Bez "an old man now," Out of Mondays' Reunion

Cigarette Tricks started exactly one month ago today with an enthusiastic post announcing the news of an upcoming reunion tour of '80s Manchester ravers, The Happy Mondays -- the first time all seven original members of the band were to have performed together since 1992. Well as it turns out it won't be the entire original lineup. We have the sad news today that the band's "freaky" dancer, maraca player and all-around stage-presence-extraordinaire, Mark Berry -- better known by his stage name, Bez -- has pulled out of the reunion. "Unfortunately age has caught up with me," the BBC quotes Bez as saying, "I'm an old man now...Sometimes you've got to hang up your boots gracefully." Yes, "gracefully": this from a man who became famous by dancing like a jackass, who has declared bankruptcy twice in the last ten years -- once after winning Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2005 -- and who was arrested in August of 2010 for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Monica Ward (of the UK band Domino Bones), and again in November 2010 for breaching a restraining order Ward was granted in the wake of the assault. So, yeah, Bez, the image of grace. Regardless, along with Shaun Ryder, Bez is the face of the Mondays, and their upcoming tour dates won't quite be a proper reunion without him. Read more about his decision to sit the tour out over at The Guardian.