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The Stone Roses formed in 1984 with long time friends Ian Brown and John Squire, two Manchester lads looking for stardom. After a couple of departures and additions the band got their core members Ian Brown (vocals), John Squire (guitar), Alan ‘reni’Wren (drums, backing vocals) and Gary ‘mani’ Mountfield (bass guitar). The roses were the original Madchester band and at one point seemed to have taken over the world, when they were at their peak it was said that ‘anyone between the age of 16 and 25 who didn’t like The Stone Roses needed to see a doctor’. The Stone Roses first album ‘The Stone Roses’ was massive and stayed in the album charts for over a year. The factors of Squires ‘ingenious guitaring’, reni’s ‘dextrous drumming talents’ and Browns ‘studio voice of an angel’ made it a classic. Single from it were ‘Elephant Stone’, ‘Made Of Stone’ In more recent years this album was voted no. 2 in the ‘best ever album poll’. The Stone Roses were a phenonomn.

The long awaited second album ‘Second Coming’ was released five years after the first, not until 1994 and a lot might say not worth the lengthy wait, Singles from this were, ‘Ten Story Love Song. By this time a lot of peoples attentions had turned to Blur, Oasis and other ‘Britpop’ bands. Reni left the band in 1995 amongst many rumors. This was the beginning of the end and Squire followed in 1996. The remaining members plus 2 additions headlined the 1996 Reading festival but failed to relive the early days. Weeks later the band announced the split, the end of the phenonomon, the band which seemed to take over the world were no more. Many people say if they had not split they would have been as big, if not bigger than The Beatles and The Rolling stones.

THE HAPPY MONDAYS

The Happy Mondays were formed by Shaun Ryder and Mark Berry (bez), who at the time were both on the dole and wanted something else to do other than take drugs, despite neither of them having any musical talents. After forming in 1981 they didn’t sign to Factory Records until 1984. The Mondays hero’s were New Order and their break came when they supported them on tour. At gigs The Mondays would give out drugs on the door to their fans. Shaun and the rest of the bands intake of drugs was incredible when they were in their peak and many people were very surprised none of them died. But with the drugs came massive popular ‘indie dance’ tracks, such as ‘Lazyitis’, ‘Step On, ‘Kinkt Afro’ etc.

The Mondays had made it they would have people who never would have dreamt of dancing, now on the dance floor to these ‘indie dance rhythmic vibes’. The release of ‘Pills, Thrills and Bellyaches’ was the highest point for the band and this is now recognised as one of ‘Madchesters’ classic albums. Their overindulgence of class A substances did lead to problems, Ryder had to get urgent drug abuse treatment and Bez broke his arm twice. The Mondays eventually split in 1993, to the disappointment of many throughout the country. Between 1995 and 1999 Ryder(now of the hard stuff and claimed his only sin was Guinness) ad Bez returned as ‘Black Grape’ with some awesome tunes and released 2 albums. The first and definitely the best ‘Its Great When You’re Straight Yeah’ and ‘Stupid, Stupid, Stupid’. In 1999 The Mondays reformed as Ryder was skint and had a massive tax bill to pay. After touring and supporting ‘Oasis’ again called it a day in 2000, as they had failed to relive the dizzy heights of the early ‘Madchester’ days. Shaun and the boys were working (or out of work) class lads who hit the big time and their fun and drug loving characters produced some of the ‘Madchester’ greats.

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