Shaun Ryder's Biography

Shaun Ryder had massive hits throughout the 1980s and in the 1990s as the frontman of the Happy Mondays, until the band split in 1992, including Kinky Afro, Step On and Hallelujah.

Happy Mondays were at the forefront of the Madchester scene and were well-known for their heavy use of illegal drugs.

In 1993, Shaun Ryder formed another band, Black Grape with his Happy Mondays sidekick Bez and rapper Kermit, but the band dissolved in 1998 and a year later the Happy Mondays reformed.

In The Guardian, filmmaker Richard Macer, who made the documentary Shaun Ryder: The Ecstasy And The Agony, wrote about Ryder being sued in the 1990s by Black Grape's managers:

"They'd claimed unfair dismissal and won, but he countersued, stating he was high on cannabis when he signed the contract. The judge was unsympathetic and legend has it that Shaun called him a "fucking twit in a wig". Today he still owes over a quarter of a million pounds and is mired in legal proceedings."

The Mirror, in an interesting article on Shaun Ryder’s craziest moments, pointed out that Ryder has been in memorable collaborations with Damon Albarn's Gorillaz and fellow Manchester United supporter Russell Watson in a version of Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé's Barcelona.

In November 2010 Shaun Ryder, encouraged by his six children, pulled out of a tour with the Gorillaz to go on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

He ended up being the runner-up on the show.

His rock band Black Grape were part of the team that recorded We Are England, the unofficial England anthem for Euro 2016.

In 2019, Faber published Wrote for Luck: Selected Lyrics, in which Shaun Ryder annotated his own words and according to The Spectator's review, "Wrote for Luck does add up to a rich and at times arresting portrait both of the man himself and the 1980s Manchester scene ..."