Author: David Tysall
28th June 2013
I recently went to see the Shane Meadows film "Made of Stone". It was a simultaneous release around the country with 80 cinemas taking part.
It opened with live interviews with the director and the band, and then the film began.
The fascinating part was the band announced a free gig in Warrington as a warmup and only true fans could apply for tickets. They were distributed on a first come first served basis and you had to bring a record or a piece of Stone Roses merchandise to receive a ticket.
People were being interviewed as they came out with their wristbands and some of the stories were heart-warming, funny, and the passion for the band had not abated in the 20-year absence.
My feeling was nostalgic, I went to the same school as lan Brown and John Squires, I grew up in Manchester, and the music was of the moment. I was transported back to being 18 and clubs would play the first album and then turn it over (that's vinyl for the kids out there).
The thing that really shone through was the attitude that the people had. A journalist once said of the Roses that "They walked with a swagger that only Mancunians possess" and it is hard to define, but there was an inner confidence and humour that these people all still had.
Not in a false way but a warmth to it.
It made me think about roots. I left Manchester at 18 and never thought of myself as a son of the city. My parents were Londoners, and I spent a lot of my childhood there with relatives.
I left to go to Tenerife, then London, and ended up in York, but the more that I think of it the more that you become a sum of your influences.
I love the confidence of Mancunians, the Spanish culture, the cosmopolitan nature of London, and the beauty the space, and the Yorkshire direct nature.
So, wherever you go in the world you keep these influences with you as a blanket, and to me that is a lovely warm feeling.
As lan Brown once said,
It's not where you're from, it's where you're at.
