Excruciating second BBC Breakfast host asks Shaun Ryder and Bez if they’ll reunite with all the Happy Mondays – and pair level out that bandmate is DEAD

BBC Breakfast hosts Jon Kay and Sarah Campbell were left red in the face after making an excruciating faux pas as they were joined by Shaun Ryder and Bez.

The presenting pair sat down with the former Happy Mondays bandmates who were in the studio to promote their upcoming tour that celebrates 35 years since their studio album, Pills ‘N’ Thrills And Bellyaches.

Shaun, 63, and Bez, 61, real name Mark Berry, were quizzed over what fans can expect from the tour, which kickstarts in March. 

But Sarah, 50, soon put her foot in it, when she asked if the ‘whole band were going to get back together’ for performances that would happen on stage. 

Shaun was quick to hit back that the band would naturally be missing one member, his brother Paul, who died in July 2022 at the age of 58. 

Paul had reportedly been suffering from ischaemic heart disease and diabetes before his shock passing, which left the band heartbroken.  

Shaun told Sarah: ‘Well, apart from our kid, because he’s dead,’ leaving his bandmate Bez, Sarah and Jon in a stunned silence for a number of seconds. 

Brushing off the awkward blunder, Shaun continued: ‘But we have Mikey – he was in the band before our Paul came back for about ten years, then Paul came back, and died… so Mikey got his job back.’

Leaving another long awkward silence, Jon then swiftly moved on to talk about the album and more about the details of the tour, as well as Shaun’s health. 

Jon asked: ‘How are you physically, because you weren’t well before Christmas?’ to which Shaun explained: ‘I got pneumonia. 

‘I was on tour [and] I ended up with pneumonia. I had to throw everything I could down me, every sort of painkiller and everything else just to get through it.’

The musician revealed how his health had rapidly declined leading to him collapsing the day before his friend, Stone Roses bassist Mani’s funeral. 

‘I couldn’t even go to the funeral, Mani’s funeral,’ Shaun explained. ‘I got back the day before Mani’s funeral and collapsed, so I couldn’t even go…

‘Like I say, you have to get the job done on the tour, we’re old school you know.’

Shaun took a course of antibiotics to help him recover, with Bez adding: ‘I did tell him he had to get better, but it took about six weeks before he started listening.’ 

‘In the end, I got antibiotics and that was like a nuclear bomb going off, so that sorted me out quite quick. I’ve only been out of bed about four days,’ Shaun added. 

Happy Mondays will head on tour across 22 dates from March, performing in London, Nottingham, Newcastle, and their home town of Manchester. 

Shaun and Bez will reunite with Mark Day, Dary Whelan and Dan Broad to perform hits from Pills ’N’ Thrills and Bellyaches, including Step On, Kinky Afro and Loose Fit. 

They will also perform hits 24 Hour Party People, Judge Fudge and Hallelujah. 

Shaun and his younger brother Paul were the original founders of The Happy Mondays that first formed in Salford in 1980.

Paul was found dead in July 2022, before the band were due to play at Kubix Festival in Sunderland.

The band paid tribute with a Facebook post at the time which read: ‘The Ryder family and Happy Mondays band members are deeply saddened and shocked to say that Paul Ryder passed away this morning.

‘A true pioneer and legend. He will be forever missed. We thank you for respecting the privacy of all concerned at this time.’

A coroner ruled Ryder died of Ischaemic heart disease and diabetes. 

While his brother Shaun insisted his sibling’s death was not due to drugs, Paul had previously been very open about his addiction battles in the early days of the band when he used heroin.

In a candid interview in 2007, he said of the drug use: ‘It was wild. I was 18 and recording an album. I’d learnt how to read and write at school but my real education began with the Mondays.

‘I’d been using drugs since I was 17. If you have the money and the lifestyle it’s part and parcel of the job, especially when people in the industry are giving it to you for free.

‘That was especially the case in America. They learned pretty quickly that if there were no drugs, then there was no show.’

His brother Shaun has also opened up about his 20-year drug addiction in the past.

In 2014, Paul told MailOnline how he treated his now 16-year-old son’s cancer with cannabis.

He had said that as a recovering addict he would never have encouraged Chico to take drugs.

But when faced with his son’s diagnosis – a rare form of soft tissue cancer – the musician said he and his wife took the decision to use cannabis oil.

Breakfast airs weekdays from 6am on BBC One and iPlayer