Stone Roses deserve to be adored
As the Stone Roses celebrate their 20th anniversary, Daniel McConnell looks back on the era-defining band
THE 20th anniversary release of the Stone Roses' eponymous debut album, has seen the mainstream media, largely in the UK, line up to rubbish what is one of the most important bands in the history of popular music.
The revisionism on the Roses in recent months, by some so-called music hacks, is simply astonishing, considering the band laid the path for the Britpop era of the 1990s.
Despite these recent attempts to lessen their impact on rock and roll, the Stone Roses will rightly be remembered as an era-defining band. They will be remembered for grabbing hold of the 1960s psychedelia and repackaging it for the acid house generation to create truly magical music.
They were the first band to combine the sounds of indie-pop and the ecstasy-fuelled burgeoning rave scene in Manchester. The band were the leaders of the pioneering alternative 'Madchester' movement, along with the likes of the Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, the Charlatans and James in the late 1980s.
To their fans, the Roses were truly inspirational with a spiritual edge. They were symbols of the growing anti-Thatcher sentiment, throughout northern England in particular, during the late 1980s. Their massively important debut album was as much a reaction to 10 years of Thatcher's Conservative government as it was a fascinating musical journey.
The new wave of critics has sought in 2009 to reduce the Roses to a second or third rate band, trading more on their hype than actual achievements. For example, last week, Fiona Sturges in the London Independent wrote: "The Stone Roses, I think they're bloody awful. To my mind they are only second to the Doors as the most overrated band in pop history."
Critics of the Roses, like Sturges, often target singer Ian Brown's limited vocal range as a reason to dismiss their importance. "Brown's inability to hold a tune is legendary, once likened to an old guy grabbing the karaoke mike at chucking-out time," she continues. But by doing so, they ignore the true magic of what the Roses were about. They ignore the truly gifted playing the band were capable of and they forget the generation defining anthemic songs like I Am The Resurrection, Made of Stone, I Wanna Be Adored and She Bangs the Drums.
For me, the Roses were, and still are, a massive band. In 1995, when I was a 15-year-old growing up in south Dublin, my life long obsession with music reignited with a bang. This was down to acts like Oasis, Blur, The Verve, Paul Weller -- but most crucially, the Stone Roses.
I was fascinated by the release of their much anticipated second album, The Second Coming, and their bitter break-up only a few short months later. The names of Ian Brown and John Squire, the band's two main protagonists, were etched deep into my consciousness in that glorious summer of 1995.
The Roses would also define my time in university. Being honest, their music, along with others, forms the soundtrack for my college life, and for that reason alone they are worthy of being called a legendary band.
Formed in Manchester in 1985, the Roses released their first single, Sally Cinnamon, in 1987, which sparked a bidding war between record companies for their signatures.
In the end, Silvertone Records won the bidding war, signing the band to an eight-album deal and hastily arranging initial recording sessions.
The album was produced by John Leckie, who had studied under the guidance of both George Martin and Phil Spector. After its release, the band went on to tour, but it was a gig at Spike Island, Merseyside, in 1990 that was to have a huge impact on rock and roll history.
Thousands of teenagers, off their heads on weed and ecstasy, gathered to see the band perform, and the occasion has since attained legendary status.
In the crowd was Noel Gallagher. Of that day he said: "It was a shit gig, because the wind was blowing the sound all over the place, but it was a fantastic event. It was all them people there. Spike Island was the blue print for my group. The Stone Roses and their impact stretches way beyond that gig."
While the anniversary has brought the predictable rumours of a band reunion, Brown has distanced himself from any such talk over the past few days. Whatever happens, the 20th anniversary of the Stone Roses offers the chance for some real perspective on a great album from a great band.
