The Stone Roses: Made of Stone (Shane Meadows Documentary)

[Viero_Berlotti]

So I finally got around to watching this after being bought it for Christmas. I'm not a massive Stone Roses fan. I think the records are great, but was put off them after seeing a disastrous 'last' live performance in Reading 1996 (which to be fair was just Ian Brown and session musicians, but it was Ian Brown's vocals that ruined it) .

This Shane Meadows documentary is pretty poor though. In 96 minutes you basically get the history of the band (which most people who will be watching it already know), the story of the reunion, some talking heads footage of fans and about three songs performed live. One from their rehearsals, which had the feeling of an extra put in the main film to pad it out, one song from the Parr Hall gig, and one song from one of the Heaton Park gigs. Each of the performances sounds a bit too polished for the Stone Roses live, and I suspect a little bit of post-production studio work may have been done on them, but that isn't really unusual for a rockumentary film like this.

The thing I was really disappointed with was I expected to see a few more songs and footage from the Heaton Park gigs. I've read interviews with Shane Meadows claiming they used 30+ cameras for the Heaton Park gig, and it's obvious this is where a bulk of the budget went because the footage we do see looks great. So why only put about 10-15 minutes of it in?

The cynic in me says they'll probably release the Heaton Park concert in full as a separate entity once the Stone Roses get round to recording all the overdubs needed to make it sound half-decent.

[jake thunder]

I saw this and thought Ian Brown has never sounded so good. Auto tune though isn't it?

[thraxx]

I managed to put up with about 25 minutes of the Reading 96 performance before my soul was crushed.

Disappointed to see that the documentary might not be all that - I'm sure I'll get around to seeing it eventually, and so I hope there'll be some more encouraging reviews.  Interesting to see you think they've done a 'Live & Dangerous' on it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

My friend saw this and loved it but he even liked them when they played at Whitley Bay Ice Rink without Squire or Reni. I do like their music a lot but live stuff isn't of much interest to me aside from seeing snippets here and there, especially Stone Roses live stuff as they're generally pretty awful. The Blackpool one from 89 is decent but I've watched recent ones like Coachella and it's quite bad. If it's a music documentary I much prefer it to concentrate on the story of the band, and making of the album studio type stuff. The Complete Stone Roses is a pretty good one, think it was made around '89 when they had just released the first album. Included some good clips like the BBC performance where the equipment stopped working. Think it's only available on VHS though.

There's also the Spike Island film, which got mixed reviews.

[Viero_Berlotti]

I saw this and thought Ian Brown has never sounded so good. Auto tune though isn't it?

Yeah I'd heard that his vocals had improved, but this recent footage from the Coachella festival suggests otherwise:

http://youtu.be/1kTeJgv7sOA

I managed to put up with about 25 minutes of the Reading 96 performance before my soul was crushed.

Yes, the I remember the Sonic Youth set before hand had been a triumph, then The Stone Roses was just.....

[Johnny Textface]

I still can't believe that the credits didn't role just as the extended section of 'I am the Resurrection' kicked in.  Missed a trick there.

[thraxx]

Yeah I'd heard that his vocals had improved, but this recent footage from the Coachella festival suggests otherwise:

http://youtu.be/1kTeJgv7sOA

Yes, the I remember the Sonic Youth set before hand had been a triumph, then The Stone Roses was just.....

Was Kim Gordon in wellies that night?  Apart from The Roses, that was a top festival.

[Viero_Berlotti]

Was Kim Gordon in wellies that night?  Apart from The Roses, that was a top festival.

Very hazy memories as you would imagine. The 25 minute version of The Diamond Sea was a particular highlight though. Tough gig for anyone coming on after the bombast of that.

[imitationleather]

A far superior documentary about The Stone Roses...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9wm8NQx7U

[Don_Preston]

The Blackpool one from 89 is decent but I've watched recent ones like Coachella and it's quite bad. If it's a music documentary I much prefer it to concentrate on the story of the band, and making of the album studio type stuff. The Complete Stone Roses is a pretty good one, think it was made around '89 when they had just released the first album. Included some good clips like the BBC performance where the equipment stopped working. Think it's only available on VHS though.

The Blackpool gig and the promos were reissued on the double DVD as The Stone Roses. I bought it for a fiver the week I tried to like them.

[thraxx]

Very hazy memories as you would imagine. The 25 minute version of The Diamond Sea was a particular highlight though. Tough gig for anyone coming on after the bombast of that.

I seem to remember it being Rage (they weren't very good an account of Zak squatting in between every song and waxing on about some poor fucker who'd "done 25 years; aint committed no crime"), after Sonic Youth but I can't really remember either.  The best performances I saw there that year were the Super Furries (Guest appearance by Howard Marks), Black Grape, The Verve (because they played mainly the first 2 records), Mogwai; Marion (hah!), and the 60ft Dolls.

[Viero_Berlotti]

I seem to remember it being Rage (they weren't very good an account of Zak squatting in between every song and waxing on about some poor fucker who'd "done 25 years; aint committed no crime"), after Sonic Youth but I can't really remember either.  The best performances I saw there that year were the Super Furries (Guest appearance by Howard Marks), Black Grape, The Verve (because they played mainly the first 2 records), Mogwai; Marion (hah!), and the 60ft Dolls.

Wikipedia says Stone Roses after Sonic Youth on the Sunday:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_and_Leeds_Festivals_line-ups#1996

However after 15 minutes of the Stone Roses I remember walking off to the NME tent and watching the rest of Rocket From The Crypt, but Wikipedia is saying they headlined the NME tent on the Friday, so who knows.

I'm also pretty sure RATM and The Prodigy were the other way round on the Friday because I remember moping around the hippy stalls whilst RATM were on (don't know why, I absolutely loved RATM), and then going to the main stage for headliners The Prodigy and necking a couple of speckled doves. There is no way I would have been able to cope with RATM pilled up, so I am pretty definite they switched from the official line up on the day.

Black Grape were good but it was ruined slightly by the appearance of Chris Evans and an embarrassing rendition of Pretty Vacant that Shaun Ryder had sworn on during a live performance on TFI Friday a few months previously.

Anyway I'll stop now before this thread turns into another 'let's remember the mid-1990's' thread (although that is probably more interesting than discussing the Shane Meadows Stone Roses documentary).