6. Shoot You Down

Barbados was supposed to save them. In early 1992, The Happy
Mondays are flown to the Caribbean to record their next album.
Fresh from the success of Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, this
should be consolidation. Instead, Shaun Ryder drops his methadone
at Manchester airport, the studio fills with smoke rather than
songs and the budget disappears pound by pound. A sun lounger is
sold for drugs. Back home, the gold rush continues. James score a
number two single with Sit Down and a wave of new bands flood the
charts. A&Rs circle the city nightly, desperate for the next
Madchester success.


But at The Hacienda, the mood has changed. Security tightens as
gangs move in. Tony Wilson announces the club’s temporary
closure. When it reopens, it does so under suspicion and noise
complaints from new city centre flats rising around it.
Meanwhile, the Stone Roses vanish into courtrooms and contracts.
By 1992, Factory Records is running on fumes. The Hacienda is
bleeding money. And in a final, almost absurd twist, Shaun Ryder
sells the master tapes of Yes Please! for £50, a moment that tips
the label into bankruptcy.


Episode 6 of The Rise and Fall of Madchester is the story of the
comedown and how the movement that once felt unstoppable begins
to fracture under its own weight.


A BBC Audio Production.