Songfacts®:

• Singer Liam Maher formed Flowered Up in Camden Town, London in mid-1989. After a few gigs with different personnel, they settled on a lineup of Liam's younger brother Joe Maher on guitar, bass player Andrew Jackson, keyboardist Tim Dorney, and drummer John Tuvey. The baggy quintet was supplemented live by Barry Mooncult dancing on stage wearing a giant flower.
  
  After releasing two singles ("It's On" and "Phobia") on Heavenly Records, Flowered Up signed to London Records and released their only album, A Life With Brian, in 1991. Two singles from that record, "Take It" and "It's On" (re-recorded version)/"Egg Rush," reached the UK Top 40.
  
  This 12:55 psychodrama is Flowered Up's best-known song. Turned down by London Records, it was released in April 1992 by Heavenly Recordings, reaching the UK Top 20.
• The song is a denunciation of weekend club-goers. Flowered up instead advocated a 24-7 party lifestyle, which summed up their hedonistic philosophy.
• "Weekender" opens and closes with dialogue samples from Quadrophenia. The 1979 British mod drama film is loosely based on The Who's 1973 rock opera of the same name.
• W.I.Z. directed the video, which runs 18:20 and stars ex-EastEnders actor Lee Whitlock as a working everyman made to question his existence via queasy recreational drug use and clubbing.
• The song was Flowered Up's last UK chart entry. Lineup changes and substance abuse hastened their demise in spring 1993. "Just as it reached its zenith it all fell apart," Tim Downie told Mojo magazine. "A lot of them had moved on to smack."
  
  Liam Maher and Joe Maher died from heroin overdoses in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
• The song came out of hours of jamming. "Everybody's influence and inspirations all came out in one go," Flowered up's manager, Des Penney, told Uncut magazine. "Joe had a guitar riff and Liam came up with the 'Weekend, go out, have a good time' refrain. Most songs came from jams and this was the same."
• Producer Clive Langer (Madness, Dexys Midnight Runners, Elvis Costello) crafted the song. "I wasn't in to their rave scene but it was easy to understand – it's all pop music," he told Uncut magazine. "Its universal and it's an anthem. I felt engulfed by it. I'd go to clubs or they'd take you to pubs on estates that were half gangsters, half kids on drugs. It was like stepping into a film. For a couple of months I was inside their world."
• Langer got his contacts book out and recruited an army of session musicians. "We had Steve Nieve from the Attractions. He played the organ," keyboardist Tim Dorney told Uncut. "We paid him three Es. Kate St John from Dream Academy plays the oboe. Luis Jardim, who did all Trevor Horn's stuff, does the percussion. Claudia Fontaine did the backing vocals. Don Weller, who played on Absolute Beginners, was on sax. We had a good week of these people coming in. Then we had three days mixing with Mark Stent, one that the world's greatest mixers."