The Stone Roses: Finsbury Park
Today's blog post is a guest post from my friend TG, who last week went to watch The Stone Roses in London. Enjoy...
On Saturday 7th June 2013 I descended upon Finsbury Park in London, along with 2 of my University friends, to watch the band often most associated with the Madchester scene of the late 80's / early 90's - The Stone Roses. Although I was only 9 years old the first time the 4 piece band broke up (in 1996) this was actually the 2nd time that I'd seen them since they announced their reformation in 2011, the first being the opening night of their big comeback date in Heaton Park, Manchester.
Despite the number of fans in Finsbury Park being limited to 40,000, as opposed to 80,000 at their homecoming gig the year before, their was still a sense of excitement in the air when we entered the park, just as the final support act Dizzie Rascal was taking to the stage. This was a very different main support act to last year's Primal Scream (who the Roses' bassist Mani joined in the 90's), but given the surrounding's of our countries capital it was maybe more appropriate, and his recent poppier music complimented the beaming sun well.
The Roses themselves played a similar set to last year, swapping one or two of the older hits around, and again avoided delving into 'The Second Coming' album too much, to give the fans what they really wanted. The majority of songs were from their 'self-titled first album' and I just wish I was over the age of 2 the first time it was around. The sound was probably a little better last year, although I attribute this to the excitement of it begin their first proper gig in 16 years, but I definitely don't think their age ruined the gig in any way.
The Setlist can be seen below. I'd be interested to hear new music from The Stone Roses if the rumours of them writing again ever came to fruition, but like with most comebacks I think they'd struggle to capture what they originally had.
- I Wanna Be Adored
- Elephant Stone
- Ten Storey Love Song
- Standing Here
- Going Down
- Shoot You Down
- Fools Gold
- Something's Burning
- Waterfall
- Don't Stop
- She Bangs the Drums
- Love Spreads
- This Is the One
- Made of Stone
- Breaking into Heaven
- Elizabeth My Dear
- I Am the Resurrection
I've listened to Ian Brown's solo records sparingly, except for the song 'F.E.A.R.' which is pure genius, and can only name 'Love Is The Law' from John Squires 1997 outfit The Seahorses, but am glad I found The Stone Roses when I was in my teens and again at Uni. I'm also grateful they're touring again and reliving just a bit of the magic from the first time round.
Media interest has obviously been high in The Stone Roses again since they announced their comeback and two films that are either out at the cinema now or about to be released are Shane Meadows documentary 'Made of Stone' and the coming of age film 'Spike Island'. I'd be very keen to see both at some point, probably more for snippets of archive footage than anything else. It might be too much to think the band will make a secret appearance at Glastonbury, which I'm off to in 2 1/2 weeks, but someone usually does.
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