Shaun Ryder always wanted to be a rapper.

Shaun Ryder

Shaun Ryder

The Black Grape frontman felt it was "effeminate" to be a singer and admits the indie sound of his group Happy Mondays would have been very different if he'd gone in the direction he wanted.

He said: "Singing, to us growing up, was quite effeminate. It was one thing singing hymns, but to be an actual singer was like, oo-er.

"You could say, 'Well, you weren't technically a singer, like Dylan or Rotten weren't - then it's different, right? But I never wanted to be a singer, more like a rapper. The only reason the Mondays didn't go in that direction was because white dudes didn't do that in 198-f***ing-2, know what I mean?

"So we had to adapt into an indie-ish sort of thing, but in my own head, I was a rapping Bob Dylan."

The 'Kelly's Heroes' hitmaker is working with Black Grape again this year, but admitted he was initially planning to reform Happy Mondays until it proved too difficult to arrange.

He said: "There's six people in that band, including Rowetta, so getting anything together with them is slightly harder than just with me and [Kemit] here, so that's why it turned into a Black Grape album."

But percussionist Bez - a member of both bands - isn't involved in the reunion for "business" reasons.

Shaun explained: "Why pay top dollar for the Mondays, if you can have Shaun and Bez for cheaper in Black Grape?

"So that's how it is now, you're not having Shaun and Bez unless it's on television or it's in Happy Mondays."

And the former 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!' star has a plan in mind to promote his new record

He told Q magazine: "I can't talk too much about it but I've just been offered two different reality shows, which would mean going out on primetime TV every night of the f**ing week, and what have I got coming out? A new Black Grape album."

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