Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 15:37

This begins a bit earlier than most of the stories I've seen posted so far (but as Ian said back in '90, it doesn't matter whether you've been into the Roses for five years or five minutes, it's that you're into the Roses that's important). I'd heard about this new English band, but I hadn't seen any reviews from the UK (doesn't matter, as NME actually said the debut was only OK - they were eating their words for about five years!). Local reviews weren't too complementary, but I fgured what the hell, and bought the album proabably at the end of 1989, maybe early 1990. I wasn't too impressed to tell you the truth - I was more into the Pixies, the Cure and the Smiths at the time, and The Stone Roses sounded boring and repetitive (!). It wasn't till I leant the album to my friend Paul that I really got interested. He gave it back and told me it was amazing. I had another listen and decided he was right. That was it, I was hooked.

That cassette copy of mine went all around my school - ten of my friends must have borrowed it, and most of them fell in love with the Roses. I got all the singles on vinyl as they came out - fortunately the early Silvertone ones were reissued, so I had Elephant Stone (not on my cassette) as well as those glorious B-Sides to She Bangs and Made of Stone. These records were passeed all around as well. I was shocked the first time I heard Fools Gold, I didn't really get it. But by a few months later I was hooked on that too, it was the sound track to my first love affair, and I still remember it playing the first time I was in a club, with all my friends and my first girlfriend - I was on top of the world and the Roses were the soundtrack.

Well, not everything was perfect. I lost my girlfriend, and She Bangs was the soundtrack to that, because one of my Roses loving friends wanted to go out with her - "the past was your's but the future's mine" he grinned, but somehow I could convince myself that it didn't matter. Life had been perfect for the first time, and the Stone Roses were one of the reasons.

Well, time passed and I got older. I couldn't figure out how to play any Roses stuff on my guitar, until I got on-line - thanks to everyone who's ever posted tabs, chords or lyrics :-). I was superstitious about the Roses - I wouldn't let myself listen to 'This is The One' when I was trying to start a relationship, because of the line "And this is the one/ But it might go wrong" (fortunately I've managed to overcome that problem, it was getting hard to keep skipping the CD). I still try to play the musuc everyday, especially when I want to boost my mood. One of my diary entries from years ago reads simply "The Stone Roses can lift you out of any depression - Elephant Stone yeah!" in really big letters. And they still lift me up make me feel that I'm untouchable, on a higher plane - as recently as last saturday when the Dj played She bangs and Adored a t my request and I danced with strangers, singing every word, totally united by the music, totally high, totally in love.

Simon

Live the Dream