In the confines of 53 Degree’s club venue, 400 people were crammed in to witness The Complete Stone Roses. In tribute to Squire, Brown and co the band have been touring constantly for years and earning themselves a great reputation but as one witty crowd member shouted “What you gonna do when they reform?”.
AdvertisementThis was the first time I’d seen a tribute act, so I was a bit skeptical about it. Before the main event we were treated to a support set from Scottish rockers The Haze. Despite the majority of the crowd being content with a pint at the bar during their set, they played with a measured excitement and had a few good tunes. Their ending song in particular, including the loud singer shouting inaudibly through a loudspeaker, was pure Britpop.
The crowd poured forward as The Complete Stone Roses took to the stage and they rattled off tracks from ‘Second Coming’, with ‘Good Times’, ‘Love Spreads’ and ‘Ten Storey Love Song’ all being pulled out the bag. The band themselves don’t resemble The Roses too much but they are a respectful tribute act, and the lead singer did his best not to try and emulate Ian Brown’s dancing – and with the audiences attempts to dance like the Monkey Man he didn’t need to.
A lot of the audience were in their 40s and definitely recapturing their youth, especially as the big hits like ‘Fools Gold’ and ‘This Is The One’ were played. After an interval, the band came back on to treat us to ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ – definitely my highlight of the night and favourite Roses song – as well as ‘Elephant Stone’ and ‘Waterfall’. Pretty much any Roses song you know was played, before the epic finale of ‘I Am The Resurrection’ finished a great set and prompted unbridled joy from some members of the audience.
If I were John Squire, Ian Brown, Mani and Reni I would come and watch these guys, see the passion the audience displayed, put the differences aside and reform – although for The Complete Stone Roses this would be a disaster! They are a great tribute act and while I still remain skeptical of tribute acts for bands that are still going (like Kings Ov Leon) for ones that have disbanded or died, there is definitely a case for them.