Shaun Ryder says the new Happy Mondays album won’t be out until at least 2019.
The group’s singer had originally planned to drop their follow-up to 2007’s ‘Uncle Dysfunktional’ this year, but because of their hectic schedules and everyone living in different parts of the world, they’ve put it off for the next two years.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, the 54-year-old rocker – who is also joined by Bez, Gary Whelan, Mark Day, Paul Ryder and Rowetta in the band -said: "What we are doing now with this tour we are doing bits of all the albums. It’s trying to organise getting everyone together so we do a new Mondays album, which we’ve got to do sooner or later.
"We’ve got one in Los Angeles and one in Canada and they are all doing their own stuff.
"With Black Grape it’s just me and Kermit, that’s it. With the Mondays it is a bit more difficult to organise, but we will get there. We are hoping for 2019."
The ‘Step On’ hitmaker previously joked that the songs they have for the eagerly-awaited record sound like "drugged up f***ing nonsense".
He quipped: "The Mondays album is a load of drugged up f***ing nonsense. I tell wacky stories mixed in with ‘News At Ten’. Nothing political though, I leave that to Bez – he’s the politician in our band."
For the time being, fans of Ryder’s work will have to wait two more months for the new Black Grape album called ‘Pop Voodoo’, which is out on July 7.
Ryder is thrilled to have reunited with bandmate Kermit for their first album in 20 years, and admitted it has been a long time coming.
The former ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ star recently recalled: "The story goes back a bit. Round about 2009, just after the jungle or just before, I thought about doing Black Grape.
"I seemed to get a big burst of energy, obviously the Thyroxine and the testosterone, and so we did a one-off show.
"My manager at the time didn’t think about taking it further but I didn’t have Kermit involved.
"When I spoke to him I don’t think he was quite there yet, he wasn’t where I wanted him to be.
" I got Tom Piper in, who’s a well-known drum ‘n’ bass guy, to cover Kermit’s bit and we did one show and that was it.
"Then we were on the 20th anniversary of the album, which was something like 2015, and I spoke to Kermit again and he was in a good place.
"Why not? It was 20 years since that album, let’s do a few shows and go from there."
Happy Mondays album won’t be out until 2019
