STEPPING ON: Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder on AI Music, Margate & the moon landings
The Happy Mondays return to Dreamland in Margate, Kent, in 2026
Is there a character more instantaneously conjured when the phrase ‘Madchester’ is uttered than Shaun Ryder? Not for me.
While younger folk may know him for his eternally entertaining roles in various reality shows, it was his genre-defying genius in Happy Mondays that made him a household name. Now you don’t have to have read one of his autobiographies to know that Shaun and his crew were on the wild side. You just have to flick on Hallelujah to get the vibe of the era.
To mark the 35th anniversary of classic album Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, Happy Mondays are returning to the road and heading back to Dreamland Margate - a place they know well - on April 9th.
It’s hard to know where to start when thinking about what to ask Shaun. He is a man who has written the book on how to be a rockstar - literally. He has been open about his addictions, his ADHD diagnosis and the ups and downs of the music industry. Is there anything you can still ask him about Bez, 24 Hour Party People, Kinky Afro or pigeons that he hasn’t been asked before?
Let’s give it a go…
JB: Hello Shaun, how are you doing?
SR: Yeah, not too bad.
JB: What number interview is this today for you?
SR: You’re third, I think.
JB: So, we’re talking about Margate, Dreamland, where you’ve played a number of times. Is there a more mad place you’ve played than an old [beautiful, mind you] amusement park?
SR: Fu**ing hell, probably! We’ve played a few f***ing mad places in our time, like a collapsed bull ring. Yeah, all our f**ing gear got smashed to bits and crushed. So there’s been a couple of mad places, yeah.
JB: When you come down to Margate, do you partake in the beach or are you chilling?
SR: Nah, I don’t like the sun. I can’t deal with it anymore because my overactive thyroid really exaggerates it and it f**ks with me, so I just stay out of it.
JB: Fair enough. So the tour is to celebrate Pills ’n’ Thrills - looking back at it, nearly every song on that album was solid gold. Do you ever think about it like that?
SR: Not really, no. When we did it, it was like ‘Yeah, we made a good album’. We made what we wanted. I mean, it still sounds good today. So we did something right and from what I can remember I wrote that really quick. Oakey [Paul Oakenfold] would get up beats in this studio in the Capital Studios in Los Angeles. I think we only went in there with two or three tunes that we already had for the album. So the rest of it was Oakey throwing up beats and I was writing the songs to them. So, all the songs came really, really quickly.
JB: Do you have any particular favourites off that album?
SR: Err, well Wrote for Luck is on Bummed… errr... f***ing hell, I can’t remember what’s on that album now!
When we go out with the Mondays, we do something off pretty much every album. We start doing stuff off Squirrel and G-Man, Bummed, Pills ’n’ Thrills and even Yes Please!. I get f***ing mixed up more than ever anyway, now!
JB: You said you produced the album really quickly, but doing anything quickly back then was tough. What do you make of the current situation with AI, and people actually releasing AI music to get played on radio stations?
SR: I think it’s a bit out of order, really, especially when you can do a tune that sounds like anybody and then get it out. It’s a bit mad. I think it’s all gonna go a bit skew-whiff in the future, with all that sort of stuff.
JB: Right, so I’ve tried to think of some questions that hopefully you haven’t been asked a billion times before.
SR: Go on then. Hit me.
JB: I’m a lyrics man. So what song of yours do people constantly misunderstand the words and the meaning of them?
SR: Oh, f***ing all of them. Especially when I go and look online - you know, ‘these are the lyrics of the song’, or whatever. All of ’em are wrong.
JB: You’ve lived now through several eras of British culture. Do you have an era that felt most creatively electric to you?
SR: Well, we formed in 1982, right, but it was really ’87 and ’88 when we became sort of mainstream, if you want, on Top of the Pops and all that sort of thing. At that time, ’87 and ’88 was like 1967 and ’68 for us. They had the f***ing acid and we had the E, and everyone seemed just to get creative and started enjoying themselves. The late 80s was f**ing great.
JB: Right, let’s get deep. You started getting famous in the 80s, but what has that fame taught you?
SR: It’s just a double-edged sword, innit, you know. For me, especially, the good thing about it is if I walked into a bank or the f**ing shop before our faces was on the front of any magazines or been on Top of the Pops I was treated like a c**t and they thought I was gonna f***ing rob the place, so that was a good thing for me. People coming up to me for autographs or selfies, I’ve always seen that as part of the job anyway. Mostly it’s a good thing. But everyone handles it in different ways as well when fame first sort of comes along, you know?
JB: If you could go back to your younger self, what’s a piece of advice you’d offer?
SR: Well, we didn’t have any press behind us or anything. There was no marketing money behind us, it was just being ourselves, you know. When journalists would come along, we were just young, daft kids. We’d skin up or chop out a f***ing line on the pool table or whatever. We got a lot of f***ing press because of that. What advice would I give me? Just f**ing carry on and do what I did, really.
JB: What belief did you hold in your 20s that you’ve now completely ditched?
SR: Well, I never used to give a f**k about politics or who was in power, or what was going on in the world, because it didn’t affect me. It didn’t make me have any more money or make me more secure. But when you have kids and your children are growing up, that changes the total outlook, especially as I’ve got older, too. I didn’t even really start growing up till I was in my 40s. I really didn’t wake up to a lot of things until I was older.
JB: What was the weirdest rumour you ever heard about yourself?
SR: Oh, my and Bez’s gay relationships. The only reason we’re still together after 40 years is because it’s a sexless marriage! I find some of them f***ing hilarious.
JB: If you were forced to live inside one of your music videos forever, which one would you choose?
SR: Well, I suppose Kinky Afro, because it’s got 25 lovely-looking women in that one. So I wouldn’t mind living in that one for a while.
JB: What conspiracy theory have you found most entertaining, even if you don’t believe it?
SR: The most ridiculous one, right, is that we never landed on the moon, you know what I mean? Come on, f**ing hell! Look at the technology in an iPhone now. It’s not exactly far away, is it! I find that one ridiculous.
JB: Is there a creative project that you haven’t done yet?
SR: Not really, I’ve got to do the f**ing lot, really. For someone you can’t spell, I’ve got to be a journalist for a while, and how many f***ing books have I written? It’s still an honour to still be doing what I’m doing now at 63 making music, and even forming a new band not that long ago with Mantra of the Cosmos. I’ve got three bands on the go and I’m still doing this, so more of it, really.
JB: Can you remember the first time you ever came to the south?
SR: I can remember the first time we went to London. Don’t forget, to us lot, right, somebody who lives in the west or the south or Essex, you’re all Cockneys. I think the first time we went to London, we got on a train, me and my mates, and I think that cost about f***ing £5 and then we just roamed around f***ing Euston train station about 1975. I remember complaining that a can of coke was 20p.
JB: Last one, when you were younger, did you think you’d still be touring in 2026?
SR: Absolutely. Once we got a foot in the door with it, right? And Factory [Records] allowed us to make records… once we got a taste of it, it was like ‘There’s no f***ing way I’m letting this go. I want to stay in this and do this for as long as possible’. Because it was just a great world to get into, you know, you can get away with murder.
JB: Thanks Shaun, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy Dreamland as well.
Happy Mondays play Dreamland Margate on April 9th.
INSTA: @dreamlandmagate / @happymondaysoffical
