An Evening With Shaun Ryder

We were lucky enough to interview Shaun Ryder a few years ago ahead of his “An Evening with” Tour that was meant to take place at the Playhouse Whitley Bay on the 5th September 2020, sadly covid struck and the tour got postponed a few times. Then here we are finally sitting down to listen to the man himself nearly two years late, but as they say, better late than never, and it really was worth the wait.

Now Shaun is most well known as the front man of The Happy Mondays and Black Grape, he is music royalty from the Madchester scene of the 80’s and 90’s, though now he is just as famous for his stint in the Jungle and for watching tv with fellow bandmate Bez on tv’s Gogglebox. Shaun was without a doubt the best interview we have had the pleasure of doing as he is just totally open, honest and really really funny, so we were really looking forward to the tour as we knew what we could expect from it… and he did not disappoint at all.

Shaun came onto the stage to a huge round of applause from a very eager crowd, thanking them all for coming and joked there was more people in the local chippy, which he said must be good because Jimi Hendrix once went there, though he couldn’t remem-

ber the name of the place, even though he said the food was really good. Luckily a few members of the audience shouted out the name Marshalls to help remind him. That just set the tone for the whole night.

Now Shaun talked about a bit of everything in his usual way…with brutal honesty and lots of bad language, making a lot of the content unrepeatable in a family magazine, another great reason for why you should have been there.

When asked about his childhood and his school life Shaun revealed that he suffers from ADHD, a condition which has hindered him with lots of things, like regular lessons in school and even how he used to perform songs, with a lot of people putting his mistakes as a singer down to the fact he did drugs, as they did not know about his condition. Yet as he pointed out, if they had of known about ADHD back then the way they do now, it could’ve been treated, which would have robbed us of the music of The Happy Mondays and Black Grape, because it’s the unique way Shaun’s brain works that gave us those crazy sounds and lyrics we all know and love.

If anything Shaun is a great ambassador for people with conditions like ADHD, as he is proof that you can excel in your own way with your own unique talents. He turned a negative into a positive and has shown that you can achieve success without doing great at school, by not being academic, like what is expected from us all growing up. Even during the course of the whole night he kept forgetting where he was mid-sentence and had to be reminded, to which he would continue to tell us

the rest of the story. That in itself shows you how good he is at what he does, as it really can be difficult talking at length like he did, but to do that with ADHD is actually quite inspiring.

He talked about growing up in Salford, telling us funny stories like how he used to nick the toffee’s from the teachers locked draw…except the teacher was his mum, so that didn’t go down well at all. How he listened to all kinds of music as his family had a wide taste of music, though he did admit to doodling on the album covers and even old books, which again caused his mam problems, as she would donate them to the local church not knowing that he had drawn rude things on the pictures inside (I’ll let you imagine the kind of doodles a young lad might draw). One of the other things he mentioned was how when he first met Bez he hated him and didn’t want him coming to his flat, as he was with one of Shaun’s friends at the time. Yet Bez came along anyway and never left, they just clicked and became the best of mates, giving us a real modern double act, as you can’t mention one without the other. But to think, if he hadn’t just tagged along that day we would not have had the comedy gold of Shaun and Bez, no ice skating with his melon crash helmet and definitely no crazy dancing shaking those maracas, now that is not a world we want to live in!

He was very open about his drug use, telling us how they actually helped him as the drugs countered his condition and fixed him in a weird kind of way. How he was always very open about it and he never hid it from the press, in fact he played to the publicity machine knowing it would get them in the headlines, and unlike other

squeaky clean acts like Bross, he knew he wouldn’t get dropped by his label for doing drugs, whereas other acts would be over if they ever got caught doing anything like he did. Now you might not agree with the drug use, but it is refreshing to see someone be so brutally honest about it all, how he wanted the rock and roll lifestyle and wasn’t afraid to live it. Talking about how The Happy Mondays started out as a mix of members all with their own conditions…well, except for Bez, who will go out of his way to tell you that he is “Normal”, and Shaun’s impression of Bez was spot on and had the crowd in hysterics. He talked about how the band rose to fame and how it all imploded and went wrong. He talked about his time on I’m a Celebrity and even about Gogglebox, with lots more in-between. The only down side to doing this kind of review is you just can’t do it justice. Shaun is a very funny guy and you really have to be there, because how he tells the stories and the language used does not translate well to paper, after all, it’s how he tells it. The night flew over far too quickly; as you just know Shaun had so much more to say and I could have honestly listened to him talk all night. I can imagine every night on the tour being completely different, because his mind takes him in so many different directions and you just couldn’t script how he answers things. The Q&A was great too, as you just don’t know what questions the crowd will submit and Shaun was actually disappointed when he had to stop when time was up, as the questions were good and off the cuff and the answers where equally as entertaining.

A few lucky fans were treated to a meet and greet, getting the chance to talk to Shaun one to one, get photos and even autographs, so those fans came prepared with vinyl and cd’s to be signed. One lucky couple, Graham Ball and Sam Mountain bought tickets not even realising they actually had

meet and greet tickets, they just thought they had bought standard tickets, so they didn’t bring anything to get signed. That’s where we stepped in, giving them a printed copy of the NE cover of the issue Shaun’s interview was in, in return for a few of their pics that you can see in this feature, so thank you to Graham and Sam for sharing them with us.

So if you missed an evening with Shaun Ryder at the Playhouse, I strongly suggest you go if you ever get the chance in the future, even if it’s at a different venue, just go! It really was a fantastic night and you don’t even have to be a diehard fan to enjoy it. Shaun truly is a character and a half who has lived and breathed the rock and roll lifestyle most people dream of.

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