the stone roses

The Stone Roses redefined British pop with the neo-psychedelic rave revelation of this adorably amazing "mad"chester milestone.  The core of the group Ian Brown and John Squire were childhood friends.  Squire remembers:   “We lived in the same street in Chorlton. I met Ian when we were four or five in a sandpit! I was a bit dubious about him, though, because the lad he was playing with was bollock-naked!”

After playing in different bands around Manchester like the Patrol, the Fireside Chaps, and the Waterfront; the Stone Roses formed in 1983 with Pete Garner, Andy Couzens, and Simon Wolstencroft.  Brown reveals:  "Underneath the desert, the sand is blown by the wind and forms what are called desert stone roses. The name was thought up by John Squire."   After Wolstencroft left to join the Colourfield, Alan "Reni" Wren answered an ad for a new drummer.  A graffiti campaign helped to increase their profile as they continued to build a local following. They put out singles 'So Young' on Thin Line Records and 'Sally Cinnamon' on Revolver FM subsidiary of Black Records before losing Couzens and then Garner.  Manny "Mani" Mounfield had played bass in the Fireside Chaps, was brought in to cement their classic lineup.  
 'Elephant Stone' came out on Rough Trade before the band was signed to an eight album deal on the new Silvertone label.  'The Stone Roses' was recorded  at Battery Studios and Konk Studios in London and Rockfield Studios in Wales with producer John Leckie featuring Ian Brown on vocals;  Mani on bass guitar;  Reni on drums, backing vocals, and piano;  and John Squire on guitars and paintings.   

Squire says:   "Ian had met this French man when he was hitching around Europe, this bloke had been in the riots, and he told Ian how lemons had been used as an antidote to tear gas. Then there was the documentary—-a great shot at the start of a guy throwing stones at the police. I really liked his attitude ... I think for me becoming a successful artist would have been more of a fantasy than becoming a successful footballer or musician.  I didn’t even consider it as an option...It just seemed too fanciful – I didn’t dream about being an astronaut either – it looked like it could be fun but I couldn’t see a way in, whereas with music there were local bands and I knew people that knew people who were in bands that were successful...I don’t really care about the art once I’ve done it. I put it out there and I’m thinking about the unfinished work, it’s quite strange really, I don’t fully understand it, to concentrate on one thing and know you won’t care about it once it’s done...It’s about the process; maybe that’s a metaphor for life really; it’s how you live life not the care home ... The only thing I did to excess were guitar solos."

Brown considers:    "We’d kept being called Manchester’s best kept secret. And we were doing 2000 people at the time in International Two. We played the ICA, London, in about May ’89 and we got 500-600 in there. Then by November we had 8000 at Alexandra Palace. But it was the album that did that, you know, once the album was out it had its own legs and that’s what did it. It felt natural, everything that happened felt natural ... You just got to be yourself, right. To me, I’m a music maker. I’ve got no ambitions to be a celebrity or even to be famous. My ambition is solely to make music and then take that to people, not for them to adulate me ... To me arrogance is looking down from a great height, despising, being a bloated version of yourself. We're not like that. They call us arrogant because we believe in what we do."

'The Stone Roses' went to eighty-six in the US, eighty-two in Japan, sixty-two in Canada, forty-four in the Netherlands, thirty-six in Australia, thirty in Sweden, twelve in Norway, eleven in New Zealand, five in the UK, and three in Ireland.  The album reached double platinum in the UK and established the group as superstars, influencing the direction of Britpop for the next decade.  







http://www.thestoneroses.org/










'I Wanna Be Adored'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D2qcbu26gs




'She Bangs the Drums'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD6Pq0bSMPo





'Waterfall'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NrLBlw9WZE




'Elephant Stone'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnY2UJqiGUE





'I Am the Resurrection'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbU7oVz0Uq0




'Fools Gold'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsazIACpYM





'The Stone Roses'
full album:





0:00 - I wanna be adored
4:52 - She bangs the drums
8:38 - Waterfall
13:19 - Don't stop
18:39 - Bye bye badman
22:45 - Elizabeth my dear
23:40 - Sugar spun sister
27:06 - Made of stone
31:22 - Shoot you down
35:35 - This is the one
40:34 - I am the resurrection



b sides

'What the World is Waiting for'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGOaro9kfS4



'Where Angels Play'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7szkhv77rE