From IMPACT Live! to G Live, Happy Mondays hit the road this Spring for a massive tour taking in Guildford on 10th April, celebrating the 35th anniversary of their landmark album ‘Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches’.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back on tour with the Mondays in 2026, especially with our old mates The Farm, who are touring with us,” says frontman Shaun Ryder.
Shaun, Bez and the full Mondays line-up will deliver the album’s iconic singles ‘Step On,’ ‘Kinky Afro’ and ‘Loose Fit’, alongside classics like ‘24 Hour Party People’ and ‘Hallelujah’ at state-of-the-art entertainment venue G Live.
“Really excited to be going back on tour again in the UK!” says Bez. “I love being on the road with the Mondays, there is no better feeling than playing to the fans of live music.”
Happy Mondays pioneered the Madchester sound after signing to Tony Wilson’s Factory Records in the late ‘80s, blending their love of funk, rock, psychedelia and house with the sounds of the UK’s emerging rave scene.
The band became icons of Britain’s biggest cultural phenomenon for a generation when they crossed over into the mainstream with ‘Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches’, which went platinum in the UK becoming one of the decade’s defining albums, putting the band firmly on the map as one of the most influential bands to come out of Britain in the early 1990s.
Supporting Oasis on their 'Standing On The Shoulder of Giants' arena tour, as well as playing numerous festivals worldwide, Happy Mondays' reputation as one of Britain’s most influential and best-loved bands was recognised in 2016 when they won the Ivor Novello Inspiration Award.
Sadly, Shaun’s brother Paul, the band’s bassist and founding member, passed away a few years ago. Paul was key behind the band's idiosyncratic groove and unique sound, putting the funk into their funkadelic northern powerhouse sound that was so influential.
Very special guests The Farm, meanwhile, made their breakthrough in 1990, with the first of their nine Top 40 singles being the huge hits ‘Groovy Train’ and the evergreen ‘All Together Now’.
The Farm’s lead singer, Peter Hooton, says, “We are absolutely delighted to be joining the Happy Mondays as special guests on their forthcoming tour. We go back a long way, having first met them at one of our gigs at the Boardwalk Manchester in 1986, when their style and attitude struck a chord. We also played with them at the legendary Elland Road gig in 1991 and toured with them in 2005, so we can’t wait for these gigs. It will be like a meeting of the tribes once again!”
Completing the bill will be the Happy Mondays’ fellow Mancunians and former Factory Records labelmates Northside.
Shaun & Bez talk music, miracles, marriage & the rock'n'roll road
Shaun Ryder and Bez look back at the madness, music and miracles of still being Happy Mondays. From autocues to viral fame, sexless marriages to survival, they tell the story their way - unfiltered.
“I've been playing those songs for so long that it all just becomes second nature,” says Shaun re. revisiting ‘Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches’. “It all sort of flows together now, you know what I mean? I don't sit there thinking, ‘Oh, this is that iconic album’, even though everyone else does. To me, they're just our tunes. But it still sounds good - proper good - like it could've been made today. I don't really notice the years on it because we've never stopped playing the bloody thing. It's part of the furniture now!”
Thirty five years on, which moment in the live set still gives him the biggest buzz? “That's changed loads over the years. I mean, I've gone through phases where I've absolutely fking hated everything - hated touring, hated myself, hated the lifestyle - and then phases where I've loved it and then hated it again. But now? Now I just fking enjoy it more than ever. It's mad. I get a buzz now more than I did when we were kids. Maybe it's because the sex and drugs have gone - all that madness - and now it's just the rock'n'roll road. And I'm enjoying the road. You get older, and you appreciate the crowds more, the band more, the songs more. I get a buzz off the whole thing every night, and I never expected that.”
Causing chaos - unreal Happy Monday moments
Looking back to the Happy Mondays' wildest days, what moment still feels completely unreal? “The unreal thing is simply that we're actually still in the band after all this time,” says Bez. “That's the bit that blows my mind. If you'd thought back all those years ago, when we set out as young fellas chasing a dream, causing chaos everywhere we went, you'd never have imagined we'd be here now as 60-odd-year-old fellas, planning gigs and getting the band back together again. Just being here, still doing it, still being the Happy Mondays. The fact that we survived it all, physically and mentally, is unbelievable.”
How does Shaun cope with remembering lyrics today? “Oh, I still can't remember any of the f**king lyrics I wrote - not a chance. If you take the autocue away, forget it. I'd be starting a song with the second verse, mixing lines up, putting the chorus where the middle eight should be, all sorts. Now I know why - it's my ADHD, dyslexia, all the things I've got going on in my head. We played with Bowie in the early '90s, and even he had a massive lyric screen he'd glance at. If it's good enough for Bowie, it's good enough for me.”
The Mondays' songs still land strongly with audiences who weren't there the first time around. “Back in the fking '80s, a lot of the stuff around was total st, so we were digging into the underground, listening to The Doors, all that kind of thing. We were trying to make something different,” Shaun explains. “And good music is good music - that's it. Something like ‘24 Hour Party People’ still sounds like it could've been written today. People connect with it because it's timeless - not because we meant it to be, but because that's what came out.”
Gogglebox, celeb jungle, Big Brother & Gorillaz
‘Gogglebox’ opened this entertaining pair up to a whole new crowd, seeing younger fans discover them through TV.
What surprised them most about filming ‘Gogglebox’ together? “The power of television — it's not what it seems…” says Bez. “But the great thing is the company behind it. They're brilliant to work for, really friendly, great production set-up, proper nice people. And they ply you with whiskey and Guinness, which is dangerous for me and Shaun,” he laughs. “Once we get a bit too much whiskey in us, whatever comes out of my mouth is stuff you could never show on TV.”
“When Bez did ‘Big Brother’ back in 2005, he brought a whole new young fanbase to the band,” Shaun explains. “When I did the jungle in 2010, the same thing - loads of new people suddenly knew who we were. And every time we do things like ‘Storage Hunters’, we pick up more!”
“You get the young 'uns watching all that stuff on their iPads. These two old dkheads - me and him. They watch us for 20 minutes, then check out the music, and the next thing you know, they're at the shows. Our fanbase now goes from fking 10 year-olds to people in their nineties.”
“Yeah, it's mad,” adds Bez. “At the gigs now, there's a proper cross-section of people - mums, dads, kids, grandparents, all sorts. It's turned into a family occasion. It’s great seeing that generational thing.”
Clips of the two constantly go viral, seeing TikTok and social media bringing in new fans. “Loads of kids found out about us because the Gorillaz tune was used on TikTok — no idea why, but it worked!”
Mark ‘Bez’ Berry joined the band on stage during a live performance after befriending Shaun and became the band’s dancer and percussionist. “It was timing, wasn't it?,” says Bez. “You couldn't get a better moment - the whole ecstasy explosion, the culture, the energy in Manchester. We were at the very forefront of it, first in every way. Me and Shaun rode that wave right from the start. I don't know how it happened - I just went with it!”
“Sometimes I can't believe the luck I've had. Being a Happy Monday gave me freedom - proper freedom - and not many people today get that kind of freedom to live life in a free and honest way. I'm blown away by it sometimes. I thank people for letting me be a Happy Monday because it gave me a way of life that most people never get. So no, I can't complain about the chaos - it's part of who I am.”
Shaun and Bez’s partnership has survived many bumps in the road. “Our friendship is like a sexless marriage,” Shaun explains. “We don’t have sex – that’s why it works. We are married… and sexless.”
Despite the fallouts, the bond between the boys is still strong. “We've been through a hell of a lot,” adds Bev. “As Shaun says, it's really like a sexless marriage because we've been together for so long. Being a Happy Monday is a proper roller coaster - the ups, the downs, the lows, the highs. You can't write this fking st. We've had some big fallouts, yet, after everything, we're still really good friends. That's what it's about - being able to go through all that emotion with somebody. It's rare, really rare.”
Don’t miss Happy Mondays, featuring special guests The Farm and Northside, at G Live on 10th April. Further info at
www.happymondaysofficial.co.uk
Photo credits: Happy Mondays © Shavorne Wilbraham. Bez © Paul Husband. Shaun Ryder © Paul Husband.