Ian Brown is the singer of the Roses and does some of the song writing. He and John Squire claim to have met in a sand pit when they were 4 years old. Brown's father was a joiner. He lived on Sylvan Avenue when he was growing up. H got the urge to be in a band when the famous punk -era started and turned british teenager's lives upside-down. For Ian it meant the Sex Pistols and Johnny Rotten's sneering arroganc. Punk was the moment when Ian and John became close friends. John was a quiet dreamer and Ian was a rowdy extrovert filling in the corners of eachother's psyche. During the autumn of 1979 the sixteen year old pair Ian Brown and John Squire had left school and having no idea what they wanted to do with their lives, drifted into college at South Trafford College. They started to get serious about starting a band. Along with old school mate Simom Wolstencroft on drums, they started to form The Patrol. They got a singer when they saw Andy Couzens in the local canteen giving a proper seeing-to to a poor college student. Those were top qualities for a punk rock singer. The Patrol played 6 gigs and sorta just faded off.Then began the scooter scene at the tailend of the 70's. That was a big time for Ian Brown who got massively into the scooter club scene. Ian sold his bass guitar and bought a pink chopper scooter. On the front "Cranked Up Really High" was painted on his petrol tank, it asked for trouble and the cops gave him a hard time wherever he went. People remember that Ian used to lift his scooter up the stairs of his Hulme Crescent flat because leaving it on the street was asking for it to get stolen. He had moved to Hulme in 1980 and lived there till about 1983. Ian really got caught up with the times and with all his excess energy, loved to travel. In Melody Maker,Brown said "The scooter boys weren't mods. We were a mixture of punks, skins, anyone who had a scooter. I used to see Clinton from Pop Will Eat Itself on scooter runs. We once got attacked by bikers in Stourbridge until we followed Clinton down an alternative safe route. The police were always on your back, they pulled my scooter up wherever I went. I once got fined 20 quid for having condensation on my speedometer." He didn't see Squire or Pete Garner for months. He got a job washing dishes in Fridays Motel to finance his travelling life-style. He then got involved with John Squire, Pete Garner, and Andy Couzwns to form the Waterfront which fell apart and then to the English Rose with John, Pete, Andy, and old Patrol drummer Si Wolenscroft. It was John who came up with The Stone Roses, so, the original line-up of The Stone Roses was born when Ian took up the lead vocalist role in the band, with Pete garner on bass, Andy Couzens on rhythm, John Squire on guitar, and Simon Wolenscroft on drums. He remained singer until the now famous Roses line-up till the end of the Roses career. He was one of the last members of the Roses to leave, along with Mani. They both stayed there till the bitter end of the Last Stand at the Reading Fesival. Now, he does solo. His albums are really great, I should know, I have them, and has had good chart success. Unfinished Monkey Buisness was his debut album, with the hit "My Star". In 1999 he released Golden Greats and singles "Love Like a Fountain" and "Dolphins Were Monkeys" were the best. He is also married, been in Strangeways, recorded with UNKLE, stayed mates with Mani. We all await to see what the King Monkey does next.
TBC (to be continued)
Main sources-The Stone Roses and the Resurrection of British Pop by John Robb, and dotmusic.com
Take Me to My Star- A page for Ian
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