Originally printed in City Life (they f*cked-up the layout and it appears in a readable form for the first time here!)
Ian Brown was waiting for me in a room off Kensington High Street wearing a zippy brown anorak, sporting a good head of slightly lank hair, those monkey-skeleton cheekbones, and a grin. He was pleased to see me. He'd had something to eat, but had left the side salad. We had a drink together. He didn't skin up.
Brown is an icon, with a hundred preconceptions surrounding him. If I had been wondering quite why I should go to London to see him, then what a music industry insider, an A&R friend of mine told me just days before convinced me; "The kids today don't want it to be kept real. They want it manufactured, and preferably with the logo really big" which is hilarious, I suppose, and true even, but also the best reason for appreciating the likes of Ian Brown; a man who follows his own rules, who avoids putting a chorus between every verse, who would rather take a bus than a limo to Top of the Pops. In the old days I DJed for the Roses and he'd give me the funniest pre-gig advice; "Just good grooves, you know, er, yeah, and some Bob Marley at the end."
I was there too, to hear his views on the Stone Roses and Madchester, and to shed some light on recent controversies - allegations of homophobia, air rage, his jail term. And to catch up. In December he married his Mexican girlfriend (next month they're expecting a child - Ian's third). For New Year's Eve he was in Manchester of course, for his appearance in Castlefield; "It was fantastic. I felt honoured man."
Live, Brown and his group do a version of Michael Jackson's 'Billy Jean' but no old Stone Roses songs; "It wouldn't be fair on Reni and John and Mani to do that. I did an acoustic 'Sally Cinnamon' in Japan when I got carried away but I wouldn't do that again. It's about staying fresh; life itself, let alone music."
I'd seen his recent gig at the Apollo and it was surprisingly short of nostalgia. Down the front, especially, the fans were clearly a younger generation; "It's amazing. It's like all the Roses fans little brothers and sisters are getting into it."
The Stone Roses were influential in a way that perhaps no-one quite realised at the time. Their first LP made amazingly high positions in those multifarious end of the century lists; higher than anything by the Smiths, Blur, or Happy Mondays. It was clearly a key record for a generation. And he's certainly kept it fresh since the break-up, with a great collaboration with James Lavelle on 'Be There', and a new solo LP, Golden Greats (the LP features some ace songs; 'Set My Baby Free', and 'Neptune' among them).
Ian Brown himself always intrigued me. Politically, he's invariably Bennite. He'll also speak garrulously on the subject of Mohammed Ali, or Malcolm X. He's also well up on all the latest conspiracy theories about who
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