Well, the Stone Roses are back together on tour next year. Milk the classics and make a mint I say. The Roses were brilliant at what they did best. Drummer Reni and guitarist John Squires are both top-notch players, Mani is solid on bass and Ian Brown is a quirky frontman with the swagger which Liam Gallagher of Oasis tried to copy and never managed to capture. I remember jamming (on drums) with Squires back before the millenium - after the original Roses line-up split whilst touring the second album in the mid 90s. If the Roses had got their second album out sooner and not left a prolonged void in the scene, then Oasis might not have hit it as big as they did. For me the Roses were the best band to come out of the Manchester scene in the 1980s; I've always thought the Roses were much better than the miserable and vastly over-rated Smiths. Having played along with both Squires and Johnny Marr I have to say Squires at his best is a better guitarist than Marr. (But Morrissey can sing a damn sight better than Brown of course.) I must admit, the Roses reforming does make me feel a little nostalgic for my younger music days. I keep thinking I must dig some old stuff out and stick it up on YouTube. And I'm also thinking that if I return to doing a few paid drumming assignments then that might be a good way of making progress in filling the war chest I need for a future election.
The Gallagher's rule.
ReplyDeleteI remember the original Oasis line-up playing to about 30 people at Colin Sinclair's Manchester venue The Boardwalk back in '94, before Definitely Maybe came out and the rest is history.
ReplyDeleteOasis had some [not many] great tunes and solid Beatles-inspired musical ideas; they also had a lot of filler-not-killer crap. Their original drummer was limited - a 4/4 timekeeper and nothing special.
Liam Gallagher is definitely not better than Ian Brown.
And Noel Gallagher is nowhere near as good a guitarist as John Squires.
Oasis as a live act were never anything to compare to the Stone Roses.
At best Oasis were good Beatles rip-off merchants, but the Stone Roses actually achieved a musical fusion of traditional guitar sounds and pop song structures with dance grooves and loops and it really was quite innovative and interesting - and especially since it was achieved on 80s studio gear.
If you compare Oasis' first album Definitely Maybe with the Roses first album, well, both are now seen as classics, but musically Definitely Maybe is really just conventional format songs and overdrive/distortion sound rock n roll, whereas the Roses stuff is much broader in its sounds, lyricism and musicial complexity.
Perhaps the only criticism of the Roses first album is that the production sound was a touch too 'soft.'
If the Roses had kept the momentum going from the first album and not taken five years to follow up then I honestly don't think Oasis would have become as big as they did.
You haven´t played with any of them, you´re a fantasist.
ReplyDeletePS Will this comment get through, or am I still banned?
Fuck me, no need for the rant Richard. I meant the Gallagher's from Shameless. You know, your REAL family!
ReplyDeleteViking,
ReplyDeleteYou've never been banned from this blog. If I remember correctly, earlier this year you decided to go off in a huff for a long sulk... but now it appears you've got over it and so here you are again to pester me.
I'm sorry for having a much more interesting life - largely undisclosed in public to date - than suits your rather narrow and warped view of me.
The reason I don't generally go on about dealings with this or that well known person is because it would likely prompt accusations of name-dropping for the sake of it.
I've met all sorts of people from the exalted echelons of 'the great and the good.' Top politicians, military men, musicians, boxers, entertainers, church leaders, scientists, journalists, lawyers and many more besides.
I've even met the Right Honourable Hazel Blears MP... on more than one occasion! (Are you impressed?)
When playing at my best [i.e. when in regular practice/performance] I play drums to a very high standard so don't be surprised that I've played with all sorts of interesting people. I've played with some major British and American recording artists.
I'll never forget the time I played with Elvis and John Lennon... wow!
[OK, I did just make up that last sentence.]
Other person,
No more profane language, thanks. It lowers the tone and there's no need for it. I tend to tolerate it on my Hardcore Blog but it is out of place here on my general blog. You're welcome to submit comments but if you persist with F this and F that then I'm unlikely to publish such comments. Ta.
Richard,
ReplyDeleteIt was you who had the huff, modding me to death and preventing all posts, in effect a ban.
You haven´t played with these people, you´re making it up.
Post a photo and I´ll retract.
I don't have a photo (just as I don't have photos of me with most of the people I've ever met). And even if I did have a photo and published it you'd probably say it was a fake.
ReplyDeleteYou are such a whinger.
All comments submitted to this blog are held for consideration by myself before publication.
99% of comments submitted are published (and published unedited).
You are treated no differently to any one else.
You waste my time in my writing here to point all of this out again, as you are already well aware of how this blog functions.
Comments can be published within a few minutes, hours or days of submission - depending on when I get round to it as my priorities determine. Most comments are published within 24 hours.
Blah, blah, blah.
ReplyDeleteIf I had ever jammed with Johnny Marr, I would have a photo.
You are a liar. You have never met these people. You may have met Blears, but ... so what?
Was all this jamming before or after your time in the SAS?
As for that last paragraph, what a load of bs. Angel has you running scared and you do NOT publish most of the recent submissions on the hardcore blog.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the Hardcore Blog.
ReplyDelete_________________________
I can't say I have any great desire to possess a photo of me with Johnny Marr.
And we are talking years ago - a long time before I (and most people) had digital cameras and internet. Taking photos was very different then to now; these days loads of people are walking round all the time with camera-phones, but back then having a camera on your person was not the norm and you had to pay every time for film and batteries and to get the negatives developed at a photo processing shop. Taking photos back then was costly and much more of a hassle than now.
So no photo of Johnny Marr and no regrets either.
I can confirm that I have never been in the SAS.
Goodness The Boardwalk! I remember that place down the back of Whitworth Street by the GMEX. It only closed a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe Smiths were Mediocre, the Stones far superior. Shame about Electronic. I'm hoping Marr and Sumner get it back together one day. Can't beat a bit of Manchester music!