The Happy Mondays to get back together in 2025
Singer Shaun Ryder and dancer Bez have reflected on a fairly quiet year for Happy Mondays while also hinting at more activity in 2025.
Earlier in the year, the Happy Mondays hit the road for the ‘Been There Done That’ tour, playing 16 dates across the United Kingdom alongside Inspiral Carpets throughout March and April. This run of shows marked the Happy Mondays’ only live dates of 2024, concluding at the Brighton Dome on April 14th.
Outside of those shows, Happy Mondays have remained fairly dormant for the remainder of 2024. Looking back on the year during an interview with NME, Ryder described it as “quiet because we kind of knocked it on the head in 2024”.
“We went out doing Black Grape and Mantra Of The Cosmos,” he explained. Ryder released a new record with spin-off band Black Grape in January titled Orange Head, but the next year seems to look more promising for Happy Mondays fans. “In 2025, we’ll be back at it,” Ryder promised.
Dancer Bez echoed this sentiment, adding: “We’re getting the band back together again… again!”
The group has already announced some live activity for next year, joining fellow Mancunians, James, for their Colchester Castle summer series date next August.
The Happy Mondays haven’t released a new studio record in over a decade. Their last full-length release was 2007’s Uncle Dysfunctional, which also marks the band’s only album since the 1990s. The Happy Mondays have been touring on and off since then, playing shows not just in the UK but at festivals and venues across the world.
Ryder and Bez didn’t specify whether the Happy Mondays’ 2025 activity would include new music, though it seems more likely they will return to the road rather than the studio.
Ryder also provided an update on the Happy Mondays biopic, which has been in the works for over a decade now. Matt Greenhalgh was set to direct the film, which would borrow from Ryder’s 2011 autobiography, Twisting My Melon. In 2019, former Skins star Jack O’Connell was announced to star in the film, taking on the role of Ryder.
However, the project since seems to have come to a standstill. Ryder has now provided an update on the Twisting My Melon film, suggesting they might still seek financial backing. Ryder acknowledged that the project got “put aside ages ago when we pulled out of the American money”.
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