Shaun Ryder

As front man and chief songwriter of Madchester indie heroes the Happy Mondays, Shaun Ryder led the city of Manchester in a hazy, baggy groove scene, scoring hits with Kinky Afro, Step On and Loose Fit and releasing the classic album Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches (1990). The band were acclaimed for morphing the lines between rock and dance music, but their legendary tales of rock'n'roll excess came to a head whilst recording Yes Please! (1992) in Barbados when their drug-fuelled mayhem ended up bankrupting their label Factory Records. Ryder went on to form Black Grape, releasing the UK Number 1 album It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah (1995) and caused controversy when his repeated swearing on the pre-watershed show TFI Friday made him the only man ever to be banned from appearing live on Channel 4. Ryder released his debut solo album Amateur Night In The Big Top (2003), duetted with opera singer Russell Watson on a cover of the old Freddie Mercury hit Barcelona and collaborated with Gorillaz on the UK Number 1 Dare, before reforming Happy Mondays in 2004 and finding mainstream fame in 2010 as a contestant on ITV1's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

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