Song 7 – A song that reminds you of a certain event – ‘Fools Gold’ – The Stone Roses
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| The Stone Roses - Fools Gold 12" Cover (rather lovely piece of artwork from John Squire) |
I’d been ‘into’ Indie for a year or so before the Stone Roses appeared, following an earlier dalliance with Dire Straits and Genesis. Laugh if you like, but at my school, in the mid to late 1980’s it was either that or pop and I knew that I didn’t like pop so it was a kind of rebellion, a move away from the mainstream, even if it was in the wrong direction. I suppose it was music that took itself seriously, that wasn’t frivolous and that was probably what turned me onto it. At some point a friend lent me the album ‘Doolittle’ by the Pixies (shout out to FB’s Juniper Fortune) and then with Martin Bradbury lending me the first Morrissey solo album that was pretty much it. Me and ‘indie’ sitting in a tree, k.i.s.s.i.n.g. And then probably going back inside to my bedroom, wearing black and pondering the agony of life, in the way you can when you’re 15.
It took me a little while to find my indie feet, which I probably only managed to do when I started reading the NME from cover to cover each week, a phase that lasted until I was about 20 when I realised that they were obliged to keep raving on about just how good each new band and album where, because it was never going to be commercially viable to run an otherwise empty issue saying ‘yeah, basically there’s this new grebo scene but all the bands are a bit shit so we’re not going to bother writing about them’.
Other formative experiences? One was waiting for the three weekly ‘indie’ charts to be shown on ITV’s chart show on a Saturday morning, the others being the always tiresome ‘Metal’ and ‘Dance’ charts. Quite often (about half the time) the band in question didn’t even have a video and so they played 10 seconds or so of the song over a grainy black and white picture of the band or the cover of the single. Based on that 10 seconds you had to decide whether you liked it or not and whether you wanted to spend your pocket money on it at ‘Track Records’ in Doncaster, assuming they even had it. Hard to imagine isn’t it, when you can find a dozen performances of even the most obscure band on Youtube and often a clip of a live performance that you only just saw the previous night. Still, the chart show would play a couple of songs in full and I still hold it in a lot of affection for that. The other source of new music was borrowing cassettes from friends. I remember ‘James’ were particularly desirable, ‘Stutter’, ‘Strip-mine’ and the early live album ‘One Man Clapping’ all being eagerly sought out. I also remember Steve Walters lending me a couple of compilation cassettes containing ‘proper’ John Peel approved indie. I’ve bought most of the songs and artists on it over the years, ‘The Field Mice’ are still a huge favourite but ‘Galaxie 500’, ‘Benny Profane’, ‘Another Sunny Day’, ‘The Pastels’ and ‘The Pooh Sticks’ still sound good to me.
The first ‘scene’ that appeared on my radar was the whole ‘baggy’ or ‘Madchester’ thing. I suppose one of the attractions was that you could actually buy the records (or a few of them anyway) and see some of the bands on TV. I wasn’t into the scene at the start, but it was pretty near the start and as it crossed over into the mainstream I did still feel that I owned it. I particularly liked The Stone Roses, probably because they had enough musicianship to satisfy the lingering Genesis fan in me, but mostly because they had such great songs. The first album still sounds great and I do imagine just how good they might have been with a singer who could sing and a work ethic.
So, autumn 1989, I’d just started in the lower sixth and I went straight into town on the bus after school to get the 12” single of Fools Gold. I expect I played it all night at home and then taped it so I could listen to it on my walkman at school the next day. At that time I’d also become involved in the School production of ‘Grease’ as the ‘stage manager’. I’d no ambition to act and anyway, acting wasn’t what the academically smart kids did, it was for the cocky, confident, lippy kids. One lunchtime a bunch of us were painting the set in the school hall, sponging white paint bricks onto a grey background. We had a stereo in there and were allowed to play music, what with us being so responsible and mature and all. So I stuck on ‘Fools Gold’, the full 9 minute 53 second version and as it was so new and cool we all had a dance on stage, grooving round in our best ‘Bez’/’Cressa’ (the Stone Roses equivalent of Bez – every band had one in those days) fashion. A load of younger kids were looking at us through the windows of the school hall, which was open on three sides. I don’t remember them laughing, I think we were a curious rather than comical sight, the concept of the school hall being used for fun was mostly unheard of. I do remember feeling that we were super-cool and while not exactly like a grown up, much less of a child than before. Things were starting to change.
So, a record that reminds me of a certain event – The Stone Roses – ‘Fools Gold’ (9.53 version), painting the set for Grease, Edlington Comprehensive School Hall, autumn, 1989.
(And here's The Pastels, because I love it and I won't be able to fit it in any other way. Terrible singing but it's from the heart. llove the homemade video someone's done too!)
David Millington
7th April 2011
Nottingham
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