Shaun Ryder

Shaun Ryder is the wild man of British music — a poet of the streets, a madcap frontman, and a survivor. As the voice of Happy Mondays and Black Grape, he brought a raw, chaotic energy to the ‘Madchester’ scene, blending punk attitude with dancefloor swagger. Unfiltered, unpredictable, and undeniably iconic — Ryder is the rebel bard of rave culture. I caught up with him last week, before he and the Happy Mondays embark on their Spanish tour.

Hi Shaun, how are you doing?

Yeah Rhyan, I’m all good how are you? 

All good! So, you guys are coming over to Valencia at the end of September to perform at Visorfest and I can honestly say they buzz about the Happy Mondays playing here is off the chart!  The last time I think you played here was 1989.

Nice!! Yeah I’ve not been to Valencia for years! I don’t think the last time I was there was ’89 – we might have played there then. But the last time I was there was the early 2000’s. which is still 25 years ago!  I can imagine it’s changed a lot since then.

“The Happy Mondays helped define the Madchester scene — do you ever feel proud of being a cultural architect, or do you just see it as a lot of chaos that happened by accident?”

Oooh! Well, I’m very proud of what we have done and it’s definitely better than being a crackhead waste of space!  Seriously though, it really wasn’t by accident – we might have played hard but we fucking worked harder.  I don’t think at the start some of the band members realised what that work entailed! At the end of the day we are an Indie band and we were getting publicity like we were a major record label band. We made our own way with a bit of help from Factory records, so really I am really proud of what we have done.

Is the pigeon story true?

Ha Ha oh yeah! I was a kid, I was 15 and a junior post boy and we used to eat our dinner in St Peters Square and the pigeons used to fucking try and rob our food. So me and my mate decided one day to get a load of rat poison and teach the pigeons a lesson  for trying to steal our KFC off us. So we put some rat poison in bits of chicken and chips and threw it at the pigeons. The next day the headline on the front of the Manchester Evening News read “Sick Maniacs Poison Pigeons” – that was 1978 and I think was my second newspaper headline before the Happy Mondays took off.

“If the Happy Mondays had started in 2025 instead of 1980, what would that band even look like? Would you be banned from Spotify before you hit the charts?”

Im really not sure what Spotify is all about! My kids do, but I haven’t got a clue!  Would we be banned?  I don’t know – but what we did was make our own publicity, Factory was a small label and they didn’t have money to advertise or pay for publicity. So me and Bez did it all ourselves, the rest of the band didn’t maybe understand that the publicity part was just as important. So me and Bez got full colour reviews and PR in magazines by being ourselves and having a laugh and not taking it too seriously.

When we started it was a different time  - if Bros had admitted to smoking weed they would have been dropped by the label and you would have never heard of them again.  But we took pills, smoked weed, we didn’t give a fuck! We wasn’t  hiding it from our mum, we wasn’t worried about a knock on the door.

We grew up with the Sex Pistols and the Rolling Stones and inappropriate behaviour. We might have had learning difficulties but we certainly knew how to play the game. Now with social media and everything else, its just a digital version of the same thing – you make up shit on it, just the same as what we did back in the day.

“When you look at today’s music scene, do you see any bands with that same danger, that same madness, that you lot had in the late 80s and early 90s?”

Not really, you are not allowed to have that anymore. It’s gone back to the days of “The Brotherhood Of Man”, all very nice out there and if anyone is a bit off their nut it just pushes it all underground.

Record labels get frightened of real people, you got all these daft cunts on the videos now showing themselves taking drugs and doing robberies and all that shite on social media.  If a record label saw that, they would run a mile! They don’t want to know, they would be frightened to death. So, they go and sign up the safest thing and it’s all the same.

But there are still great bands out there, Rock and Roll bands. It’s just not Rock and Roll as we would think of it. I really haven’t got a clue what actually is going on, but my Lad is 32 years old and in the music game and he knows all the bands and DJ’s and whats current. But me, I haven’t got a fucking clue! I just listen to the same shit as I always have!

I put Absolute Radio on or Gold, I can’t do 6 Music – I like what I have always liked! Not only that I cant remember the names of these new bands!

It’s like Manchester and Liverpool have always had plenty of talent, the entertainment world, acting, music, TV. These two places will always carry on doing that, it’s a breed of people.

“You’ve been through every label and box people tried to put you in — ‘lad’, ‘junkie poet’, ‘working-class hero’ — which one pisses you off the most?”

Er, none of them really, I  mean, now they call me a national treasure and I will take that over smack head any day! National smack head or national treasure, I know which I prefer! Its good having nice things said about you, whether you believe it or not!  But National Treasure gets given out too easy, you know what I mean?  Someone like Fatima Whitbread is a National fucking Treasure, not me!   

Nowadays there is a snobbery in Music, Especially in Manchester – but we are still playing shows, getting paid and we love it more than ever. And we do a bit of television, which puts young punters on our doorstep at festivals. Our fan age range now goes from 9 to 99 – maybe because of mine and Bez’s exploits into TV, which some of those “Muso Kids” who write things in magazines don’t like!  We might just be some lads from Salford, but we know how to play the game.

“What’s the wildest myth about the Mondays that you secretly wish was true?”

Secretly wished was true? Fuck me, I don’t know! Im not even sure about the myths – at the time we were all off our boxes! Now we are all in our 60’s and we are fucking pensioners!

“Does being sober make gigs easier, or does it ever feel like you’re missing the chaos?”

I haven’t felt like I am missing out for years. Im 63 next week. When I hit 40 that’s when it was time for me to knock it all on the head. My kids – the youngest is 16 and the oldest is 35 – when my kids started growing up and understanding things it was time for Dad to stop acting like he had been acting and stop doing what he had been doing.  When I hit 40 I realised it was time to fucking grow up! I’ve been clean for 23 fucking years! I still like a pint and I do like a cold Corona. I’ve knocked the spirits on the head, but a nice cold beer…….

“You’re known for saying whatever the fuck you think — in this hyper-cancel era, does that make you feel more like a dinosaur or more like a necessary rebel?”

Well its makes me wonder why the fuck haven’t I been cancelled!

“If you could swap places with Bez for a week — no microphones, just the maracas — what would you do differently?”

I would stay in for a week and put my fucking feet up! He hasn’t stayed in for a week since about 1986! He might be 60 something, but he doesn’t know he isn’t still 21!

“You’ve survived heroin, fame, insolvency, reality TV, UFOs… so what actually scares Shaun Ryder these days?”

Teenage fucking daughters! Fucking lads, no problem. Teenage daughters… Fucking hell!!!!

“Do you think aliens would get the Happy Mondays, or would they just send us back the tapes and tell us to try harder?”

Don’t tell anyone but aliens heard the Happy Mondays years ago and they sort of got it!

“If you had to sum up the Happy Mondays’ entire career in one smell — what smell would it be?”

Fucking hell! ADH fucking D!!!!! What does chaotic smell like?

Bez in three words

Bez is Bez.  There are no fucking words – Bez is Bez!!! He is a character out of the Magic Roundabout!!!

First record you ever bought?

It was two LP’s, I didn’t buy them, I stole them. In our part of Salford, this is going back  to 1973, they built a massive football sized supermarket. I mean they are everywhere now, but in 1973 there was nothing like it and it was called Scan.They set it up like a massive corner shop.  They had a couple of security guards on the door and that is! They had tents set up in there, they sold everything, air rifles, records, cream cakes, beer and food. So we used to go in and get a load of cream cakes, go to the booze and get a load of booze and then go to where the tents were in the display and sit in a tent, drink the booze and eat the cakes. At the time I had a Parka coat which I had cut the lining to take LP’s  - so the first records I got was “Pin ups“ and “Hunky Dora” by David Bowie and “Every Picture Tells A Story” by Rod Stewart.

Oasis or Blur?

Oh come one!  They are both amazing fucking bands – brilliant writers, great frontmen, just yeah! So, I’m not going there!

Whats the best insult you have ever been called?

You know what, the one good thing about me is I cant remember things so I never get embarrassed about things that happened the night before! I grew up being insulted, so I cant remember!

And finally, as I mentioned at the start – so many people are looking forward to seeing you at Visorfest. What can we tell the fans?

Hello fans in Valencia! Can’t fucking wait to get there! Not been there for 25 years, so we just can’t wait to be there and see you all. We enjoy it more than ever now and I am not just saying that, you will see it in the performance.

Shaun, thank you and see you at Visorfest!

Yes, come and say hello and see you there!

Check out the Happy Mondays and for Valencia tickets and information: Visorfest

Interview: Rhyan Paul Photo: Paul Husand