Happy?

This is the first album of the new PiL. The material for the album was written during a tour in support of the previous album. Despite minor changes in the roster , Lydon , McGioch and Diaz remained the main participants for six years - a kind of record for PiL.

The cover was painted by artist Richard Evans as a tribute to the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser , as indicated in the booklet.

Group Commentary

• John McGioch : “Well, whatever it was,“ Happy? ”Was like our first album. Before we started recording the album, we toured for a year and a half. We started making this album in 1987 , and we wrote material while we were on tour in support of Album . ”
• John Lydon : “Bear in mind that“ Happy? ”Was the first album that we did as a group, so we were very attentive to each other during the work. Nobody wanted another breakup. ”
• Lou Edmonds : “It is very difficult for me to listen to that material now, and think how to change it, or think about how it could be changed. In fact, I hear more versions of the producer and studio equipment than the group itself, and it disappoints me. I think this album had the opportunity to become great, but I also think that we had the wrong producer, I mean Gary Langen - he is a very good producer, and a great guy, but he still did not fit. Because in the end, he changed all the messy bits, and they looked like bits from the albums “ Metal Box ” and “Album”. All the space and these messy bits, it was all beautiful, it was the new sound of PiL . And what did Gary do, he filled all these bits, all this began to resemble the art of noise. So he made it all very funny. John , was in automatic mode, he just wanted to come to the studio and do his vocals, because that way he worked for “Album”, and this was a discovery for him, it was something new for him. We really missed him during the creative process. He was not with us, he left us to come up with tracks and tunes. I felt that John was gone. ”

"Seattle":

• John McGeech : “We only went to the studio when we wrote all the songs. “Seattle” was written in Seattle . We started working on new material during the tour from “Album”. I don’t think that “ 9 ” turned out to be a failure, but if I look back, I was more pleased with the work at “Happy?”. ”
• Allan Diaz : “The song“ Seattle ”came from the reefs that Lou and Bruce had , they gave me that, and I recorded the bass for this, sitting on the bed in the hotel room. It was a sweet, peppy track, but it was nothing until John sang on it. When he did the vocals, I lost my temper, it was amazing. ”

"The Body":

• John Lydon : “This is about people who have children and do not understand that this is the life with which they are associated. The second verse is a reference to the series Katie Goes Home. Women have the right to abortion , period! This is something that should not be interfered with and considered illegal. But you should not have an abortion if you do not have enough information about it, otherwise, it will lead to trouble. ”

Selfish Rubbish (B-side single):

• John Lydon : “I do not want to be special, because if you are special, then you are just selfish trash. If I have nothing, then no one will have anything. This position of selfish trash, so get off! ”

“The Suit” / “Religion” - (new versions):

• John Lydon : “We had a plan to release re-recorded PiL songs. But we stopped working on it, as Virgin Records gave us control on the collection “ The Greatest Hits, So Far ”. It was annoying, because you can’t do two albums at the same time. ”
• Lou Edmonds : “There was an album that we called Renovations, on it we mixed different songs, it seemed like good ideas at that time. I mixed the song "Religion". "

• John Lydon - vocals
• John McGioch - guitar
• Lou Edmonds - guitar , keyboards
• Allan Diaz - Bass
• Bruce Smith - Drums

• The album entered the UK album chart, where it ranked # 40 in two weeks, on September 26, 1987.
• The single " Seattle " entered the British Top75, where it took # 47 in four weeks, on August 22, 1987.
• In the USA, the album entered the Billboard 200, where it took # 169 place in ten, on November 7, 1987.
• In the United States, the single “ Seattle ” entered the Billboard Dance Music Charts, where it finished # 30 in seven weeks, on December 26, 1987.