Lauren Foster caught up with Happy Mondays lead singer Shaun Ryder ahead of their headline performance at Nozstock festival this summer.
Happy Mondays are playing Nozstock this summer. What can fans expect from this headline performance?
I think we’re doing something from all the albums. It’s a ‘greatest hits’ sort of thing. We’re not going out yet doing the entire Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People album, but I’m sure sooner or later we will.
The band’s groundbreaking album, Pills’n’Thrills And Bellyaches, was released back in 1990. Did you ever imagine that almost 30 years on, you’d still be headlining festivals?
You know, when I got into this business, I wanted to make a career out of it and do it for a lifetime, so I didn’t imagine I’d be bailing out and getting a normal, proper job - no one would’ve given me one anyway. I thought I’d be in it for life.
Paul Oakenfold produced Pills’n’Thrills And Bellyaches. How did that come about?
Oakenfold at the time wasn’t a producer. He was known for DJing in London and Ibiza. When I mentioned it to Tony and the manager at the time, Nathan, they started scratching their heads. The good thing was that we could’ve been making an album, an important album for the label, and if we’d asked for a not very well known DJ who’d never produced before, they’d just have told us to f*** off. Factory Records thought about it and gave him a b-side. The DJs in the know flipped it over and started playing Oakenfold’s side. By the time we were ready to do the album, we’d convinced them that Oakenfold was right for the job.
Growing up in Manchester must’ve had a huge influence on your musical sound. Can you tell us a bit about the Madchester scene?
Oh god! Do you know what, I don’t know whether it did have an influence on the sound. The only sort of scene that’d been in Manchester really, apart from Joy Division and The Smiths, was back in the ’60s with The Hollies and stuff like that. The one thing that got us all together was that music was really sort of gangy and clangy back in the late ’70s. If you liked punk rock, you couldn’t like Dean Martin, or if you were into mod music, you couldn’t like funk. One thing about us was that we all appreciated different types of music. We would listen to Velvet Underground then The Snakes. In terms of our influence, we basically stole from everywhere and then tried to hide it.
Any particularly entertaining stories you’d like to share?
I can remember the 1960s better than I can the 1990s, so that’ll tell you something.
How does life on the road nowadays compare to, say, in the early 1990s?
If someone had told me in the early ’90s how easy it could be if you weren’t off your tits, I’d have told them to f*** off. It’s so easy now. I mean, we’re all older, there’s no sex and drugs anymore, it’s just rock’n’roll. Even though the workload is greater, it just fits in. I go out and do what I want, when I want. It’s really easy.
You’re very open now about being a family man. What’s the most important lesson you’ve passed on to your children?
When I first had kids, I was pretty much a kid having kids. I was building a career, so I never saw them and had nothing to do with them being brought up. Now I’m really lucky because I get to do it again as an adult. My girls love me; I’m just a great dad. I’m going off in a minute to do the school run.
How do you think your fanbase has grown over the years?
The ages go from about 11 and 12 to about 70, and a lot of that is to do with mine and Bez’s dips into reality television. We both brought a lot of new people in on it. You still get kids at uni discovering us, like I discovered Velvet Underground or whatever - although I didn’t go to uni. Back in the day, there were a lot of kids at uni who were into us and who are now lawyers. We have a proper mixed bunch.
Were there any particularly memorable shows?
Brazil was great! Years ago we did the Rocking Rio thing - we took the rain with us; it absolutely pissed it down. We should’ve been on with George Michael but our gear disappeared, so we ended up having to spend the next week in Brazil. I think we went on with A-Ha, and they put us and Guns ’n’ Roses in a hotel miles away from everyone else, so that was pretty freaky.
Do you have any regrets?
I haven’t got many. I’ve got one or two. Obviously spending 12 years in receivership was a bit of a bummer; I wouldn’t advise that to anybody. That caused a lot of problems, as it would when 100% of your income is getting taken off you for 12 years. I should just have paid them the poxy 120 grand back in the day, but I didn’t want to. That’s my biggest regret. When you write your own stuff and you lose it all, you’ve got to stick it out - you can’t go bankrupt. It took a long time to get out of that. Everything else, fine; I enjoyed getting off my face when I was a kid - it’s what you do innit.
You were runner-up in the 10th series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!. Are there any other reality TV shows that take your fancy?
I did the other one where we went off in the rainforest, although that was technically classed as a documentary. I get asked all the time to do that sort of stuff. In fact, another one has come in today, about me getting my family involved in something. If the right one comes around, I don’t mind - especially when I’ve got an album to promote.
Finally, what does the future hold for Happy Mondays?
Well, the thing about The Mondays is that there are six of us, and everyone has got a say in the band. It’s really difficult to organise. As Black Grape, it’s just me and Kermit, so when we say, ‘Let’s go and make an album’, we can just go and make one. When we’re with The Mondays, it’s really difficult. One lives in LA, one’s in Canada - they’re all doing their stuff and it’s more difficult. We’ll get a new album together sooner or later, though.
Happy Mondays are headlining Nozstock Festival which takes place at Rowden Paddocks, Bromyard, Herefordshire from 21-23 July.
Lauren Foster caught up with Happy Mondays lead singer Shaun Ryder ahead of their headline performance at Nozstock festival this summer.
Happy Mondays are playing Nozstock this summer. What can fans expect from this headline performance?
I think we’re doing something from all the albums. It’s a ‘greatest hits’ sort of thing. We’re not going out yet doing the entire Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People album, but I’m sure sooner or later we will.
The band’s groundbreaking album, Pills’n’Thrills And Bellyaches, was released back in 1990. Did you ever imagine that almost 30 years on, you’d still be headlining festivals?
You know, when I got into this business, I wanted to make a career out of it and do it for a lifetime, so I didn’t imagine I’d be bailing out and getting a normal, proper job - no one would’ve given me one anyway. I thought I’d be in it for life.
Paul Oakenfold produced Pills’n’Thrills And Bellyaches. How did that come about?
Oakenfold at the time wasn’t a producer. He was known for DJing in London and Ibiza. When I mentioned it to Tony and the manager at the time, Nathan, they started scratching their heads. The good thing was that we could’ve been making an album, an important album for the label, and if we’d asked for a not very well known DJ who’d never produced before, they’d just have told us to f*** off. Factory Records thought about it and gave him a b-side. The DJs in the know flipped it over and started playing Oakenfold’s side. By the time we were ready to do the album, we’d convinced them that Oakenfold was right for the job.
Growing up in Manchester must’ve had a huge influence on your musical sound. Can you tell us a bit about the Madchester scene?
Oh god! Do you know what, I don’t know whether it did have an influence on the sound. The only sort of scene that’d been in Manchester really, apart from Joy Division and The Smiths, was back in the ’60s with The Hollies and stuff like that. The one thing that got us all together was that music was really sort of gangy and clangy back in the late ’70s. If you liked punk rock, you couldn’t like Dean Martin, or if you were into mod music, you couldn’t like funk. One thing about us was that we all appreciated different types of music. We would listen to Velvet Underground then The Snakes. In terms of our influence, we basically stole from everywhere and then tried to hide it.
Any particularly entertaining stories you’d like to share?
I can remember the 1960s better than I can the 1990s, so that’ll tell you something.
How does life on the road nowadays compare to, say, in the early 1990s?
If someone had told me in the early ’90s how easy it could be if you weren’t off your tits, I’d have told them to f*** off. It’s so easy now. I mean, we’re all older, there’s no sex and drugs anymore, it’s just rock’n’roll. Even though the workload is greater, it just fits in. I go out and do what I want, when I want. It’s really easy.
You’re very open now about being a family man. What’s the most important lesson you’ve passed on to your children?
When I first had kids, I was pretty much a kid having kids. I was building a career, so I never saw them and had nothing to do with them being brought up. Now I’m really lucky because I get to do it again as an adult. My girls love me; I’m just a great dad. I’m going off in a minute to do the school run.
How do you think your fanbase has grown over the years?
The ages go from about 11 and 12 to about 70, and a lot of that is to do with mine and Bez’s dips into reality television. We both brought a lot of new people in on it. You still get kids at uni discovering us, like I discovered Velvet Underground or whatever - although I didn’t go to uni. Back in the day, there were a lot of kids at uni who were into us and who are now lawyers. We have a proper mixed bunch.
Were there any particularly memorable shows?
Brazil was great! Years ago we did the Rocking Rio thing - we took the rain with us; it absolutely pissed it down. We should’ve been on with George Michael but our gear disappeared, so we ended up having to spend the next week in Brazil. I think we went on with A-Ha, and they put us and Guns ’n’ Roses in a hotel miles away from everyone else, so that was pretty freaky.
Do you have any regrets?
I haven’t got many. I’ve got one or two. Obviously spending 12 years in receivership was a bit of a bummer; I wouldn’t advise that to anybody. That caused a lot of problems, as it would when 100% of your income is getting taken off you for 12 years. I should just have paid them the poxy 120 grand back in the day, but I didn’t want to. That’s my biggest regret. When you write your own stuff and you lose it all, you’ve got to stick it out - you can’t go bankrupt. It took a long time to get out of that. Everything else, fine; I enjoyed getting off my face when I was a kid - it’s what you do innit.
You were runner-up in the 10th series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!. Are there any other reality TV shows that take your fancy?
I did the other one where we went off in the rainforest, although that was technically classed as a documentary. I get asked all the time to do that sort of stuff. In fact, another one has come in today, about me getting my family involved in something. If the right one comes around, I don’t mind - especially when I’ve got an album to promote.
Finally, what does the future hold for Happy Mondays?
Well, the thing about The Mondays is that there are six of us, and everyone has got a say in the band. It’s really difficult to organise. As Black Grape, it’s just me and Kermit, so when we say, ‘Let’s go and make an album’, we can just go and make one. When we’re with The Mondays, it’s really difficult. One lives in LA, one’s in Canada - they’re all doing their stuff and it’s more difficult. We’ll get a new album together sooner or later, though.
Happy Mondays are headlining Nozstock Festival which takes place at Rowden Paddocks, Bromyard, Herefordshire from 21-23 July.
Interview by Lauren Foster