By GRAHAM REID
It's a dismal afternoon in Manchester and Shaun Ryder, the often notoriously drug-fuelled frontman for Happy Mondays is talking about his resurrected band.
Not unexpectedly Ryder punctuates this cheerful conversation with a word which he inventively uses as a noun, adjective, verb, adverb, space filler and exclamation mark. And he sounds in surprisingly rude good health.
He says he's slowed down considerably and those stories about the Mondays on tour in the late 80s - and those of his band Black Grape which emerged out of the Mondays' ashes in the 90s - are greatly exaggerated.
"I get treated like Peter Pan sometimes but I'm nearly 40 years old and people still think you're like 19 or 21. You walk down the street and some bloke's like, 'He's Shaun Ryder. Can you sell me some Ecstasy or gimme some coke?' It's pretty funny really.
"Bez [the Monday's manic dancer] has like 130 people that are friends that follow him everywhere in this big gang and that becomes the Mondays, knowurrimean? I'm pretty boring actually, I just go the shows and come home."
Which may - or may not - be true. Recent reports suggest little has changed and Ryder's recent autobiography Hallelujah recounts the life of a man who could consider himself lucky to have survived, let alone still be doing the rock'n'roll thing at age 38.
"I don't know. I'm surprised I'm still here, sometimes. I still feel I'm 21 though."
Ryder, younger brother Paul and a mate Mark (Bez) Berry formed the original Mondays in the early 80s, largely out of boredom.
"We were getting older and felt like we should have something more to do than just drugs. We listened to music all the time so starting a band seemed obvious."
Manchester - dubbed "Madchester" by the Britrock press - was on the boil with bands at the time but the Mondays stood out for their loose-limbed, sprawling, dancefloor pop-rock which defied most conventions, probably because none of them were musically proficient and Ryder had to have his lyrics written out on large cards because he couldn't remember them.
They were the triumph of inspired amateurism and their albums Bummed (88) and Pills'N'Thrills and Bellyaches, recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Paul Oakenfold (90), are classics of invention, enthusiasm and early rave culture.
However, their internal problems escalated (Ryder graduating from marijuana and Ecstasy to crack), the erratic behaviour became less endearing and inevitably they split up, Ryder off into the equally chaotic Black Grape.
But neither band captured the imagination of the American market, nor the United States arm of their respective record companies.
"Nah, the record company didn't get it really until we were splitting up, but they caused part of the split. I've not been able to do me own stuff because of all the legal bollocks but just now we got to the end of it and got that sorted.
"I've been doing a bit of producing and singing on other people's stuff but as to me own, I couldn't. We've been in and out of court. I've never stopped writing and hopefully we'll have some new things out next year, but don't ask me what it'll be like or if it comes out under Black Grape or the Mondays or my name."
Ryder occupied himself outside of music, too: he appeared as a thug in The Avengers movie and co-writes a column in the Daily Sport.
There had been some suggestion, however, the reason he's resurrected the Mondays was because of a huge tax bill needing attention.
"I did have a tax bill but the main thing was the management and record company. I ended up having to pay large amounts of money to this company which is ripping me off left, right and centre.
"At the same time I got asked by some promoters to do [the Mondays] and at this point I couldn't say no because I'd just split up from me partner of seven years and she ended up with the lot. The geezer always ends up with just the chair, eh?
"So we did the Mondays and it was only supposed to be a few gigs but we got asked to guest at the Robbie [Williams] gig in Ireland at Slane Castle and we got asked to do all sorts. So we did the ones we wanted like the Oasis shows, then we got asked to Australia and New Zealand."
And so the shapeless, accidental career of Shaun Ryder rolls on.
But are the Mondays - the current line-up with Wags and Martin from Black Grape, original drummer Gaz and possibly Bez "depending on which side of the bed he gets out of" - still relevant?
"If you put up Pills'N'Thrills to this day it sounds like now. The plink-plonk piano on Step On sounds like it could have been done by anybody today. That's because back in the late 80s and early 90s we weren't copying anyone or doing any sort of 60s type stuff. It was just a big mumbo jumbo of everything.
"Today we keep getting, 'Is Bez coming or isn't he?' I can understand people wanting to see Bez but at the end of the day you can't hear Bez dancing on the CDs which still sell loads. It gets you a bit pissed off if a promoter says, 'if Bez ain't coming we don't want the band.'
"We've always been a bit of freakshow but at the end of the day we've not got plastic surgery and we'll not be wheeled on stage in wheelchairs.
"The Mondays still cut it, and we did some really good tunes."
* The Happy Mondays, Big Day Out, Boiler Room, 6.30 pm
That Happy Monday feeling comes round again
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