The Stone Roses

It's quite interesting raking over the music you grew up to, well in my case went to college to...
The Stone Roses were quite possibly in my opinion the greatest Manchester Band of that era, not the most prolific, but certainly the most influential. They created a style of music with that first album that spawned a thousand imitators, just look at Primal Screams early stuff, and those Leeds scally wannabee's The Soupdragons.
Oasis are to my mind on of rocks great underachievers. They could be so good, but they only seem to be capable of writing half an album. Even their best Definitely Maybe has a few duff tracks on it.
The happy mondays were also a great band, but they kind of fell on to the dance/rock crossover thing. No band in my memory has ever had the impact that the Stone Rose's had with their first album.
When you are talking Manchester music though you can't do it without mentioning possibly the greatest of the Manchester bands....
James. In terms of consistency and quality of output they definitely had it, and watching Tim Booth last weekend he was obviously the driving force behind it, the man is still writing great songs.
If you want to see Manchester royalty now though there's only one band to see. The Inspirals. Everybody say Moooooooooo............

 

I saw Clint Boon DJ at a tiny club in Manchester a few weeks back with New Order's Hooky. Thats what I love about the Manchester music scence everybody joins together. Even the Stone Roses have worked with Hooky in their early days. Barney produced the Happy Mondays stuff, Johnny Marr has played in countless manc bands other than the Smiths.

I've never really been that keen on Oasis but I guess I could apply a Morrisey quote about New Order to Oasis. He said "He dosn't see the point in JD/NO but they are good for Manchester so I support them" I am the same with Oasis.

I do admit Oasis have made some good stuff.

 

James were absolutely superb early on, the two Factory label singles, the LP Stutter and the live LP One Hand Clapping are all essential purchases. I saw them a lot around this period and they were simply amazing live – one time was with the Roses supporting. I lost interest in James completely when they went all 'stadium rock' later on.

Tony.

 

Apropos of nothing, a friend of mine auditioned to be the drummer in James, just before they became massive. They offered him the job, but he turned them down on the grounds that they wanted him to become a vegetarian.

-- Ian

 

I know that it is 'only' a compilation album of the hits, but i reckon that The Complete Stone Roses is a brilliant album to have in the car, ( although I'm listening to it right now on the computer ). My journey from work to home is just over 10 miles and in the wee small hours when I'm usually finishing takes about sub 10 minutes.....unless i've got this album on ! Resurection usually gets at least three plays alone . i love folk who sing whilst retaining their very obvious regional accents, I particularly like the line "Cut loose cuz you're no use, I couldn't stand another second in your cumpany". ( small things please small minds ??)
The backwards stuff usually gets skipped though, i mean i can't drive around like a loony all night.

I get the impression that there seems to be a very religious ( catholic ??) angle to a lot of their tracks, what is the story there ?

 

There's a good interview HERE from the time of the release of Second Coming. There's a small mention about religion toward the end.

 

Thank GOD they released SOMETHING to make them worthy of the hype then - I've heard Gold Mother a couple of times and thought it was wank. Laid - well, the title track anyway, is OK though.

The Stone Roses I used to loathe as well. I got into them really late and like the first album. Got the second for £2 second hand on CD in MVE and not so sure what to make of it. I'd love to get the first one on vinyl though - as has been said, the CD has a real lack of energy to it (compared to what I heard on the radio at the time - even though I hated it!). I did get "She bangs the drums" when it came out though.

Inspirals are great - they made the rain at Glasters 2003 seem worthwhile. As for Oasis this yeah - I was on the other end of the site in the Acoustic Tent. If their set was as lacklustre and non-audience-reactive as the first Knebworth date back in 1996, I'd have got more out of seeing them on video!