In 1987 the Stone Roses were small-time indie popsters in 1995 they're just about the biggest guitar band in the UK. After 5 years in the cold (and a mere 347 days in the studio) their second album has finally appeared.
RICHARD RILEY looks into the cult of the Roses' Second Coming.
The Stone Roses are lucky lads. They chuck paint over the boss of their record label, treat their legions of devoted fans with indifference, refuse point blank to court the music press, and even turn down an appearance on Top of The Pops because they're too busy watching TV. And in spite of all this, everyone loves them. Seemingly they can do no wrong.
Their new album, Second Coming, came out in December following the Zep-inspired single, Love Spreads, which went straight into the chart at number two. Not bad for a band that's been out of action for almost five years. Once again the Roses are back in business - back in the media eye after huge legal wrangles and years of self-enforced exile. Few would deny that the band has something of a problem with the media. They've got that typical Northern cockiness - think of Lennon in his early interviews and you're not far off. One now legendary session for the press in 1990 involved the band sitting in near silence, occasionally making obscure but brief answers to questions tossed off by the insulted international hacks. To the question "Do you think you're the best guitarist in the world?", Roses guitarist John Squire gave a laconic "Yeah", then sat in silence through the rest of the session. Helpful? No.
For the band's self-styled Second Coming, they've polished up their act. And this time the media aren't invited to the party art all. Okay, so three of the four band members (drummer Reni stayed home) mumbled their way through a brief interview with The Big Issue, but they quickly retired back to their Mancunian retreats.
NEW MOVES
Still, after all those years of inactivity, there's a lot happening with the band behind the scenes. Possibly it's all down to the fact that they're rumoured to have blown their advance (reportedly a cool £1.5 million). Or maybe their label want to see a bit of action after all those months chilling out in Wales. Their label, Geffen, left the Roses in Rockfield studios near Newport for fourteen months - and sent Guns 'N' Roses' A&R chap Tom Zutaut over every six weeks with a cheque.
The band have just tied down a new manager, Doug Goldstein (who also handles Guns 'N' Roses), and begun moves to break into the American market. Their bosses at Geffen are very keen for the Roses' myth to go transatlantic. Although quite what the US press will make of all that Northern attitude remains to be seen.
RISING STARS
The Roses' leap to fame happened like this; a typical, no compromise Manchester band formed at the beginning of the 80s and began the hard slog. "Every gig was the same in those days," according to a roadie of the band at the time, "Same songs, same set. They did loads of gigs. Five years at least, and even when they finished four years ago to get their major deal sorted out, after all that time it was still the same set. Even the singles that came out were just revamped from that time - and everything they had ever done went onto that first album.
In 1988 The Stone Roses signed to the Silvertone label and quickly became the band of the moment. By 1989 they had the world at their feet. Riding high at the top of the NME charts with single of the year (Fool's Gold), band of the Year, LP of the year and best new artist, it's clear that they could do no wrong. As singer Ian Brown told NME; "We are the best band in the world because we've got the best songs, and we haven't even begun to show our potential yet."
A spectacular show at the Alexandra palace in London was followed early in 1990 by the famous Spike Island gig, closely followed again by the petulant trashing of the offices of one-time record company FM-Revolver who re-released the band's second single Sally Cinnamon, recorded in 1987. The band did £20-odd grand's worth of damage and trashed the boss's Merc.
The Roses' annus horriblis ended in September when after selling over a million copies of their debut album they attempted to split with their label, Silvertone. This rock star role-playing prompted the beginning of the Roses' two year extended tour through the wilderness of litigation and court appearances.
But through all of this, their attitude has been consistent. The Roses seem to believe somehow that the joke is on us, that we don't deserve them and we will wait forever to hear their latest creations. And they don't want to talk to us (echoing that 80s style) but they'll talk about us, knowing that we'll hear about them anyway.
As if proof of this was needed, just listen to the hidden track on their new album. Detuned guitars, plinky-plonk piano and stoned mumbling create an almost unlistenable cacophony. "Hang on," they're saying. "We haven't finished laughing yet....."
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Musically, during those exile years, the band were changing fast. As soon as all the Stone Roses wannabes tried to catch that first album sound, it changed and eluded them. Their first album introduced that heady blend of baggy beats, jangled-up chorusy guitar, Hendrixy riffing and lisping, breathy vocals. But by 1991, the shuffle beats had become more subtle, the guitars louder.
The last single before the band's disappearance - One Love - used a huge multi-tracked wall of funked-out, heavily effected guitar. Guitarist John Squire, although never a slouch at the fretboard, was obviously coming into his own here. It's no surprise therefore that he pretty much single-handedly wrote the whole of the new album.
Second Coming is basically a guitar player's dream. Those years in the wilderness were spent accumulating influences ranging from Elmore James, JJ Cale, Eric Clapton, Led Zep, The Beatles and more in the true sifter style. That Manchester edge is still there, it's danceable (just), it's got plenty of old guitars through older amps and wears it's influences very high on its leather sleeve. But like the best and worst of all records, it meanders, talks too much, believing that the message is in the music. Each solo is eight bars too long, each outro is twice too much. The album hasn't been made for anyone but Ian, Reni, Mani and John. It's prêt a porter music, ready to wear - but this time tailored to fit only the designer.
Technically, it breaks no barriers. In fact it's a perfect record for the nineties. Full of gutsy rock 'n' roll anecdotes, social mores and heartbreak lyrics, it's perfectly packaged for the good value generation. But while the Stone Roses bring a whole new meaning to the phrase "going off on one", producer/engineer Simon Dawson's guiding hand runs through this album. You can almost hear his finger resting on the fader while the Roses insist that the outro lasts for just a little longer. Perhaps the band would still be in Rockfield if he hadn't diligently recorded every single monitor mix to DAT, knowing that in the morning things would sound completely different and there would have to be a starting point for the next day.
The actual recording process was simple. Guitarist John Squire wanted to keep a live sound through much of his guitar playing. Simon explains; "John would usually work out roughly what he was going to play before coming in, and then do three or four takes with the slant on 'performance'. I'd usually end up using one of those (the one with the best feel), pinching bits from the other takes if there were any bad mistakes in the best one. We tried to keep it as 'one take' as possible." Surprisingly, even though the Roses are currently considering headlining at Glastonbury, performing the album live in future wasn't a big consideration. According to Simon "They wanted to give it a very live feel anyway."
Valuable insight into the album is given by the kind of music the band listened to at the Rockfield sessions. They relaxed by mountain-biking and flying kites (yes, really); for music they tuned into Aerosmith, Sly & Robbie, Dub War and obscure US hip hop artists - as well as a sizeable chunk of old Chess rock 'n' roll and blues recordings.
The band's use of new tunings on Second Coming was probably inspired by these old recordings from the 40s and 50s. The single Love Spreads saw John and Mani dropping to a low D - John used his back-up Les Paul for this. For the blissfully sweet Your Star Will Shine, John used Nashville tuning (you make the three bass strings lighter gauge, then tune them an octave higher than normal it gives a ringing jangly style, perfect for picking). As far as effects go, according to the album's producer, Simon, John used an Echoplex tape delay, a Fuzz Face, an Electric Mistress, a Cry Baby wah and a Zoom distortion (at the end of Driving South). Bassist Mani meanwhile occasionally used a SansAmp pre-amp tube simulator to pump up his Rickenbacker bass and Mega Boogie rig.
HIGH AS KITES
Ten Storey Love Song is the Roses' new single, due out this month. Surprisingly, it's a return to their first album form. Mixolydian meanderings take us into a huge swooping major chord you instantly know you're in Roses' country here. With a chorus reminiscent of the cheeky Scarborough Fair rip-off, Elizabeth My Dear, from the first album, it's the Stone Roses at their poppiest and most instantly accessible.
One thing's certain - they're not a bunch of guys that like to be pinned down in any way. Everyone's got them written off as Led Zep fanatics, and there they go writing a stormingly sweet pop song.
As for the future, there's only one musical ambition guitarist John Squire says he has left to fulfil to write the best guitar album ever. He's not there yet, but something tells me 1995 could well be the year of Roses. Watch this space....
THE ROSES' HARDWARE
Take a listen to the new album, and you'll hear that all the right ingredients are there in just the right combination. Squire digs the leads from his '59 Les Paul and Electro Harmonix pedals through an old Fender Twin Reverb amp. Another backwards look over the shoulder in the form of Orange amps was evident during the recording sessions, as was an old Maestro Echoplex tape echo unit, again just right for the analogue mood of the album. Though simple, this set-up is very popular. The combination of high output Les Paul pickups through the high gain Fender Twin inputs (made with the low output Strat in mind) produces a great sound, especially when the Fender Twin has been hotrodded for extra boost (as Squire's has).
On the other side of the room, Mani's bass consistently holds the project together, rolling and looping through the song and often being the melodic standard bearer, while Squire runs at yet another guitar solo. His sound is warm, round and wholesome, Mani's Rickenbacker bass and Mesa rig being the perfect counterfoil to the bright 12" speakers in the Fender Twin.
Squire's sound is based around a trusty old Fender Twin Reverb amp. It's also been hotrodded giving more saturated gain stages. With the high output pickups of his Les Paul, this gives a great range of rock sounds.
THE SECOND COMING
The second album by the Stone Roses has already attracted huge acclaim. We tracked down the album's producer Simon Dawson at Rockfield Studio to find out the story behind the sound....
With five years to think about it, fourteen months to finish recording it and three producers to work on it, Second Coming should have been no less than a masterpiece. Even on a first listen you can tell this is no ordinary album. You're at track one (Breaking Into Heaven) and already into eleven-minute rock epic territory. The band's original producer, John Leckie, (who's just finished working with Radiohead) even gets a credit for this one (his split with the band wasn't entirely amicable). According to Simon "The intro's just a lot of portable DAT recordings of various things, like streams, baby crocodiles, etc. Then just some dubs over the top - recorded before the Roses came to Rockfield by John Leckie."
The eeriness of the first track is quickly dispelled by the raunch of rockers like Driving South and Love Spreads. A grinding blues riff steers us through these tracks - on Driving... the drums were simply a loop sampled from Reni's kit, which he then played over. One trivia point; the sound in the outro (or so Simon says) is a mobile phone dialling 0890 666 (a chat line perhaps?)
Love Spreads uses a sexy slide guitar riff through Squire's overdriven Les Paul/Fender Twin combination. There are two other main feels to the album the acoustic ambience of Tightrope (recorded around one mic, according to Simon) and Your Star Will Shine, and the jangle of How Do You Sleep and Ten Storey Love Song, the first song recorded for Second Coming, and the track most reminiscent of the Roses' first album. Ten Storey.... is the band's next single - Leckie did the drums in an early session; at Rockfield the band recorded the rest of the song live around them. According to Simon, it was one of the quickest songs to record.
The main way of working at Rockfield was to jam live - the band decided to capture that live feel as much as they could in the final takes. The band spent a total of fourteen months working at Rockfield (or around 347 days of studio time) and worked on average about 10 hours a day. The timescale that the Roses work to meant both the previous producers, John Leckie and Paul Schroeder, had to move on before the project was finished. For Leckie in particular the pace was just too slow - after two years' work the album seemed no nearer completion. Schroeder suffered from much the same problem. Dawson was the natural choice to take over because of his previously work with the band. According to Simon, "We all worked together as a team - the band are all very creative and enjoy experimenting. Part of my job as producer was to take the ideas we all had, some of which were quite diverse, and make them fit into the overall picture.
Back To Media 1995