Paul Ryder, the man who helped create the generation-defining musical genre known as “Madchester” by co-founding, naming, playing bass in, and co-writing four top ten albums and seven hit singles for the legendary band Happy Mondays, follows his own groove out of the Mondays’ hazy delirium in his forthcoming solo album Radiator, scheduled for release in Autumn 2009. Demonstrating Ryder’s essential role and virtuosity in the genre, Radiator struts a sound as relevant and energizing today as ever—a testament in itself to his continuing musical legacy.
By the time Manchester pop impresario Tony Wilson discovered Happy Mondays at his historic Hacienda nightclub in the mid-1980s, his Factory Records label was already responsible for such post-punk groups as A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, and the ubiquitously iconic bands Joy Division and New Order. The fabled band-label relationship that ensued was immortalized in the 2002 Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People, which aptly borrows its title from a Happy Mondays single. The years after the Mondays’ first record was released in 1985 were marked by a series of hit singles and albums produced by such luminaries as New Order’s Bernard Sumner, John Cale, Joy Division producer Martin Hannett, Paul Oakenfold, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club.
A combination of drugged-out hooliganism, indie rock, and funk and acid house inspired psychedelia, Happy Mondays’ unique sound, lyricism, and over-the-top personalities tapped into and ultimately personified the energy and debauchery of a new youth generation fuelled by the arrival of the drug ecstasy and the simultaneous revolution in dance music and club culture known as rave. Alongside contemporaries The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State, The Charlatans, and A Guy Called Gerald, the Mondays successfully cross-pollinated multiple and, until then, widely disparate decades and categories of music in a way that not only inspired changes in fashion, lifestyle, and clubbing, but which altered the face of music worldwide—from the Big Beat electronica of The Chemical Brothers to the Britpop of Blur and Oasis to the modern indie rock of upcoming hipster bands like Glasvegas and Calypso .
In Radiator, Paul Ryder’s chilled-out Mancunian-flavored vocals and instantly-recognizable dynamic bass playing underpin the collection of tunes with a soulful fusion of infectious melodies and electro-funked-up grooves and rhythms that get right under your skin. A cognizant shift from the darkness of Happy Mondays’ twisted delirium, the Paul Ryder sound is upbeat, optimistic, and immediate. Former Stone Roses and current Primal Scream bassist Mani describes them as “simply stunning,” and rock icons such as Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook and Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown have been spotted at Ryder gigs in England. Veteran Xfm radio host and Inspiral Carpets indie hero Clint Boon has described it as “the best debut single I have ever heard.”
Ryder will begin a U.S. tour in the Fall 2009 joined by a collection of backing instrumentalists as exciting and impressive as is fitting for a musician of his stature: former and current Brazilian Girls’ members Jesse Murphy and Aaron Johnston and--another legendary Mancunian bassist-- Andy Rourke of The Smiths, for whom the tour will mark a long-expected and welcome return to live performance.
"Paul Ryder's vocals are brilliant, very strong. It makes you wonder why his brother Shaun fronted the Monday's…Most of all this is catchy as hell. The songs just don't leave your head."
-- Matchbox Radio 24 (Oxford, England)
“Paranoid punk-funk…packs quite a punch…glad he made it back alive”
--Uncut Magazine
me and charlie are playing in wolverhampton on the 5th of dec,...
... but today (sunday 22nd nov) ,... i'm live on air for a hour with my fantastic "radio timperley show" listen worldwide @ the following times ~~~ @ 12 noon inl.a., @ 2pm in texas, @ 3pm in new york, @ 7pm uk time, @ 8pm in berlin, @ 11pm in moscow, ... and if you live in sydney or japan,... it becomes your monday morning breakfast shows @ 6am or 8am !!!! tune in live on www.manchesterradioonline.com ,....
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Hey big fella! where are you these days? its been ages!!!!! can you come to the roadhouse mcr on the 14th to watch me & big brother blow the place apart? hugs & kisses x x x x
cool page.
