REDLAND
Active member
Brown stages Roses resurrection
Former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown takes to the
stage at a landscape garden in Surrey and treats the
audience to a unique performance.
The first signs that tonight will be somewhat
different to a typical Ian Brown gig come when regular
guitarist Aziz Ibrahim concludes his acoustic support
slot with the words "I won't be playing in the main
band tonight".
And when Ian and an unfamiliar group of musicians take
the stage and the bassline of the classic Stone Roses
song I Wanna Be Adored spills out, 5,000 jaws drop in
disbelief.
King Monkey leads the crowd through some moves
Accompanied by the guitarist and bassist from Roses
tribute act Fools Gold, Brown stuns a crowd expecting
solo material by running through an hour of classics
from his former band's back catalogue.
The 20 and 30-something audience plus kids, gathered
in the bucolic setting of the 18th Century landscape
garden at Claremont in Esher, deepest Surrey, are
delirious with joy.
SETLIST
I Wanna Be Adored/ Sally Cinnamon/ Sugar Spun Sister/
Waterfall/ Mersey Paradise/ Made Of Stone/ She Bangs
The Drums/ Where Angels Play/ Elizabeth My Dear/ I Am
The Resurrection/ Fool's Gold/ My Star/ Dolphins Were
Monkeys/ Golden Gaze/ F.E.A.R./ Time Is My Everything
Set highlights are a glorious, jangling Sally
Cinnamon, the Roses' second single from 1987, and a
powerful blast through She Bangs The Drums.
Brown then leads his hired hands through note-perfect
renditions of Waterfall, Mersey Paradise and Where
Angels Play, all staples of the Roses' classic 1989
live set, to an ecstatic response.
Since the group's ignominious demise eight years ago,
Brown has often teased audiences with snippets of
Roses songs, but has never played one in entirety save
a one-off acoustic version of Sally Cinnamon in Japan
in 1997.
However, gig-goers at the low-key warm-up in Dublin
two nights earlier were in on the secret that tonight
would not be a normal Ian Brown gig.
Often an aloof, surly figure onstage in recent years,
tonight sees the singer relaxed and smiling.
Working the crowd at both sides of the stage, Brown
spends the gig moonwalking, chatting to fans and
trying on items of proffered clothing.
And while his singing voice - once memorably likened
to "a man shouting into a bucket" - is at times a
little wayward, Brown hits all the right notes on a
night charged with emotion.
He bangs the drums - with percussionist Inder
Goldfinger
Being Ian Brown, events take a turn for the
unpredictable when he prefaces Elizabeth My Dear, the
Roses' anti-monarchist take on Scarborough Fair, by
urging the crowd to be totally silent.
Predictably, this is a total failure.
"You've got no soul", chides Brown, with an air of
tongue-in-cheek disappointment.
As things draw to a close, Brown introduces members of
his regular band to perform five solo songs, including
2001 hit single F.E.A.R, and the new, trumpet-driven
Time Is My Everything, a track reminiscent of 1960s
band Love.
The song bodes well for his as yet untitled fourth
solo album, due for release in September.
In true Roses tradition, there is no encore.
Former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown takes to the
stage at a landscape garden in Surrey and treats the
audience to a unique performance.
The first signs that tonight will be somewhat
different to a typical Ian Brown gig come when regular
guitarist Aziz Ibrahim concludes his acoustic support
slot with the words "I won't be playing in the main
band tonight".
And when Ian and an unfamiliar group of musicians take
the stage and the bassline of the classic Stone Roses
song I Wanna Be Adored spills out, 5,000 jaws drop in
disbelief.
King Monkey leads the crowd through some moves
Accompanied by the guitarist and bassist from Roses
tribute act Fools Gold, Brown stuns a crowd expecting
solo material by running through an hour of classics
from his former band's back catalogue.
The 20 and 30-something audience plus kids, gathered
in the bucolic setting of the 18th Century landscape
garden at Claremont in Esher, deepest Surrey, are
delirious with joy.
SETLIST
I Wanna Be Adored/ Sally Cinnamon/ Sugar Spun Sister/
Waterfall/ Mersey Paradise/ Made Of Stone/ She Bangs
The Drums/ Where Angels Play/ Elizabeth My Dear/ I Am
The Resurrection/ Fool's Gold/ My Star/ Dolphins Were
Monkeys/ Golden Gaze/ F.E.A.R./ Time Is My Everything
Set highlights are a glorious, jangling Sally
Cinnamon, the Roses' second single from 1987, and a
powerful blast through She Bangs The Drums.
Brown then leads his hired hands through note-perfect
renditions of Waterfall, Mersey Paradise and Where
Angels Play, all staples of the Roses' classic 1989
live set, to an ecstatic response.
Since the group's ignominious demise eight years ago,
Brown has often teased audiences with snippets of
Roses songs, but has never played one in entirety save
a one-off acoustic version of Sally Cinnamon in Japan
in 1997.
However, gig-goers at the low-key warm-up in Dublin
two nights earlier were in on the secret that tonight
would not be a normal Ian Brown gig.
Often an aloof, surly figure onstage in recent years,
tonight sees the singer relaxed and smiling.
Working the crowd at both sides of the stage, Brown
spends the gig moonwalking, chatting to fans and
trying on items of proffered clothing.
And while his singing voice - once memorably likened
to "a man shouting into a bucket" - is at times a
little wayward, Brown hits all the right notes on a
night charged with emotion.
He bangs the drums - with percussionist Inder
Goldfinger
Being Ian Brown, events take a turn for the
unpredictable when he prefaces Elizabeth My Dear, the
Roses' anti-monarchist take on Scarborough Fair, by
urging the crowd to be totally silent.
Predictably, this is a total failure.
"You've got no soul", chides Brown, with an air of
tongue-in-cheek disappointment.
As things draw to a close, Brown introduces members of
his regular band to perform five solo songs, including
2001 hit single F.E.A.R, and the new, trumpet-driven
Time Is My Everything, a track reminiscent of 1960s
band Love.
The song bodes well for his as yet untitled fourth
solo album, due for release in September.
In true Roses tradition, there is no encore.