Shaun Ryder reveals ‘surreal’ moment best mate Bez ‘arranged his funeral’

Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder has spoken about the ‘surreal’ experience of seeing his best mate Bez plan his funeral.

Shaun, 61, is best known as the lead singer of the English rock band, which formed in Manchester in 1980.

In 1993, he went on to form Black Grape with former Happy Mondays dancer and percussionist Mark ‘Bez’ Berry, now 60.

However, the long-time friends and collaborators have now embarked on another project together – planning Shaun’s funeral.

After battling drug addiction during the height of his fame, Shaun is now clean, but has signed up for a new Channel 4 series Celebrity Send Off, which sees famous duos take part in a unique experiment to organise a fake funeral for their celebrity counterpart with support and advice from the experts of Co-op Funeralcare. 

The three-part series begins with Bez being tasked with organising Shaun’s funeral, with the pair speaking about the somewhat bizarre experience.

In the episode Bez takes on the role of arranger as Shaun prepares to think about what he’d like for his own funeral, with both agreeing they’d like to respect his Catholic upbringing with a traditional church service.

However, they then face competing ideas about burials and cremations, transport methods and floral design.

Bez also wants to nod to Shaun’s experience with UFOs and Extra-Terrestrial life, which informs the themes of the floral arrangement and wake, as well as recognise their working class roots they shared in Salford, which has an impact on his eulogy.

He then has the idea to commemorate the home Shaun grew up in with a special plaque.

Reflecting on the experience, Bez said it was ‘a bit of a weird one as I didn’t want to think about my best mate dying’, but that he ‘actually enjoyed getting creative and thinking of some ideas for his fake funeral that I knew he’d be chuffed with’.

‘I got really into it and imagined him looking down (…or up!) and laughing at what I’d organised for him.’

He added: ‘Standing next to him when we watched his funeral together on the big screen got me a bit emotional to be honest! Does make you realise though, it’s a good idea to talk to the folk you love whilst you’ve still got them beside you so you can give them the send-off they deserve….and want!’

Meanwhile Shaun said it was all ‘surreal to say the least’ but that seeing what Bez created for him ‘made me appreciate the importance of having open conversations about funeral wishes as it’s not something we really do’.

Although Happy Mondays is currently on hiatus, Shaun and Bez have appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox together in the past, with Shaun also being the runner-up on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! in 2010.

The other pairs taking part in the Channel 4 online series are Gogglebox’s Marcus Luther and his wife Mica Ven and Olympian Kriss Akabusi and his daughter Shakira Akabusi.

Celebrity Send Off is streaming today from 6pm on Channel 4’s YouTube channel.  

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