Shaun Ryder’s brother and Happy Mondays bassist Paul has died suddenly at the age of 57.
The musician was found dead just hours before the band performed at the Kubix Festival in Sunderland today.
The circumstances of Paul’s death are unknown.
Shaun, 59, and Paul were the original founders of The Happy Mondays.
M has contacted a spokesperson for more information.
Paul Ryder dead: Happy Mondays star and Shaun’s brother has died suddenly at the age of 57 – hours before he was due to play the show (stock image)
The band paid tribute with a Facebook post that read: “The Ryder family and the Happy Mondays band members are deeply saddened and shocked to announce that Paul Ryder passed away this morning.
“A true pioneer and a legend. He will be missed forever.
“Thank you for respecting the privacy of everyone involved at this time.”
Paul has previously been very open about his battles with addictions in the band’s early days and his use of heroin.
In 2014, Paul told M how he treated his 11-year-old son’s cancer with cannabis.
He had said that as a recovering addict, he would never have encouraged Chico to use drugs.
But when faced with his son’s diagnosis – a rare form of soft tissue cancer – the musician said he and his wife made the decision to use cannabis oil.
Chico fell ill in November 2012 and complained of a sore throat.
But just weeks after that Christmas, his family received the devastating diagnosis – he was suffering from the cancerous rhabdomyosarcoma.
Doctors in Los Angeles, where the family lived, prescribed a synthetic form of cannabis to reduce side effects of chemotherapy, such as nausea and vomiting.
But Chico’s parents went one step further and gave their then 11-year-old son cannabis oil through his feeding tube – with the full support of his medical team.
Paul, who is originally from Salford, told M: “I coached him on how to inhale cannabis vapor from a vaporizing machine.
“It was surreal – but it worked brilliantly and gave him instant relief.
“My drug problems are well documented. I almost lost my life. But now they’re being used to help Chico instead.”
Chico’s illness came as a great shock to his parents and older brother Sonny, who was 12 at the time.
His mother Angela, 50, said: “Before he got sick he was a normal, energetic little boy. He loved skateboarding, dirt biking and soccer.
“Everything was going well until we were hit by an almighty bomb.”
A sore throat didn’t go away and a swelling appeared on the side of Chico’s neck. The first tests for lymphoma were clear – and the family breathed a sigh of relief.
But five days before Christmas 2012 he became very ill.
While Paul was touring with the newly formed band, Angela kept him updated with news.
And one night, as he was about to go on stage in London, his phone beeped with news that would change his life.
“They are taking him to the hospital for further tests. 50-50 chance it’s cancer,” read the message.
Paul said: “I was groggy the whole performance, I don’t remember playing at all.
“It was so surreal knowing that the rest of the world was unaware, enjoying the celebrations, eating turkey and having happy family times while we were stuck in a hospital dealing with our worst nightmare.”
Three days after Christmas, Chico was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma.
Paul told M: “I walked in there, into his hospital room and just lost my composure, he looked so ill and frail. I went straight to the bathroom and threw up.”
It was the start of a battle that would see Chico cheat death more than once — while his father and uncle, Happy Mondays frontman Shaun, hid their secret grief from fans.
His wife said: “Shaun was shocked; He texted Paul saying he couldn’t believe it and wished we weren’t so far away.
“Like most people, he just didn’t know what to say.”
Surgery was too risky, so Chico began 43 weeks of chemotherapy along with radiation.
Doctors prescribed a drug called Marinol — a synthetic form of cannabis — to relieve chemo-sickness.
For Paul, the irony of giving his son drugs was not lost.
He told M: “I am a recovering addict and have not been drinking or using drugs for many years so there is no way I would ever have encouraged my son to use cannabis.
“But when Angela told me what she had discovered, I couldn’t really disagree and had to agree that we had to get something for him.
“That was the best we could do. In my opinion it’s a drug, not a drug, and thank god we lived in California.
“We slowly increased the dose as his tolerance increased. It made a huge difference in his overall wellbeing.
“It definitely made the treatment more bearable. He started smiling. It certainly didn’t solve all the problems, but it did help make his life more bearable through the treatment.”