Happy Mondays members now – prison stint, domestic violence and job U-turn

The Happy Mondays soared to fame in the 1990s with tracks like Step On, Kinky Afro and Twenty Four Hour Party People.

The band was instrumental in the era of “Madchester” music, alongside the likes of Oasis and The Stone Roses – forming a musical and cultural scene which merged indie music with psychedelia and acid house. Though founding members and icons Shaun Ryder and Mark “Bez” Berry have gone on to achieve new heights of fame in their respective television careers, the other band members remain elusive to the fans on the fringes.

But they too went on to achieve incredible things in their own careers – from a complete job U-turn to a stint on X Factor.

READ MORE: Shaun Ryder no longer ‘shoves drugs down his neck’ – he’s watching the news instead

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To celebrate Bez turning 60 today (April 18), Daily Star is taking a look at what he and his bandmates got up to next.

Shaun Ryder

Shaun managed to bring the Happy Mondays’ music to a whole new variety of fans when he appeared on series 10 of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2010. Stuck in the Australian jungle with the likes of comedian Dom Joly and nutritionist Gillian McKeith, Shaun was forced to undergo gruelling Bushtucker Trials to win stars for camp.

And that wasn’t the end of his reality TV career, as he has also appeared on the likes of Celebrity Gogglebox, The Jeremy Kyle Show and Britain’s Got More Talent, before returning to the jungle for the all stars spin-off of I’m A Celebrity in 2023.

Throughout his career, Shaun has been candid about his drug use – and went sober after being addicted to heroin for “20-odd years”. Speaking to The Sun previously about his sobriety, Shaun said: “I’d had enough of living the same life I’d been living at 17. That was embarrassing. I’d out-smoked meself, out-e’d meself, out-charlied meself, out-whizzed meself, out-drunk meself.”

Shaun also opened up about being diagnosed with both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia – and has blamed his ADHD on his “nutty behaviour”.

He said: “The problem stems from the ADHD. The nutty behaviour. You have got all this energy going and you can’t focus on anything. It’s like games at school, like football. I couldn’t play because I couldn’t understand the rules. I couldn’t get offside. I just couldn’t take in the rules.”

He added: “It’s what led me into drinking as a kid, taking drugs as a kid, getting in trouble as a kid.”

Mark ‘Bez’ Berry

As for Bez, he’s had an impressive reality TV career of his own.

In 2021, he appeared in Celebrity Masterchef following his 2020 Gogglebox stint – and soared even further into the stratosphere of fame when he won Celebrity Big Brother back in 2005.

He’ll also took to the ice rink in 2022 to compete in ITV’s Dancing On Ice, admitting on This Morning: “I think that’s why they picked me because I haven’t got any bad habits because I can’t skate. Last year at Christmas I ended up borrowing my son’s penguin to get round the ice rink.”

TV hasn’t been his only career move, though – he also stood as a candidate in the 2015 General Election in the Salford and Eccles constituency. His manifesto was of “free energy, free food and free anything”, and he received a total of 703 votes, placing him in sixth for the constituency.

Before joining up to the Happy Mondays, Bez was homeless for six years, admitting he “ended up in prison a couple of times” and “lived in sheds”.

The maraca-toting icon told Daily Star previously: “I lived in sheds, I kipped under bushes, sofa surfing – I went through the whole array of it. When I went travelling, I was sleeping on the beach. Sometimes I was starving. I used to dream of eating a meat pie from the chippy.”

In 2010 Bez was convicted of attacking his former partner Monica Ward, and sentenced to one month in jail. However, he was released from Strangeways prison just two weeks later.

Paul Ryder

Shaun’s brother Paul has been credited with giving the band their trademark groove through his bass playing – but music isn’t all he’s good at.

Paul has also had an extensive acting career, having appeared in projects like TV movie The Ghosts of Oxford Street and The Great Mistake of Dr Miles. Paul has also worked as a DJ, and is currently living in Los Angeles and writing music.

Rowetta

Singer Rowetta signed up to the Happy Mondays in 1990, featuring in their single Step On and appearing in three world tours before eventually rejoining in 2012. But one of her biggest moments in the spotlight since leaving the band the first time came in her X Factor stint, auditioning in front of the judges with a cover of Lady Marmalade.

She proved a popular contestant and made the quarter-finals, becoming the last woman standing in the competition. After her stint, Rowetta went on to release a solo album and make various TV appearances – and even joined a nationwide tour performing in The Songs of Sister Act.

In her personal life, Rowetta revealed she was a survivor of domestic violence at the hands of her ex-husband Noel Satchell. She fled the marriage in 1987 and stayed in a refuge after tying the knot aged just 18, and the couple later divorced.

Speaking to Mancunian Matters back in 2014, Rowetta explained: “[Relationships] are very very hard for me because I am frightened and also because I refuse to be restricted now. If somebody said ‘you can’t go out’ that would be the end. It’s made relationships harder.

“My last boyfriend lived in Serbia so it was easy because I didn’t have to see him very often. I love my freedom and don’t want to be tied down.”

She featured in the 2005 BBC documentary Battered and Bruised, which focused on tackling domestic violence, and has been a campaigner to end domestic abuse for the last few decades.

Dan Broad

Dan underwent a complete career U-turn after his initial Happy Mondays stint.

He went on to become a lecturer in Senior Music Production at Leeds College of Music, a position he took up in September 2011 – and divides his time between teaching and performing with the Mondays.

Dan has also held various engineering positions in the music industry, acting as a Recording Engineer for Moolah Rouge Studios.

Gary ‘Gaz’ Whelan

Drummer Gaz has gone on to achieve a solo music career outside of the Mondays – and, according to his Twitter bio, is an Ivor Novello Award winning singer-songwriter.

His Twitter bio also suggests Gaz has branched out into yoga, referring to himself as a yogi, and appears to split his time between Manchester and Toronto, Canada, where his son attends university.

Mark Day

Guitarist Mark has often been referred to as “the only person in the band who could actually play his instrument”. But he admitted that he only wanted to be in a band initially to “meet girls”.

Speaking to RNZ, Mark admitted of the Mondays: “We all had s*** jobs, we all worked at the post office or some menial job, and we just wanted to change our lifestyle by doing something different… The only reason I wanted to be in a band was to meet girls.”

And being able to “have a lie in” in the music biz was what cinched it for Mark, admitting: “I thought, hold on, this is a proper job, this pop business like. So does this mean I don’t have to get up at four in the morning?”

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk