Tony had always loved the production that John had done on Patti Smith’s debut album, Horses, a decade earlier. John had also played at the Festival of the Tenth Summer that Factory had organized in Manchester earlier in the year, so there was a connection between him and the label. Tony also liked the idea of a member of the Velvet Underground producing Happy Mondays, for obvious reasons. He thought that would make a good story or publicity angle. As a band, we were all really into the idea, because we were big fans of the Velvets. I think Bernard Sumner was mooted as a possible producer as well, after we had worked with him on ‘Freaky Dancin’ ’, but I don’t know how serious an idea that was, because Bernard didn’t want to become a full-time producer. What we didn’t realize before we went into the studio with John was that he had just got himself totally clean and off the drugs. I don’t think he was even smoking weed at the time; he just used to eat tangerines all day.
