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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Nathan Bevan & Vicki Newman

Inside Dancing On Ice star Bez's remote Welsh home where he brews his own booze

Dancing On Ice star Bez might live in a remote home in Wales - but he's proved his party days aren't fully behind him.

The Happy Mondays star has revealed that he brews his own booze, and joked that it's a good job he doesn't have any neighbours nearby.

Bez and his pal Shaun Ryder were a key part of Manchester's music scene in the 90s, and they were as famous for their drinking and drug taking as they were for their hits Step On and Kinky Afro.

But these days, while he's not training for Dancing On Ice, Bez has settled into a remote home on the Welsh border, where WalesOnline say he's swapped maraca shaking for brewing his own "hedgerow booze".

Bez lives in a remote home in Wales (@bezmondays/instagram)

The 57-year-old said: "It's been a revelation to me - to the way I live and think.

"It's done me good and I've made some great friends. Everyone's treated me very kindly and it's been a really interesting place to live."

Bez - real name Mark Berry - says he's in the midst of a love affair with Wales that began many years ago.

He loves not having any neighbours (@bezmondays/instagram)

He had ended up living part time on a commune near Swansea called Cwm Yr Hoel Farm after meeting some "aristocratic Welsh hippies who owned a bit of land" at 2004's Glastonbury festival.

It was at the commune that Bez learned how to keep bees and become more attuned to nature.

And he also found out that he didn't need to distance himself too much from his old rock 'n' roll life.

Bez is currently competing in Dancing On Ice (@bezmondays/instagram)

He said: "I started brewing my own hedgerow booze too, made from all natural ingredients.

"At one point I was doing all sorts - honey beer, cider and elderflower wine. The last one I did was like 22% proof or something.

He has plenty of canine companions (@bezmondays/instagram)

"It tasted more like a liqueur than a wine.

"This year's crop hasn't been as good though 'cos I've been busy and it's all gone off the boil a bit."

"Probably for the best when it comes the old waistline though", he joked.

"I'm a lot fitter now than I was at the start of 2021, put it that way.

On Celebrity Gogglebox with pal Shaun Ryder (channel 4)

"By the time the first lockdown kicked in during 2020 I'd had a lot a friends staying with me and I piled the weight on - which is as you'd expect when you're drinking 33 pints a week.

"Luckily we didn't have to worry about waking the neighbours because we haven't got any. The main part of the house dates back to the 1600s and is quite out of the way."

* Dancing On Ice airs Sundays on ITV

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