Get Set To Groove Down WithMonkeyman Ian Brown!

Wed 26th Oct, 2005 in Local News

Remember The Stone Roses? The band that typified the Manchester sound? A band that many said was as influential as The Beatles, a band that burned brightly before collapsing in a fiery heap of fisticuffs, paranoia and more drugs than the Rolling Stones have hoovered?

That band?

Well, they’re not back. Not yet. But their charismatic and compelling vocalist, Ian Brown is. He’s the one who, out of all The Stone Roses’ members, has has anything approaching a resonable career since the group’s implosion.

2005 saw the release of his greatest hits album, a disc which grabbed the choicest nuggets from the monkey-dancing singer’s four albums. It’s the year that’s seen the singer get the accolades he deserves. And it’s the eyar that’s given Brown a level of maturity that’s enabled him to revisit the landmark tunes he wrote with The Stone Roses in earnest, and to dig them out for his fans.

“It’ll be great playing the Roses songs again as well because they’re just alive, those songs,” he said. “It’s the best feeling in the world knowing that I wrote those songs on the dole and years and years later there’s kids that were probably at toddler groups back then crying when I’m playing them now.”

The now drug-free – mostly – Brown hasn’t changed much from his Madchester days. Still decked in combat keks and trainers, he’s still the wiry bundle of energy that fans remember. The shows he’s got planned in 2006 will be nothing if not power-packed.

Dates are as follows:
January 2, 2006: Southbound Festival, Perth (All ages)
January 4, 2006: The Tivoli, Brisbane
January 5, 2006: The Metro, Sydney
January 8, 2006: The Forum, Melbourne