The Happy Mondays: Happy to be back

When tabloid! called Shaun Ryder last week, it was just an hour after we’d all just been jolted by the earthquake that shook the country. But the British singer proved that he’s completely on the ball by asking me about it — before I could ask him if he’s as clean from drugs as they say.

Ryder is the lead singer of the reunited Manchester band The Happy Mondays, who play a show organised by Talentbrokers at Dubai Tennis Stadium tomorrow night after getting back together last year. Their rise to fame in the late 1980s and early ‘90s was told through stories of drug use almost too surreal to be believed, but the word now is that he and his bandmates — his brother Paul, guitarist Mark Day, Paul Davis and drummer Gary Whelan Mark ‘Bez’ Berry and Rowetta — are responsible grown-ups who just want to put on a great show.

“Greatest hits, that’s it, you know,” Ryder tells me over the phone from his home in Manchester, where he lives with his wife and two young daughters, when I ask him what we can expect from the show. “Bits off the old albums, Pills and Thrills. It will be a good show. To be really honest with you, it’s a lot easier now than it was the first time round.”

When I ask him why, he hollers out, “Because we are not young lads with drama. Not constant draaaammmaaa,” in his strong Mancunian accent. “Drugs and sex and rock and roll. [Now] it’s just the rock and roll really. It’s just a lot more enjoyable. Now we’re all 50-year-old blokes — it’s only Bez who’s still 21 years old in his head.”

Bez, of course, is the band’s unique member; the party-maker whose role is to dance along, play the maracas and inspire the audience to move along with him. Surprisingly, he’s the one that took the most convincing to rejoin the group.

“The only person who wasn’t into it was Bez,” says Ryder, of the reunion. “He’s now a dignified gent, he’s not going to go on stage and do his freaky dancing. We told him, the fans really want you to be there, you don’t have to come on stage and do your freaky dancing, you can take it easy, and he came around.”

Ryder and his brother Paul, who founded the group, were the most distant. But the reunion of their fellow Mancunians The Stone Roses (who played in Dubai in February) brought attention to the Mondays again.

“The Mondays have been around in different guises, but when the Roses thing hit, we were bombarded from all sides to put the original line up together. We put the feelers out — some hadn’t been involved in the music business for 16 years. I hadn’t spoke to my brother for 10 years. We forgot what we was arguing about. We started arguing when we was 22 years old. You just forget why and what. When we got together again, I was a bit worried — was it all going to be exactly the same?”

He needn’t have been concerned, however. “We’re a lot more chilled, there’s no arguing, everyone’s enjoying what they’re doing.

“If it was really terrible, I’d have to put an end to it. But it’s great, it sounds fantastic and we’re enjoying it.”

Excerpts from the interview:

Is a Mondays album in the works?

People keep asking about an album. There’s no plans for an album, I don’t know when to fit that in anyway. I’ve got a solo album due to come out at the end of the year. You’ll have to wait and see.

Tell us what else you’ve got on?

“I got asked, ‘if you were going to do a TV show, what would you do it on?’ Since when I was a 15-year-old kid, I saw this thing flying around in the sky that defied physics. I said I’d like to do something on UFOs and The History Channel just said ‘OK’. I went over to South America interviewing the military, they welcomed me in and showed me all sorts of stuff. Next week, a Happy Mondays autobiography is being done for ITV. It’s going into production. I’m making sure things are done right.

Who will play you in the film?

I don’t know yet. I don’t have anyone in mind. I’d like someone young and up and coming.

So there’s a Shaun Ryder media takeover coming — TV, movie, tour and album. What’s your favourite?

The touring. We take the shows we want to take. I’ve got two daughters, five and four, so I get to spend a lot more time with them. The UFO thing has been really good but I am really looking forward to doing the movie. It’s a TV movie, put it on the right night of the week, you’re going to get 10 million people watching it. It’s really exciting.

Don’t miss it

The Happy Mondays play Dubai Tennis Stadium on Friday. Tickets, Dh200 (general standing and seating) and Dh350 (VIP enclosure); doors at 7pm.