numerous festival appearances.
Perhaps the most notable of these was the 2009 Rock en Seine Festival (photos below), where Madness performed on the same night that Oasis brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher "engaged in a physical altercation" resulting in the split of the band. As Oasis cancelled their headlining slot, Madness, despite having already played, were asked to replace them!
Phil Donelly - Zara Tobias
February 14th 2014 saw bassist Phil Donelly proudly tweeting this picture, with the message...
"Recording with (fast-rising singer/songwriter) Zara Tobias last week... with my great Bass Centre Detroit bass... Sounds amazing!"
