Entertainment For Lively Minds
So, The Stone Roses to reform...............
...according to various reports etc etc...and understand that the Massive demographic may not all be atuned to the revolutionary impact they had on me at 19 years old so please bear with me! They were my Last Gang in Town. They had the looks, the chops, the songs and the sheer force of nature that punched you slap bang between the eyes.
Now - The Roses were my Led Zeppelin, MY band. I posted a "It was 20 years ago today" thread on here in 2009 on the anniversary of the Roses and Mondays ToTP appearance - I'll confess now that I even set a calendar reminder to do this! I followed them from the Amersham Arms in New Cross in February 89, through nearly every gig there on in. Some mind bendingly brilliant - bunking the train to Manchester directly from work in St James's Park to see them at the Hacienda and getting the milk train back to London, dripping in sweat, no doubt stinking to high heaven and with some monstrous chemicals still buzzing around my head - and going straight back to the same desk -, some absolutely shocking (Glasgow Green and the nadir of Reading that made me cry - Robbie Maddix shouting 'Reading, make some noiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise...' - just so, so very wrong).
I had the Alexandra Palace and Spike Island posters stuck to my bedroom wall with the gig tickets affixed to them. Their disposal by my Mum after I left home for good (post uni, post other FPO's flats etc) led to a major major row. I sulked and stomped like a teenager for weeks (there may have even been a tear). I was 27 years old at the time. Those posters meant everything to me.
So what of this reunion? I'm not going to bother with it. My time capsule and memories are perfect. It'll be like seeing an old girlfriend some 22 years down the track. Wrinkles where there used to be smoothness, baggage where there used to be none. Do I need to see Ian Brown murder She Bangs the Drum again or Mani gurning as he runs up and down the fretboard as I Am The Resurrection closes? All for an extortionate ticket price at the O2 Arena. No, not really. I've seen them do both at various gigs and festivals in the intervening years.
Is there "unfinished business" here? I can't see anything. The whole thing fell in around its ears during the recording of The Second Coming. I hope they're honest and admit it's about the pension fund. I don't begrudge anyone earning a living or selling their art and I'm not quite that self absorbed to think that they shouldn't get back together as I'm sure the younger generation will clamour to see them as I did when the Pistols played Finsbury Park in '96.
Ian, John, Gary and Alan - thanks for the memories - I'll keep them intact.
edit - confirmed - Heaton Park June 28 & 29. Almost 22 years to the day from Spike Island. That's a fucking long time. Confronting mortality even.
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If I can get a ticket
then I will be there. I have no problem with reunions either and I never got to see them the first time around. Only really discovered them just as they split up, as I'd have been about 12 at the time.
I'll be interested to see how far they'll take it (a couple of big gigs? / a full tour? / new record?). Thinking about it, a lot of it will probably have to fit around Primal Screams schedule.
No-one over 20...
... should be allowed to attend.
Why...?
So that the memories of those who were there first time round...
... remain parked where they should be.
The Stone Roses and The Smiths - bands that should not reform. Look at what happened when Sex Pistols did. Panto.
I'd maybe up your age-limit a bit then,
they split 16 years ago and I'm not convinced that the under-10s really felt that they were there first time around :)
That's a fair point...
... and I concede. To be fair, I hadn't yet had my third coffee of the day. The one that brings on a synaptical event like Chewie punching light-speed.
It takes me a few coffees to get going too.
In fact, it's best not to ask me to do anything involving thought or effort before lunch.
God, I'm completely the other way.
Raring to go in the morning, once a certain amount of bed-induced incapacitation has been shaken off. A tea, cereal, a strong black coffee and I'll do all my best thinking between about 7:30 and 12:00. After that, it's all admin, because I lose the capacity for brainwork completely after lunch.
I'm completely the opposite...
... awful in the morning, reasonable after lunch with a brief patch of tired at about 4pm, good at tea-time and firing on almost all cylinders at night. And then unable to get to sleep until the wee smalls...
The Sex Pistols was always panto
...but in '76 it was Panto From Hell.
Noisy uncooperative audiences, erratic music, performers who would really rather be somewhere else, plenty of saliva...
I'll be washing my hair that night
But oddly I suspect that they might have some unfinished business. They didnt finish on a high note, and only made 2 albums (the first is one of my all time favourites) so they might feel they have something to prove.
'fraid I'm not excited though (probably too old)/
Now if Ride get back together....
this means nothing to me ...
I didn't like them first time around, so I've got little interest in what they'll do now, but I'm generally all for old bands getting back together (or indeed staying together).
If the musicians like playing the music and enough folk want to watch them playing that music, then they should do it until they drop.
Preserving stuff in aspic is for obsessive collectors. Music is meant to be performed.
Got to agree
As one of those who married young and took on a mortgage I never had the time or cash to see a lot of my favourite bands first time around so I've enjoyed Crowded House, Squeeze, Pretenders, Blondie, 10cc, etc. on the revival circuit.
Or Me
I have no difficulty with most bands reforming as long as the core of the group is involved. Good luck to them as we all have to pay the bills. It's also given me an opportunity to see acts that for one reason or another I missed first time around e.g. Squeeze and the Human League.
Most people on here are of a certain age and I expect will have gaps in their music knowledge due to other aspects of their lives taking priority at that time. For me the early 90's are something of a musical void: I was recently married with two young children, mortgaged to the hilt and working like a dog. The whole Madchester thing completely passed me by and I'm not sure if I have the time or inclination to investigate, even at this late stage when life is rather less hectic.
As an aside...
... I'm fairly sure that the Human League never officially split up? I may be wrong.
Try not to overthink it
It's a chance to hear your absolute favourite choons played really loud accompanied by X thousand fellow fans, could it really be that bad? The albums will still be there when you get home, as will your old memories...
YMMV of course, but as a comparison, the absence of Jerry Dammers may have been an affront to the purists, but a lot of people had an amazing time at Specials gigs in the past year or so...
The Specials
Is it an age thing? I never saw The Specials first time round, hence sold my Granny to pay for a couple of tickets at Brixton.
The Roses, The Smiths etc. been there, done it - it's not not valid, but diminishes my personal memory pot. Good luck to all that scramble for tickets.
BTW - I'd sell the other Granny should Weller, Foxton and Buckler ever get on a stage again.
Specials
thank god they got back together, (Too Much) Too young to see them the first time and their reunion tour gig in the Dublin Olympia was very special indeed
lots of people had an amazing time at Specials gigs in 2009
I know I did...
Jerry Dammers ? - Sorry, didnt miss him at all.
YMMV?
Your mileage may vary.
I'm giving it a miss too
I really loved the Stone Roses, and still do. I only saw them live once, and it dented my adoration a bit, albeit only temporarily. But in truth, the real reason I'll not be there is anxiety that they might spot my wrinkles and baggage :)
If the venue's right
In 1989 I was a Michael Jackson, pop obsessed boy of 13 who was slowly being introduced to all kinds of music by the older kids at boarding school.
From the fifth form study came the frankly astonishing music of The Stone Roses first album played by kids wearing dungarees, Kickers and bucket hats. The walls of the study were covered with posters of the band alongside rave flyers from across the country.
I dropped Jacko tout de suite donned my dyed t-shirt and that debut album remained on my Walkman for most of the year. I remember listening to it in detention and rather than doing the geography prep I was assigned I was trying to decipher the lyrics, including those of 'Don't Stop'.
After this my listening habits were never the same and I moved into reggae, hip-hop and dance music as well as other 'indie' bands, the more obscure the better.
With such a pivotal role in my life it would be wrong to miss out on trying to capture an ounce of the magic. Being young and at boarding school, seeing them live then wasn't an option and I wasn't interested in the second line up.
So I will buy my ticket if I can but only if it's outside. A day out in Hyde Park or something similar would be great and how I imagined I would see them trapped inside the school dreaming of Spike Island all those years ago.
Brown can't sing
I saw the Roses at Wembley and they were ok. I saw Brown a couple of years ago and he was just awful.Maybe they'll auto tune him.
I hope to see them this time
I have absolutely no problem with bands getting back together. As artists, they have the right to sell their art in whatever way they see fit. Nobody is forced to buy it.
Has there ever been a band
Has there ever been a band reunion motivated by "art" though? Was there ever an act whose members thought, "I can only express my vision if I get back with the bunch of tossers who made my life hell for three years, and who used to snore too loudly in the tour bus". Or is it the case that it's a simple economic equation - band reunion takes place when right price = lifestyle demands/tax bills of former bandmembers.
Go Six dog Go
I felt the same way you do except for Suede, not the Roses. When they announced their reunion for the Teenage Cancer Trust in April 2010 I snootily decided to give it a pass. I had too many good memories of the band in their prime. What a mistake. The gig seems to have gone down in Suede history as a legendary celebration of a band who could still do it, (with or without BButler)
So I'd say GO! I love it when bands get back together...
I am waivering...!
For exactly the reasons you mention...and as I've seen the press conference throughout the day my resistance has floundered. I've put my friendly Ticketmaster contact on red alert and if that fails I know that me and a mate will be outside Heaton Park with a bundle of notes on the day.
Squire still looking good. Like young John Cooper Clarke before the skag. The others maybe looking their near 50 years now!
For what it's worth
I saw Suede at the RAH last year, and Pulp at Hyde Park this year. Both excellent reunion gigs.
If the Roses were to announce Hyde Park, I'd think about going, and then probably think again. It's not so much the musical fare (although having seen them before I wouldn't go expecting anything amazing musically) but the crowd.
I can say with confidence that the Screamadelica gig this year was populated by the densest collection of early-fortysomething former 'faces' who long since passed up the happy pills of 20 years ago for lager (and, more damningly, cocaine) I have ever seen at a gig.
Result? Angry barging, elbows-out bloke dancing that consisted of gallumphing into people either side of them to a lolloping baggy tempo, "did-you-spill-my-pint" eyeballing and a generally malevolent atmosphere quite at odds with anything occuring on stage.
Can't see a Stone Roses reunion gig being any different to that. (Even) Blur a few years ago was subject to the same conditions. I don't go to as many gigs as I used to but at least I don't use the ones I do go to as excuses to regress to idiocy.
Cracking tunes, mind.
Screamadelica
Sorry about that - don't get out much these days
yeah some of the hardcore fans' reaction mirrors my own to
the Suede gigs. those gigs were amazing and i'm glad i went in the end. mind you the main reason for me being a bit (wavy hand gesture) about the Suede gigs when first announced was because i'd seen them do a rotten gig with (pretty much) that same line up nary 7 years prior. this is very different, seeing as the line up hasn't played in 22 years.
Glasgow Green
i'm glad it isn't just me who thought it was awful, everyone else seems to rave about it.
Fryshuset, Stockholm, 17 May 1990
I was lucky enough to see the Stone Roses 10 days before Spike Island at a club in Stockholm called Fryshuset. There have been very few gigs where I've felt I've seen a band at their absolute peak, but that was definitely one of them.
After that, I felt I had no need to see another Stone Roses gig - or indeed listen to another Stone Roses record - ever again.
Similar story here
I saw them in a tiny club - Dudley JBs since you ask - just as the first album came out, stood about 10 feet from the "stage". It was - and remains - one of the greatest gigs I have ever seen, they were just incredible, all the more so since I had only heard a couple of things from them. They played Friday night, so it was straight to the shops on Saturday to buy the album. That show must have been one of the very last before they sudenly went massive.
Had tickets to see them in Birmingham a few weeks later - Edwards No. 7, another tiny place. By now, they'd had the famous BBC Late Show appearance:
They concluded that Edwards' PA wasn't big enough for them and the gig was cancelled, only to be rearranged for the Digbeth Irish Centre which probably held three times as many punters, not that I'm suggesting a financial conspiracy, oh no. It was a good gig, but without the same magic, probably because that's impossible to recapture.
Thereafter it was all big places and I couldn't muster up the enthusiasm. I hope the reunion goes well and everybody has a great time, especially those who didn't catch them first time around. But it's not one for me.
I grow old, I grow old
I shall wear the bottoms of my flared trousers rolled.
Spike Island
was awful. When i saw them a year earlier in Edinburgh it was very exciting.
I am now of the opinion that they mark a point where we all start looking back.
It's not their fault.
Neither is the fact they begat that part of their audience, macho money men who became Oasis then Kasabian, or that their legacy has been stripped of the literary and political influences they once espoused.
My memories aren't subsequently great. So excuse me while i sit this out.
Edinburgh Venue
I was at that gig too (and Spike Island). Edinburgh show was one of the best gigs I've ever been at, even made spending the night on the streets of Edinburgh waiting for the first bus back to Dundee in the morning worthwhile.
Not convinced about the reunion but will doubtless end up going along...
Did the Stones Roses 'espouse literary influences'?
All smells like the pop music equivalent of an old boys' testimonial for Neil Ruddock and Vinnie Jones.
I thought the painter guy had more sense.
Count me out.
OK
For literary influencs read situationist reheats.
Awwww this is rather sweet though..
Mani, face like a pickled walnut.
Was cynical about this at first, but what the hell, it's a big deal and the gigs will sell out and everyone who's up for it will have a darn good hoe down. I'm not big on nostalgia, and I won't be going, they never meant that much to be but good luck to 'em. They're working on some new songs apparently...
I don't think I'll be going,...
..but look at that picture. Four old mates happy to have buried hatchets and be in each other's company again. How can that be a bad thing?
I thought that.
Look at Reni! Bless him! I still can't quite believe he's on board; it's weird to see him at all, after nearly 20 years MIA.
You should watch the press conference (on stoneroses.org)
They can't shut him up, who knew he was the talkative one?
Even Mani can hardly get a word in. He also cites Larry Mullen as an influence!
I thought
he came across as being the odd one out - very much like the bloke who's gone back to normality while everyone else carried on doing the rock star/ artist thing.
I love the photo - whatever happens, it's great to see them back being friends. I thought Ian's point - that they could have taken the money any time in the last 15 years was really interesting. It's easy to be cynical and I'm sure that money is a factor but it seems that the friendship and joy of playing together is important to them.
lifestyle
I am excited about this reunion, and if I get a chance, I'll go see them.
I think it is pretty obvious from the pitctures that 3 of them have lead the rock'n'roll lifestyle for the last 20 years, and one of them has been a family man.
You are not wrong there.
Is Squire auditioning for that
"men who look like old lesbians" website?
Actually he's auditioning for the part
of Jim Lea in the remake of Slade In Flame.
A miss for me..
.. I'm afraid.
Saw them a couple of times in their heyday + Spike Island which was crap and nothing like the cultural movement crap which has been spouted recently. It was just a load of people taking a load of drugs in Widnes.
I have no wish to stand in the middle of Heaton Park £60 quid lighter with 000's of people doing a Liam swagger and trying to sniff bugle in a breeze.
Never saw them live
but I love the albums. All of them. So I'm looking forward to OMFTL.
(I "got into" them when their very first (pre-Cinammon) 12" came out. Bought it from Astley's in Wallingford, which was a chart shop, so most of the singles were 20p. Played it once, gave it away. Kicked self for a couple of decades.)
I recently saw my first girlfriend a school reunion...
after not having seen her in 30 years, and it was absolutely magical. Just sayin' ya never know.
Multiple phones at the ready
for a 9.30am mission. When the rumours started last week I continued with my "Clash never did/seen them twice/what's the point?" stance. After watching the whole of the press conference I was whisked back to June 89 and a C90 with The Stone Roses on side A and I Am The Resurrection on side B. Dreadful state to get in. The whole of my social circle has now decided to get tickets so it'd be rude not to......
I gave in.
Joined the online chaos this morning. Ticketmaster's online booking system really is Satan's own design.
I now feel I have the buyer's remorse.
What a great end to the thread...
the denial and now the conversion!
Ha! Yep
A real Doubting Thomas!
I think it'll be a brilliant night
There will such a celebratory atmosphere