Stone Roses recent history, news and links.

During the last few years we have been the witnesses of the slow and painful demise of The Stone Roses. It hardly seems like eight years since they first burst into, and then helped define the indie music scene of the late eighties with a debut album widely regarded as the greatest guitar pop album ever.
There followed a court battle with the Silvertone Record label and the band were released from their contract and signed to Geffen records world-wide. They released their "Second Coming" album, a record bulging with classic rock riffs and extended solos, at the end of 1994. It was an LP mostly loved by the fans but viewed by the music press as failing to live up to the legend they had created, and internal discomforts in the band began to surface. Looking back the split seemed inevitable, but it was a long drawn-out process. What we are left with now is fragments, a handful of highly talented musicians and songwriters from which we can expect great things.

The first departure from the original line-up came shortly after the release of "Second Coming", when drummer Alan `Reni' Wren left, with personal differences with one or two other band members seeming to be the main reason. He was soon replaced by Robbie Maddix, who had previously been a session player, having worked with Terence Trent D'Arby among others, and apparently approached the band asking if he could join.
On September 4th 1995 The Stone Roses were in the studio recording a special version of "Love Spreads" to be contributed, along with tracks recorded on the same day by a host of other British artists, to the Help album. (A record sold in aid of War Child, the charity set up in aid of the child victims of the war in the former Yugoslavia) This was the first recorded track to feature Robbies work, and a first chance for many fans to hear him play. He seemed like a good replacement, not being able to truly replicate Reni's work, but bringing in a good, tighter style of his own. The track also featured a piano/keyboard part played by Nigel Ippinson. Previously a session musician, Nigel was later confirmed as a full time member of the band.
This was the last recorded output from the band, though reports say that Geffen are planning to release a live LP sometime in the future. The Roses spent the months around the end of 1995 playing live dates around the world, for which they received an increasing number of favourable reviews. It is also known at this time that John Squire spent a lot of this time writing new material and recording on a portastudio.

In March 1996, as their touring commitments ended and they were due to begin demoing new songs, John, the founder member of the band, announced he was leaving. He gave personal and musical differences as the reason, and also told that the band members had been growing apart for some time. He was quick to announce that he would continue working and had plans to assemble a new band as quickly as possible. He wasted no time and quickly formed The Seahorses. For more information see The Seahorses news page.

The remaining Stone Roses said they would continue to work together and spent some time auditioning new guitarists, finally settling on Aziz Ibrahim. A fellow Mancunian and mate of Robbie Maddix, Aziz had played briefly with a number of bands, including Simply Red.
In the summer of '96 the new-look Stone Roses headlined Saturday night of the Reading Festival. The bulk of the set was made up of songs from the first two albums, with some new material also included. Despite being Azizs first live performance with the Roses he played well, providing a good reproduction of Johns live show. As a whole though, the Reading performance was slated by the music press, the main focus of the criticism being the failings of Ian Browns vocal talents.
Reports that bassist Mani had left the band after the Reading appearance were, at the time, vigorously denied by both the band and Mani himself, saying he wasn't going to bottle out just because of some bad press.

It was just a matter of time, and at the beginning of November 1996 it was finally announced that The Stone Roses had split. Mani received an offer from Primal Scream to play bass in the group full-time, and after a short period of thought he accepted. He has now completed some work with them and can be heard on some of the tracks on their '97 album "Vanishing Point". He said Primal Scream were one of only three bands he would have left the Stone Roses for, the others being Oasis and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Mani and Ian Brown together announced the end of The Stone Roses name, saying they were happier leaving it with two classic albums behind them. Following the split all the ex-Roses except for John Squire were dropped by Geffen.

For a while it has been rumoured that the remaining ex-Roses would be working together, with nothing definite emerging. We learned that Aziz, Ian and Mani have stayed good friends. Aziz recorded an instrumental track titled "Morassi" along with Mani on bass, which was given away on the cover CD of the April '97 issue of Total Guitar magazine. It displayed his writing skills and also a definite Eastern influence in his playing. He has since co-written 4 of the songs on Ian Brown's solo LP, further details of which can be found below. He may also be touring witn Ian in the near future. Mani is committed to Primal Scream for the foreseeable future, but also contributed a little bass to Ian's album.

It has been rumoured that Ian and Robbie have bought a studio together in Bury, where they have been working on material with Aziz and Nigel Ippinson.
We also hear that Reni, the almost forgotten ex-Rose has also stayed with music. It was known that while he was in the Roses he was something of a multi-instrumentalist, and he has now switched from drums to guitar and is working on his own material for Geffen.

Ian Brown spent a year or so following the 'Roses split working on his first solo album, having been urged to remain in the music business by friends. He has described it as a learning experience, eventually playing some bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards, drums, harmonica and trumpet on the record. The record features contributions in varying amounts from Aziz Ibrahim, who has co-written 4 of the songs and played guitar on two others, Nigel Ippinson, Mani, Reni and talented young drummer Simon Moore. Also included is a duet with Denise Johnson, most well known for her work with Primal Scream though she is now working solo. She described the song as sounding like a Nineties Joy Division.
Ian is still without management, but has now signed a record deal with Polydor and the LP was released in February '98. It is titled "Unfinished Monkey Business", partly refering the the nickname "King Monkey" which was bestowed upon him as a joke by Dodgy's Matthew Priest. The twelve songs on the record were all produced and mixed by Ian. The first single, "My Star", was released on January 12th, backed with other new songs "See the Dawn" and "Fourteen". It debuted in the charts at number 5.
The remaining songs on the album carry the following titles; "Lions", "Corpses in their Mouths", "Can't See Me", "Nah Nah", "What Happened to Ya Pt I" and also a Pt II, "Ice Cold Cube" (which I believe was played as a new Stone Roses track at the Reading gig shortly before the break-up, and was apparently Reni's nickname for John Squire before he left the Roses), "Deep Pile Dreams", "Under the Paving Stones at the Beach", "Sunshine" and the title track "Unfinished Monkey Business". The overall sound of the record has been described as "relaxed and atmospheric, cool and groovy, with a traceable line back to The Stone Roses", the other impressive feature being the great variety of guitar sounds.
The LP was released on February 2nd and entered the UK album charts at #4.

Touring plans have not yet been announced but it's likely the live band will feature at least some of the musicians who played on the album.

Ian Brown these days speaks of the Roses break up with disappointment rather than bitterness, saying "I think we George Best-ed it in some way". Of the Seahorses he said "They sound like what they are, a quarter of one band. They do sound poor, I've gotta say."

In an incident at Manchester Airport on the evening of Friday Feb 13th Ian was arrested and charged with a public order offence under Section Four of the Public Order Act. This relates to threatening behaviour and using verbal statements considered to be a threat of violence. Details of the actual events are sketchy, but it seems the pilot of the plane, bringing Ian and some members of his band back from a promotional visit to Paris, radioed ahead to the airport and he was arrested on arrival. Ian has since been charged with "threatening and abusive behaviour" following his arrest after the incident, and will now be appearing at Manchester magistrates court on October 22nd and 23rd.

The second single from "Unfinished Monkey Business" was the melodic "Corpses", released on March 16th. Backed with "Jesus on the Move", "Come Again (part one)" - originally featured on the Japanese release of the album - and a new version of "Lions" featuring vocals from Denise Johnson, it entered the UK charts at #14.

"Can't See Me" was released on June 8th and reached #21 in the charts. It has recently transpired that Reni didn't play on the track at all, but that the tape Ian used as backing to write the song over was just Mani jamming over some sampled beats.
Ian's performance at this years Glastonbury festival was well received, and included a cover version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" - mainly because Aziz likes to play it!

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