VIVA’s TRIBUTE TO THE GREATEST BAND IN THE WORLD THE STONE ROSES

MANCHESTER and the rest of the world have been going STONE ROSES mad this summer. We catch up with some FAMILIAR FACES who have been there from the BEGINNING of this band’s INCREDIBLE JOURNEY...

photo: Ian Tilton

They have only ever released two albums, taking an average of 5 years to make each one; they have never had a number 1 single or album and despite rumours circulating for years following the split,

they hadn’t really spoken to each other properly until last year. Yet on the 18th October 2011 Ian Brown, Reni, John Squire and Mani sat together at London’s Soho Hotel to announce that a reunion tour will take place. It is believed that whilst Reni and Mani had made attempts to reform previ-ously, it was at the funeral of Mani’s mother that Brown and Squire finally put their differences aside and agreed to tour together.

The “homecoming dates” were originally 2 days at Heaton Park but when both of those dates sold out within a matter of minutes a third day was added making it the fastest selling music gig of all time. 220,000 tickets in 68 minutes to be exact! So why did they sell out so fast? Since their split they had all individually had successes; Ian Brown with his solo career and Mani with Primal Scream for example but as a united band they were a formidable force.

The 8 months between announcing the tour and the Heaton Park Week-end were certainly excitable with critics claiming that the dates will end up being cancelled, that Brown’s voice isn’t what it used to be and that some band members will change their mind at the last minute and not turn up. But luckily none of those rumours were true - lucky for Mani too, who, after checking his bank account to make sure he had enough money for milk and bread discovered someone had put close to £2million in his account...the Stone Roses are believed to have made a collective £12million over those 3 days – and on June 29th all four members stepped out on their home turf and delivered a show that wowed the crowd and silenced critics. Fans sang along to I Wanna Be Adored and I Am The Resurrection whilst Rock’n’roll royalty such as Jarvis Cocker, Liam Gallagher and The Happy Mondays and stylish celebrities Lily Allen, Holly Willoughby and Rio Ferdinand rocked out in back stage and V.I.P area.

Photographer Ian Tilton was there from the beginning and was actually the first to photograph the band with Mani (see the photo sequence on the top of this page). Ironically enough, Tilton tells us, Mani’s face wasn’t actually seen on the last photo because the band burst into fits of giggles after Reni blew Ian a kiss... there are many of these kinds of stories that Tilton shared with us having been the Stone Roses official photographer for the duration of their career.

We ask Tilton to chose one of his favourite unpublished shots he ever took of the band, he chose the one on page 82 which was taken outside Victoria Station and has (until now in VIVA magazine) never been published: “this is a really rare print as Reni didn’t turn up for the interview and photo shoot as he couldn’t be assed and so we only shot with the other 3 Ian, Mani and John, it was a notoriously hard photoshoot because none of them really wanted to be there. I shot on inferred colour film, hence the psych-edelic colour, pale and waxy.” says Tilton.

Tilton first met the boys in 1987 at a studio in Chorlton for their first ma-jor music magazine interview and claims that their appeal comes from the very individual characters that each band member has. “They are all lead-ers, very northern and musically brilliant. But they are also human and by no means perfect which makes them easy to relate to.” That could explain why their audiences are made up of die-hard fans that saw them the first time round and younger generations that grew up listening to their music but never getting a chance to see them.

Over July Tilton held a photographic exhibition at the iconic Manchester Photographic gallery in the Northern Quarter called ‘Set In Stone – The Stone Roses’. The success of, Manchester Photographic keeps growing and has seen some outstanding exhibitions come to the gallery including ‘The Hacienda’s Thirtieth Anniversary’ as well as John Robbs book launch, ‘The Stone Roses’. >

For biographer John Robb, his connection with the Stone Roses started before they had even played any gigs; “I met their original bass player Pete Garner first. He used to work in Paperchase records in the early eighties. Pete was always really nice and loved music and we would chat. He told me he was in this band. When I moved over to Manchester with my band the Membranes we started rehearsing in Spirit studios and the Roses were next door, we thought they looked pretty hard and they thought we looked pretty psychotic! I saw Pete with them and asked to borrow some guitar strings off them and they were really friendly and I’ve know them ever since.”

His new biography The Stone Roses: The Reunion Edition is an 80,000 word update on his original book released in 1996 and includes all the new stuff that the band have been up to as well as interviews (which no other Stone Roses book has). Robb believes that the Roses may be the best musi-cians that he has ever met with “a charismatic front man who captured the baggy cool of the times perfectly.”

Ian Brown has confirmed this to be the best of them all with the catchy quote “Brother John Robb knows. He was there.”

It isn’t just biographies and photo exhibitions that have been created in their name; Spike Island is a film based on the Roses’ infamous gig in 1990 and follows a new up and coming band as they try to get tickets. The gig that was later dubbed “Woodstock for the baggy generation” was consid-ered a failure due to poor organisation and technical difficulties but writer Chris Coghill believes that because of the sheer amount of people that turned up (nearly 30,000) to support the Stone Roses it was great success for the time.

Born and raised in Manchester, Coghill has been a fan of the Stone Roses from day one claiming that “there is something romantic about them, that they arrived at a time where society was changing and they pretty much stuck two fingers up to it”. Although they don’t have an exact release date yet, Coghill is confident that the film will be out in cinemas before the year ends.

And a love of the Stone Roses isn’t all Tilton, Robb and Coghill have in common. They have also hinted that the Roses are definitely releasing an-other album very soon with Coghill confirming that a record contract has been signed and Tilton mentioning that a few tracks have already been recorded.

But for now, the Stone Roses are taking their reunion tour around Europe and Asia before returning for a couple more UK dates at the end of summer and after Mani’s constant comments that a reunion would never happen, a new album certainly doesn’t seem like a silly idea considering what they are currently up to.

Whilst the Stone Roses reformation has bought a lot of people a lot of hap-piness, our thoughts and condolences go out to the family of 22 year Chris-topher Brahney, who lost his life after he attended the Friday night set. ■

The Stone Roses official photographer Ian Tilton

The cast of Spike Island

Chris Coghill, writer of Spike Island

Above is the first shoot with MANI IN THE BAND. Photographer IAN TILTON explains: “Mani’s face wasn’t actually seen on the last photo because the band burst into FITS OF GIGGLES after RENI BLEW IAN A KISS”

John & Ian at The Stone Roses book launch, Manchester Photographic

VIVA 83

Never been published before: Ian Tilton’s choice of photo to run in VIVA’s Stone Roses tribute Famously known photo of The Stone Roses at Spike Island

photo: Ian Tilton photo: Ian Tilton