I’ve had to apologise to the other celebrities for staying in Dancing on Ice, says Happy Mondays star Bez
STUMBLING about in safety gear with a helmet on his melon, Happy Mondays’ Bez has become the surprise star of this year’s Dancing On Ice.
Viewers can’t get enough of the indie band’s dancer and his madcap routines — voting for him over better skaters such as S Club 7 singer Rachel Stevens and ex-England rugby player Ben Foden, 36.
You’d think Bez would be chuffed. But instead, he is wracked with guilt and admits having made grovelling apologies to other contestants, including TV presenter Ria Hebden.
The 57-year-old told The Sun: “I feel so awful for everyone, like Ben. He skated brilliantly and he was really strong, doing massive lifts on his first skate. I felt really bad.
“Then Ria went out and I felt really bad again. Then Rachel went and she’s so beautiful. I was like, ‘Aarrrgh!’
“We’ve got a group chat and I send my love and that in there.
“I just feel so awful. The judges having the final say is my only saving grace. That stops me completely crumbling about it.”
Ben’s wife Jackie slated the ITV show online when her husband was ousted first, branding it a “pointless and unfair popularity contest”.
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And fans erupted in fury when Rachel, 43, left the skating contest at the weekend.
It is a loss that weighs heavily on Bez’s shoulders.
He said: “I feel guilty, especially when you know the people who have been voted out are actually better than you.
“Last week in the dress rehearsal I actually went through elimination. Now I know what it felt like to get eliminated.
“The public have given me massive support, which I really appreciate.
“I’m determined to improve again this week and skate a little bit better, and the other skaters are my inspiration now. I want to try to get somewhere near their level.”
For his fans, Bez’s turn on the ice has elevated him to national-treasure status, despite a series of trips and tumbles.
He was left dazed after striking his head on the ground in a nasty fall during rehearsals, sending his helmet flying across the rink.
He said: “I hate to think of myself as a treasure. But it’s such a lovely feeling knowing you’ve got the support of people who are watching.
“And through that I’m determined to hopefully carry on and keep entertaining.”
So far Bez has tottered around the ice to his band’s well-known 1990 track Step On, surrounded by dancing watermelons. In other routines he turned into Indiana Jones and donned a kilt for the Highland Fling.
But he is taking the contest seriously, so much so that the one-time party animal has quit booze entirely to help him stay focused.
Chatting on a rare day off, Bez said with a laugh: “You can’t carry a pint when you’re skating.
“I have to say though, I haven’t had a drink since Boxing Day.
“It’s not a good look to go on the ice with a hangover, is it? So I’m being fairly well behaved.”
Sobriety is not the only weapon up his sleeve as this week Bez and skating partner Angela Egan, 35, plan to “bribe” the judges.
He has brought jars of honey from the bees he keeps on his plot in Wales.
Bez said: “Happy Honeys, that’s my honey! I was gonna say I make it, but my bees make it.
“So I’m taking a bit of honey in to bribe the judges with at the end of the dance — a sweetener for them. I’m wearing a beekeeping outfit and Angela is going to be the bee.
“Hopefully she won’t be queen bee because they kill the males after mating and we wouldn’t want that.”
Bez made Dancing On Ice history when he became the first celebrity ever to wear a helmet on the live show.
His falls were so dramatic in the run-up to his debut that ITV bosses were terrified he would seriously injure himself on air.
And a month later, Bez says he is no closer to being allowed to remove his safety gear.
He said: “Yesterday I wasn’t actually even skating. I was stood at the side of the rink talking to Kimberly Wyatt and I went flying for six. I don’t even have to be skating now. I just stood at the barrier, so that was really embarrassing.
“That’s why I couldn’t go commando in my kilt. It could have been really embarrassing, not only for myself but the rest of the nation.
“You know, my maracas flying out in a tumble. It wouldn’t have been a pretty sight.”
Wobbly Bez is in more demand than ever — and yesterday he made his debut on the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks.
But he doesn’t reckon Hollywood is calling just yet.
He said: “It was a cameo role so that was great ’cos I got to play myself. I got to do a little scene at the Love Boat restaurant, then one in the pub. And it was a really nice afternoon. I got to do something a bit different to what I normally do.
“I don’t know about a regular role though, my acting is a bit like my skating.
“I don’t think I’d last very long in the business, to be truthful.”
Bez added: “Because I was playing myself, they kind of dressed me in that indie Manchester look with a little bucket hat on. I’ve been stereotyped, unfortunately!
“What I’d really like is to do a scene at the bar in Corrie, in the Rovers. That would be good.
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“I can drink a pint really well.”
- Dancing on Ice, ITV, Sunday at 6pm.
