Shaun Ryder gives update on Happy Mondays future after UK tour

Lead singer of the Happy Mondays Shaun Ryder has said the band will be "going to bed for about three or four years" when they take a break after their upcoming UK tour.

The 61-year-old will embark on the Been There Done That Tour in March alongside band members Mark 'Bez' Berry, vocalist Rowetta, guitarist Mark Day, drummer Gary Whelan and keyboard player and guitarist Dan Broad. The band will then take a break from the road while Ryder concentrates on other projects.

He told the PA news agency: "I'm really looking forward to it (the tour). I mean, it's gonna be the last one anyway.

Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new feature s.

"It's not really. I mean, we've just come back from touring Australia, not long ago, we were on the road doing festivals, but it's going to be the last tour for a while.

"We've constantly been doing the Mondays now since 2012 with the original line-up, so it's now time to make this the last tour and no summer shows so I can concentrate on (bands) Black Grape and Mantra Of The Cosmos and a few things."

He added: "The Mondays are going to bed for about three or four years."

Ryder co-founded rock group Black Grape in the 1990s and the band released debut album It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah in 1995. In 2023 he revealed he had formed a new band called Mantra Of The Cosmos.

Speaking about the possibility of retirement, Ryder said: "In this game you don't, you stop when you f****** want to or when you can't walk on stage anymore."

He added: "When we were young men, you made an album, you toured it for three years, came back, made another album, and toured that for three years.

"So you'd do that for years and years and years and you'd go