Paul Wagstaff dead: Happy Mondays and Black Grape star dies as ex-bandmate Bez leads tributes
HEARTFELT tributes have poured in for a 90s music star with a “kind heart” after he passed away.
Paul “Wags” Wagstaff, who famously played in bands Happy Mondays and Black Grape, left friends and family devastated after his death.
The star’s cause and date of death is still unknown.
His ex-bandmate Bez, real name Mark Berry, has led tributes following his passing.
Posting on Instagram, the Happy Mondays and Black Grape star wrote: “Mr Paul Wagstaff (Wags), remembering the good times. RIP my friend.”
Scott Carey, Bassist for Paris Angels also paid tribute, recalling the happy times he spent with ‘Wags’.
Carey said: “His talent was innate as was his ability to sniff out a good time at 50 paces.
“He had a wonderment about his soul. A one off x.”
Speaking about the first time he met Paul, he said: “Instant camaraderie ensued and was bowled over by the Wags charm.
“He said lets start a band – I said I couldnt but the day I got sacked from the Inspirals, Rikki Turner was there he said lets start a band – I said and I know who’s is going to play guitar!
“Not really slept just been remembering all the times – the stories, the love of music and film, the times i crashed at his, but mainly what a kin awesome guitarist he was.
“I often said to people after Squire he was the best guitarist of our generation.”
Wagstaff played guitar with Mancunian act Paris Angels as well as Shaun Ryder‘s post-Happy Mondays’ project, Black Grape.
He later joined Bez to work on Domino Bones.
Black Grape were formed in 1993 by the infamous Bez and Shaun Ryder and quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the music scene.
Wags, Paul “Kermit” Leveridge, Carl “Psycho” McCarthy, Ged Lynch and Oli “Dirtycash” Dillon joined them later.
In 1995, the band hit the big time after signing with Radioactive Records.
Their debut album It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah shot straight to the top of the UK Albums Chart, landing at number one.
The record was a massive hit, producing three top 20 singles and earning platinum status in the UK by April 1996.
However, their follow-up album, Stupid Stupid Stupid, didn’t replicate the same success but still managed to go gold in January 1998.
But that same year same year, Black Grape split after Shaun Ryder fired the rest of the band during a tour.
Despite the fallout, Black Grape would go on to reunite for live gigs and even released more studio albums.
Presenter Terry Christian wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “R.I.P Paul ‘Wags’ Wagstaff guitarist with Manchester bands Paris Angels and of course Black Grape and more recently Happy Mondays.
“Like asking where the music goes when it stops playing – that Manchester vibe Paul was a part of will always be in ‘the area’.”
The Blackheads frontman Mike Bennett also paid tribute to the star in a statement.
He said: “Legendary Paul Wagstaff also known as Wags was an important part of Paris Angels, Black Grape and Happy Mondays.
“I knew him for years and he was not just a musician but a literary scholar, and always had a kind heart and a lightness of touch with the disenfranchised.
“Needless to say I dipped in and out of that category and I have to say that his advice, kind heart scholastic words stopped me from making wrong decision and venturing through dark corridors.
“Despite his own physical deliberations I found him self deprecating, upbeat and creatively of genius proportions.”
Wagstaff is survived by his long-term partner Tamara Smith.
As shared on Ryder’s Instagram page, Black Grape were due to go on tour this year, with the band playing an 11-date tour in November and December.