The Stone Roses were an English rock band
from Manchester
that formed in 1984. Their 1989 eponymous debut album
quickly achieved the status of a classic in the UK, and topped NME's
list of the Greatest British Albums of All Time. They released a second
album, Second Coming,
in 1994 and split in 1996.
|
Contents
- 1 Early
years
- 2 First
album years
- 3 Second
Coming and breakup
- 4 Post
Roses history
- 5 Influence
- 6 Reformation?
- 7 Personnel
- 7.1 Classic
line-up (November 1987 - March 1995)
- 7.2 Other
members
- 8 Discography
- 8.1 Albums
- 8.2 Compilations
- 8.3 Singles
- 9 External
links
|
Early years
The Stone Roses emerged in Manchester during the early 1980s, when
vocalist Ian
Brown and guitarist John Squire recruited drummer,
Reni (real name Alan Wren), bassist Pete Garner,
and rhythm guitarist Andy Couzens to complete the original line-up.
Brown and Squire were childhood friends who had attended Altrincham
Grammar School for Boys.
The Stone Roses played their first major gig in their home
town, at Manchester University, on 2 October 1985.
The Stone Roses' influences ranged from The
Clash and The Sex Pistols to Manchester band Slaughter and the Dogs.
Another band that helped shape The Roses' unique sound and lyrics was The Jesus and Mary Chain,
with Squire stating "It changed the way I thought about writing songs."
They had a dedicated following in Manchester, but were
considered unfashionable and somewhat uncouth by the local music scene
at the time, which was dominated by Factory
Records and Tony Wilson.
Publicity shots from around that time feature Squire in a bandanna and
Brown wearing leather trousers.
In 1985 the Roses released their first single, the Martin
Hannett-produced double A-side "So Young/Tell Me".
It was largely unsuccessful and was later disowned by the band. At this
point Brown had yet to develop his trademark cool delivery and had a
shouty, aggressive style, and the rest of the band had not yet found
the groove that was to
characterise their best material.
By the time of their next single, "Sally
Cinnamon", the Roses' sound had changed considerably. Released in 1987
on FM Revolver records, "Sally Cinnamon" contained chiming guitar hooks
and a strong melody, and sounded more like The Byrds
than the Sex Pistols. Brown had developed a new, softer singing style
and Squire and Reni were becoming more confident and streamlined.
In late 1986 Andy Couzens left the band due to differences
with manager Gareth Evans, and less than a year later, bassist Pete
Garner left the band, in August 1987. The Roses then brought in bassist
Mani (Gary Mounfield). With the
definitive Roses line-up now complete, the band became much tighter as
musicians, and developed a trademark visual style - baggy clothes and Jackson
Pollock shirts, guitars and drums. A single, the psychedelic-tinged "Elephant
Stone", followed, along with an album deal with Jive/Zomba
offshoot Silvertone Records.
First album years
In 1989, The Stone Roses released their debut album, produced
by John
Leckie. The Stone Roses
opened with "I Wanna Be Adored" and closed with
"I Am the Resurrection" (or in
America "Fools
Gold"). Now considered a landmark in English rock, the album was well
received by most of the music press.
The singles "Made Of Stone" and "She
Bangs The Drums" followed to moderate success. Later that year the band
released a double A-side single, "Fools
Gold/What the World Is Waiting For", which charted in the UK at no. 8
in November 1989. Originally intended as a B-side, "Fools Gold" quickly
became the Roses' most famous song and a performance of it on Top
Of The Pops cemented their national fame. It
was also the band's most musically adventurous song yet: nine minutes,
53 seconds in length, it featured a virtuoso wah-wah
drenched guitar performance from John Squire over a beat resembling James
Brown's "Funky Drummer".
Seemingly coming from nowhere, the Stone Roses appeared to be
the right band at the right time. Like their peers Happy
Mondays they had an arrogant swagger and streetwise attitude
reminiscent of The Rolling Stones in
their pomp. The Roses had a broad appeal too: their upbeat, danceable
sound and positive outlook had much in common with the blossoming rave scene at the
time, yet they also appealed to more traditional indie fans.
Following the band's success, their former label, FM Revolver,
re-released the single "Sally Cinnamon" with an accompanying video. The
Stone Roses were incensed by this, particularly what they described as
a "third rate" video. They went to Revolver's offices on 30 January
1990 and
after an argument with the label's boss, Paul
Birch, threw paint over the offices, Birch himself and his girlfriend,
and then vandalised two cars outside. They were subsequently arrested
and tried, and in October they were found guilty and fined £3,000 each
plus costs.[1]
In 1990 The Stone Roses decided to stage a huge outdoor gig at
Spike Island in Widnes. The gig
took place on 27
May 1990 and
was attended by approximately 27,000 people. The event at the time was
considered a failure due to sound problems and bad organisation, yet
has become legendary over the years - a Woodstock
for the baggy generation. The Roses followed Spike Island with another
big gig at Glasgow Green, and by July had
released their final single for Silvertone, "One Love".
"One Love" reached number 4 in the UK charts, the Roses'
highest chart placing yet. After its release, things quickly began to
unravel. It was to be the Roses' last original release for 4 years, as
they entered a protracted legal battle to terminate their five year
contract with Silvertone. Unable to do this, they were prevented from
releasing any musical works as a band for the next four years and the
band lost the momentum they had built up following their debut album,
and disappeared out of public view.
Second Coming and breakup
Eventually they wrangled themselves out of their contract with
Silvertone and signed a lucrative contract with Geffen
Records. In late 1994, a full five years after their debut, the Stone
Roses released their follow-up album, Second
Coming. Mostly written by John Squire, the
music now had a dark, heavy blues-rock sound.
The album was seen as a let-down by much of the music press.
However, some felt that songs such as "Ten
Storey Love Song", "Begging You" and "Love Spreads" (the
latter reaching #2 in the UK charts) showed the Roses could still
conjure up their old magic. Second Coming is a mix
of 1970s hard rock, folk rock ("Your Star Will Shine", "Tightrope") and
techno ("Begging You"), with "Ten Storey Love Song" the closest to
Byrds-tinged songs such as "Sally Cinnamon".
During their absence The Stone Roses had left a huge gap in
the music scene and they returned to find a new wave of soundalike
bands had taken their place. The Britpop scene had arrived and the Roses,
along with The Smiths, The Jam,
The
Kinks and The Beatles, were hailed as
founding fathers. The Roses were mostly positive about Oasis
(who John Squire joined on stage at Knebworth in 1996 to
play "Champagne Supernova") but held
most of the scene in contempt, Squire describing it as comprising "Kensington
art-wankers".
In March 1995 Reni left the band, and this marked the
beginning of the end of The Stone Roses. The band, which had never been
particularly media friendly, gave no real explanation for his
departure. A replacement drummer, Robbie Maddix, who had previously
worked with Rebel
MC, was found, and the band soldiered on. Also recruited around this
time for the live shows was session-keyboardist/programmer Nigel
Ippinson, who had previously played with the band on the re-working of
"Begging You" for its release as a single.
A secret comeback tour of the UK in April 1995 was planned,
but this was cancelled after the music press announced the dates. A
major blow to the band's status was the cancellation of their planned
UK comeback performance at the Glastonbury
Festival in June 1995. John Squire had suffered a mountain biking
accident in Northern California just weeks before the show, breaking
his collar bone. The band finally booked a full UK tour for November
and December 1995 and all dates sold out in a day.
John Squire left the band on 1 April 1996, to the anger of
the remaining members, particularly Ian Brown, who stated that Squire
had locked himself away from other band members and frequently used
cocaine. Eventually, former Asia and Simply
Red session guitarist Aziz Ibrahim was recruited to
fill Squire's shoes. The band persevered for another six months before
Brown and Mani dissolved the group after a disastrous performance at
the Reading Festival in August 1996 at
which disappointed fans booed and threw objects at the stage.
In 1998 John Robb wrote a best-selling book on the band, The
Stone Roses And the Resurrection Of British Pop, detailing
the band's rise and fall and the culture that grew around them.
Post Roses history
John Squire formed The
Seahorses (interestingly, an anagram of 'he hates roses'),
who released a number of singles and an album in 1997 before breaking
up. In 2002 Squire released his first solo album, Time Changes
Everything and followed this up with 2004's Marshall's
House. He has performed former Roses songs, including
"Waterfall" and "Your Star Will Shine", in live sets.
Mani joined indie-dance act
Primal
Scream as bassist in 1996.
Ian
Brown has released four solo albums (the first of which
included guest appearances by Mani and Reni) to some considerable
success, and has regularly entertained crowds at some of Britain's
biggest music festivals.
Reni
started a new band called The Rub in 1999, and played
several gigs. At a concert in Manchester University, the band - which
included former Rose Pete Garner - was introduced by Mani.
Nothing has been heard of The Rub since that tour, although in early
2004 John
Squire claimed that Reni had recorded an
"interesting" solo album.
Aziz Ibrahim played guitar on a number of tracks on Brown's
first album and later toured with him; he has also co-written a large
portion of Brown's solo material. Ibrahim also played on British
supergroup The Players debut album called Clear The
Decks. He has also recorded and played live with Steve
Hogarth (lead singer of Marillion) on his solo project
'The h band'.
In November 2002 a remixed version of "Fool's Gold" appeared
on the video game Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX.
In October 2004 the original version of the song appeared on the
alternative rock radio station Radio X in Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas.
"This Is The One" is currently used by Manchester United F.C. as
entrance music for their home league matches.
In 2007, The Stone Roses' music will be featured in a movie
adaption of Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel Ecstasy:
Three Tales of Chemical Romance.
Influence
Brown was a natural showman and held sway over the crowd
throughout live performances. His style influenced the likes of The Charlatans'
frontman Tim Burgess (who Brown later
mocked during an NME
interview for copying his style). The band were noted for their dislike
of traditional gigs and often preferred to put on their own events
reminiscent of the early acid house scene.
Although some later Britpop songs contained social
commentaries, often ironic or cynical - notably Blur's "Country
House" and "Girls & Boys", and Pulp's
"Common
People" - the Stone Roses' work tends to be more political or
idealistic. The song "Elizabeth My Dear", for instance, clearly
criticised the monarchy. The May 1968 student riots in Paris are said
to have provided some inspiration for their first album, with the
colours of the French flag shown sideways on the
cover, and with lemons alongside placed upon Squire's Jackson
Pollock-type painting (lemons had been used to counteract the effects
of tear gas during the riots). The
song "Bye Bye Badman" also made references to the student riots (a
theme reprised by Brown in the title of the first track of his solo debut album) and the
use of lemons in particular.
The Stone Roses' desire to make serious statements saw them
identified with punks (aided by Stone Roses graffiti which appeared
throughout Manchester when they released their first album), though the
band's image was also a combination of sweetness, fiery moodiness,
intelligence, artistry and soul. The Stone Roses also made nods towards
psychedelia, most notably on "Fools Gold" and "Elephant Stone",
arguably their less jazzy equivalents of The Byrds'
"Eight Miles High" and "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star".
Their appearance on BBC 2's The Late Show
in 1989 infamously ended early after they exceeded the allowed level of
noise for the building, thereby cutting out the sound. Ian Brown
shouted "Amateurs!" as the presenter, live on air, vainly reassured
that the problem would be fixed. "I Am The Resurrection" was used on
the BBC's Manchester Passion
programme in 2006 which told the biblical Easter story using Manchester
music.
Bands influenced by the Stone Roses include Oasis,
Blur,
Pulp,
Suede,
Coldplay,
Manic Street Preachers,
Stereophonics,
The
Bluetones, Pax Romana,The Charlatans
and The
Verve. Arctic Monkeys frontman
Alex Turner has stated that Ian Brown is the band's musical
hero.
Reformation?
In July 2004, Ian Brown surprised fans in Dublin, Belfast and Surrey by playing
sets consisting mainly of old Stone Roses songs from 1989 and 1990. He
followed this up by performing a mixture of Roses numbers and his own
material on his UK and Ireland tour later in the year. At his return
gig in Manchester, not only did he perform seven Roses tracks,
including "Waterfall", "I Wanna Be Adored" and "She Bangs The Drums",
but was also joined on stage for a bow by Mani,
bringing the two former Roses members on stage together for the first
time in over 8 years. Brown was also joined by his friend Oasis
guitarist Noel Gallagher to perform
the single they wrote together, "Keep What Ya Got", and DJ James
Lavelle, whose group UNKLE released "Reign" featuring both Brown
and Mani later in the year, reaching number 40 in the UK singles charts.
In May 2005, Squire told Time Out
magazine that he would consider a Roses reunion. [2]
In the same month, he, Mani and Reni were spotted together at a
concert, leading to much speculation that a reunion was not just under
consideration, but imminent. Later in May both Reni and Mani confirmed
that they were open to the idea of the Roses reforming, but Reni said
it would not happen in 2005. [3]
Reni also confirmed he has started writing songs with the intention of
performing them with Mani. However, since all Stone Roses songs were
written by Ian Brown and/or John Squire, any material produced will
almost certainly be used for a different project.
Following Kylie Minogue's cancellation of her
Glastonbury 2005 performance, rumours circulated that the Roses would
reunite to fill Minogue's slot. Both Brown and Primal Scream were
booked to appear at Glastonbury, making some fans hopeful that Mani
would join Brown onstage after Primal Scream's set. A performance by
the Roses failed to materialise, but Ian Brown did break his silence on
the subject of a reunion soon after the festival. He stated that Squire
should contact him personally if he wants to reunite, rather than use
the media as a vehicle for reunion. Brown is said to remain angry at
Squire for leaving the band and as such is unlikely to consider a
reunion in the near future. Squire reportedly sent Brown a box of Maltesers
with a note reading "I Still Love You" for Christmas when Brown was
imprisoned in 1998 (a throwback to a tradition the two held from
Christmas as children), but apart from that the pair have been said to
have not spoken since Squire left the band.
In September 2005 a reunion looked considerably less likely,
as Ian Brown commented to several journalists that "there's more chance
of me reforming the Happy Mondays than the Stone
Roses". Happy Mondays in fact have reformed, but yet Brown appears
pessimistic about a likelihood of any reunion. Fairly recently, on the
television programme Soccer AM, bassist
Mani (a staunch supporter of Manchester United) jokingly
claimed that the Stone Roses would reform "The day after Man
City win the European Cup".
On March
30, 2007 Andy
Rourke, formerly of The Smiths organised a charity
concert in aid of Cancer Versus Cancer. The line up featured McAlmont and Butler, Echo
and the Bunnymen, The Charlatans, Paul
Weller, Noel Gallagher, and Ian
Brown. For the finale Brown was joined on stage by Mani to
perform the full version of "I
Am The Resurrection". As well as Ian Brown's band, other performers who
joined them were Paul Ryder and Andy
Rourke, and former unofficial Stone Roses fifth member Cressa
danced during the instrumental part towards the end of the song. Peter
Hook was supposed to be the third bassist on the song, and
was even announced as being on stage, but had actually left the gig ten
minutes earlier, having neglected to tell the correct people. Ian and
Mani certainly looked happy to be on stage. Rumor had it that Reni was
supposed to be joining them on drums, but the drums were instead
handled by Steve White.
In April 2007, Mani answered questions from fans in Uncut
magazine, and when asked if he would get the Stone Roses back together,
he said "I'm the only person who could bring it back together again.
Ian knows how to craft a tune, John knows how to craft a tune. I don't
know if any of us are powerful without each other. The magic was the
power of four". But he revealed that any hope of them getting back on
stage soon was unlikely, "At the end of the day I'm not going to lose
any sleep over a reunion, because those days are gone".
John Squire was interviewed in May 2007 by Dave Haslam on XFM
Manchester radio and further lowered the likeliness of a reunion,
claiming that even if Ian Brown phoned him and asked if he would be up
for gig, he would turn the offer down[4].
John Squire talking to Manchester Evening News has said he has
given up music for good, quashing any last thoughts from the fans of a
reunion.
Personnel
Classic line-up (November 1987 -
March 1995)
Other members
- Andy Couzens - guitarist. Left band in
July 1986 after a dispute with the band's manager Gareth Evans and
formed The High, a moderately successful band during the "Madchester"
era
- Pete Garner - bass (February 1984 to
August 1987)
- Cressa (Steve Cressa) - unofficial 5th
member of band and live guitar effects technician (1989-1990)
- Robbie Maddix - percussion, backing
vocals (until August 1996). Replaced Reni
in April 1995
- Nigel Ippinson - keyboards, backing
vocals. Performed keyboards with the band during the latter stages of
the Second Coming tour from July 1995 onwards
- Aziz Ibrahim -
guitar. Replaced John Squire in April 1996
Discography
Albums
- The Stone Roses
(1989) UK #9 US #33
- Second Coming
(1994)UK #4 US #26
Compilations
- Turns into Stone
(1992) UK #32
- The Complete Stone Roses
(1995) UK #4
- Remixes
(2000) UK #46
- The Very Best of
The Stone Roses (2002) UK #19
Singles
| Song Title |
Highest US
Chart Position |
Peak Month |
Highest UK
Chart Position |
| "So Young" |
- |
September 1985 |
- |
| "She Bangs The Drums" |
#34 |
July 1989 |
#36 |
| "Fools
Gold/What The World Is Waiting For" |
#27 |
November 1989 |
#8 |
| "Sally Cinnamon" |
- |
January 1990 |
#46 |
| "Elephant Stone" |
- |
March 1990 |
#8 |
| "Made Of Stone" |
- |
March 1990 |
#20 |
| "She Bangs The Drums" |
- |
March 1990 |
#36 |
| "One Love" |
#9 |
July 1990 |
#4 |
| "Fools
Gold/What The World Is Waiting For" |
- |
September 1990 |
#22 |
| "I Wanna Be Adored" |
#18 |
September 1991 |
#20 |
| "Waterfall" |
- |
January 1992 |
#27 |
| "I Am The Resurrection" |
- |
April 1992 |
#33 |
| "Fools Gold" |
- |
May 1992 |
#73 |
| "Love Spreads" |
- |
November 1994 |
#2 |
| "Ten Storey Love Song" |
- |
February 1995 |
#11 |
| "Fools Gold
'95" |
- |
April 1995 |
#25 |
| "Begging You" |
- |
November 1995 |
#15 |
| "Fools Gold
'99" |
- |
March 1999 |
#25 |
External links
| The Stone Roses |
| Ian
Brown - John Squire - Mani
- Reni
Pete Garner - Andy Couzens - Robbie Maddix - Aziz
Ibrahim
|
| Discography |
| Albums:
The Stone Roses
- Second Coming
- Stand Still
(live) |
| Related
articles |
| Madchester
- Britpop
- John
Leckie - The Seahorses |
