123) The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses reuniting was great for someone like me who had not seen them at their height. A Saturday in Glasgow, the pubs were full from lunch time, I went along to Glasgow Green, tried to sober up, failed and just enjoyed watching the Roses. Were they great, I’m not sure as the man from The Fast Show would say I was very very drunk, but I had finally seen them.

New music must have been coming, sadly All For One was poor and to be fair Beautiful Thing was slightly better, but the magic had gone for me and when they played their final concert at Hampden, I gave it a miss.

Forget Ian Brown’s recent spouting’s on social media and that John, Mani and Reni have seemingly disappeared from music the Stone Roses are one of those classic bands, Brown chilled and commanding, Squires performing guitar heroics, Mani innovating basslines and Reni the drummer’s drummer. As would be proved, remove one of them and they were so much less than their parts.

Always better to remember them for this sublime debut album. Eleven songs all done in less than fifty minutes, and it’s still sounds as good to me as when I bought it when I was eighteen.

This is one of those reviews where I have waffled and not talked about the music, do I need to?

From Mani’s opening rumbling bass on I Wanna Be Adored to the magical final four minutes that the three musicians perform to I Am the Resurrection we have an album that delivers riffs, grooves, dance, beats, and choruses. There is nothing radical here but, for me, it’s one of those landmark albums.

Put on She Bangs the Drums or Made of Stone and then realise you have spent the last ten minutes moving your arthritic knees and playing imaginary drums….oh that was me.

10/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Made of Stone (but could have been several)