Oh babe… 1991. A year when hair was big, egos were bigger, and absolutely no one – least of all Shaun Ryder – was behaving. So yes, let’s talk about the moment Bez and Shaun Ryder, the chaos gremlins of Happy Mondays, guest-edited an actual issue of Penthouse.
Not a lads mag. Not a cheeky calendar. Penthouse. And honestly? It might have been the greatest crossover since someone decided tequila should be allowed near humans, and if you want to see the madness for yourself, here’s the Happy Mondays causing chaos at the Penthouse offices:
The Scene: 1991, Manchester Running on Pure Adrenaline
Happy Mondays were everywhere – Top of the Pops, front pages, backstage, offstage, and probably across several dimensions. Two Page 3 Penthouse Babes Debee Ashby and Linzi Drew. Shaun himself admitted around that time:
“I have a recurring nightmare that everything’s going great, then suddenly I get 20 years for something really stupid.”
Relatable. And exactly the kind of energy you want in charge of a global adult magazine.
Meanwhile, Bez is somewhere in the shoot shouting about “vibes”, wearing sunglasses indoors, and giving direction like: “Make it sexy but, like… Hacienda sexy.” No one knows what that means. It still works.
The Penthouse Shoot: Glamour, Leather, Manc Madness
The photos, captured by Kevin Cummins, look like someone handed the keys of Penthouse to two men who normally lose their keys inside nightclubs – Leather jackets, Glamour models, Black-and-white attitude. A Manc twinkle that says, “We’ve not slept since Thursday.” And the press ate it up. As The Independent would later write.
“Even when they were interviewed for Penthouse, appearing in a bath with naked models, the press revelled in these working-class heroes made successful.”
Honestly? Iconic.
Why Penthouse Wanted Them
1. They were chaos with charm
Shaun long knew what he was like:
“My mouth gets me into trouble every time… I’ve been trying to work out what makes me so self-destructive.”
And that is exactly the personality a 1991 glamour mag editor dreams of.
2. They were working-class heroes
Shaun put it perfectly:
“I was in Set 4 at school – everyone called it the thick set, so I stayed away.”
Imagine going from “the thick set” to editing Penthouse. Only in Britain, babes.
3. They were pure vibe
A glamour mag in 1991 wasn’t about coy smiles – it was attitude, swagger, and a bit of “come on then if you’re hard enough.” Nobody embodied that better than the Happy Mondays.
The Money, The Madness, The Mojo
By that point, The Mondays were basically spending cash like bank accounts were optional accessories. Shaun even admitted:
“From 1989 on we spent everything… All I’ve got now is my house and the three grand a month in my bank account.”
So when Penthouse came knocking, of course they said yes. Chaos doesn’t negotiate, it gets booked.
Manchester Owned Them
In that same interview Shaun said:
“Sometimes I think this city owns me.”
And you can feel that in every frame, that Manc swagger, that tired glamour, that “I’ve been through it but I still look unreal” energy. It’s that specific grimy-gloss aesthetic you don’t really see anymore unless you’re:
- a rockstar on a come-down
- a nude model mid late-night set on Babestation live sex cams
- or someone stumbling through Piccadilly at 2am pretending they’ve got their life together
Same energy. Different decade. Same chaos.
Why This Shoot Still Hits Today
Because it captures a very specific cultural cocktail:
- music smashing into rave culture
- glamour mags trying to stay relevant while everything was changing
- lads’ mags quietly waiting in the wings
- chaos being sold as entertainment before anyone had a word for it
- and two men who absolutely did not believe in “media training”
It’s the same DNA that later became Loaded, FHM, Nuts, Zoo, Babestation, and eventually OnlyFans. In 1991, Bez and Shaun weren’t “guest editors.”
They were the algorithm before the algorithm existed.
Final Word – With Love to Mani
Two Manc legends.
One Penthouse takeover.
A bathtub full of models.
An editorial team running on pure panic and cigarettes.
A nation completely locked in.
And now, a bittersweet footnote – because we’ve lost Gary “Mani” Mounfield, the bassline heartbeat of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream. A man who didn’t just soundtrack Madchester – he was Madchester. Mischief, music, attitude, and that effortless sense of chaos dressed up as charm.
If you scroll those shots back today, that’s what you’re really looking at: not just an era, but a feeling. Music, mischief, glamour, and a city that never really learned how to behave.
Rest in rhythm, Mani.
Rest in chaos.
Rest in style.
And if that era still hits something in you — the unfiltered energy, the late-night glamour, the “rules don’t apply” vibe, you already know where that lives now.
