Happy Mondays are finally making a comeback and if you believe Bez, it’s going to be “visionary” and “massive.”
The legendary Manchester outfit are finally back in the studio, working on their first album since 2007’s Uncle Dysfunktional, after being nudged back into action by their manager Alan McGee.
“There’s talk of a new album to come, which I’m really fucking looking forward to,” Bez told The Sun. “It’s an idea and Alan [McGee] normally gets what he wants. With all my heart and soul, I want it more than anyone.”
McGee, the man who signed Oasis and gave Happy Mondays their early break on Factory Records, has clearly put the wheels in motion. Plus, frontman Shaun Ryder is ostensibly sitting on a stack of new songs already.
The Mondays have been playing the nostalgia circuit for years, but the idea of them actually releasing something new seemed like a long shot. Even Bez admitted the band were “green as fuck” when they first started out. Now the band members are in their sixties though, Bez believes they finally know what they’re doing.
“We actually know what we’re doing now,” he said. “We didn’t even know what ‘one, two, three, four’ was back in the day. That’s how naive we always were. But Shaun never stops being creative—it’s in his f***ing blood.”
Alongside the Mondays, Ryder has been busy with Mantra of the Cosmos, his supergroup with Bez, Andy Bell (Ride, Oasis), and Zak Starkey (The Who, Oasis). And according to Bez, it’s Starkey—son of Ringo Starr—who has helped reignite the Mondays’ spark.
“Zak is the driving force behind the creativity,” he said. “It’s ignited us all and got us all excited again.”
For a band that once helped define the Madchester scene with Step On, Kinky Afro, and 24 Hour Party People, a new album is no small deal. Whether it’ll be as chaotic and lawless as their earlier days remains to be seen, but if Bez is hyped, that’s got to count for something.
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