Meadies Musical Marconi

 With rumours (and we repeat it’s rumours) swirling yet again that these could be their last gigs legendary Manchester band The Stone Roses returned to Leeds for the first time as the the classic 4 piece line up since 1989. Could they rekindle the magic? Matt Mead attended to find out. Having last seen The Stone Roses at Heaton Park in 2012 I was looking forward seeing some more of the magic that brought them back together and that was witnessed on Shane Meadows famed Made Of Stone film. Having Phil Beckett as the warm up DJ certainly got the crowd in the mood with a mix of Punk, Northern Soul and Reggae including The Clash, Robert Knight & Dave and Ansell Collins and all was set for lift of when Stoned Love echoed all around the arena, whipping the crowd into a frenzy as the band entered the stage. With Mani thumping the classic bass chord, John Squire’s stone cold riff’s and the mesmerising drums of Reni the classic I Wanna Be Adored had the cro...

  1983. The Smiths released their debut single Hand In Glove, Star Wars Return Of  The Jedi was released in the Cinema and Liverpool FC were the toast of the football world. How things have changed. In this same year in Manchester came the birth of a true gem in the ears of those in the northern quarters. The Waterfront. Now 30 years on it has been  announced  that they are to get their debut release for Record Store Day 2018. The Waterfront featured some of the music heavyweights that would light up the Manchester music scene in the years to come and were at this time not fully aware what would come to fruition. Lead singer Kaiser takes up the story: “I was brought up in north Manchester New Moston going to the local schools North Manchester boys but ended up at South Chadderston. I was never into music as a kid but one day I got listening to Anarchy In The UK and they blew my world right open.” Drummer Chris Goodwin further explains: “I wa...

 Matthew Mead interviews Shrewsbury (25/05/89) gig organiser John Kertland for This Is The Daybreak (23/08/14). How did you get involved in booking gigs ? Through being a musician. It seemed easier to put our own gigs on, and then putting on bands from out of town was the next logical step. Where did you hear about The Stone Roses ? My friend Neville - my promoting partner in 'SFG' was offered them by a Manchester based agency. Although I had a friend who had their first single (So Young), I'd never heard of them until January 1989, I admit. We booked them for Shrewsbury through the agent for £125. Was there a buzz in the town before the gig taking place ? People had been following the band around on tour, a sure-fire sign that something was happening. There were people in town from Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham... A massive buzz was building on the day. We had a tout wanting to buy 200 tickets from my store, 'Gizmo', which was the local ticket outlet....

 Interview with Tim Vigon, creator of world famous Made Of Paper fanzine (15/08/2014) First things first how are you? All good my friend. Thanks for asking! Can you talk us through your up bringing? My upbringing was pretty normal, I was brought up in Macclesfield which is about 20 miles South of Manchester, my parents were teachers and I went to a normal comprehensive school in Macc, when I was 16 I went to 6th form college in Moss Side, Manchester and that kind of opened up the world to me in a big way. Macclesfield is a small town , even though it’s close to Manchester people couldn’t be more different. It was totally different for me when I started hanging around with people who lived in a real City, it was 1987 when I started going to college in Manchester, so an amazing time to be there! What was the first music you got into?! Like most people it was just through whatever I could find of my mum and dads. They had a BASF 90 cassette (yep i’m that old) of the Beatles ...

 Matthew Mead interviews Simon Wolstencroft for This Is The Daybreak (04/08/14). How are you? Hi Matt, I'm doing fine thanks. Can you talk us through how you first got into music? I got into drumming after checking out all the bands that appeared on Top of the Pops on a Thursday night during my time as a child of the Seventies. Who are your drumming influences? I picked up the drumming bug from my late mother’s 7inch single collection. Earth Wind and Fire, Barry White and the Rolling Stones. I thought the Sweet were a good band too. How did you get to know Ian Brown, John Squire and Andy Couzens? I met Ian Brown and John Squire after passing my eleven plus and attending Altrincham Grammar School for boys. The three of us were in the same class all through our schooling there, which began in 1974. Ian and I became mates straight away but it took me a couple of years to get to know John. John was a massive fan of the first Clash album, just like me. The pair of us wen...

 Matthew Mead interviews Stone Roses rhythm guitarist Andy Couzens for This Is The Daybreak (27/09/13). What music were you into, growing up? I was into 70s punk (The Pistols, The Ramones, etc) but liked a lot of Tamla and Atlantic soul too (Otis Redding etc). I was also into 50s rock ‘n’ roll. How did you first get to know Ian, John, Pete and Reni? I met Ian and John at South Trafford College along with Si Wolstencroft when Ian asked me to join The Patrol. Pete was a part of a gang that used to hang round where Ian and John lived in Timperley. Reni came along later in response to an advert we put up in a music shop in town. Who were you closest to in the Roses? Despite all the arguing, we were all pretty tight, no favourites on my part and then ... we weren't. Listening to the bootlegs, the early gigs sound like riotous affairs? Yes, the early gigs were pretty wild and the audiences reacted in pretty much the same way, even when songs like I Wanna Be Adored and Thi...

Steve Hanft interview  What was the first music you remember hearing? I was about six years old, Bob Dylan song- one of his first recordings. He was singing a cover of a Woody Guthrie song called "I Ain't Got No Home In This World". There were several other folk singers covering Guthrie tunes on this compilation  LP, but I only liked the Dylan track. had fun spinning it on my old man's record player. Used to love to put the needle on the records smoothly, took practice What was the first serious music you remember hearing? I also cued the Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" LP when i was very young on dad's turntable. I found Miles and Coltrane's playing soothing and I kind of experienced nightlife by listening to them without leaving my little house in the country How did you get involved in filming? I quit high school at 15 and passed an equivalency exam so i could go and study photography at a free college while I worked in a plastic factory. From there i ...

Former drummer with 90’s super group The Seahorses, Andy Watts has been an active musician since his face and drumming style became familiar to many on the covers of the weekly music papers and TV appearances alongside former Stone Rose John Squire. Fast forward to the present day Andy has an exciting new solo project The Lisbon Treaty which is about to unleash their electro dynamite tracks on the unsuspecting public: Can you tell me about your upbringing? Born in London but my northern accent developed at a pace due to my being fostered then adopted and moving around a great deal – Dublin, Southport, St Helens, West Yorks then Durham to York in my formative years. It was somewhat itinerant in the early days and I never really felt like I was from anywhere. Still don’t really – I’m a citizen of the world I suppose. My folks really encouraged my musicality but it was double edge sword as my father had academic aspirations and struggled with my lack of interest in formal education. Growi...

Alan (Reni) Wren is the world renowned drummer famed for drumming with The Stone Roses. Lea Mullen was in Little Caeser, before the band eventually became known as The Rub. Here we have an exclusive interview with Lea who speaks exclusively to Shiiine On blog. Shiiine: How did you first get to know Reni? LM: I first met Reni when I worked at a musical instrument shop in Manchester called A1 Music maybe late 1980’s. Were you aware of Reni before you knew him? I was aware of The Stone Roses but not really of Reni believe it or not. I didn’t really take notice of the Manchester music scene at that time, I was more into jazz and Led Zeppelin. Was this way before joining The Rub? Long, long time before The Rub. How did you join The Rub? One day I was in a rehearsal room playing drums the door opened and Reni walked in. I didn’t recognise him because I hadn’t seen him for maybe three years, and he had a big beard. He said to me “I want you to play drums in my band, you play just the way I vi...

The lasting impact of Manchester band The High and their recorded output is still loved by their adoring fans to this day. Singles Up & Down, Take Your Time and Box Set Go are classics of their generation including their masterful debut album Somewhere Soon. The following interviews were conducted as separate interviews by Matt Mead in 2015 & 2016. They have now been compiled into one to bring you the personal, compelling and humorous story of The High.  Can you tell me about your upbringing? Chris Goodwin : Music was everywhere in our house growing up. My Dad was (is) a great singer and loved Frank Sinatra, my Mum was (is) into Shirley Bassey and The Carpenters. My 3 sisters (no brothers) were massive fans of Marc Bolan, David Bowie then later punk and my youngest sister Gill is a Paul Weller obsessive!! So i couldn’t have asked for a better grounding than listening to these artists booming out of every room. You can see from an early stage i wasn't gonna take up...