A HAPPY MONDAY WILL DO!
JUST a few months ago, music lover Sean Dyche was onstage with the Happy Mondays.
Now he’s looking for his Everton to Step On neighbours Liverpool and make it a happy Monday night for those of a blue persuasion.
Encouraged by the punk-loving Stuart Pearce (below) when they were together at Nottingham
Forest, Dyche is just as much at home at a music venue as he is in a football stadium.
“Pearcey was the leader of our musical group when I was a young pro at Forest,” he explained.
“He would sort out all the gigs, Spear of Destiny, The Stranglers, Stiff Little Fingers. Big Country, loads of different bands.
“We’d travel to Leicester’s De Montfort Hall, Leeds’ Townhouse, Nottingham’s Rock City. Chas, the groundsman, had been at Forest for years and we’d chuck him a few quid to borrow the minibus. Old school – a few beers and off to the gig.
“I’ve been to gigs by myself at times. But Stuart goes to loads by himself because he likes the punk bands.” During his break from the game following his Burnley sacking Dyche, who 18 months ago moved his family back to Nottingham, has been able to indulge his passion for music, which included taking in a Happy Mondays concert in the city.
Fellow Nottingham residents, Line Of Duty star Vicky McClure and her partner Jonny Owen, persuaded him to join Shaun Ryder, Bez and company onstage.
“Would I swap football for music? All day,” Dyche said.
“I said to Serge Pizzorno, from the band Kasabian who I’ve got to know, that surely with my voice I could front a band! I got to know Serge via his dad who was a really respected youth coach.”
Dyche also told how he and Pearce were once mistaken for rock stars after swapping the normal minibus for a limousine to take them and friends to Knebworth to watch Oasis.
“We turned up in this limo and there were people banging on the roof and windows, thinking we were one of the support bands,” he added, with a laugh.