Shaun Ryder

Shaun William George Ryder (born 23 August 1962) is an English singer, songwriter and poet.

Shaun William George Ryder was born on 23 August 1962 in Little Hulton, Lancashire, the son of nurse Linda and postman Derek (who would later become Happy Mondays's tour manager).

By the age of 13, he had left school to work on a building site.

As lead singer of Happy Mondays, he was a leading figure in the Madchester cultural scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The column was ghostwritten with journalist John Warburton, who would write a book about the Happy Mondays reunion in the late 1990s, and co-credited it to Ryder.

He said he "didn't really have anything to do with it at all," explaining that Warburton had approached him to write a biography.

Ryder said he was not interested in the idea at the time, but allowed him to accompany the band on tour and document the proceedings.

In 1993, he formed Black Grape with former Happy Mondays dancer Bez.

He was the runner-up on the tenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

In 1993 Ryder launched his new project, Black Grape.

Ryder collaborated with Intastella in 1993 on the track "Can You Fly Like You Mean It?"

Its first release, It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah (1995), topped the British album chart for a week.

and in 1997, Ryder featured on the Agent Provocateur studio album Where the Wild Things Are on track 'Agent Dan'.

However, the follow-up studio album, Stupid Stupid Stupid, did not achieve the same critical nor commercial success, and the group broke-up in 1998.

Ryder has taken part in two reformations of Happy Mondays (1999–2000 and 2004–present).

In 2000, following the Big Day Out Festival in Australia with Happy Mondays, Ryder stayed on in Perth, Western Australia with Pete Carroll, who had a record label called Offworld Sounds.

While in Perth he recorded Amateur Night in the Big Top, an album of punk electronica with Carroll, Shane Norton, Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire and Lucky Oceans from American country band Asleep at the Wheel.

Uncut called it, "exhilarating stuff. Another wildly implausible Ryder comeback" while Ministry of Sound said it was "A remarkable album. The most vitriolic lyrics this side of [Bob] Dylan's 'Ballad of a Thin Man' and Sex Pistols 'EMI. The album was recorded quickly during a few late night sessions in Carroll's garage studio during an extremely hot Perth summer. The album was subsequently released on Offworld Sounds.

He appeared on British tenor Russell Watson's 2001 debut studio album The Voice, lending his vocals to a cover version of the Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé song "Barcelona".

Ryder's early years as a singer for Happy Mondays were depicted in the 2002 British biographical comedy drama film 24 Hour Party People, a semi-fictional account of Factory Records and the Manchester music scene of the 1980s and early 1990s.

In the film, Ryder is portrayed by Danny Cunningham.

He also released a solo studio album, Amateur Night in the Big Top, in 2003.

In 2004, Happy Mondays reunited to play a comeback gig called "Get Loaded in the Park" on Clapham Common, with only original members.

Two years later they released the single "Playground Superstar", featured in the football film Goal, which was released after Bez had won Celebrity Big Brother.

In 2004, Ryder had a voice acting role in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in which he played Maccer, a washed-up, masturbation-addicted musician who was planning a major comeback tour.

In 2004 he was the subject of Richard Macer's BBC3 documentary Shaun Ryder: The Ecstasy and the Agony.

Ryder appeared in Peter Kay's "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" charity music video in 2005.

Also in 2005, he collaborated with Gorillaz on "Dare", a song on their studio album Demon Days.

Chris Evans stated at the Brit Awards 2006 that the song was originally called "It's There", but was changed as Ryder's thick Mancunian accent made him pronounce the word "there" as "dare".

In 2021, he released his second solo studio album Visits from Future Technology.

In 2023, Ryder collaborated with the Lottery Winners on the track "Money" from their studio album Anxiety Replacement Therapy.

This track was released as a single on 16 February 2023.

Ryder wrote a column for the Daily Sport, in which he commented on current events and celebrities.

In 2006, he appeared in Shameless (series 6 episode 3) as himself.

In 2007 Happy Mondays released the studio album, Uncle Dysfunktional.

In 2009 he made a cameo appearance as himself in Channel 4 drama Shameless.

The group reformed briefly in 2010, and released a single in 2015, and in August 2017, released Pop Voodoo, their first studio album since 1997.

Ryder was a contestant on the tenth series of ITV's reality game show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2010, where he finished second behind Stacey Solomon.

In 2011, Ryder published his autobiography, Twisting My Melon: The Autobiography.

It was optioned by Granada Television and writer Danny Brocklehurst enlisted to write the screenplay.