Bez – författare

'No one has truly and more fully lived the rock lifestyle since The Who's Keith Moon. This is the most honest, funny, outrageous, drug-fuelled rollercoaster of an autobiography since Howard Marks. A cult classic.' MirrorThis is the story of Bez, the man with the maracas and Shaun Ryder's sidekick in the Happy Mondays. Bez was the embodiment of the eighties 'Madchester' scene - when asked by a journalist why he took so may drugs he replied, 'It's my job.' Freaky Dancin' is a rollercoaster ride through the excesses of rock 'n' roll. It is also the story of how a petty criminal, with no future, got up on stage one night at The Hacienda and found himself famous.'Bez presents his life as a triumph against the odds, the pills and thrills of a hyperactive kid who couldn't settle on anything except drugs and petty crime but fronted one of the most important bands of the past ten years.' The Times'Bez's life story reads like that of a man who stole the world, sold it, bought it back on the cheap, and then left it on the back of a written-off jeep somewhere in the Caribbean.' New Musical Express

The Happy Mondays' chief maraca-shaker and undisputed national treasure's memoir

At the height of his initial, turn-of-the-1990's infamy as the maraca-wielding dancer with 'Madchester' giants Happy Mondays, the pop-eyed Mark Berry, forever known to the world as Bez, was visibly a danger to society. He became the so-called Chemical Generation's bug-eyed pied piper, every weekend leading millions out to oblivion and beyond, as they adopted his E-gobbling party lifestyle.Neither an accomplished musician nor even a very good dancer, Bez was a prime candidate for fleeting celebrity, soon to sink into 'Where Are They Now?' obscurity. That, however, never happened, nor does it show any sign of happening. Through Black Grape, the second band he co-fronted with the Mondays' Shaun Ryder, and his ever-presence in the mass media, Bez's popularity has grown exponentially, his star rocketing ever upwards.When he bowled into 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, mindfuck 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 good, tracing his passage from early-thirty-something casualty to middle-aged politician, eco-warrior and bee-aficionado.