Shaun Ryder

Shaun Ryder
Ryder at the Coachella Music Festival, 2007.
Background information
Birth name	Shaun William Ryder
Also known as	X
Born	23 August 1962 (1962-08-23) Little Hulton, Salford, England
Genres	Alternative dance, Madchester
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, television personality, author, columnist, actor
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Factory
Associated acts	Bez, Happy Mondays, Black Grape, Gorillaz
Website	happymondaysonline.com

Shaun William Ryder, aka X, (born 23 August 1962 in Salford, Greater Manchester) is an English musician, occasional newspaper columnist, actor, author, singer-songwriter and television personality, best known as lead singer for Happy Mondays and Black Grape – and more recently as the runner-up of the 2010 version of the British TV Show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Happy Mondays era

1980–92

As the singer for Happy Mondays, Ryder's "often witty lyrics are the stuff of legend". Tony Wilson is known for having compared Ryder's lyricism to the work of W.B. Yeats. Ryder's struggle with drugs led to the break-up of the Mondays in 1992. The film 24 Hour Party People featured the (semi-fictional) story of Shaun Ryder's youth and the life of Happy Mondays whilst signed with Factory Records in the late eighties and early nineties. In the film Ryder is portrayed by Danny Cunningham.

Black Grape era

1993–98

Despite rumours of how his substance abuse had finally caught up with him, Ryder returned to the spotlight in 1995 with his new project, Black Grape, an immediate short-term success whose first release, It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah, topped the British album chart for a week. However, the follow-up album, Stupid Stupid Stupid, did not achieve the same critical or commercial success, and the group split in 1998.

Newspaper column & Television career

1999–present

Ryder wrote a column for the Daily Sport newspaper in which he gave his own take on current news events and celebrity goings-on. It was in this column that Ryder famously announced his intention to reform the Happy Mondays before even making any fellow former members aware of this.

Ryder has taken part in two reformations of the Happy Mondays (1999–2000 and 2004–) and released a solo album, Amateur Night in the Big Top, to mixed critical acclaim. He was involved in litigation with former Black Grape management, which he eventually lost.

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 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 Magazine 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 Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" and the 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.

In 2004, The Mondays reunited to play a comeback gig called "Get Loaded In The Park" on Clapham Common with the only original members being Bez, Shaun Ryder and Gaz Whelan. Two years later they released the single "Playground Superstar", used in the football movie Goal, which was released after Bez had won Celebrity Big Brother.

In 2004, Ryder landed the job of a voice actor in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in which he played Maccer, a washed-up, self-abused musician who was planning a major comeback tour in 1992.

In 2007 the Happy Mondays produced yet another album, Uncle Dysfunktional., In 2009 he made a cameo appearance (Ryder later revealed that it was also a non-speaking role) as himself in Channel 4 drama Shameless.

In 2010, he supported The Charlatans on a UK tour, as well as one off headline show at The Assembly, Leamington Spa.

Ryder was a contestant on the tenth series of ITV's reality game show I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, where he finished second behind Stacey Solomon. In 2011, he published his autobiography, Twisting My Melon.

In January 2011, Ryder appeared on the 1st series of the ITV programme "That Sunday Night Show", and again on the 2nd series in September 2011.

Collaborations

In 2005, he collaborated with the Gorillaz on "DARE", a song on their Demon Days album. In the music video, he is featured as a large disembodied head kept alive through a series of tubes and electronic wires, living in animated band member Noodle's closet. It was stated by the commentator on the 2006 BRIT Awards that the song's name came from Ryder's inability to pronounce the word "there".

Ryder also collaborated with ex-Talking Heads Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz on their post-David Byrne album No Talking, Just Head. He has also collaborated with Intastella and appeared on Peter Kay's "Is This The Way to Amarillo?" charity music video.

Ryder’s most unusual collaboration is his appearance on the British tenor Russell Watson’s 2001 debut album The Voice. Ryder lent his vocals to the Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé song "Barcelona". Russell Watson claimed on Never Mind The Buzzcocks that he recorded some of Ryder's vocals himself. Ryder also collaborated with fellow 'I'm a Celebrity' contestant Stacey Solomon at the 2011 National Television Awards on 26 January 2011

Discography

Happy Mondays

• 1987 – Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)
• 1988 – Bummed
• 1990 – Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches
• 1992 – Yes Please!
• 2007 – Uncle Dysfunktional

Black Grape

• 1995 – It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah
• 1997 – Stupid Stupid Stupid

Solo

• 2003 – Amateur Night in the Big Top

Compilation

• 2010 – Shaun William Ryder XXX: 30 Years Of Bellyaching

Awards

• NME Single Of The Year 1996 – Black Grape's "Reverend Black Grape"
• Godlike Genius – NME Awards 2000
• John Peel Music Innovation Award (for Gorillaz) – Shockwaves NME Awards 2006

Bibliography

• Middles, Mick (1997). Shaun Ryder – Happy Mondays, Black Grape & Other Traumas. Independent Music Press. ISBN 1-897783-11-6. 
• Verrico, Lisa (1998). High Life 'N' Low Down Dirty – The Thrills and Spills of Shaun Ryder. Ebury Press. ISBN 0-09-185419-9. 
• Middles, Mick (1998). Shaun Ryder... In His Own Words. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0.7119.6815.2. 
• Bez (1998). Freaky Dancin' – Me And The Mondays. Pan. ISBN 0-330-48197-5. 
• Haslam, Dave (1999). Manchester, England. 4th Estate. ISBN 1-84115-146-7. 
• Wilson, Tony (2002). 24 Hour Party People – What The Sleeve Notes Never Tell You. Channel 4 Books. ISBN 0-7522-2025-X. 
• Warburton, John and Ryder, Shaun (2003). Hallelujah!: The Extraordinary Story of Shaun Ryder and "Happy Mondays". Virgin Books. ISBN 1-4053-1031-6. 

External links

• Shaun Ryder at the Internet Movie Database
• Shaun Ryder narrowly escapes a heavy fine after giving evidence at a trial
• Grape Minds: Shaun Ryder is up there with Dylan
• Straight but not great: Shaun Ryder
• Interview with Shaun Ryder in LeftLion magazine 2007
• Shaun Ryder at Biogs.com