Ian Brown (at the time the bassist) and guitarist John Squire, who knew each other from Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, formed a short-lived Clash-inspired band called The Patrol in 1980 along with singer/guitarist Andy Couzens and drummer Simon Wolstencroft. They played several gigs in 1980 and recorded a demo tape, but towards the end of that year decided on a change of direction. Brown had got a taste of being a frontman during the last Patrol show, singing The Sweet's "Blockbuster" to close the set, with the band's friend/roadie Pete Garner standing in on bass, and Couzens wanted to concentrate on guitar. The band members lost enthusiasm in 1981, Brown selling his bass guitar to buy a scooter, and Wolstencroft joined the pre-Smiths band The Freak Party. Squire continued to practice guitar while working as an animator for Cosgrove Hall during the day, while Brown ran a Northern soul night in a Salford club.
Squire and Couzens started a new band, The Fireside Chaps, with bassist Gary "Mani" Mounfield, later recruiting a singer named Kaiser and drummer Chris Goodwin, and changing their name to The Waterfront (after the film On the Waterfront), their sound influenced by 1960s groups and contemporary bands such as Orange Juice. Goodwin left before the band recorded their first demo and, shortly after the demo, Squire asked Brown to join as singer. A meeting with Geno Washington at a party at Brown's flat in Hulme, in which Washington told Brown that he would be a star and should be a singer, convinced Brown to take Squire up on his offer. Brown joined The Waterfront in late 1983, for a time sharing vocals with Kaiser.
Like the earlier attempts at bands, The Waterfront fizzled out, but in late 1983 Couzens decided to try again at starting a band, and approached Brown. They decided on Wolstencroft as drummer and Pete Garner as bassist. They also decided that they needed Squire in the band, and when he agreed the band's line-up was cemented. Leaving their previous bands behind, they worked solely on new material. Brown's vocal limitations prompted him to take singing lessons for three weeks. After rehearsing for some time without a band name, Squire came up with 'The Stone Roses'. Several stories later emerged suggesting that the band had initially been called 'English Rose' or that the name was somehow linked to The Rolling Stones, but these were untrue, Brown explaining "No, I don't know where that English Rose story came from. John thought up the name 'Stone Roses' - something with a contrast, two words that went against each other". The band rehearsed for six months, during which time Wolstencroft had been auditioning for other bands, and he left to join Terry Hall's band The Colourfield. They got Goodwin to rejoin, but he only lasted for one rehearsal, so they advertised for a replacement and began auditioning, eventually recruiting Alan Wren in May 1984.
After rehearsing and writing songs over the summer, they recorded their first demo in late August, making 100 cassettes, with artwork by Squire, and set about trying to get gigs. They played their first gig as the Stone Roses on 23 October 1984, supporting Pete Townshend at an anti-heroin concert at the Moonlight Club in London, Brown having sent the demo with an accompanying letter stating "I'm surrounded by skagheads, I wanna smash 'em. Can you give us a show?". The show was seen by journalists including Sounds' Gary Johnson, who arranged to interview the band a few weeks later. The band received management offers and more gigs soon followed.
The band played their first headlining gig on 4 January 1985, supported by Last Party, after original headliners Mercenary Skank had pulled out. The band had their first recording session with Hannett in January 1985 at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, aiming to record tracks for a debut single and an album. Further sessions followed in March, during which they recorded their debut single, the double A-side "So Young"/"Tell Me". The band were invited to play a live session on Piccadilly Radio in March, for which they premiered a new song, "I Wanna be Adored". By this time they had started to build a sizeable following in Manchester, and their first gig in the North of England at Clouds in Preston attracted a large audience, but descended into a riot after technical problems and friction between the bands on the bill.
The Roses embarked on a tour of Sweden in April, with their first gig in Manchester following on their return, at International 1, a venue run by future Stone Roses manager Gareth Evans. A performance at a warehouse party on 20 July helped to build interest in the band, and in August they returned to the studio to record their debut album. Unhappy with the results, and with the band's sound changing, it was shelved (it was later released as Garage Flower). The "So Young"/"Tell Me" single, however, was released in September.
Frustrated with the lack of attention they were getting locally, they engaged in a graffiti campaign, with Brown and Wren spraying the band's name on walls from West Didsbury to the city centre. It brought them much negative publicity, but added to their increasing notoriety. In 1986 they began working on new material, including "Sally Cinnamon", and the planned follow-up singles to "So Young" ("I Wanna Be Adored" and "This is the One") were shelved. They parted company with Jones and took on Gareth Evans as manager, using Evans's International 1 venue as their new rehearsal space.
As Brown and Squire began collaborating more closely on songwriting, they decided that they should take a larger slice of the money than the other band members; Couzens and Wren left the band in protest, although they soon returned, and Couzens played an ill-fated gig with the band at the end of May before being pushed out of the band by Evans after flying home alone while the rest of the band returned in their van. Although they failed to achieve further success in 1986, their repertoire expanded to include songs such as "Sugar Spun Sister", taking on influences from bands such as The Jesus & Mary Chain and the indie-pop era Primal Scream ("Velocity Girl" being a major influence on "Made of Stone"), and they stopped playing the older songs.
In June, Garner announced that he had decided to leave the band, although he stayed until they found a replacement, playing his final gig with the band at the 'Larks in the Park' festival in Liverpool. Rob Hampson was Garner's replacement, with Garner teaching him the bass parts before leaving, although Hampson only lasted a week. A more permanent replacement was found in the form of former-Waterfront bassist Mani (Gary Mounfield), who played his first gig with the band in November 1987. Brown recalled, "When Mani joined it almost changed overnight. It became a totally different groove Straight away, everything just fell into place".
In early 1988 the band played at Dingwalls in London, a show attended by representatives of Zomba and Rough Trade's Geoff Travis, and both subsequently wanted to sign the band, Rough Trade even funding studio time to record a single, "Elephant Stone", with Peter Hook producing. Hook was considered to produce an album for the band but was unavailable due to commitments with New Order, so Travis suggested John Leckie. In May the band played a high-profile concert at Manchester's International II with James organized by Dave Haslam to raise funds for a campaign against Clause 28. In the audience was a sixteen year old Liam Gallagher, for whom it was the inspiration to form a band himself. Also in the audience was Glaswegian Roddy McKenna (A+R Music executive Zomba Records), who later signed the band to Zomba Records. He asked if they could be transferred internally to Andrew Lauder's newly-created Guitar based Silvertone Records subsidiary. The band was signed to an eight-album deal, buying the "Elephant Stone" tapes from Rough Trade and releasing them as a single in October 1988.
Following media speculation, it was announced on 18 October 2011 that the band had re-united and would perform two shows in Heaton Park Manchester in 29 June to 1 July 2012 followed by a world tour. They also plan to record a third album in the future. Fans get ready for this extravaganza event and secure you’re the Stone Roses Tickets from Ticket Royale at low cost.
The Stone Roses Tickets - Heaton Park Manchester - £135
Tel: +44 (0) 207 148 7459
info@ticketroyale.com
Ticket Royale
Squire and Couzens started a new band, The Fireside Chaps, with bassist Gary "Mani" Mounfield, later recruiting a singer named Kaiser and drummer Chris Goodwin, and changing their name to The Waterfront (after the film On the Waterfront), their sound influenced by 1960s groups and contemporary bands such as Orange Juice. Goodwin left before the band recorded their first demo and, shortly after the demo, Squire asked Brown to join as singer. A meeting with Geno Washington at a party at Brown's flat in Hulme, in which Washington told Brown that he would be a star and should be a singer, convinced Brown to take Squire up on his offer. Brown joined The Waterfront in late 1983, for a time sharing vocals with Kaiser.
After rehearsing and writing songs over the summer, they recorded their first demo in late August, making 100 cassettes, with artwork by Squire, and set about trying to get gigs. They played their first gig as the Stone Roses on 23 October 1984, supporting Pete Townshend at an anti-heroin concert at the Moonlight Club in London, Brown having sent the demo with an accompanying letter stating "I'm surrounded by skagheads, I wanna smash 'em. Can you give us a show?". The show was seen by journalists including Sounds' Gary Johnson, who arranged to interview the band a few weeks later. The band received management offers and more gigs soon followed.
The band played their first headlining gig on 4 January 1985, supported by Last Party, after original headliners Mercenary Skank had pulled out. The band had their first recording session with Hannett in January 1985 at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, aiming to record tracks for a debut single and an album. Further sessions followed in March, during which they recorded their debut single, the double A-side "So Young"/"Tell Me". The band were invited to play a live session on Piccadilly Radio in March, for which they premiered a new song, "I Wanna be Adored". By this time they had started to build a sizeable following in Manchester, and their first gig in the North of England at Clouds in Preston attracted a large audience, but descended into a riot after technical problems and friction between the bands on the bill.
The Roses embarked on a tour of Sweden in April, with their first gig in Manchester following on their return, at International 1, a venue run by future Stone Roses manager Gareth Evans. A performance at a warehouse party on 20 July helped to build interest in the band, and in August they returned to the studio to record their debut album. Unhappy with the results, and with the band's sound changing, it was shelved (it was later released as Garage Flower). The "So Young"/"Tell Me" single, however, was released in September.
As Brown and Squire began collaborating more closely on songwriting, they decided that they should take a larger slice of the money than the other band members; Couzens and Wren left the band in protest, although they soon returned, and Couzens played an ill-fated gig with the band at the end of May before being pushed out of the band by Evans after flying home alone while the rest of the band returned in their van. Although they failed to achieve further success in 1986, their repertoire expanded to include songs such as "Sugar Spun Sister", taking on influences from bands such as The Jesus & Mary Chain and the indie-pop era Primal Scream ("Velocity Girl" being a major influence on "Made of Stone"), and they stopped playing the older songs.
In June, Garner announced that he had decided to leave the band, although he stayed until they found a replacement, playing his final gig with the band at the 'Larks in the Park' festival in Liverpool. Rob Hampson was Garner's replacement, with Garner teaching him the bass parts before leaving, although Hampson only lasted a week. A more permanent replacement was found in the form of former-Waterfront bassist Mani (Gary Mounfield), who played his first gig with the band in November 1987. Brown recalled, "When Mani joined it almost changed overnight. It became a totally different groove Straight away, everything just fell into place".
In early 1988 the band played at Dingwalls in London, a show attended by representatives of Zomba and Rough Trade's Geoff Travis, and both subsequently wanted to sign the band, Rough Trade even funding studio time to record a single, "Elephant Stone", with Peter Hook producing. Hook was considered to produce an album for the band but was unavailable due to commitments with New Order, so Travis suggested John Leckie. In May the band played a high-profile concert at Manchester's International II with James organized by Dave Haslam to raise funds for a campaign against Clause 28. In the audience was a sixteen year old Liam Gallagher, for whom it was the inspiration to form a band himself. Also in the audience was Glaswegian Roddy McKenna (A+R Music executive Zomba Records), who later signed the band to Zomba Records. He asked if they could be transferred internally to Andrew Lauder's newly-created Guitar based Silvertone Records subsidiary. The band was signed to an eight-album deal, buying the "Elephant Stone" tapes from Rough Trade and releasing them as a single in October 1988.
Following media speculation, it was announced on 18 October 2011 that the band had re-united and would perform two shows in Heaton Park Manchester in 29 June to 1 July 2012 followed by a world tour. They also plan to record a third album in the future. Fans get ready for this extravaganza event and secure you’re the Stone Roses Tickets from Ticket Royale at low cost.
The Stone Roses Tickets - Heaton Park Manchester - £135
Tel: +44 (0) 207 148 7459
info@ticketroyale.com
Ticket Royale
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