According to Gaz, there was no initial plan to record, but after writing some songs “for fun” it just evolved. “It was having the time to do an album,” Shaun explains further. “Everyone’s been busy just living, doing whatever they fucking have to do in their lives. We got back together in 1999 and we’ve been doing. We’d never have split up in the first place if it had just been the three members in the band now back then, but the others wanted to so we did.” Rockier than the Happy Mondays’ classic ‘Madchester’/baggy days, it’s still easily identifiable as their own.

When they formed in 1985, Happy Mondays built their sound around hip hop beats, funky bass lines, blues guitars, samples and Ryder’s inimitable lyrics, a compelling mixture of street slang, drug gibberish and menacing sexuality. All these ingredients are still present and correct, mixed into a fine new stew by the band and their producer, Sunny Levine (son of Simply Red/Sly And The Family Stone producer Stewart and grandson of Quincy), somewhere between Hallelujah, Wrote For Luck and Step On of old and the psychedelic disco of Shaun and Bez’s post-Mondays band, Black Grape. “I’ve never really stopped doing what I do,” Ryder says, “so I don’t see much difference between Happy Mondays then, Black Grape and Happy Mondays now. We could just as easily called this Black Grape – it would have saved us loads of legal hassles - but because it was Gaz and Bez it just was the Mondays.”

Over the past 15 years Shaun has been writing and recording not only for his own bands Black Grape and Happy Mondays but was recently featured on the Gorillaz hit "Dare."

Whilst Shaun focused on his health, Bez won over the hearts of the UK by winning Celebrity Big Brother in 2005 proving that the Happy Mondays are still one of Britain’s most loved bands.

The newly reformed band set about recording a brand new album produced by US hiphop producer Sunny Levine, son of jazz producer Stuart Levine and the great Quincy Jones’ grandson. In a recent interview with Shaun Rider he reflected on his producers talents; "Sunny's great. A brilliant dude. A brilliant person."

The album has been mixed by Bjork and U2 producer Howie B.

A touring party featuring original members Shaun, Bez and drummer Gary Whelan will, on Sunday, April 29, take to the stage at Californian festival Coachella to debut their new material.

The other helping hand is that the Mondays are – drum roll please – clean and straight, a far cry from their last album, 1992’s “Yes Please!”, during which their notoriously dissolute lives eventually led to the band’s demise. Ryder in particular is the picture of health, a family man who’s substituted a mountain bike for the bong. “We’re all too old for that shit now,” Shaun says. “I have to admit, though, that this is the first time I’ve ever been out in this business – and I’ve been in this business since I was 18 – that I’ve done it straight, not using crack or heroin or whatever. It’s fucking terrifying! No, it’s great, until you go and do interviews and sit there and not have anything to say.” It’s great when you’re straight, yeah! Despite this new found lifestyle Shaun’s lyrics remain true to the title of
modern day poet still displaying street savvy and cartoon lyrics delivered in the true deviant style his fans love him for.

It’s unlikely Shaun Ryder will ever have nothing to say. His lyrics have inspired Manic Street Preachers to namecheck him in song, Blur’s Damon Albarn to collaborate with him on the second Gorillaz album and invite him to tour America with the cartoon band, and given voice to millions of fucked up estate kids just like him. Former Factory records boss Tony Wilson and U2’s Bono have also heaped praise on his lyrics, Wilson comparing Ryder to WB Yeats, Bono claiming the Mondays singer as one of the greatest lyricists of all time. The self-effacing Ryder, however, would rather you didn’t read too much into what he’s saying.