THE STONE ROSES
"The Stone Roses right. They were the first. Stone Roses are the greatest band around. I have total respect for them"
- Noel Gallagher talking to RSG! in 1993.

Musically for me, 1989 was year zero. I like many other teenagers was desperate for a band to come along and inspire a nation, cause a commotion and rise above the woeful dross that filled a horrible decade. There was nowhere to go, nothing to do…the 80's were a sham. At nightclubs in Leeds you had to wear a shirt and tie to stand a chance of getting in and the music was terrible! I could never claim to be punk but such was the depressing state of affairs in 1989, I sure as hell felt like one. An outsider, alienated by the 'orrible 80s. In that grim Thatcherite era, we craved for an escape. We yearned for someone to show us the way, go against the grain and kick over the statues.

Yet, I still wish I were 19 again because it was the year the Stone Roses fulfilled all your dreams, realised your frustrations and raised your expectations like no one else ever had for a long, long time.

In November 1989 the Roses sharp rise in popularity resulted in them playing a gig at London's Alexandra Palace. It was a big gig for the times and to be a part of it was all the more cooler because most people you knew, still didn't know who the Stone Roses were. They thought Simple Minds and Genesis were cutting edge. Fucking squares!

For a long time now, you felt part of something that was swelling the underground and threatening to blow up into the mainstream and wipe away the rest of the shoddy crew.

On Sunday 27th May 1990 the Stone Roses pulled off an open air gig at Spike Island attracting nearly 30,000 of the faithful and still your next door neighbour hadn't a clue what was going on! To be seen wearing a Stone Roses T-shirt in the street was a code word for cool back in 1989.

These two gigs have since gone down in legend. Thankfully I was there. On the bus, taking the ride. Thankfully, I reviewed these gigs for my fledgling fanzine at the time, The Expression She Pulled. Here are those reviews, untouched mainly, at the risk of coming over way too nostalgic and secondly because it was bad enough trying to remember what happened the day after rising from the drunken haze of the night before. Never mind 10 years on!!!

LONDON 1989
"Don't these times, fill your eyes?"

The Alexandra Palace, fit for Royalty, fit for the Stone Roses. The band had been very careful in choosing venues ensuring 'legendary' could prefix each occasion. Earlier tours were played in warehouses and Blackpool was chosen to give fans a day out at the seaside and concert to end the night. This massive hall, with its pleasant architectural exterior was the choice to bring thousands of Roses fans to the capital.

It would be the shape of things to come. The Stone Roses were in the charts at the lofty position of number 13, yet such was the buzz surrounding the band they could have sold out the Ally Pally three times over.

Back then, I wrote "a new era is dawning, the history of rock'n'roll is on the verge of another legacy" because right back then it felt that way, "Tonight there is no need for support. The Stone Roses are the main attraction and they dominate from start to finish".

"A duff speaker prevented some from gaining full appreciation of the powerful surge from 'She Bangs The Drums' as the Roses exploded onto the scene. The crowd swayed to every motion as the Roses blasted through all the live favourites. 'I Wanna Be Adored' switch from it's traditional opening slot to prove just as effective with its slow, tingling, menacing intro building into a scintillating climax of crashing, psychedelic guitars and Ian Brown's choirboy whisper, "I don't have to sell me soul…"

The set includes the 'unsung' dance grooves of 'Shoot You down' and the b-side 'Standing Here' (the greatest song Hendrix never wrote?). Groovy, gliding classics sending shivers down yer spine. 'Sugar Spun sister' is riveting. Ian encourages the crowd to dance, or at least roll the head! As his hypnotic movements sail through 'Made Of Stone' and 'Sally Cinnamon'.

The early single 'Elephant Stone' grows emphatically bigger every time the band play it and it is performed brilliantly live matching many of the band's current sounds.

The highlight is the grand finale, the Stone Roses always new how to bring down the curtain. The band played a stunning, seemingly never-ending exit without pausing for breath. There was no time for premature ejaculation during the sex driven 'Resurrection' as Squire and Reni slip into long pulsating solo's and then taper out and straight into 'Fool's Gold'. Reni bangs the drums and pulls out all the stops to heroically continue his hard working funky drumming action to hold together the combination of Squire's guitar trickery and Brown's spacey lyrics.

As Ian disappears, the rest are left to play out to the instrumental grooves of 'Fools Gold'. Cressa is in the mood for dancing and so are thousands of indie kids who had seen nothing like this before. There is no encore. Satisfied, their arrogance is justified. They leave you with no doubt that this is 'What the world is waiting for!'"

WIDNES 1990
"I can feel the earth begin to move…"

Britain had seen nothing like this before. 28,000 trendy turned on kids coming together to catch the Roses at their peak. This was way before trendy festivals. Up to this point 'stadium rock' had reached ridiculous levels of empty egocentricity. Simple Minds and U2 were EVIL, the devil incarnate. Washed up, way out of touch and too far up their pompous arses to care. Don't ever forget that all you Bono fans. Bono, you were well and truly YESTERDAYS NEWS, hopelessly out of fashion with your gypsy clothes and greasy hair!

The Stone Roses were here ready to blow all the rock dinosaurs away in the same way the Sex Pistols threatened to do in '76/77. An open-air music festival usually consisted of sweaty, hairy, heavy metal grebos but here came the casuals, the footy fans, the indie kids and the dance crowd. Black and white, together for a mass celebration of underground street style and culture. A culture that had spread on a 'word of mouth' vibe free from the crass, cynical marketing scams that are used to launch so-called 'indie' bands today. One nation under a groove with the Stone Roses promising to provide the inspirational soundtrack to our lives.

I wrote at the time "There was a spiritual feeling amongst the 28,000 crowd".

"In Manchester they rest on the seventh day, or so we're told. On this bright sunny day, New York DJ, Frankie Knuckles boasted of a "Manchester vibe in the area", the cheers were soon drowned out by jeers from the thousands of fans who had travelled from further afield and took to lazing in the sun, getting boozed up and waiting for the main attraction as the DJs 'make some noise' mantras become a bit too tedious to say the least.

Ian Brown wanted to bring the people together. There wasn't a hint of trouble but you could sense something was in the air by the way he mercifully hung over the front of the stage, enticing the crowd to do more than just dance. Revolution was in the air, there was always something subversive and menacing going on behind that blank dazed stare and those vague, haunting political undertones that swept through the Stone Roses debut album".

This was meant to be the start of something special. We didn't know it at the time but it was to be the beginning of the end. A slow and protracted end that had far too many false dawns and the odd teasing glimpses of the old magic.

The band took to the stage in triumphant style like world cup heroes as they saluted the crowd and took up their positions ready for the kick off.

The usual exciting guitar riffs burst from John Squire's guitar and the bass from Mani bounces in to send the crowd swaying in unison. Head spinning, arm aloft and mouth agape - Ian Brown, the king of cool. John Squire looks bored throughout his long solo jaunts but Brown is the star of the show - his miming ba-ba's tease the front rows and kicks up a real frenzy.

The NME and Melody Maker slammed the sound and pretty much the whole day - but traditional rock journalists weren't ready for a band like the Stone Roses back then. They didn't quite get it. A frosty press conference the day before with the Roses on top aloof form probably didn't help. From where I was standing, the sound was okay, yet far from perfect but no real cause for alarm. The Stone Roses were always about the occasion. The event was always bigger than the band, the music and the crowd. We all knew that.

True, the main event fell a bit flat in stages. Ian Brown's whispering vocals were whisked away by the adoring singing of the crowd and a poor sound system that allowed Squire's Hendrix inspired overtones to be the only audible sound, stuck out on their own with nowhere to go.

But the opening spine tingling bars to 'Adored' set the pace and the tempo was raised with Mani and his building bass line to 'She Bangs The Drums'. It all comes to a sudden climax with the crusading chorus of 'Made Of Stone' - the biggest success of the day. A faultless final fling through the storming 'Resurrection' ends with a grand firework finale with hundreds of rockets belting into the sky from behind the stage.

Those unaware locals just about to retire to their humble pads must have been bewildered as to what was going on over this dour looking, run down industrial landscape. Now it was lighting up the whole of Widnes!

Exclusive Fan pics from Spike Island. Click to enlarge

The 16 song set with 'One Love' aired for the first time falls to its dramatic ending into a surreal darkness as thousands of dazzled bodies slowly ponder the way out".

This was 1990 and the summer belonged to the Roses. Where did it all go wrong? We waited a long time for an answer. The dream was shattered during that long period of court cases, studio inactivity and worst of all, the falling out of long time friends Ian Brown and John Squire. For a band so closely knit and impenetrable it was a terrible, tragic blow for Roses fans. Our answer to all our questions arrived in a revealing interview with Ian Brown for Select Magazine during 2000.

Ian Brown candidly admitted, "We were four grown men. Our destinies were in our own hands. We had pure love. And we fucked it up. We George Bested it" This honest and humble remark pretty much sums up our endless romantic love affair with the Roses and will ensure their colourful story will go down in folklore.

"Adored…"