Happy Mondays’ Bez thought he was going to die during his Covid-19 battle

Virgin Radio

6 Aug 2021, 15:58

The dancer, percussionist and Celebrity Googlebox star has revealed that he feared for his life when he came down with the virus last year. 

In an interview with The Daily Star, the Happy Mondays icon, otherwise known as Mark Berry, explained that he started to get ill at the start of the pandemic. He said, “I had Covid a week before they made the announcement.

“I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t tell if it was my heart or my lungs.

“I got to the hospital and I said, ‘I’ve been having this heart attack for three days,’ and they plugged me into the machines and everything and I had a swollen heart and a virus.”

According to The Daily Star, The Manchester legend was at a good level of fitness at the time, as he was in the midst of training for a boxing match against former Manchester United footballer Clayton Blackmore. The 57-year-old thinks that this helped him to recover from the virus. He said, “I continued my juicing and taking my vitamin C, drinking my apple cider vinegar and I did get over it very, very quickly.”

Unfortunately, Bez wasn’t the only member of the Happy Mondays’ gang to get the virus. His bandmate and TV-watching buddy on hit Channel 4 series Googlebox, Shaun Ryder, also came down with Covid-19. 

Bez told The Daily Star that Shaun suffered more than he did and that he “had it for like three weeks.” 

Explaining his bandmate’s condition at the time, Bez said, “He was hallucinating and having visitations from the aliens telling him he would be all right.

“I was quite worried about old Shaun as he isn’t the healthiest man in the world. I’ve always told him to take vitamin C and all that but he says, ‘I’m allergic to it’.

“But it transpired he could only eat fruit as he was that ill, and he has alopecia so all his hair has fallen out, but from only eating fruit and getting his vitamin C his hair started growing back. Like I told him, it was a Covid miracle!”

Happy Mondays, who played a cracking set at CarFest North recently, will be touring with James later this year.

Meanwhile, Bez has joined forces with house producer DJ Doorly to make his debut vocal appearance on the new track, Flying Bus, and Shaun’s authorised biography, Shaun Ryder’s Book of Mumbo Jumbo, is out in September.