New info regarding Made Of Stone documentary!

Today I woke to read some very exciting news with regards to Shane Meadows' (director of This Is England) upcoming documentary on The Stone Roses, entitled Made of Stone. It is due to open nationwide on June 5th with the band attending the premiere in Manchester on May 30th. The documentary will offer an in depth look at their reunion from their 2011 press conference to their triumphant reunion tour. It will feature rehearsal footage and official live footage of their comeback tour in August of last year, including the Heaton park shows. They visited Belfast as the final stop on that particular tour and I was unable to attend the show (although by some fortune I did end up with Ian Brown's autograph but that's for another post), so I'm hoping that I'll see some footage of the Belfast gig. Really looking forward to this documentary!

Northern Ireland's Musical History: The Stone Roses ticket

I particularly love this, as The Stone Roses are one of my absolute favourite bands. I wasn’t even born when this show took place either, although I do live very near the now defunct Maysfield Leisure Centre. It used to be quite a common venue for concerts before we got the Odyssey Arena in the early 00's. Anyhow, this was their penultimate British/Irish date before a five year hiatus from touring until 1995 (their last one was at Glasgow Green which is regarded as one of their finest shows). Pretty much all the members of the band though would come back to Belfast as part of the various other musical projects they were involved in after The Stone Roses disbanded however. The reunited band were one of last year’s headliners at Tennant’s Vital. I hope they’re back in Belfast soon!

Collection: Ian Brown's Autograph.

Now this is an item I definitely didn't expect to end up with! Two weeks ago today, Stone Roses were headlining the second day of Tennents Vital here in Belfast. I wasn't able to make the concert and as you might expect, that had annoyed me quite a bit. Anyhow, I got a phonecall early afternoon from my aunt (yes, the same one that got me Pet Shop Boys autograph for my birthday) who was in town and sounded very excited. To cut a long story short, my Aunt and cousins were going into Starbucks, and none other than lead singer Ian Brown walked out! My aunt and cousins approached him, said that their niece/cousin was a huge fan and he signed this business card for me, (the business is actually my mother's) as it was the only thing my Aunt had in her bag he could sign! I literally thought I would faint when my Aunt told me. My cousin also got a picture taken with him but for the sake of family privacy I'm not putting it up here. They talked to him for a few minutes and said he was a very nice guy, so I think I now love Stone Roses even more (if that was possible).

The Stone Roses - Waterfall (Live Other Side of Midnight)

I just love this live performance! This is Stone Roses, performing their fantastic single Waterfall on The Other Side of Midnight, which was hosted by the late founder of Factory Records, Tony Wilson. It's interesting to see them on the show really, given Tony's apology here for initially disliking them, and Stone Roses weren't exactly Factory's biggest fans either. (One of their earliest songs from late 1984, Fall, was allegedly about their dislike for the label). Tony would further apologize for his initial dislike of them in a 2001 interview he conducted with lead singer Ian Brown. You've also got to admire Tony including them on the show because in 1989 you could say they were rivals to Happy Mondays, which were a Factory records act. I have to say I think this is one of the band's best live performances! The arrangement here is slightly different to the studio version, in fact I think I may prefer this version to the studio version (even though its also fantastic). The song here seems to sound more echoey and sometimes a bit similar to the 12" version. What I really like about this version is that it allows Mani's bass to be properly heard and I have to admit, I never actually released just how strong the bass in this song is until I heard this version. On the subject of bass, I just love the look of the bass he's playing here, it is absolutely gorgeous! Its not just Mani though, everyone here is at the peak of their powers. Even Ian Brown, who's live vocals have been subject to a fair bit of criticism sounds really good here, I honestly don't think he's half as bad as people say he is. You can find this performance on the 2 disc DVD The Very Best Of The Stone Roses. Its good that its been released I think, as its a stellar performance!

The Stone Roses - Fools Gold

Widely viewed as possibly The Stone Roses best track, Fool's Gold was originally not meant to be an A-side at all. The song's first introduction to the public came when it featured as the B-side to What The World Is Waiting For. However, when promo copies of the song were sent out, feedback was almost unanimously positive for the B-side, which had a very distinctive funky sound to it. As such, it was eventually remade an A-side for the second pressing  and it went on to become 1989's biggest selling independent single. It was also to become the groups first top 10 hit in the UK and they performed the song on Top of The Pops in what was to be their only appearance on the show. The song is based around a sample from James Brown's track "Funky Drummer", which John Squire discovered in a rather unusual situation. Following a singing of the bands then-current single, She Bangs The Drums, each band member were given the opportunity to select a number of albums by way of a thank you. John Squire chose a breakbeats album, purely because the artwork of the album appealed to him, and on this compilation was Funky Drummer. John then looped the sample, and wrote a guitar riff over the top. The bassline is also sampled from Young MC's "Know How". Mani was a frequent visitor to the Hacienda nightclub and would hear the track on regular rotation. It more or less goes without saying then that this track sees the band at their most funk oriented, and it definitely is a shift from their seminal self titled debut album in terms of sound. Even though it was included on the 1989 re-release edition of The Stone Roses, I personally don't think it fits in very well really. The album is mostly guitar pop in sound but ends with a longer and much harder sounding groove-oriented track. Lyrically, the song is about greed and the corruptions that come with it. The lyrics themselves were inspired by the 1948 movie "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" which tells the story of three men who decide to come together to go in search of gold in 1920's Mexico. One of the members of the group predicts trouble ahead in their quest, but this doesn't deter them. Sure enough, they end up turning against each other as their quest for gold corrupts them as power struggles sit in. Its basic story has happened many times in the music industry, and the lyrics were also a reflection of such troubles brewing within the Stone Roses camp itself. The song comes in a shorter edit thats not much over 4 minutes, but for me the best way to enjoy this song is the longer version which winds up nearing 10 minutes long. The song has such an irresistible and understated groove to it that the minutes literally fly in whilst listening to it! The song is still widely praised to this day and has been sampled in numerous recordings since from Run DMC to Bananaramma and it's not hard to see why, this is one of the finest songs to come out of a city that has a vast amount of brilliant music to choose from. A masterpiece!