We Catch Up With Shaun Ryder, The Twisting My Melon Man Himself! – TNT Magazine | Maqvi News

So you won’t be doing it again then?

“No, no! That was the winners show, the South African one, I’ve never said never, but I would just make sure I was in better condition if I ever got asked to do it again. I was pretty fucked up! I had a blast, the first time round! It was life changing, and I really enjoyed it. So when they asked me again, I said yes straight away, and I wasn’t really thinking, I’ve got a fucking hip replacement and one that needs a hip replacement, my fucking spines fucked, I just said yeah, I’ll do it. My thyroid had blown up, so I probably shouldn’t have really done it.”

Are you going to find that a different type of people come to your gigs as a result of it?

“When me a Bez started doing all the tele stuff, really. I mean our fanbase for both Monday’s and Black Grape goes from fuck me… 13-80! Because the people from the TV, there were something like eight million people tuned into the first one, and a good few mill, tuned into the second one, so you pick up a different fanbase.”

“It’s great now for kids, they turn on Googlebox, and think, who are these two old cunts, then they’ll look us up on their phone, and before the show’s even ended, they’ve downloaded all the albums, and then turn up your gig!”

Both of you are very outspoken personalities anyway. You’re the exception from the rule. I’ve always had this opinion that a lot of musicians are introverts creating a persona of themselves on stage to kind overcome their introversions. And I think you, and Bez kind of contradict that.

“Oh, I shrink on stage! I’m a fucking big show off in front of the boys and out of the house, but as soon as I’m out on stage, I’m like “fucking hell, everyone’s looking at me”. Which isn’t really what you want as a lead singer. I hear other people say, when they get on stage, they come alive, and I’m like fucking hell, I shit myself!”

What’s the rest of the year looking like?

“I’ve got this theatre thing, with Q&A sessions, the audience get the chance to ask me anything. There’s fucking hundreds of them! I’m everywhere (laughs).”

Just you, or with Bez?

“No, just me he does his thing, and this is just me.”

Are you both still just as tight?

“Yeah, we’ve been to Australia, and he does Gogglebox with me in my house. I say it’s like a sexless marriage.”

Let’s finish off on some light hearted questions… Google’s called you because they’ve run out of disk space. You need to delete one track and save one track. Anything come to mind?

“Well, let’s wipe out that fucking ‘I’m a Barbie girl thing, in a Barbie world’ Get rid of that. The I would save ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ That’s perfect for me, because it’s like two/three minutes long. Short sharp sweet, and then done!”

One last question. Trump has taken over, Maga has taken over the world, and he’s banning all fun apart from Golf. You’ve got one last night of fun before it’s banned forever. What are you going to do?

“Right! I see. Well basically the worlds going to fucking end with Trump there. I would say something really sick like I’ll invite all my mates over down to my house and we’ll get out the tin foil and we can all fall asleep together (laughs).”