Singer, Rowetta joined the Manchester band on three world tours but while many expressed their jealousy, she said being on a tour bus wasn't all it was cracked up to be
Touring with the Happy Mondays was a smelly business, singer Rowetta has revealed.
The musician, known for her Step On vocals with the band, said it was far from happy due to people “pooing in beds” on the tour bus. Drug and alcohol addiction issues within the band also made it grim, she said.
Speaking on the Loose Ends podcast, the 58-year-old said: “People used to go ‘I wish I was like you’ because they thought being on a tour bus with a load of Happy Mondays would be much more fun.
“There were people pooing in beds on the bus and of course the addiction and stuff. It’s fun when you’re younger but honestly it’s not as much fun as it sounds.”
Rowetta did three world tours with the Manchester band fronted by Shaun Ryder in the 1990s before making the quarter finals of X-Factor in 2004.
The news comes after Rowetta announced her sudden departure from Happy Mondays after 34 years with the band.
She first joined in 1990, and stuck with them as a guest artist throughout the group’s breakups and reunions. In a post shared on Instagram in December, however, she and the band revealed that their time together was at an end.
“Happy Mondays and Rowetta announce that Rowetta will no longer be performing with the band,” their statement read. “Happy Mondays thank Rowetta for her services and wish her the best for the future.” Neither Rowetta nor the band offered an explanation for the decision, and comments were turned off on the post. Just last year, Rowetta gushed over her career when speaking to the Mirror. "I'm really, really proud to be one of the only women in this Madchester scene,” she said.
“All the famous people from Manchester, a lot of them are male and white. So it's important to me to represent. It's important to me to represent little girls from Manchester because when I was a little girl growing up, there were not very many famous women singers."
Rowetta added: "Look at me, I'm doing it now. I'm playing everywhere still. I'm singing with everybody still, and that's incredible. You can do what you want, not as a backing singer." The star also explained that she wants to keep singing with as many people and different genres as she can.
"I don't care if I'm up there with the boys because the fame can be a double-edged sword -we all know that. It's not the fame that I want, but it is to be recognised for what I do,” she shared.
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