Happy Mondays/Black Grape/Mantra Of The Cosmos frontman Shaun Ryder has released a new book Shaun Ryder: Happy Mondays, And Fridays, And Saturdays, And Sundays, and given his thoughts on the changing face of the music industry.
“Been clean 21 years,” the singer tells The Telegraph in a new [paywalled] interview, “but the public still wants to hear about the drugs, drugs, drugs, rock ’n’ roll and sex. I’m not sure what it’s like for young lads entering the business now but gone are the days when a chauffeur-driven car with weighing scales in the boot for drugs would be waiting outside the Top of the Pops studio for us.”
“If a lad, or a lass, in a band wants to have a bit of fun with groupies it’ll be all over social media before you know it. You can’t hide nothing. Changed times.”
In 2024, Ryder isn’t just an indie rock star, but also a TV star, appearing alongside his best mate Bez as a regular guest on Channel 4’s long-running and unfailingly popular TV show Gogglebox.
“These young kids watch us on the iPad,” he tells The Telegraph, “and start wondering who these two old bastards are: by the time the programme ends, they’ve downloaded all our albums.”
Earlier this year, talking to Louder, Ryder, a former runner-up on the bafflingly popular I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, mused upon his new-found status as a national treasure, and declared, “I’ll take national treasure over being called a smackhead, crackhead loser.”
The singer also revealed that he was working on the debut album from Mantra Of The Cosmos, who also feature Ride’s Andy Bell, Brix Smith, Zac Starkey and Bez.
“It’s kinda mad Pink Floyd, dancey, rocky stuff, and some of the tunes are 15 minutes long,” he said. “We’ve got 10 or 11 tunes at the moment, and its good, it’s cool, but we’re not rushing it.”
Shaun Ryder: Happy Mondays, And Fridays, And Saturdays, And Sundays is on sale now.
The singer is undertaking a spoken word tour to promote the book from September. Fans have beenn told that they can “look forward to a carnival of excess, wild tales, and improbable truths, as they enjoy the talents of a unique rock’n’roll star dubbed Britpop’s answer to WB Yeats.”
Full details of the tour are available here.
