Entertainment
Happy Mondays star Bez cutting back on cider and cakes to get in shape after ‘piling the weight on’ in lockdown
Happy Mondays star Bez recalled the ‘wake up call’ during lockdown that made him want to focus on getting fit.
The performer, 56, said he was ‘shocked and horrified’ to discover that clothes he brought before the pandemic no longer fitted him after ‘piling on the pounds’.
He launched online fitness series Get Buzzin’ With Bez that saw him work with a personal trainer from Fit Forward and begin a lifestyle overhaul.
The dancer, real name Mark Berry, also tried yoga and hypnotherapy to try and improve his health.
Bez is still feeling the benefits of the exercise programme, telling Metro.co.uk that he has cut back on drinking after, like many of us, indulging during lockdown.
He confessed his weaknesses were cakes, sweets and cider.
Bez said: ‘I did drink a lot, drank lots of cider, ate lots, and because I wasn’t on the road dancing and doing the things I normally do, I piled the weight on.
‘I was shocked and horrified when I came to put clothes on that I’d bought before the lockdown started and I couldn’t get them on. That was the wake up call. And I’m getting older now so I can’t rely on the natural metabolism I used to have to keep myself slim and active. I’ve got to work at it now.
‘I’ve got me flexibility back and I feel so much better, and I’m sleeping better at night which is great.’
When asked whether he had cut anything out completely to stay in shape, he told us: ‘I did give up cakes and sweets and I’ve not been drinking for weeks, but saying that I just ate a packet of shortbread biscuits, so I keep falling off the wagon!
‘My girlfriend said to me there “I thought you was on a diet?”, scoffed the full packet of biscuits with me tea.’
As well as his re-energised enthusiasm for keeping fit, Bez is turning his hand to something completely different entirely – the world of horse racing.
He is launching The Bez Racing Club, inviting members a shared experience of racehorse ownership and regular entertainment from the man himself.
The £59 membership will allow fans to buy into a thoroughbred racehorse, delightfully named Mystic Moonshadow after it came to him in a dream.
Any prize money from Mystic Moonshadow’s future races will be going to Coffee 4 Craig, a Manchester-based homeless charity Bez has been involved with for seven years.
‘Over the lockdown there was a full moon and we’d been out, me and my son, to do moon shadow dancing to the moon, and we was having a really good time,’ he explained.
‘When I knew I was getting involved with the horses I started dreaming about them a lot, I’d wake up screaming “Go on Moon Shadow!”, shouting at the top me voice. That’s when I decided on the name.
‘The mystic came in because Moonshadow was a popular name and had been taken, we had to think of something to put in the front of it, so we come up with Mystic Moonshadow.’
The music star added: ‘I hope it’s gonna be half as exciting as a Dick Francis novel myself, I’ll probably be a bit disappointed!’ he joked.
Bez is crossing everything that Mystic comes good in the races, but either way, he’s fallen for her, as has his youngest son who is keen on learning to ride himself.
‘Mystic looks mystic, proper magical and beautiful’ Bez said.
‘I might be slightly biased, but I’ve never seen a horse more beautiful in all my life. The best looking, beautiful, fastest-running horse I’ve ever met.’
To join the Bez Racing Club head to www.bezracingclub.com to become an exclusive member.
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