The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses 1989

The first time I heard the Stone Roses was when I was working at as a DJ at a club in West Melbourne called KAOS. Ronny Williams (Rubber Soul, Barbarellas, Batcave, Venetian Room, Beehive) had picked up a bunch of 7-inch singles from the Mighty Music Machine in Chapel Street, South Yarra, to play at the club. One of them was Made Of Stone. A good song but not for the dancefloor. Enough to get me interested, however. Especially after all this news about them started reaching Australian shores. A few months later the album was everywhere. 

Luckily it coincided with the first days of Lizard Lounge so the record got a hefty battering on the turntables. And then we'd put it on again at home. The second summer of love, as it was called, was a fantastic time for music with The Roses and the Happy Mondays. We actually decorated the Lizard in swirly lights and slide shows and bubble machines and gave out lollies at the door. We just had fun with the music.
And this album which is playing now hasn't lost anything in the 30 odd years it's been out. It's a near-perfect record from the opening song "I Wanna Be Adored" to the last "I Am the Resurrection". Incidentally often at the Lizard, we'd start the night with Adored and finish with Resurrection" A writer friend of mine in San Francisco, Alex Green, wrote a book in the 33 RPM series about the album and I got to contribute a bit about the album's influence on me.

Later on, I would get to meet lead singer Ian Brown at an exhibition of Stone Roses photos in London. lovely guy. He was there with his kids and it was just his family and mine in the gallery.

A few years after that the Stone Roses played at Festival Hall and it would easily make it into my top 20 gigs of all time. It was brilliant. As is this album. One of those albums which sounds just as good in a club as it does at home.