Shaun William George Ryder was born on 23 August 1962[4] in Little Hulton, Lancashire,[5] the son of nurse Linda[6][7] and postman Derek (who would later become Happy Mondays's tour manager).

[10] Their first album, Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out), was released in 1987 and was produced by John Cale.

[11] By the late 1980s, the Happy Mondays were an important part of the Manchester music scene and personified rave culture.

The line-up of the band during this first and most important ten-year phase never changed, and the six original members Shaun Ryder, Paul Ryder, Gary Whelan, Paul Davis, Mark Day, and Mark "Bez" Berry remained a tight unit until the first incarnation came to an end in 1994.

[11] In November of that year, Paul McCartney commented in NME: "I saw the Happy Mondays on TV, and they reminded me of the Beatles in their 'Strawberry Fields' phase.

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.

The album was recorded quickly during a few late night sessions in Carroll's garage studio during an extremely hot Perth summer.

In 2004, Happy Mondays reunited to play a comeback gig called "Get Loaded in the Park" on Clapham Common, with only original members.

[28] He appeared on British tenor Russell Watson's 2001 debut studio album The Voice, lending his vocals to a cover version of the Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé song "Barcelona".

[29] In 2004, Ryder had a voice acting role in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in which he played Maccer, a washed-up, masturbation-addicted musician who was planning a major comeback tour.

[31] Chris Evans stated at the Brit Awards 2006 that the song was originally called "It's There", but was changed as Ryder's thick Mancunian accent made him pronounce the word "there" as "dare".

In 2023, Ryder collaborated with the Lottery Winners on the track "Money" from their studio album Anxiety Replacement Therapy.

[32] The column was ghostwritten with journalist John Warburton, who would write a book about the Happy Mondays reunion in the late 1990s, and co-credited it to Ryder.

[38][44] In August 2020, Ryder appeared in BBC Two comedy Mandy created by Diane Morgan in which he portrayed a fictional version of himself.

[47] Ryder's past substance use is well-documented; Kyle O'Sullivan of the Daily Mirror writing in 2022 that "after every gig on [the Happy Mondays' 1990] Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches tour, Shaun would dive into a cocktail of booze, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana".

[50] Ryder stated in January 2024 that he hasn't used hard drugs since the early 2000s, and no longer keeps alcohol in his home, only drinking when out.

Manford explained in an interview “Shaun's got severe ADHD, so remembering things, collecting information and taking on new thoughts, it's been a real challenge.