In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Shaun Ryder had the world at his feet. His band, The Happy Mondays, had been key players in the UK “Madchester scene” and had scored a platinum selling album with 1990’s Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches. Bands everywhere had tried to imitate the new “baggy” sub-genre it had created.
Only a few years later, though, Ryder’s career looked like it was over. The fractious and drug-addled recording of 1992 album Yes Please had caused the Mondays to split up soon after its release, and its poor sales – described by critics as a “commercial car crash” – bankrupted their label, Factory.
Ryder’s addictions to heroin and crack cocaine were also now so bad that he’d quite literally resorted to selling the (Hugo Boss) shirt off his back to fuel his habit.
