BLACK GRAPE Featuring SHAUN RYDER And BEZ Released Their Dope Debut Album ‘IT’S GREAT WHEN YOU’RE STRAIGHT’… YEAH’ 30 Years AGo Today

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

7 August 2025

Band: BLACK GRAPE
Who: Two happy mondays, Shaun Ryder and Bez
and Ruthless Rap Assassins‘s frontman Kermit
Active: 1993–1998, 2015–present

Album: IT’S GREAT WHEN YOU’RE STRAIGHT… YEAH
Their debut LP.

TUTV: Better than any Happy Mondays album. More sassy swagger, more rave vibes, more standout and hip-shaking tunes, more pills ‘n’ thrills, and great performances by Kermit.
Dope record.

NME said: “A record drenched in so many different styles and influences that
it puts the recent achievements of Blur and Oasis in sharp perspective.”

SINGLES

ALBUM


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Facebook – All Albums

BLACK GRAPE Released Their Controversial Debut Single ‘REVEREND BLACK GRAPE’ 30 Years Ago Today

Top singles from the past

30 May 2025

BLACK GRAPE (1993–1998, 2010, 2015–present) the side-project of Happy Mondays‘ frontman Shaun Ryder and dancer Bez released their debut single REVEREND BLACK GRAPE. The song featured on their first LP  It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah
and peaked at #9 on the UK Singles Charts.

“Oh Pope he got the Nazis
To clean up their messes
He exchanged the gold and paintings
He gave them new addresses
Clean up your messes
Heil heil Fuhrer!
Heil heil Fuhrer!”

Instagram – Discography

BIG BLASTS FROM THE PAST – 10 Classic Albums Turning 30 In 2025

28 December 2024

Band: OASIS

Album: (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
Their 2nd one. The best-selling
album of the 90s in the UK.

Rolling Stone said: “What’s the Story is more than a natural progression, it’s
a bold leap forward that displays significant musical and personal growth.”

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Band: RADIOHEAD

Album: The Bends
Their second LP. It peaked at
#7 in the UK and #88 in the US.

NME wrote: “Radiohead clearly resolved to make an album
so stunning it would make people forget their own name,
never mind ‘Creep’.”

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Instagram
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Artist: PJ HARVEY

Album: To Bring You My Love
Her 3rd one. #12 in the UK.

The Independent (British newspaper): “Harvey’s performance makes the record stand out from its peers. A threatening, nightmarish creature. Imagine Siouxsie and the Bad Seeds”

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Instagram
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Band: BLACK GRAPE
Featuring 2 Happy Mondays.
Bez and Shaun Ryder.

Album: It’s Great When You’re Straight…
Their debut longplayer. No. 1 in the UK.

VOX (British music monthly): “Black Grape buzz with the
life-affirming, innovative, fuck-you spirit of true rock’n’roll”.

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Instagram
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Artist: TRICKY

Album: Maxinquaye
The debut of former
Massive Attack member.

Q (British music monthly): “A highly inventive and intoxicating collection.
With this debut, Tricky proves himself to be more challenging and eclectic
than his peers”.

PlAY


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Band: PULP

Album: Different Class
The 5th one of the Sheffield, led by Jarvis Cocker.
No. 1 in the UK, No. 44 in the USA.

Melody Maker (former British weekly): “Bloody essential. The album’s title
alone announces that Cocker’s broadened his scope, has another axe to grind:
social
antagonism.”

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Linktree
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Band: LEFTFIELD

Album: LEFTISM
London-based duo’s
debut LP.

NME said: “There’s a scope and spirit, an energy and a madness to ‘Leftism’ which’ll
make it one of the few dance derived that’ll stay up there, bouncing around in the great
echo chamber of futurity for years.

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Band: GARBAGE

Album: Garbage
The Scottish/American team’s 1st one.
No. 1 in the UK, No. 20 in the US.

AllMusic: “Garbage’s self-titled debut has all the trappings of alternative rock, off-kilter arrangements, occasional bursts of noise, a female singer with a thin, airy voice but it
comes off as pop, thanks to the glossy production courtesy of drummer Butch Vig.”

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Band: THE SMASHING PUMKINGS

Album: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
3rd longplayer, a double one. No. 1 in the US, and the UK.

Time USA said: “The group’s most ambitious and accomplished work yet. One gets the feeling that the band charged ahead on gut instincts; the sheer scope of the album (28 songs) didn’t allow for second-guessing or contrivance.”

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Band: THE CHARLATANS

Album: THE CHARLATANS
Their 4th LP. #1 in the UK.

NME wrote: “It feels unequivocally like a statement of intent. With the various
influences, the band was capable of absorbing the sensibility wholesale, while
leaving the incriminating specifics alone.”

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Linktree

Hole-In-One! BLACK GRAPE Released Triumphant Single ‘IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER’ 25 Years Ago

Top singles from the past…

25 July 2020

Band: Black Grape (Greater Manchester, UK)
Who: Members of Happy Mondays (Shaun Ryder and Bez)
and  Ruthless Rap Assassins
Active: 1993–1998, 2010, 2015
Single: In The Name Of The Father
Written by: Danny Saber and Shaun Ryder
B-sides: Land Of 1000 Karma Sutra Babes
and In The Name Of The Father (Choppers Mix)

Released: 25 July 1995 – 25 years ago today
Score: #8 in the UK
AlbumIt’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah  – debut LP

C’mon Shaun

BLACK GRAPE: Facebook

5 Stellar Albums Turning 25 in 2020…

The best of the past

Here are 5 stellar albums, selected by
Turn Up The Volume, turning 25 in 2020!

1. ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? by OASIS

Play here…

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2. ‘The Bends’ by RADIOHEAD

Play here…

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3. ‘To Bring You My Love’ by PJ HARVEY

Play here…

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4. ‘It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah’ by BLACK GRAPE

Play here…

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5. ‘Maxinquaye’ by TRICKY

Play here…

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TODAY’S YESTERDAY ALBUM – ‘It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah’ – Debut LP By BLACK GRAPE

Remarkable albums from the past

‘It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah’
BLACK GRAPE

Released: 7 August 1995
Debut album

ALL MUSIC / Stephen Erlewine wrote: “When ‘Happy Mondays’ fell apart in 1992,
most observers assumed that Shaun Ryder would never recover from his numerous
drug addictions. No one could have ever predicted that he would return to the top of
the charts three years later, relatively fit and healthy, with a new band that fulfilled all
of the promises of his old group. Black Grape is what Happy Mondays always were, only
better. Leaving behind the stiff musicianship that plagued even the best Mondays records,
‘Black Grape’s debut, It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah, is a surreal, funky, profane, and perversely joyous album, overflowing with casual eclecticism and giddy humor.Not only is
‘It’s Great When You’re Straight’ a triumphant return for Ryder and his sidekick Bez, it’s the
first album they have ever recorded that justifies all of the hype.”

Score: 9/10 – Full review here

TURN UP THE VOLUME says: ‘It’s great to have a party record like this… yeah.’

TOP TRACK: In The Name Of The Father

Album in full

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BLACK GRAPE: Facebook – All Albums