- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Pan Books (4 Sep 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330370545
- ISBN-13: 978-0330370547
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 417,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Synopsis
Bez is best known as the man with the maracas and side-kick of Shaun Ryder in The Happy Mondays. In this book, Bez tells how he lived in a Morrocan cave with a man who made his own LSD and, when thrown out of home by his policeman father, lived in a fully furnished shed for two years.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is the best read I've had in ages. Laugh out load? Of course I did. The common theme throughout the book is humour and on several occasions I was litterally rolling around on the floor with my sides splitting. Bez, the young scally from Salford made good, well sort of anyway. The book follows his life from birth to present day with the most attention not suprisingly paid to his time with the Monday's and the period just before he joined them. From knocking off golf equipment from a clubhouse, to working as a Morrocan tourist guide in the full north african attire Bez has done it all. And he did it all with the planning and appearance of a complete nutcase. I'm sure many have fallen by the wayside trying follow the same path as Bez but here's a man who made it. A man who stuck two fingers up at convention and made a name for himself as the nutcase from Manchester who took loads of drugs and played Marracca's in the band that was 'Madchester'. If you were there in '88, if your one of the chemical generation, if you wore a mustard yellow hooded top with baggy purple tracksuit bottoms or even if you just like a good story and good laugh this book is for you. Highly Reccomended.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the most entertaining and enjoyable read available in the shops today.Bez's life is one of stunning highs and lows and he conveys this quite brilliantly.From his forays in a Morrocan cave to the Free Trade Hall, Bez lets us into his life through his own eyes.Any fan of the Happy Mondays or Black Grape should make sure that they have a copy!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bez - Freaky Dancing (Pan) If you want to read about music and about a particular rave scene, the Mancunian one from the point of view of someone who was on the stage, entertaining the E-heads smiling and hugging each other on the wings of a dove, then this is your kinda book. Mark "Bez" Berry, the Happy Mondays' fandangle in the disguise of a maraca man tells us his story from his happy and rather normal childhood through his difficult adolescence made of jail, hippy like travels through Greece, Spain and Morocco, up to his final and legendary meeting with X, AKA Shaun Ryder, the Mondays' voice. From a first casual gig shaking maracas and tripping on acid, Bez is fully integrated to official member of the band. The travel through stardom is then an apparently easy one, but it is always studded with ganga, acid, heroin, cocaine and finally eckies, those "little fellas" who stole the scene in Manchester. Fundamental are the parts regarding The Haçienda, with its pillars painted in hazard stripes and traffic bollards. Here the reader can get more than a simple glimpse of the Factory stars New Order, while meeting Bernard Sumner and seeing just a glimpse of Hooky. Between a gig in New York, one in Manchester, a trip to Ibiza, a mega festival in Brazil and the final disastrous adventure in the Carribean, the book ends up having the same ups and downs given by drugs, with some interestingly intriguing chapters and some flat ones, shorter if compared to the pluri-detailed chapters of the beginning. Anyway, don't blame Bez for any imprecision, he was probably too stoned to allow his mind to record every detail and to take any precise note of the numberless gigs held by the Mondays. Take this book as the story of "the first guitar group that the new youth can relate to", as Paul Oakenfold dubbed them, a story which ironically ends with Ryder coded message to the Emi suits "I'm going for a Kentucky", never to come back. The Happy Mondays split and recently reunited, leaving a mark on the generation who popped thousands of pills since "it took the monotony out of bein on the dole or sinkin under the pressure of tryin to cope on criminally low wages in a desperate bid to maintain dignity". They were the "24 hour party people plastic face can't smile white out", they left us, but they left us high on pills, surely thrilled and occasionally bellyached.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
SURPRISINGLY GOOD
Wasn't sure if i'd get into this book. Yes i like bez's character,but can he tell a story?
He certainly can,this is a really funny book that feels as if he's talking to you... Read more
He certainly can,this is a really funny book that feels as if he's talking to you... Read more
Published 11 months ago by BAZ316
Here he goes.....
I read Bez's autobiography when it was first published in 2000, and I knew I would enjoy this book. Bez is a hilarious storyteller. Read more
Published on 17 July 2007 by Anita Guy
Freaky Dancin'
If you only ever read one autobiography, read this one.
It recalls the story of Bez, frontman with the Happy Mondays, and the trials and tribulations of a manic party animal... Read more
It recalls the story of Bez, frontman with the Happy Mondays, and the trials and tribulations of a manic party animal... Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2005
Crackin read for all mondays and Bez fans like myself
This book is brilliant starting with Bez`s early life breifly growing up in Manchester, Through the tough skint days he spent out of work... Read more
Published on 28 May 2002
Top One!
This is the baddest, maddest autobiography ever! A funny and occasionally shocking account of one man's chemical adventures in one of the best bands ever. A must - have.
Published on 6 Dec 2001
Praise the spirit of Bez and his maraccas!
Who cares if the Mondays live are nothing more than a group of lads pilled up to the eye balls simply remebering they had to walk on stage and mumble a few lyrics, they were magic! Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2000
For Bez Lovers Everywhere
If your a Bez/Ryder/Monday's fan then you'll love this book. The book is the ultimate insight into a barely living legend that is BEZ. Read more
Published on 1 April 1999
A book for all those people wanting to be in a band
This book explains the trials and tribulations of one of this countries finest ever bands. Written by Bez and in his own style it gives an amazing insight into the highs and lows... Read more
Published on 27 Nov 1998
Mad drugs, 'Boss' tunes and scally antics from the Mondays
For Bez to be able to write a book after all those years of crazy drug abuse and generally pissing about is, in itself, quite an achievement. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 1998
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