5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Shaun Ryder predicts Oasis will blow away Scottish fans with best shows ever
The Happy Mondays and Black Grape frontman, 62, has made the prediction despite narrowly missing out on either of his bands being chosen as support on the Oasis Live '25 tour.
Shaun Ryder has predicted Oasis will blow away their Scottish fans with their best shows ever.
The Happy Mondays and Black Grape frontman, 62, has made the prediction despite narrowly missing out on either of his bands being chosen as support on the Oasis Live '25 tour.
Ryder, who attended three of the five Oasis shows at Manchester's Heaton Park last week, says they are sounding better than anyone could have hoped for and will blow the roof off Murrayfield stadium.
He said: 'Our manager Alan McGee thought that we should be on the bill for the Oasis tour, but Noel left it to 'Our Kid' who wanted Cast and Richard Ashcroft.
'Cast are brilliant, Richard's brilliant, so that's how it is. Still, I saw Oasis play three nights at Heaton Park and my missus went with the girls three times. Oasis were brilliant.
'Liam is back. His voice is sounding great. His singing is great. He's a proper frontman. It's a tight band. Oasis are sounding better than ever.
'It's a great show. What I saw in Manchester was just brilliant. I don't think anyone has a bad word about the shows. Before people were saying it would be cabaret, but it isn't. It's just really good.'
Ryder, who was part of a Madchester scene that helped inspire Oasis to form back in the early 1990s.
He also revealed he introduced Noel Gallagher to another of his idols, Scots singer Donovan, who is the grandfather of his daughter Oriole.
Ryder said: 'I knew Noel back in the day and I introduced Liam to Donovan when Donovan didn't know who he was.
'I know it happened. I can just about remember it. I was off my nut doing a lot of Temazepam at the time and eating eggs like they were going out of fashion.'
Oasis will play in front of over 200,000 fans across the three shows on Friday, Saturday and Tuesday at Murrayfield before finishing up the UK and Ireland leg of their reunion tour in Dublin.
Meanwhile, Ryder is bringing Black Grape to Scotland to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band's classic debut album It's Great When You're Straight… Yeah.
Looking ahead to the shows, the former heroin and crack cocaine addict says his memory of previous trips north of the border is sketchy at best.
He said: 'In the early days, we had a bigger following in Scotland than in Salford.
'But I don't really remember much because the first few years of coming to Scotland, I spent more time wandering around various council estates trying to score some gear than I did playing gigs.'
He also has limited recall of recording It's Great When You're Straight… Yeah.
The band will perform the classic 1995 album at Glasgow's QMU on November 28, which the band will perform at Glasgow's QMU on November 28.
Ryder said: 'I know we recorded it. I know where we recorded it and that we even ended up in Great Yarmouth at one point because there's a photo of us at the amusement arcade on the inner sleeve. I'm pretty sure it was Great Yarmouth.
'We were in America as well. They put us in a mansion in Los Angeles, It had eight luxurious bedrooms, but Bez and I ended up in a wardrobe smoking crack.'
After several spells in rehab, Ryder has since given up drug use.
The father-of-six added: 'I knocked it all on the head at 40 and I'm 63 in a few days. I still have a beer, but I've not touched smack or crack cocaine in 20 years.
'I'd got to 40 and my kids were just getting older.
'It took about five to six years to sort of get that out of my head, but I'm happy with how things are.'
Looking ahead to the QMU date, he added: 'Playing at Glasgow Barrowland in the early days was an experience, and I got punched on the head by one of the bouncers supporting New Order in Scotland with the Happy Mondays.
'Their singer Bernard was always nice to us, but Hooky (bassist, Peter Hook) was a bit of a twat because he thought we were going to rob everything.
'He always had his side eye on. Admittedly, we were nipping into his dressing room and stealing his beer. We got a clip around the ear for that.
'I know we did T in the Park with Black Grape, but I can't remember anything about it other than the fact that Kermit came onstage in a wheelchair.
'You wouldn't see that nowadays with a lot of these young artists. They get a cold, and they cancel the tour.
'You'd have to be on your way to A&E dying for us not to do a show. We did shows in all sorts of conditions.'
His career hasn't been without controversy.
Happy Mondays' vocalist Rowetta, who left the group in December 2024, recently complained about the conditions during her time with the band.
In a series of social media posts earlier this year, she alleged Ryder punched her, knocked her out and left her with 'a black eye' in 2000 on the way to a music festival.
Ryder said: 'It was 20 years ago. As far as I'm concerned, it's done and dusted. We all went through solicitors, and I'm not supposed to speak about it. It was 20-odd years ago and there are reasons why it happened, but I've never denied anything.
'She has now been replaced. Now we have Bez's wife and it's all happy families. The band has a big smile on their face and there's no stress.'
