The Stone Roses Tribute Band: The Stone Roses were one of the most influential bands to come out of Britain during the late 1980s and early '90s. Along with the Happy Mondays, they comprised the core of the Madchester Baggy scene, centered around Manchester, England, though purists would argue that "Madchester" happened around The Stone Roses without them being an active part of it. Certainly, they weren't a Factory Records band. Ian Brown hated the term "Madchester" and took offence with interviewers who referred to them as such. The band are considered to be one of the founders of the Britpop music genre. Indeed, Liam Gallagher was inspired to be a rock star after seeing a Stone Roses performance as part of the anti-Clause 28 concert at Manchester's International Two venue (May 30, 1988) and had been blown over by Ian's stage presence. Although Ian was a technically poor singer, he was a natural showman and held the crowd in the palm of his hand throughout. His style has also been mirrored in the likes of The Charlatans' frontman Tim Burgess and, in their early days, Blur's Damon Albarn. The band were noted for their dislike of a traditional gigs and would often prefer to put on their own events reminiscent of the early Acid House scene. Whilst some later Britpop songs contained social commentaries, often ironic or cynical, such as Blur's "Country House" and "Girls & Boys" and Pulp's "Common People", The Stone Roses' work tends to be more idealistic and about innocent romanticism. It is also more confident that a change can occur in society and that The Stone Roses were the ones to do it. The song 'Elizabeth My Dear' obviously seems to be anti-monarchy and 'I Am The Resurrection' speaks for itself. The 1968 student riots in Paris are said to have been 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 Stone Roses' serious sense of making a statement saw them identified with punks (aided by the fact that graffiti stating 'The Stone Roses' was seen right throughout Manchester when they released their first album), though the bands' image was also a combination of sweetness, fiery moodiness, intelligence, artistry and soul. The Stone Roses' also made nods towards psychedelia, most notably 'Fools Gold', as their forefathers The Byrds had in 1966 with 'Eight Miles High', whilst 'Elephant Stone' rivaled the joyous perfection of The Byrds' 1967 song 'So you wanna be a rock and roll star'. Many of The Stone Roses' songs were moody and more drum-laden, and seemed to bridge dance and indie, as would their contemporaries The Prodigy, Underworld with 'Born Slippy' and Fatboy Slim. 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. First Album Years They released a self-titled album in 1989 after five singles, "So Young/Tell Me", "Sally Cinnamon" (both with different labels) and the Silvertone singles "Elephant Stone", "Made Of Stone" and "She Bangs The Drums" followed to moderate success. Their double A-side single originally titled 'What the World is Waiting For', but more famous for 'Fools Gold' on the flip side, charted in the UK at no. 8 in November 1989 - at the time a true rarity for an "indie" record, and is still regarded as a classic of the genre. A flood of re-issued singles followed during the next few years, as well as an extended legal battle with their record label, Silvertone (They were Silvertone's first signing; the label was created to get the "new rock beat" by Jive/Zomba, a profoundly dance and R&B label). The band failed to consult a specialist lawyer and so signed a contract which was a "restraint of trade", grossly favourable to Silvertone, and therefore illegal. They played several legendary live shows, including the 'Ally Pally' gig at North London's Alexandra Palace on November 25, 1989, and one on Spike Island in the middle of the River Mersey, surrounded by chemical plants, May 27, 1990. Second Coming and Breakup Eventually they wrangled themselves out of their contract with Silvertone and signed a large contract with Geffen Records. In late 1994, the Stone Roses released their long-awaited follow-up album, Second Coming. The music was heavily influenced by John Squire's guitar, with a heavy rock sound reminiscent at times of Led Zeppelin. Some of the songs, such as 'Your Star Will Shine' and 'Tightrope' have a English folk-like quality, and a mystical grandeur is present on tracks such as the enigmatic, meandering 'Breaking Into Heaven' and 'Ten Storey Love Song', whilst 'Daybreak' is a jam. In the five-year gap since The Stone Roses, expectations were high, and the album was seen as a let-down by much of the music press, although time has since been kinder to the album. A proportion of their fanbase now say that they prefer it to the debut album, but opinion is often hotly disputed. The long friendship between Squire and Brown also was hugely affected, according to Brown, by Squire's heavy cocaine use (as opposed to Brown's marijuana smoking) and ego-mania. Brown claims that Squire wanted to control things musically and stopped co-writing songs with Brown. During the recording of Second Coming, their character showed if their music did not. During one session, they required a sample of breaking glass. Rather than throw a brick through the nearest studio window (which would have been quite acceptable), they brought along a pane of glass, a brick and a dustpan with brush. The band began to dismantle with the departure of Reni in March 1995 for reasons still undisclosed; in an interview prior to leaving, he stated "Personally, I'm sick of underachieving," which is essentially all that is known. He was replaced by Robbie Maddix. 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 just weeks before the show and had broken his collar bone. This was simply bad luck on the band's part, but many fans were still extremely disappointed and many expressed their anger. The band finally booked a full UK tour for November and December 1995 and all dates sold out in a day. Disaster followed on 1 April 1996 when John Squire left the band, to the anger of the remaining members, particularly Ian Brown. Recruiting former Asia and Simply Red session guitarist Aziz Ibrahim to fill Squire's shoes, the band persevered for another six months before Ian Brown and Mani dissolved the group after a disastrous performance at the Reading Music Festival at which disappointed fans booed the band, and threw things at the stage. In February 1998, on a flight from Paris to Manchester, Brown became involved in an argument with a stewardess. She summoned the captain, and Brown, complaining that the staff were rude, hammered on the cockpit door. On landing, he was charged with threatening behaviour on board an aircraft (it had been reported he had told the stewardess he would "cut her hands off".) Post Roses History John Squire formed The Seahorses, who released one album before breaking up. His solo career has been compared by some to Bob Dylan. In 2002 Squire released his first solo album, Time Changes Everything and followed this up with 2004's Marshall's House. Mani joined indie-dance act Primal Scream as bassist. Ian Brown has released four solo albums 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, the Manchester University concert the most notable; the band, including 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. Reformation? In July 2004, Ian Brown surprised fans in Belfast and Surrey by playing sets consisting mainly of old Stone Roses numbers from the 1989-90 set. Brown followed this up by performing a mixture of Roses numbers and his own material on his UK 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 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 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. [1] 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 with Reni saying it wouldn't happen in 2005. 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. Interestingly, 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. Eventually it transpired that 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 do a reunion, rather than use the media as a vehicle for a reunion. Ian Brown is said to still be angry at his former colleague John 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 a lot less likely. Ian Brown commented to several journalists that "there's more chance of me reforming The Happy Mondays than The Stone Roses.
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