Ian Brown, former front man of one of the most influential British bands of all time The Stone Roses, played the final date of his Australian tour. A fair few of the crowd were sporting vintage Stone Roses t-shirts, but what had to be remembered was that Brown was here to play tracks from his back catalogue of solo work.  As the people packed into The Forum, the anticipation builded for this legend of British rock to take the stage.

At about 10pm, he and his 5 piece band opened with the brilliant Golden Gaze – taken from his newly released greatest hits album. The audience loved it. Keep What Ya Got was amazing, and Longsight was inspirational. It was only after he played a few of his classic solo tracks that one is really reminded of just how good his solo work is. Time Is My Everything was also met with an enormous reception from the adoring crowd. The loudest raw of the night, however, came as the opening riff the Stone Roses classic Made Of Stone started what was to be one of the biggest crowd sing-alongs in recent memory. Soon after, came yet another classic I Wanna Be Adored, Brown was amazing. His onstage presence was clearly felt by all and as he paraded around the stage, it was clear that his talent and charisma has inspired many frontmen (*cough* Liam Gallagher) since his days with ‘the Roses.

My Star was one of the many highlights, as the eerie guitars, military like drumming and impressive vocal delivery sawed over the crowd who, by this stage, looked on in awe. Next up, trumpet led Lovebug was an example of the musical diversity that Brown has created over the years. His solo work was going down a treat, and still he ripped into yet another ‘Roses classic – Waterfall.

When he and the band left the stage, the people demanded an encore, and when Brown returned for an encore that included F.E.A.R – arguably the finest track in from his solo work, and Stone Roses classic…British anthem, She Bangs The Drums brought the crowd to a state of frenzy. One thing to point out, however, by this stage it was clear that Brown was getting tired, and the vocal chords were slightly suffering, but that didn’t matter, as the fans took care of most of the vocal duties until the conclusion of the set.

In the lead up to the gig, I was expecting to feel somewhat disappointed in that this legendary ex member of one of the finest English rock’n’roll bands was here to play tunes from his much less-famous solo career. Afterwards, however, I was reminded of the brilliance of his solo work, and over the moon that I had just attended such a mind blowing gig, put on by one of the greatest front men of our time. Sensational.