The Stone Roses
It is hard to believe in retrospect, but The Stone Roses'
eponymous debut album - now often cited as "the greatest
British debut of all time" - slipped out without too much
fanfare.
Sure, the hipper kids and the music papers were gearing up for
what became known as Madchester, but despite some well received
gigs, nobody expected The Stone Roses' debut to be the epicentre
of a nationwide phenomenon.
In the NME it got a warm reception but wasn't
even the lead review on the page. It's highest chart placing was a
whopping 19.
By December, its real importance had become evident,
but it still didn't top the end-of-year critics' polls. NME ranked
it second, behind De La Soul's 3 Feet High And Rising.
But over the next two years The Stone Roses established
themselves as harbingers of a new era.
Leaving behind a decade of celibate, be-quiffed rock stars and
musical introspection, the world to come was founded around cool,
strident ambition and pharmaceuticals. In that sense, The Stone
Roses' debut was the first Britpop album.
These were the days of Acid House and, though their sound
often came close to Byrds-esque rock & roll, The Stone
Roses managed to tap into the prevailing youth-cultural mood of
E-induced euphoria.
The lyrics were the crucial factor: When Ian Brown sang
"kiss me where the sun don't shine/The past was yours but the
future's mine" (from She Bangs The Drum), he
was 1989 incarnate. There was also the small matter of I
Am The Resurrection - an unstoppable, brazenly narcissistic
song that became the year's anthem.
Both the group and producer John Leckie were well aware of what
they'd created. "When we'd finished," Brown recalled,
"Leckie says, 'This is really good. You're going to make it'.
And I remember thinking 'I know'."
The Stone Roses emerged from the remains of English Rose, a
Manchester-based band formed by schoolmates John Squire (guitar)
and Ian Brown (vocals). In 1985, The Stone Roses officially
formed, as Squire and Brown added drummer Reni (real name Alan
Wren), guitarist Andy Couzens and bassist Pete Garner. The
group began playing warehouses around Manchester, cultivating a
dedicated following rather quickly.
At this time the group was a cross between classic British 60s
guitar-pop and heavy metal, with touches of goth-rock. Couzens
left the group in 1987, followed shortly afterward by Garner.
Garner was replaced by Mani (born Gary Mounfield) and the group
recorded their first single, So Young, which was released
to little attention by Thin Line Records.
At the end of 1987 the Roses released their second single, Sally
Cinnamon, which pointed the way toward the band's hook-laden,
ringing guitar-pop. By the end of 1988, the band secured a
contract with Silvertone Records and released Elephant Stone,
a single that set the band's catchy neo-psychedelic guitar-pop in
stone.
Shortly after the release of Elephant Stone, the Stone
Roses' bandwagon took off in earnest. By early 1989 the group
was playing sold-out gigs across Manchester and
London. Countless other groups in the same vein became
popular, including The Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets and Happy
Mondays.
However, the band was never able to capitalise on the promise
of their first album, waiting five years before they released
their second record and slowly disintegrating in the year and half
after its release.
It has become fashionable to identify The Stone Roses' May 1990
gig at Spike Islands as 'Woodstock for the E Generation' - the
second when all the clubbing and flares and love vibes and faith
in Manchester bands made some kind of sense, and was revealed to
the mainstream as the great thing it undoubtedly was.
In truth, that moment had come six months earlier when The
Happy Mondays (cavorting through Hallelujah) and the
Roses (tossing off Fools Gold like it wasn't the best
single of the year) both made their debuts on Top Of The Pops,
when such things still mattered.
After Spike Island, The Stone Roses became embroiled in a
vicious legal battle with Silvertone Records. The group wanted to
leave the label but Silvertone took out a court injunction against
the group, preventing them from releasing any new material.
For the next two years, the band fought Silvertone Records
while they allegedly prepared the follow-up to their debut album.
In reality, The Stone Roses did next to nothing as the court case
rolled on.
In the meantime, several major record labels began negotiating
with the band in secret. In March of 1991, the lawsuit went to
court. Two months later, The Stone Roses won their case against
Silvertone and signed a multi-million deal with Geffen Records.
For the next three years, the Stone Roses worked sporadically
on their second album, leaving behind scores of uncompleted tapes.
During these years, the group kept a low-profile in the press but
that wasn't to preserve the mystique - they simply weren't doing
much of anything besides watching football.
Finally, in the spring of 1994, Geffen demanded that the group
finish the album and the band complied, completing the record,
titled Second Coming, in the autumn. Love Spreads,
The Stone Roses' comeback single was debuted on Radio One in early
November.
The single received a lukewarm reaction and entered the charts
at number two - not the anticipated number one. Second Coming
received mixed reviews and only spent a few weeks in the Top Ten.
The Stone Roses planned an international tour in early 1995 to
support the album, but the plans kept unravelling at the last
minute.
Before they could set out on tour, Reni left the band, leaving
the group without a drummer. He was replaced by Robbie Maddix.
They embarked on a short American tour, at the conclusion of which
John Squire broke his collar bone in a bike accident.
Squire's accident forced them to cancel a headlining spot at
the 25th Glastonbury Festival, which would have been their first
concert in the UK in five years.
As Squire recuperated, The Stone Roses continued to sink in
popularity and respect, even as their peers - The Charlatans and
former Happy Mondays vocalist Shaun Ryder - made unexpectedly
triumphant comebacks. The Stone Roses added a keyboardist to the
line-up prior to their UK tour at the end of 1995 (their
first British tour since 1990).
In the spring of 1996, John Squire announced that he was
leaving the band he had founded in order to form a new, more
active band.
Ian Brown was sentenced to four months in prison in 1998 after
threatening to chop the hands off a British Airways stewardess
during a flight from Paris to Manchester.
Brown ultimately only spent eight weeks in prison, beginning
his sentence at Kirkham's open prison before being transferred to
the notorious Strangeways where he served the remainder of his
sentence.
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