Bez, the anarchic maraca-shaker of Happy Mondays, has swapped a life of drugs and partying for a rural idyll in Herefordshire, where he juices daily, eats only organic food, and grows his own vegetables. At 62, he appears relatively unscathed by decades of excess, a fact he calls “the biggest compliment” because it proves “it’s never too late, because I didn’t make changes until I was 49.”
A life of scrapes and survival
Bez, whose real name is Mark Berry, has survived a motorbike crash at 16 that knocked out his teeth, a gun threat while buying crack in New York with Ryder, a kidnapping during another drug deal, and a 1999 crash that led to MRSA and a month-long coma. His past also includes a 2010 assault conviction against his ex-partner, for which he served four weeks in jail after refusing community service.
He grew up in Salford, was homeless from 16, and spent time in young offender institutions for burglary. “I have had to apologise to my mum because I just thought it was normal, and it was far from normal. I was so out of control it was unreal, but I didn’t even think it was,” he says.
From partying to permaculture
Bez gave up cocaine and sugar just after Christmas and discovered intermittent fasting. “I had to find something else to throw myself into.” He still drinks tequila “like it’s going out of fashion” and hosts parties at his fire pit. He lives with his wife, Frou, and two sausage dogs, Snoop and Yoko, and has embraced a permaculture lifestyle influenced by “Welsh aristocratic hippies” he lived with on a commune in Wales around 2010.
“You’ve got to look at ways to live your life when everything is corporately owned and corporately run,” he says, adding that he dreams of ending the monetary system. He stood for parliament in 2015 as leader of the We Are the Reality party and says he could “leap back in” if he fancied.
Friendship and music legacy
Bez’s friendship with Ryder remains strong. “We’ve got a sexless marriage. That’s what we always say. Our friendship’s probably stronger than it’s ever been,” he says. He accidentally joined Happy Mondays in the 1980s when Ryder urged him on stage at the Hacienda, and he has been dancing ever since.
He now says with pride, “I’m a dancer,” and notes the band is “stronger than ever” with talk of a new album next year. He worries about the loss of support for young bands in the digital age: “I worry about how many young bands have got lost just because that support system ain’t there any more.”
Bez has found new fame through reality TV, including winning Celebrity Big Brother in 2005 and appearing on Gogglebox with Ryder. He has just started ITV’s Cooking With the Stars, where he struggled with meringue quenelles but gained four new dishes from chef Kate Austen. He says he never made much money from music, but “I probably made more money out of television.”
Reflecting on his life, he says, “I never wish for more. I always dread the day that it’s over.” He has no regrets: “I wouldn’t be the man I am now if I hadn’t lived the way I lived. All I can say is I’ve expanded my own awareness, and for me, that is the meaning of life, really.”
