Buzzin': The Nine Lives of a Happy Monday

Mark Berry, also known as Bez, was a member of the Happy Mondays and the Chemical Generation. He was known as the bug-eyed pied piper of the E-gobbling party lifestyle, but his popularity has grown through Black Grape and his presence in the mass media. He has had an extraordinary life, including scrapes with mortality, financial ruin, and moments with David Bowie. He has turned his life around and is now a middle-aged politician, eco-warrior, and bee-aficionado.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 03 November 2022
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

At the peak of his initial turn-of-the-1990s infamy as the maraca-wielding dancer with Madchester giants Happy Mondays, Mark Berry, forever known to the world as Bez, was a clear and present danger to society. He became the so-called Chemical Generation's bug-eyed pied piper, leading millions out to oblivion and beyond every weekend as they adopted his E-gobbling party lifestyle. Bez, neither an accomplished musician nor a particularly good dancer, was a prime candidate for fleeting celebrity, destined to sink into obscurity. However, that never happened, nor does it show any signs of happening. Through his second band, Black Grape, co-fronted with the Mondays' Shaun Ryder, and his ever-present presence in the mass media, Bez's popularity has grown exponentially, his star rocketing ever upwards. When he entered Celebrity Big Brother in 2005, he ended up winning the series, as viewers came to understand his fundamental decency and sunny outlook. His adult life has been extraordinary: unbelievable scrapes with mortality, periods of financial ruin, mind-***** moments like when David Bowie genuflected before him, and enough narcotic-strewn hi-jinx to fill several more volumes of memoir.

This is the story of a bad lad who has turned his life around, tracing his passage from a young casualty in his early thirties to a middle-aged politician, eco-warrior, and bee aficionado.

Weight: 540g
Dimension: 162 x 242 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399605069