BORING SORT OF YEAR FOR 'EM, THEN. FINALLY PUT AN ALBUM OUT AND… WELL NOTHING, REALLY. ONLY A £10 MILLION LAWSUIT, RENI QUITTING, DRUG NASTINESS, PNEUMONIA, A CRAP GIG IN NORWAY, A BUSTED COLLARBONE, NO GLASTO, WARCHILD, BRITPOP PUMMELLED… THE STONE ROSES PRESENT 1995 THROUGH THEIR OWN EYES.
Story by Sian Pattenden
THE BAND MOST FAMOUS FOR DOING NOTHING ARE currently engaged in kicking a football around the garden of Rockfield rehearsal studios in South Wales. It's an unexpectedly sweltering day for early September and Ian Brown is suffering from the heat - he's just bought a sweater from Burtons in town and wants to take it off, but modesty forbids. The garden is small, and the ball keeps landing behind the assorted cars parked in the driveway - including John Squire's Merc.
Their kickabout doesn't last long. It's just too hot. To escape the sun they go back inside the house to watch VH1 on cable. The mood is as relaxed as the surroundings - there's a smattering of tabloids scattered around, bulging ashtrays and a bunch of browning bananas.
Mani feels obliged to mutter some comment in his impenetrable Mancunian accent about every video, until someone suggests they switch to the rugby instead. Everyone is glued to the screen until Mani's girlfriend Sophie and their newborn baby Joseph arrive, then they rouse themselves to do some work. And somehow, through the noise of the Roses' live set, young Joseph manages to nod off. It's a quick, last-minute rehearsal before their equipment is freighted to Japan for the start of a six-week tour. The addition of keyboardist Nigel Ipinson gives 'I Am The Resurrection' and 'Love Spreads' far more depth, a quality that the Roses have always striven for when playing live. It sounds incredible.
And they know it. After the jam, they're all in top spirits. Ian's repetitive cry of "Ily Ily Ily" (he reckons it's from a song, the title of which he can't place) heralds his good-humour and confidence in the band. He's friendly and talkative - spots Select with Jarvis Cocker on the cover and mentions what a "dry wit" the Jarv has - but turn a tape recorder on and he's quieter, preferring to smoke and soak in the atmosphere.
The Roses are notoriously reticent on any private matters and, bar opinions and vague emotional indicators - "the gig was top", etc - it's tricky wheedling personal details out of them. John is the most withdrawn of all, looking intently around and answering in the quietest voice imaginable. Today his hair looks indubitably bouffant, and partly hides his features. This is John relaxed. In contrast Mani is talkative and lively, speaking on behalf of the band a lot of the time. New drummer Robbie Maddix is impossibly exuberant, and fits in with the band so well it's as if he's always been there.
Talking to The Stone Roses can be a little like asking your dad to borrow his car. It takes an awful lot of persuasion to get an answer to the simplest of questions, as they tend to skirt round topics avoiding a straight "yes" or "no".
But, month by month, the band recount the past year, one that's seen them climb back to the top despite some hefty obstacles thrown in their path - John's broken collarbone, Reni's departure and countless gig cancellations. The laziest band in Britain? Not any more…..
JANUARY: IT'S REPORTED THAT STONE ROSES FANS have been chiselling off the cherubs from the side of a bridge in Newport, South Wales. As featured on the cover of December's 'Love Spreads' single, these and other cherubs - the town's emblem - have disappeared. Ian Brown tells the South Wales Echo: "People should have more respect for architecture."
The band are rehearsing for live shows. After their years of doing nothing, Ian Brown says they feel no external pressure to be brilliant: "You've got to wow yerself first. We just said, We've got to do this, we're gonna blow people's heads off. "
January 9: The Roses are in London remixing tracks from the 'Love Spreads' session for future B-sides. Two days later they fly to America to discuss a US tour. Meanwhile a full UK tour is planned for March. The Roses favour playing a string of low-key club gigs under an assumed name which will only be announced on the actual day of the shows.
'The Second Coming' goes platinum after selling 300,000 copies and is released in the US on January 16.
January 18: The Roses team up with Guns N'Roses manager Doug Goldstein. Before Philip Hall, Manic Street Preachers' manager and founder of the Roses' press office Hall Or Nothing, lost his battle with cancer, they'd hoped he'd manage them. "The Roses didn't just want a manager they wanted someone who could make them laugh," explains a spokesperson.
Ex-manager Gareth Evans, who is suing them over breach of contract, says, "We wanted £10 million from them before this, now I want more."
January 25: Michael Eavis asks the band to headline this year's Glastonbury Festival. "I'm hopeful they will play," he says. The Roses are "very keen", apparently.
A style magazine runs a feature on them in which, after admitting the band's lack of haste over matters professional, Reni confesses, "Personally I'm sick of underachieving." It's the first hint of unrest in the ranks.
'The Second Coming' enters the US album chart at number 47.
FEBRUARY: IAN BROWN OUTRAGES LA RESIDENTS during a local radio interview by saying the American army should "stop killing babies". His remarks are prompted after hearing adverts urging citizens to join up. The phonelines are subsequently jammed and the incident makes local press. The interview is part of the Roses' promotional tour - their 'Love Spreads' single going in at number one in many radio-station charts. But the single's video is refused airplay by MTV because of its "poor quality". The band shoot another.
February 8: 'Love Spreads' is chosen as the theme tune for a German quiz show. Albanian state TV are also using the track as opening music for a sports programme. Pictures appear of Ian Brown with longer hair and a goatee. Meanwhile, John Squire reveals, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, that he battled with cocaine abuse during the recording of 'The Second Coming'. "I made the mistake of using cocaine for a while, thinking it would make me productive, but it just made me more unsure, more paranoid."
He says the band have pulled back from drugs, which had hampered their work, and admits suffering from stress while writing and recording the album. "I certainly felt it. But we weren't sitting in the studio asking ourselves what the critics are thinking or even what the fans are thinking. I wasn't caught up in thinking of us as saviours of UK rock'n'roll, or worried about too much time going by."
February 13: The Roses film the video for their next single, 'Ten Storey Love Song', at Bow Street Studios in East London. The band are also near to confirming a five-date UK tour for March.
February 22: The Roses postpone their UK tour for a month because John Squire is seriously ill with pneumonia.
'Ten Storey Love Song' is released five days later.
MARCH: THE ROSES ANNOUNCE they're to play a Paris gig on May 11. UK tour dates are rescheduled.
Meanwhile, Newport Council spends £2,500 replacing ten stone cherubs on the town's bridges and monuments.
The band are interviewed without Reni, who fails to show up. They admit they enjoyed a "year of life" after signing their lucrative Geffen deal.
Mani: "There's always things to do, isn't there? Sex, football, anything. There's a whole world out there outside the recording studio."
In interviews the band show a more contemplative side. John: "People have started writing things like 'I met me wife at one of your gigs'. You realise you've become part of people's history."
And they also reveal a newfound work ethic. Mani: "We're going to do more gigs in a year than we've done in eight. The laziest band in pop finally get stuck into some fucking spade work!"
March 10: The Roses settle out of court with Gareth Evans, for an undisclosed amount - said to be nowhere near the £10 million he asked for.
Newspapers report that the band have signed a sponsorship deal with clothing manufacturers Cottonworks, who also have deals with Take That and The Orb. This turns out to be groundless.
March 22: They announce a gig at Liverpool State Ballroom on April 6. It'll be their first UK date in five years. They'll also play five gigs in mid-April, before going to Europe and Japan.
March 30: Their UK tour is cancelled yet again - this time because the six-date event is no longer 'secret' after publication of the dates in one of the inkies. Although the band have been rehearsing in Manchester for several weeks, the shows are pulled. But their Glastonbury appearance is still set to go ahead. Manager Doug Goldstein quits after just three months.
APRIL: ALAN 'RENI' WREN LEAVES AFTER ROWS with other band members. The band refuse to comment. It's suggested that Reni has been on the verge of leaving since the sessions for 'The Second Coming', and was annoyed that John and Ian earned more than he and Mani. This is on top of the usual 'musical differences'. He wanted the band to be more rock'n'roll, reckons a source.
The band's silence fuels rumours about the split. The grapevine in Manchester has it that Reni left because of drug problems, though the band deny this.
In the past year, Reni has attended hardly any band interviews or photo sessions. And in the video for 'Ten Storey Love Song' he is replaced by a friend wearing a Reni mask sat behind the drum kit. Robert Maddix, 25, is announced as Reni's replacement. He has just ten days to rehearse the Roses set for the ten-date European tour, but is confident he can handle it.
Robbie: "I'd heard the album before I joined. I knew about them, so there weren't great expectations. When I met them, walked into the room, I could see they weren't on a star trip. I just said, 'How ya doin?' And we started playing."
Later, the others admit the strangest moment this year was rehearsing with a new drummer.
Mani: "It's just spooky. It's a new face when you turn around."
April 14: Reni breaks his silence after the split. "That's it now. I've quit. I'm not drumming any more. There's other things going on, but I'm not drumming." He says he wants to spend more time with his family - he hasn't seen them for a month. It's understood that he'll receive a hefty pay off, although the split is far from amicable.
John later confides that Reni was argumentative. "Name something. He had very strong opinions about everything. He was very funny as well, but he was showing all the signs that he wanted to leave. I'm not trying to blame him for the delay, but it was apparent he wasn't really interested. He wasn't there a lot of the time."
April 19: The band play their first live show for five years - at the Oslo Rockefeller, Norway. The Dagbladet newspaper reviews the event as "a disaster… Their stage presence was really bad." It is not lone criticism. Another paper, VG, says: "Ian Brown sang awfully out of key almost all the time." Booking agent Roar Gulbrandsen says in the band's defence: "Some people didn't think the singer did a very good job. The sound wasn't that good either. But it got groovy towards the end and the new drummer was good."
The British press cover the Copenhagen show some days later. The band walk off during 'Love Spreads', leaving a bemused John Squire to play on, then raise his guitar above his head and smash it on the floor. More attention is paid to the poor quality of Ian Brown's voice. The band are reportedly disappointed at their performance.
April 25: The Roses cancel a string of European interviews in order to spend more time rehearsing - presumably after the less than ecstatic response they've thus far received.
MAY: INTERVIEWED IN A MUSIC WEEKLY, MANI slams the taking of hard drugs when the subject of Reni is raised. "Why do people get into smack? Because they've got fuck all to do. They've got 24 hours a day to kill." He goes on to mention the lack of pressure from Geffen over the making of 'The Second Coming' as a contributory factor in the length of time it took to make the album.
"When the album was finished Geffen said, Nice one. Let's go to work. When you're not doing anything you're not aware of it. It's not someone else's opinion you think of. Geffen said, Go away and do it. That's the way it should be, you can't force it. You can't say, Shit, we took too long, we'll do something half-baked."
The band refuse to play rock'n'roll martyrs. "What's tragic about making an album? Why complain? Tragic is hooked on valium on some council estate in Whitley Bay, it's not going on the telly playing music. Too many people wear that sort of attitude like a badge. It's no different being a pop star. You don't feel glamorous all the time. Being on a tour bus with a blocked chemical toilet stinking it out isn't glamorous."
Ian says if he wasn't a pop star he'd be a welder: "People always want stuff welded, don't they?" Mani says he'd get a job in Waitrose.
May 14: Their US tour starts in Atlanta with a Mid-Town Music Festival gig alongside acts as diverse as Del Amitri and Adam Ant. But the Washington gig is cancelled after it's found that the venue is seated and would thus prevent the Roses creating "the right vibe". Elsewhere they break the box-office record in Toronto, selling-out a 3,500-capacity venue in five minutes. The LA show is moved from a 1,200-capacity venue to a 3,500-capacity arena due to demand for tickets.
JUNE: JOHN SQUIRE CRACKS HIS COLLARBONE IN four places on June 2, after falling off a hired mountain bike in San Francisco. He ends up in Marin County General Hospital. This freak accident puts paid to their upcoming Japanese tour. Much of the band's equipment has already been freighted to Japan, and has to be recalled. While John receives medical care, the other Roses fly home. John and acting manager Steve Atherton return four days later.
June 12: Reni is rumoured to have been demoing for Geffen. Meanwhile, John Squire sees a former Manchester United physiotherapist and undergoes an operation at Manchester's Wythenshawe Hospital to realign his collarbone - a steel plate and six pins are inserted across the bone. Doctors predict he'll need four to six weeks for recovery, although the band officially state that Glastonbury is still on the cards. "If he feels comfortable with it we're still up for it," says Mani.
But a few days later they pull out of Glastonbury. Pulp are brought in as last-minute replacements for the Saturday-night headline slot.
June 21: While recovering, John designs a piece of clothing for Warchild's Pagan Fun Wear fashion show - held at the Saatchi gallery, West London. His contribution is a skimpy bikini with the cherub and chevrons from the 'Love Spreads' sleeve. It's modelled alongside a pair of shoes designed by Jarvis Cocker and fetches £600.
June 28: The US press announces that the Roses have split. It's news to the band, who strenuously deny it and say they're considering a handful of UK gigs in September followed by a full tour in December.
'Begging You' is remixed and is set to become the third single from the album.
JULY: THE ROSES' AUTUMN UK TOUR IS announced for November and December. It sells out in hours. The band have some time off.
AUGUST: THE ROSES PLAY THE FEILE FESTIVAL IN Cork, Ireland, with a fully-recovered John Squire back in the line-up. "It was the most enjoyable gig we've ever done," enthuses Mani afterwards.
The music press pick up on a minor backstage barney between Ian and Damon Albarn - apparently Ian takes offence to Damon referring to his 'beauty spot' as a 'mole'. They also hob-nob backstage with Shaun Ryder, an old mate from Madchester days. But they're not up for any career comparisons…..
"Nah, I never feel we've been overtaken by everyone else," says Ian. "All the bands that were around in 1989 - it was a great time for music, but things've gone back, not forward. There's been a lull. We're here to bring things forward, we do what we want. All these bands who want to sound like Ray Davies or Paul McCartney…. that's just retro shit."
The band pour scorn on the allegation that they hang around with pop star mates.
"They hang around with us," retorts Ian. "What do they say? 'John Squire is the best British guitarist of all time,' things like that. John doesn't hang about. He goes home….. We don't have rock anecdotes, no. I can tell you things about Elton John but you couldn't print them. I don't have to go round all the time with a purple shirt on with 'Why are you looking at me?' sprayed on it. That's a dangerous path to tread."
August 7: The band take a couple of weeks off to spend some time with their families. John, Ian and Robbie all have young children. Mani is keen to spend time in his new house, formerly owned by a playwright, which he saw and fell in love with when the Roses were recording at Rockfield.
Towards the end of August, John designs and paints the Warchild 'Help' album sleeve. He has it completed in a week.
August 26: Gary 'Mani' Mounfield becomes the father of Joseph Christy Mounfield. He reckons being a dad "satisfies your soul".
SEPTEMBER 1: BY WAY OF APOLOGY FOR PULLING out of Glastonbury, the Roses offer their services at the Pilton Festival - a regular event that Michael Eavis helps put on to thank the locals for putting up with the Glasto hordes. Numerous Roses fans hear about the gig and descend on the village. All the band, bar John, hang around after playing their set to meet fans and get drunk.
"It was top," says Mani of the country event. "I never saw any tombola indoors. There were no cartons of flowers and vegetables. "
September 4: At Rockfield Studios in South Wales, the Roses are recording a new version of 'Love Spreads' for the Warchild benefit album released at record speed just five days later. Ian and Robbie do several press interviews to help promote the album. They spend the rest of the week rehearsing.
Ian's hair is now back in the old-style baggy look, but he refutes any notion of his hair being a fashion statement. "It's always the same. I grow my hair quite long, and then I get it cut off really short. I just happened to have a crop when the album was released - I didn't grow it out because I thought it was a mistake. I'll do the same - get it cut when it gets longer."
September 7: The band depart England for a three-week tour of Japan that's been rescheduled from earlier in the year.
They are rapturously received by their Japanese fans, but in the face of the screaming and waving remain cynical about fame. John says there are limits to what he'd do for success: "I have no excessive demands to get on. I wouldn't wear a wig."
Ian also draws the line over what he'd do to get on: "I wouldn't put my penis in someone I shouldn't…. but I'd wear a wig!"
OCTOBER: THE ROSES GO DOWN UNDER FOR A short tour of Australia. Demand for tickets is such that venues are upgraded to accommodate more fans. Speaking to the Oz music press while on tour, they rip into the Britpop scene.
Mani: "I hate Blur, Oasis are just repeating themselves with every song, Pulp are a bunch of pussies. There's a lot of people getting away with it at the moment, put it that way."
They return to Britain on October 10.
October 30: 'Begging You' is released. There are eleven mixes of the song.
NOVEMBER 28: THE BAND BEGIN A 19-DATE UK tour. Not before time, according to friends of the band, who reckon that if they'd left it any longer to play live here they'd have definitely split up. The Roses themselves admit they should've played some dates in the last few years - before the album was released.
Despite everything that's happened to thwart their return, the band remain confident about their future.
Mani: "Our shows are great because we're so great. It feels right, we've always wanted to do more."
John: "The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd."
Mani: "We don't know what's going to happen next year. But we do know that people enjoy what we do."
Ian: "We'll never step down. We can't. Only if everyone said stop, that's when I'd go…. But I wouldn't stop, I'd carry on. Somehow."
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