Happy Mondays Bassist Paul Ryder Dies at 58: ‘A True Pioneer and Legend’

Happy Mondays bassist Paul Ryder died Friday morning (July 15) at age 58, the band announced on Twitter.

“The Ryder family and Happy Mondays band members are deeply saddened and shocked to say that Paul Ryder passed away this morning,” the band wrote. “A true pioneer and legend. He will be forever missed.”

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His cause of death is yet unknown.

Ryder co-founded Happy Mondays as a teenager in 1983 with his brother, frontman Shaun Ryder. Gary Whelan, Paul Davis and Mark Day were also founding members of the Manchester, England, indie group, a band that’s credited with blending the 1990s emerging rave scene with rock music by taking influences from funk and dance music.

“We thank you for respecting the privacy of all concerned at this time,” the group concluded their message. “Long live his funk x.”

Though the band endured many changes over the years — splitting up briefly in 1993 and rotating through a handful of members — the Ryder brothers have always remained in the group as solid core members. Together, they released five studio albums, the last of which was Uncle Dysfunktional in 2007.

In 2008, Shaun spilled to Billboard that Happy Mondays was working on a sixth record, but similar to Uncle Dysfunktional, they’d encountered legal issues in releasing the project. Fourteen years later, and Uncle Dyskfuntional remains their most recent body of work.

The band was scheduled to play on the main stage of the Kubix Festival in Sunderland, England, the day of the bassist’s death.

See Happy Mondays’ announcement below:

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