[Amy]

MANCHESTER musical greats the Happy Mondays are enjoying a revival in record sales 15 years after their peak - and it's all down to reality TV.

The appearance of dancer Bez on Celebrity Big Brother, following on from backing singer Rowetta's performances on the X-Factor, has boosted sales of the band's old albums by more than 100 per cent.

But the unhappy truth for Bez and Rowetta is that they are unlikely to profit from the Mondays revival. The band was one of the major players in the "Madchester" scene of the late Eighties and early Nineties, with the Stone Roses, James and Inspiral Carpets, before collapsing in 1993 amid stories of feuding, drugs and debts.

A series of comebacks by the band have failed to make a serious impact on the charts. But the current wave of reality TV has done the trick.

High-profile

Bez, alias Mark Berry, is now favourite to win Celebrity Big Brother. The revival in his fortunes comes just two months after ex-backing singer Rowetta became one of the hits of the ITV talent show X-Factor.

The high-profile return of two of the Mondays' most recognisable faces has prompted a revival in interest in the band.

While their albums are not yet racing to the top of the charts, online music retailer Amazon is reporting a huge increase in sales of Happy Mondays CDs.

The biggest success appears to be their Greatest Hits album, which is leaping up Amazon's best sellers list with every passing day.

At the start of this week it reached 2,672 in the amazon.co.uk charts, and by last night had risen to No 342.

But while Bez and Rowetta may be responsible for the increase in sales, they are unlikely to see much of the money the success will generate.

Happy Mondays songs were always written by the group as a whole, and by the time Rowetta joined in 1990 there were seven members. At best, Bez and Rowetta will each receive a mere seventh of any proceeds from the record sales - and as they were the dancer and backing singer, the true figure could be much less.

Happy Mondays albums were originally released by Manchester's famous Factory records. But when that crashed with huge debts more than a decade ago, the rights to all Factory's back catalogue were purchased by London Records, which will now benefit from the increased interest.

London Records, owned by the giant Warner Music, can now make a lot of money from the Happy Mondays, even though it never employed the band.

Bez's and Rowetta's return to the public eye is the latest in a varied series of ventures by members of the Happy Mondays.

Former singer and frontman Shaun Ryder went on to form Black Grape with Bez and former members of other Mancunian bands. Black Grape fell apart in 1998, when Shaun re-formed the Happy Mondays for two years.

Bassist Paul Ryder and drummer Gaz Whelan formed the band Buffalo 66, but did not hit the big time.

Guitarist Mark Day teamed up with eccentric Manchester artist-musician Edward Barton in 1997, and keyboard player Paul Davis worked with Rowetta.

Article Manchester Online