Ryder: 'I would love X Factor gig'

Shaun Ryder has admitted that he would jump at the chance to work on The X Factor.

The former Happy Mondays and Black Grape frontman revealed in an interview with The Sun that his partying days were behind him and that he would love to team up with Simon Cowell.

Speaking in Australia, where he finished runner-up in I'm A Celebrity at the weekend, the singer said: "I love the X Factor. If I was ever on as a contestant I would fail miserably - I wouldn't even get through. But being a judge on the X Factor? Yes, I'd love that.

"I could be more brutal than Simon Cowell!"

Ryder said that he was keen to help young singers get a break in the record industry because he found it so tough himself during the 1980s.

"For somebody like me to get a record contract, you just don't take it for granted. I always cherished it," he said. "I started a band when I was 18. It took until 1988 to really take off.

"We then put years of work into it before we got on Top of the Pops and everyone was raving. There was a lot of work. From that point on, I never took anything for granted. I worked my f**king arse off."