HAPPY Mondays are returning with a “better than ever” show in Dunfermline.

The Manchester band are set to bring their greatest hits tour to the town on Friday.

The Happy Mondays’ classic line-up of frontman Shaun Ryder, Bez, Rowetta, Gary Whelan, Paul Ryder, Mark Day and Dan Broad will perform timeless hits such as Step On, Kinky Afro, Hallelujah and more.

The late 1980s saw the band become the pioneers of the Madchester sound, as they blended their love of funk, rock, psychedelia and house with the sounds of the UK’s emerging rave scene.

The band’s third album, 1990’s platinum-selling ‘Pills ‘n’ Thrills And Bellyaches’, led to them crossing over into the mainstream to become icons of Britain’s biggest cultural phenomenon for a generation.

There have been plenty of ups and downs since then but lead singer Shaun Ryder has lived to tell the tale and says he’s doing better than ever, as he describes what fans can expect from the upcoming tour.

He said: “We will still be alive. We will still be breathing.

“It will be a good show, better than ever really.

“The sex and drugs have gone and now it’s just the rock ‘n’ roll.

“We are better than ever live and when I listen to the old records – like when we took Bummed out and I listened to the album for the first time since 1988 – I said to myself: ‘Pat yourself on the back, lad’.

“Between me and you, the Mondays onstage now are better than ever.

“We are adults now and everyone can see the truth. We worked out how to be a band.

“We all get to the gig differently and show each other respect ... and it doesn’t hurt that the songs are brilliant!”

Shaun continued: “I’m not an artist and I don’t say I come alive on stage.

“When I walk on stage I feel naked and I feel like I’m dying. I’m not a proper artist.

“I come alive when I come off stage and I’m with normal people and I can be Shaun.

“I don’t have to be off my nut any more.

“I’m happy with who I am. I know from doing TV that I can just go and act, play the part.”

In 2016, the Happy Mondays won the Ivor Novello’s Inspiration Award, further cementing their reputation as one of Britain’s most influential and loved bands.

They’ll take to the Alhambra stage this Friday, with doors from 7pm.

Tickets are £32.50 and are available by phone at the venue’s box office: 01383 740384/733666 or online via: www.ticketmaster.co.uk