Shaun Ryder

Shaun Ryder is an English singer and lyricist, best known as the frontman of Happy Mondays and Black Grape. His work with Happy Mondays placed him at the centre of Manchester’s late-1980s music culture, as Factory Records and the city’s clubs helped bring independent rock into contact with dance music.

After the Mondays’ first break-up he returned with Black Grape, whose debut album reached number one. Ryder’s public life has also extended into television and memoir. His autobiography Twisting My Melon, published in 2011, recounts the bands, the music business and the upheavals surrounding his career.