The Stone Roses (2008)
Interview Background
I can’t imagine there’d be too many guys who’ve had The Stone Roses’ Ian Brown wish them a happy Valentine’s Day, yet they were the iconic Northerner’s first words to me in the following interview. As his off-the-cuff wishes might indicate, Browny was a champion chap to chat with when I spoke to him ahead of his 2008 Australian solo tour dates. The astonishing (and lucrative) Stone Roses reunion was still a long way off when this interview took place, but I couldn’t have asked for more from the Manchester gent. I still smile when I remember Browny saying ‘I love cake!’ to me in his chilled out accent. What a legend. His performance a few weeks later managed to avoid any cake-related vocal issues, too…
The following is an edited version of an interview first published in Rip It Up, March 2008.
Ian Brown - You Adore Me
by Scott McLennan
Walking through Warsaw’s Old Town in 2006, this writer was astonished to see legendary Manchester singer Ian Brown strolling by with the trademark swagger that has become a blueprint for multiple cocky Brit-rock upstarts over the past two decades. Ian Brown in Poland? It’s the sort of surprising thrill that his career has been filled with.
“You probably did see me, yeah!” Brown confirms while promoting his impending Australian tour. “I played in Warsaw in September 2006 at a festival out there, so it would have been me.
“I don’t mind playing to 200 people or 100,000 - the main thing I love about touring is the travelling and going to another country, making music. That’s what it’s all about for me. I’m never too cool to go and see the Eiffel Tower when I’m in Paris. I can’t stand people who are too cool to see the tourist things. The first thing I did when I arrived in Sydney last time was catch a taxi down to the Opera House. You can’t go to places and not see the spots.”
From Stone Roses frontman through to an unexpectedly proficient solo career, Ian Brown has continued to amaze his followers and defy doubters. Last year’s The World Is Yours marked his fifth solo album, with the orchestral crux of the album being based on the success of the classical structure of 2001 hit, FEAR.
“I love the sound of FEAR and always wanted to take it a step further, but it’s expensive to do that. On the album that FEAR comes off [Music Of The Spheres], there’s two tracks that have strings – FEAR and Shadow Of A Saint, I think – and that’s because at the time I could only afford to do two. Basically I spent all me budget on that album to get the strings, since it’s an expensive process. I thought I might never make another album, so I decided to go all out and do the strings. It’s only the expense that has stopped me doing it more in the past, but I’ve had a plan for three or four years to make an album based on FEAR where the orchestra is the main thing. I knew I could take that further.”
When you say you might have never recorded again, was there a chance back in 2001 you would give up the music industry?
“You never know – I always treat my latest album as if it’s the last one, since you can never take anything for granted. I remember thinking at the time of the Roses that one day we’d have 10 albums, but we never did.”
FEAR’s stabbing strings, hushed vocals and mantric lyrics were backed by a classic video featuring Brown slowly peddling a lowrider bicycle around the fruit markets of Soho.
“I filmed that video myself and it took about three or four weeks of constant preparation, but it worked out a dream. I was originally going to be on the bike riding around in a cemetery amongst all these gravestones and crucifixes. We’ve got a lot of graveyards in London, so I went and did my own recce around London for where the camera had to follow. I went to Stoke Newington, where they did the Hammer House Of Horror films with Peter Cushing; Highgate, where Karl Marx is buried; and Kew, where Haile Selassie is buried. I had this plan to meet the small crew of four or five guys at my house at five o’clock in the morning before going to all these graveyards, but when I got up I went, ‘Shit, it’s really bleak, that’. I’d spent weeks preparing it in the red hot sun during June, but at the last minute I decided we weren’t going to go to the graveyards. I thought about where we could go and then I realised that they’d be just setting up the fruit stalls. We went there and we just decided to see what turned out, so it was a last minute accident really after weeks of preparation for another idea.”
Working with Sex Pistols members Steve Jones and Paul Cook on The World Is Yours, Brown admits few bands have moved him like the fabled punk upstarts.
“The Sex Pistols said it all really and I think that lyrically the Sex Pistols are the greatest band that’s ever been. I saw them last year in Manchester - I’ve been waiting 31 years for them to play and it was actually the best concert I went to last year. It was tight, fresh and they still had some kind of hunger, so it was great.”
Despite observing his friends Jones and Cook triumphantly bury the hatchet with Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten after many years spent ruling out reunions, Brown is sceptical of letting such live highs draw him towards a Stone Roses reunion with estranged guitarist John Squire.
“I think the Pistols never really got paid, which is a similar story to the Roses, isn’t it? We both only did a little bit of work but that little bit of work influenced a lot of people. A lot of the people who got influenced off it became millionaires but we never got paid off it. I just think it would be against the spirit of the Roses to [re-form for money] since that wasn’t why we formed.”
Preparing for his 45th birthday the week after Rip It Up’s interview, Brown discloses his penchant for desserts.
“I love cake – birthdays are all about the cake. When I’m out doing shows I never have cake, because it’s not good for your throat since it clogs it up. I reward myself with a cake when I get home from a tour – I always do that.”
The World Is Yours (UMA)
Unpublished Interview Material
When you programmed the Australian music video show Rage in 1996 I was interested to see that most of the acts you chose were black musicians from various countries and eras and none of the acts that came up through the ranks at a similar time to you.
“Since the Sex Pistols and The Clash, there’s been no guitar band that’s moved me. I think that no guitar band has topped the Sex Pistols since then and they just don’t move me. I’ve always loved reggae and I discovered reggae through punk rock back in the day, since they were entwined at the time. I’ve loved hip hop since seeing Eric B & Rakim in Manchester in 1986 and that’s the sort of music I love and follow. I grew out of punk when I was a kid and got into northern soul, Tamla Motown, Marvin Gaye and things like that. I like Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles, but outside of that there’s not a lot of rock music that I listen to or even own.”
The lyrics to Goodbye To The Broken are very barbed and not too veiled – how hesitant were you to open old wounds?
“Yeah, I’m singing against all them people that filled their noses with cocaine and wasted our time.”
Is there any good to come from being pissed off with John Squire more than a decade after he left the Roses?
“I don’t care really – what’s the point?”
He’s suggested he sent you chocolates and a Christmas card while you were in Strangeways – what did you think of that peace offering?
“Yeah, that’s true. It was a nice offer. Maltesers – fine!”
Morrissey is currently suing NME for suggesting he’s a racist. Do you feel for him after also being criticised in the press after your aeroplane incident and your 1998 allegations about Greek and Nazi regimes being built around homosexual cultures?
“I like Morrissey and think he’s cool. I like him. It’s a shame that it’s come to that, but I really don’t know what he’s said so I wouldn’t like to comment. I wouldn’t imagine he was a racist – I wouldn’t have thought so.”
Was your scene in Harry Potter cut much or was it always going to be a simple flash? Have you read A Brief History Of Time?
“It was only ever that one scene. It was never a talking scene – just drop your popcorn and you’ll miss it. I have read half of A Brief History Of Time, but I couldn’t understand it. It was too far for me, that - I couldn’t finish it.”
Are you much of a reader then?
“Yeah, I like to read biographies and other people’s lives. I’m not that into fiction – I’d rather fact books.”
You’ve previously said of Second Coming that “We probably could have knocked it off in a week” and also that “We should have just put out what we had in ’91 instead of spending four years searching for something and coming back around to it”. How do you feel about going back to your original tapes and re-releasing a different version of Second Coming?
“I’m not interested and there’s not any point at all – I’m too busy being busy to do that, mate. I’ve been around the world three times since then and have six LPs on the shelf, so I don’t honestly think about that – I think about the next day and what’s coming.”
I have a special edition of the first album in a special box – do you have any say in those releases at all or is it all Silvertone still?
“I’ve got no control over it. They used Fools Gold in a beer ad over here in England last year and we had no say over it, which was a shame.”
The UNKLE track REIGN was used in a Hyundai ad over here – do you get any say in that or is it James Lavelle who gets to control that?
“What was it used for? I didn’t know about it, no. Usually I get asked about them, since we’ve got 50/50 on that one, me and him. I’m surprised to hear that – I’ll have to look into it.”
You studied karate from 11 to 18 – how much do you remember? How would you go in a fight today?
“Yeah, I can remember all of it. I think the best thing to do if you get into a fight though is to run away. I’m not into fighting. It’s what I teach my sons.”
Have they had any lip because their father’s Ian Brown?
“Nah, it works the other way mate! (laughs) My middle son is the only first year who can deal with kids five years bigger than him at school. (laughs) It goes the other way. I was worried they might be like, ‘Who do you think you are? Your dad’s a pop star’ but it has gone the complete other way and the kids look after them because of it. I take them out when I play the Manchester shows and I took them to Dublin, Ireland last year to get them involved. They’ve been a big part of it since they were born. They won’t be coming out to Australia this time because of school, and the eldest has his exams this year, so I couldn’t. I might take them out if I come back.”
You suggested that you hated U2 and they stole off the Roses for Achtung Baby – what exactly do you feel they took?
“Groove. If you listen to the Roses LP you can easily hear Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and groove, and that’s what U2 took on at the time. I know that because I read an interview at the time with Bono and he said he was sitting in a Berlin studio listening non-stop to the Roses and the Mondays. When you hear Achtung Baby it’s like U2’s version of Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and groove, with lyrics about unity and whatever. I know that’s what he did.”
Have you ever confronted Bono about it?
“Nah, I’ve never run into him.”
John Leckie has received a lot of credit for his production work on the debut and he later went on to produce Radiohead and Muse – has the Leckie praise taken away from the band’s own role?
“I don’t know – we wrote the songs and turned them into sounds. John’s a great guy and I wouldn’t want to put him down. He called me up some time in the night and said he’d never been so busy because of us. Good luck to him – he’s a nice guy. You won’t find a hard-working producer anywhere. I am still in touch with the people from them days.”
Of all your music and what you’ve achieved, what would you like to be remembered for?
“Uplifting people. I’ve definitely done that and I’ve transcended generations outside of my own as well.”
I can’t imagine there’d be too many guys who’ve had The Stone Roses’ Ian Brown wish them a happy Valentine’s Day, yet they were the iconic Northerner’s first words to me in the following interview. As his off-the-cuff wishes might indicate, Browny was a champion chap to chat with when I spoke to him ahead of his 2008 Australian solo tour dates. The astonishing (and lucrative) Stone Roses reunion was still a long way off when this interview took place, but I couldn’t have asked for more from the Manchester gent. I still smile when I remember Browny saying ‘I love cake!’ to me in his chilled out accent. What a legend. His performance a few weeks later managed to avoid any cake-related vocal issues, too…
The following is an edited version of an interview first published in Rip It Up, March 2008.
Ian Brown - You Adore Me
by Scott McLennan
Walking through Warsaw’s Old Town in 2006, this writer was astonished to see legendary Manchester singer Ian Brown strolling by with the trademark swagger that has become a blueprint for multiple cocky Brit-rock upstarts over the past two decades. Ian Brown in Poland? It’s the sort of surprising thrill that his career has been filled with.
“You probably did see me, yeah!” Brown confirms while promoting his impending Australian tour. “I played in Warsaw in September 2006 at a festival out there, so it would have been me.
“I don’t mind playing to 200 people or 100,000 - the main thing I love about touring is the travelling and going to another country, making music. That’s what it’s all about for me. I’m never too cool to go and see the Eiffel Tower when I’m in Paris. I can’t stand people who are too cool to see the tourist things. The first thing I did when I arrived in Sydney last time was catch a taxi down to the Opera House. You can’t go to places and not see the spots.”
From Stone Roses frontman through to an unexpectedly proficient solo career, Ian Brown has continued to amaze his followers and defy doubters. Last year’s The World Is Yours marked his fifth solo album, with the orchestral crux of the album being based on the success of the classical structure of 2001 hit, FEAR.
“I love the sound of FEAR and always wanted to take it a step further, but it’s expensive to do that. On the album that FEAR comes off [Music Of The Spheres], there’s two tracks that have strings – FEAR and Shadow Of A Saint, I think – and that’s because at the time I could only afford to do two. Basically I spent all me budget on that album to get the strings, since it’s an expensive process. I thought I might never make another album, so I decided to go all out and do the strings. It’s only the expense that has stopped me doing it more in the past, but I’ve had a plan for three or four years to make an album based on FEAR where the orchestra is the main thing. I knew I could take that further.”
When you say you might have never recorded again, was there a chance back in 2001 you would give up the music industry?
“You never know – I always treat my latest album as if it’s the last one, since you can never take anything for granted. I remember thinking at the time of the Roses that one day we’d have 10 albums, but we never did.”
FEAR’s stabbing strings, hushed vocals and mantric lyrics were backed by a classic video featuring Brown slowly peddling a lowrider bicycle around the fruit markets of Soho.
“I filmed that video myself and it took about three or four weeks of constant preparation, but it worked out a dream. I was originally going to be on the bike riding around in a cemetery amongst all these gravestones and crucifixes. We’ve got a lot of graveyards in London, so I went and did my own recce around London for where the camera had to follow. I went to Stoke Newington, where they did the Hammer House Of Horror films with Peter Cushing; Highgate, where Karl Marx is buried; and Kew, where Haile Selassie is buried. I had this plan to meet the small crew of four or five guys at my house at five o’clock in the morning before going to all these graveyards, but when I got up I went, ‘Shit, it’s really bleak, that’. I’d spent weeks preparing it in the red hot sun during June, but at the last minute I decided we weren’t going to go to the graveyards. I thought about where we could go and then I realised that they’d be just setting up the fruit stalls. We went there and we just decided to see what turned out, so it was a last minute accident really after weeks of preparation for another idea.”
Working with Sex Pistols members Steve Jones and Paul Cook on The World Is Yours, Brown admits few bands have moved him like the fabled punk upstarts.
“The Sex Pistols said it all really and I think that lyrically the Sex Pistols are the greatest band that’s ever been. I saw them last year in Manchester - I’ve been waiting 31 years for them to play and it was actually the best concert I went to last year. It was tight, fresh and they still had some kind of hunger, so it was great.”
Despite observing his friends Jones and Cook triumphantly bury the hatchet with Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten after many years spent ruling out reunions, Brown is sceptical of letting such live highs draw him towards a Stone Roses reunion with estranged guitarist John Squire.
“I think the Pistols never really got paid, which is a similar story to the Roses, isn’t it? We both only did a little bit of work but that little bit of work influenced a lot of people. A lot of the people who got influenced off it became millionaires but we never got paid off it. I just think it would be against the spirit of the Roses to [re-form for money] since that wasn’t why we formed.”
Preparing for his 45th birthday the week after Rip It Up’s interview, Brown discloses his penchant for desserts.
“I love cake – birthdays are all about the cake. When I’m out doing shows I never have cake, because it’s not good for your throat since it clogs it up. I reward myself with a cake when I get home from a tour – I always do that.”
The World Is Yours (UMA)
Unpublished Interview Material
When you programmed the Australian music video show Rage in 1996 I was interested to see that most of the acts you chose were black musicians from various countries and eras and none of the acts that came up through the ranks at a similar time to you.
“Since the Sex Pistols and The Clash, there’s been no guitar band that’s moved me. I think that no guitar band has topped the Sex Pistols since then and they just don’t move me. I’ve always loved reggae and I discovered reggae through punk rock back in the day, since they were entwined at the time. I’ve loved hip hop since seeing Eric B & Rakim in Manchester in 1986 and that’s the sort of music I love and follow. I grew out of punk when I was a kid and got into northern soul, Tamla Motown, Marvin Gaye and things like that. I like Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles, but outside of that there’s not a lot of rock music that I listen to or even own.”
The lyrics to Goodbye To The Broken are very barbed and not too veiled – how hesitant were you to open old wounds?
“Yeah, I’m singing against all them people that filled their noses with cocaine and wasted our time.”
Is there any good to come from being pissed off with John Squire more than a decade after he left the Roses?
“I don’t care really – what’s the point?”
He’s suggested he sent you chocolates and a Christmas card while you were in Strangeways – what did you think of that peace offering?
“Yeah, that’s true. It was a nice offer. Maltesers – fine!”
Morrissey is currently suing NME for suggesting he’s a racist. Do you feel for him after also being criticised in the press after your aeroplane incident and your 1998 allegations about Greek and Nazi regimes being built around homosexual cultures?
“I like Morrissey and think he’s cool. I like him. It’s a shame that it’s come to that, but I really don’t know what he’s said so I wouldn’t like to comment. I wouldn’t imagine he was a racist – I wouldn’t have thought so.”
Was your scene in Harry Potter cut much or was it always going to be a simple flash? Have you read A Brief History Of Time?
“It was only ever that one scene. It was never a talking scene – just drop your popcorn and you’ll miss it. I have read half of A Brief History Of Time, but I couldn’t understand it. It was too far for me, that - I couldn’t finish it.”
Are you much of a reader then?
“Yeah, I like to read biographies and other people’s lives. I’m not that into fiction – I’d rather fact books.”
You’ve previously said of Second Coming that “We probably could have knocked it off in a week” and also that “We should have just put out what we had in ’91 instead of spending four years searching for something and coming back around to it”. How do you feel about going back to your original tapes and re-releasing a different version of Second Coming?
“I’m not interested and there’s not any point at all – I’m too busy being busy to do that, mate. I’ve been around the world three times since then and have six LPs on the shelf, so I don’t honestly think about that – I think about the next day and what’s coming.”
I have a special edition of the first album in a special box – do you have any say in those releases at all or is it all Silvertone still?
“I’ve got no control over it. They used Fools Gold in a beer ad over here in England last year and we had no say over it, which was a shame.”
The UNKLE track REIGN was used in a Hyundai ad over here – do you get any say in that or is it James Lavelle who gets to control that?
“What was it used for? I didn’t know about it, no. Usually I get asked about them, since we’ve got 50/50 on that one, me and him. I’m surprised to hear that – I’ll have to look into it.”
You studied karate from 11 to 18 – how much do you remember? How would you go in a fight today?
“Yeah, I can remember all of it. I think the best thing to do if you get into a fight though is to run away. I’m not into fighting. It’s what I teach my sons.”
Have they had any lip because their father’s Ian Brown?
“Nah, it works the other way mate! (laughs) My middle son is the only first year who can deal with kids five years bigger than him at school. (laughs) It goes the other way. I was worried they might be like, ‘Who do you think you are? Your dad’s a pop star’ but it has gone the complete other way and the kids look after them because of it. I take them out when I play the Manchester shows and I took them to Dublin, Ireland last year to get them involved. They’ve been a big part of it since they were born. They won’t be coming out to Australia this time because of school, and the eldest has his exams this year, so I couldn’t. I might take them out if I come back.”
You suggested that you hated U2 and they stole off the Roses for Achtung Baby – what exactly do you feel they took?
“Groove. If you listen to the Roses LP you can easily hear Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and groove, and that’s what U2 took on at the time. I know that because I read an interview at the time with Bono and he said he was sitting in a Berlin studio listening non-stop to the Roses and the Mondays. When you hear Achtung Baby it’s like U2’s version of Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and groove, with lyrics about unity and whatever. I know that’s what he did.”
Have you ever confronted Bono about it?
“Nah, I’ve never run into him.”
John Leckie has received a lot of credit for his production work on the debut and he later went on to produce Radiohead and Muse – has the Leckie praise taken away from the band’s own role?
“I don’t know – we wrote the songs and turned them into sounds. John’s a great guy and I wouldn’t want to put him down. He called me up some time in the night and said he’d never been so busy because of us. Good luck to him – he’s a nice guy. You won’t find a hard-working producer anywhere. I am still in touch with the people from them days.”
Of all your music and what you’ve achieved, what would you like to be remembered for?
“Uplifting people. I’ve definitely done that and I’ve transcended generations outside of my own as well.”
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