23/02/89 Middlesex Polytechnic, Canteen, Middlesex, Tottenham, North London

A canteen-cum-gymnasium in the defunct Middlesex Polytechnic. Friends from Manchester had been talking up a group I’d always assumed to be ex- goths and I was hanging around with 40 or 50 other people in this obscure venue off the Seven Sisters Road with middling expectations. I lurked at the back, but in front of the stage were a group of people who I assumed to be nouveau hippies. Very brightly dressed and very excitable. Unusually, most of them were girls, one of whom wore a denim jacket with The Jimi Hendrix Experience scrawled down one arm, The Stone Roses down the other. Then the band dramatically entered the hall, walking right through the crowd, the singer waving a school bell over his head. Most moody too, but the rolling gait, the baggy’ denims, the daft hats — I wasn’t sure whether to laugh out loud. Forty minutes later I was laughing, shouting… Jesus Christ! On a side street in Tottenham, The Stone Roses had just played the most inspiring gig I’d ever seen...

Melody Maker
Bob Stanley