THE STONE ROSES - HISTORY

This part of my page is not yet complete and will not be for another few weeks as I am in the process of typing it out so please be patient!!

In this part of the page, I will try to give as in depth a history of the band as I can, I hope that it provides an interesting and valuable resource for Roses fans.

THE SEEDS ARE SOWN.

During the Autumn of 1979, the sixteen year old pair of John Squire and Ian Brown were getting sick of long evenings of nothing to do and began to talk of setting up of a band, soon enough, this band became a reality, it was going to be a gang or more of an extension to the gang and it would give them something to do instead of hanging around. With Johns musical talent and Ians Charisma, it was the obvious move. Along with another friend Simon Wolstencroft, they began to put the Patrol together. John was on guitar, Ian curiously on bass and Si on drums. The Patrol began to get things together but they still needed a singer. This singer was to be Andy Couzens, a boy who they had never met but he made a good impression on them whilst making an impression on another boys face, perfect rock star credentials. They began to rehears at a scout hut in Sale. They were only beginning but were already moving ahead of the rest of the bands smashing out the 1-2-3-4 guitar riffs.

The band began to get very close to The Clash after they had been recording at the Pluto recording studio in Manchester and even decided to go on tour with them. The Clash had great respect for them and The patrol soon found themselves on the Clash's guest lists.

Because of their now thought to be close-connections with The Clash. The patrol arranged to play six gigs. Their first was at a nearby youth club, at Sale annex and they also played the Stretford youth club, after this, a gig at Hale Methodist church and then the ' big one ' at Portland Bars. This was to be the biggest gig that The Patrol was ever going to play and it was now that they realised that the Patrol was not going to last, pop was changing and they had other things on their minds and could also see that they were obviously not going to be the next BIG THING. They played their final gig at South Trafford College. Punk was finally disappearing and the boring music of the eighties was beginning to kick in.

THE PAST WAS YOURS BUT THE FUTURE'S MINE.

The split of The Patrol saw the members spread out, Squire continued to play guitar and through his hours of practice began to get better and better. He worked at the Cosgrave animation studios in Chorlton which made models for TV programmes such as Danger Mouse.Ian washed dishes in Fridays Northenden hotel his finance his bohemion life style.

John hadn't seen Ian for quiet some time as he had been off travelling but he had met Couzens again, and they began to talk of putting another band together. with the band beginning to get into their twenties, they were trying very hard to get this band together quickly. They set up a band called the Waterfront which consisted of Jon and Ian as the central players with Couzens, Garner and Mani drifting in and out of rehearsals. It was now that Mani began to jam with the Roses for the first time. He was also in a band called the Mil with lint Boon, who eventually set up the Inspiral Carpets. The Waterfront went as far as to record a demo but never intended to do anything with it. Inevitably, This group was destined to fall apart and the members all returned back to their various lifestyles.

When Andy Couzens thought that he might have to go to prison because of an assault charge, he decided to give the band thing one last go. He contacted Ian and again they got Si on drums, all they needed now was Squire who had the musical talent but he wanted Pete Garner to come in on bass so it was agreed. They were called The English Rose. But again this band was not destined for great things but the basis for the Roses had been set.

THE STONE ROSES ARE BORN.

The English Rose had to have some changes to bring up to higher standards and these changes came about when Ian moved over to vocals Andy moved to rhythm guitar Garner was brought in on bass and thus the first Roses line up was set. They started rehearsing and their first song was 'Nowhere Fast' and they made a bizarre decision that all royalties would be split evenly, a strange notion for a band just starting off.

The band was rehearsing hard but they still didn't have a name, one day John came up with the name The Stone Roses, a lose tribute to the Rolling Stones and it included the two opposites hard and soft.

1984

DISASTER OR MAYBE NOT!!

At the start of 1984, disaster struck, Si decided that he wanted to leave the band and play with The Colourfield who while playing with the Roses he had also played for them. The Roses gave him the ultimaten that it was either them or colourfield and he chose The Colourfield, at this time this decision would have looked to have been the correct one. The Roses were now left drummerless and drummers were damned hard to find. They put up ads around Manchester and continued rehearsing . They got the usual bunch of Gothic Rock drummers down to their rehearsal rooms but none were right until Ian got a call from reni who blagged a lift came down and rehearsed. The Roses were ecstatic, he was perfect and fitted in correctly and could keep the whole band together with his tight drumming.Later he revealed that he didn't think much of the bands music but he thought that anyone who cared so much about image must be cool.

In 1984, they lo started rehearsing down at the spirit studios which was the bst reheasal place for small bands, it was at these studios in the summer of 1984 that the Roses recorded their first demo, it contained the songs 'Tradjic Roundabout', 'Misery Dictionary', 'mission Impossible' and 'Nowhere Fast'. They then sent the tape to a promoter who was holding a gig down at the Moonlight in London, she loved it and asked them to play. This was the Roses debut gig and they were support for Pete Townshend and Mercenery Skank. They played and blew every body away as it was the first time they ever played to anybody besides their mates. Reni bing an amazing drummer also played with Pete Townshend who commented on how good he thought that they were. It was at this show where they got their first manager Caroline Reed who was also managing Mercenery Skank at the time. Caroline set them up with another gig supporting mercenary Skank on 21 November at Exeter's Labour club but the Roses were only faced with a dead crowd and this was when they realised that it wan't going to be easy.

Besides rehearsing, Ian at some point in 1984, went off on along hitch aroud Europe. While in Germany he met a swedish guy and told him how The Roses were the hottest new thing coming out of Manchester. Much to his surprise the blag paid off and the guy rang back saying that he would promote ten shows fo the band in Sweden.

1985

It was at this stage that the roses got their first feature in the press, The Roses found themselves on the front cover of 'Sounds' and they also had an interview on the inside with Gary Johnson, this article gave the Roses another sense of hope that thigs were looking bright for he future.

On the 4th of January 1985, the Roses played their first headline show and quickly after this they played another show in Fulham.

Back To Main Page