Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 12:18

Rose Coloured Glasses

My obsession with all things rosy began at the end of 1989 in London. I had been living in London for three months and I was about to return to Australia-bloody cold weather. I was seeing an American girl who was also seeing a guy from Manchester, I hated him. He spoke of the Stone Roses and I decided I wanted nothing to do with them, even though I hadn't heard them at this point. Manchester still meant the Smiths to me and when I had been 'oop North' the month before I visited Strangeways, the Salford Lads club etc, not noticing anything else except perhaps the unusual width of the pants there. Back in London I bought a couple of plane tickets for me an the American girl to head to Germany for a four day trip up to stay with a mutual friend in Berlin and to see the wall come down. Instead she chose to go to the Stone Roses at Ally Pally with the other guy (who also offered me a ticket), I went alone to Germany with the empty seat next to me. At the airport I bought the Stone Roses album on cassette and decided to see what the fuss was about. I pressed play, feeling like shit after being dumped and heard the opening of 'Adored'. I will remember that moment like my mother remembers what she was doing when she heard Kennedy was shot. I listened to it and rewound it, and then rewound it again. I could not believe how amazing and fresh the song was. It was the best song I had heard since the Smiths broke up. Then I heard She Bangs the Drums and was totally blown away by the positive, uplifting beat. Again I rewound the tape ( something which I have never done with any other band) and listened to the two songs again. I was on such a high that I forgot about the girl and for the next ( ? ) hours [ I have forgotten how long the flight was] I listened to the first side over and over and over again. I didn't make it to side two until later that weekend.

Fast forward.

London. A couple of weeks later I was in a clothing store with a couple of friends brwosing after an evening at the theatre. As I flicked through a rack of jackets and chatted to my friends, I heard this unusual beat coming from the store stereo, it was hypnotic and immediately infectious. I went up to the clerk and said soemthing like " This is incredible, what is it ?". I will never forget the smile or the look of pride this guy had when he reached under the counter and pulled up a twelve inch record sleeve. "It's the Roses new one, isn't it brillliant ?" I saw the two dolphins on the cover and hung around to hear a bit more, then I dashed to the Virgin Megastore and bought the single and two of the Fool's Gold T-Shirts.

Fast forward>Back in Australia driving alone from Brisbane up to a small beach town on the North Coast called Noosa. I was on my way up to spend a couple of weeks over Chrismas and New Year with some friends and I had the Roses on in Pajero number 1. The sound was up full and I was singing along at the top of my voice with the album and jamming along with the 10 minute version of Fool's Gold. I was just about to rewind the tape when the b-side came on which I hadn't yet heard. I was stunned. The band just seemed to get better and better. They seemed able to play all kinds of music and make it all so impossibly cool. I played What the World is Waiting For seven times in a row, still a record for me with any of their other songs and the first thing I did when I arrived at the beach house was to pull the morbid Cure out the stereo that everyone was listening to and cram in the Roses. Heaven.

Fast Foward

Small club in Noosa. The last place in the world you would expect to hear good music. The Noosa Underground(now deceased) where anyone who has gel in their hair is regarded as a homosexual and where guys do not dance with guys on an empty dance floor. The dance floor was deserted with a kind of rough looking crowd about. I was wearing my Fool's Gold t-shirt when I heard Reni's drum telling me that the ressurection was near. I went nuts but no-one was really game to come out except my best friend. We hit the floor and grooved ignoring the jeers and catcalls coming from around the bar, but which ended abruptly when two girls came out to dance with us. When the jam started, people started coming out on to the floor in droves and the whole floor became a seething, grinding tribe. The DJ (God) followed it up with She Bangs the Drums and a full version of Fool's Gold.

Fast forward

Early 91. Forgot the date. I had been calling up an import record store all day. "Is it in yet ?" "Has it arrived ?" The clerk was really pissed off and kept telling me 'no'. Finall at about four thirty he said ' yes the boxes have just arrived'. The manager of the clothing store I was working in told me to run, so I sprinted over to the store and bought the CD, the 7 inch and the 12 inch formats of One Love. "First kid on the block, eh ?" said the clerk smugly, decked out in black from head to toe and with a rat's nest gothic hairdo. " You don't know what you're missing." I answered and ran back to the store and threw the CD into the stereo. I was not then, nor have I ever been disappointed with this song. It is still wonderful and I am dismayed that it never got the attention it deserved, even from the band.

Fast forward

Late 94. Japan. After years of waiting, half truths, rumors, blatant lies and false starts, the Japanese get a hold of Love Spreads before the rest of the world, and especially the NME, and play it at mid-night. Again not an ounce of regret, it was brilliant, and Your Star Will Shine was like a beautiful, longer Elizabeth My Dear. Breakout was a filler but a sign of greater things to come and who doesn't enjoy Ian screeching "Yeah let's get loose and go get the goose" or whatever it is. When the album came out a couple of weeks later I was on top of the world. The cover was fantastic. The songs were different but well-crafted. There was a little bit of everything and something for everyone on it. It would placate the old fans and it would bring in new ones. FUCK THE NME and FUCK JOHN HARRIS.

Fast Forward

October 1995. Brisbane, Australia. 5 people wait outside Festival Hall to see the Stone Roses arrive for the sound check. Spoke with Ian and Mani who signed my shirt, John wouldn't stop to talk to anyone. Stood right at the front and grinned for 90 minutes.[My review is posted at SRFHQ- thanks Eric] Waved to Mani and Ian, Ian looked down and smiled, Robbie came forward and handed me a drum stick.Some other guy got a hand on it but I knew who it had been meant for since Robbie and I had been staring at each other and laughing during Resurrection. From where I stood the sound was great.

I would have liked to have seen Reni but after waiting 6 years to make up for the goof I made in choosing Germany over the Ally Pally gig, after hearing all the naysayers, all the critics, all the bullshit, it was really worth it. There will never be another band like them. No band will ever appear on the cover of the NME and ooze the confidence that the four of them did on that mountain top back in 89/90. Other bands who people like to say have taken their mantle are not even in the running. They make music for different reasons. Their lyrics were pulled from a rhyming dictionary or are simply pinched from other people's songs. I will tell my grandchildren about Ian, John, Reni and Mani and show them how to sway like a monkey to Fool's Gold, I will think back on all the crazy things that happened in my life and remember everything from So Young to Ride On as being a soundtrack to those events.

Ride on

Gregory