High Life 'n' Low Down Dirty: Thrills and Spills of Shaun Ryder Book

The life and high times of Shaun Ryder, British pop star and Poet Laureate of the Chemical Generation. From the moment that Shaun Ryder's first group, The Happy Mondays, casually indulged in drugs in front of a London music journalist, their image was set in stone. ``Low life scallies'' with their own brand of discordant Acid House funk, they found themselves in the right place at the right time: Manchester, 1989. The Happy Mondays quickly became one of the country's most controversial bands, with their seminal album, ``Pills `n' Thrills `n' Bellyaches'' topping the charts and Ryder happily flaunting his considerable drug habit. In true rock fashion, The Happy Mondays imploded at the height of their career. Teetering on the brink of American success, they languished on a Caribbean island rife with crack cocaine. Few fans ever expected to hear from Ryder again, but returning in 1995 with his new band, Black Grape, he produced one of the best records of the nineties, ``It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah!'' Tales of debauchery will no doubt continue, but Shaun Ryder remains one of British pop's most original stars. 213 pp 6 x 9 16 pp b/w photosRead More