Spike Island 20th Anniversary countdown


The 27th of May 2010 will be the 20th anniversary of The Stone Roses landmark gig at Spike Island. To celebrate the anniversary we’ll be publishing a series of special commemorative articles.

Look out out for historical magazine articles and reviews, some classic photos, the odd download and maybe some surprises.

Of course a big part of the atmosphere was down to the fans. Please share your memories via our comments and if you have photos or anything else you’d like to share then get in touch.

As darkness descends, The Roses come further out of their shells, Squire’s guitar getting far heavier than the Manc rule book allows. Brown holds an inflatable glove aloft during ‘What The World Needs Now’, then boots it into the audience, and the huge disco balls above the stage reflect a spinning constellation of light points around the crowd. In the silence between ‘Made Of Stone’s power pop and ‘Elizabeth My Dear’s eerie rhyme, Brown carries on dancing like a mesmerised clubber caught unawares by the houselights. By now they have got it right. Arrogance and magic fuse.

NME 9 June 1990

Spike Island on video


Update:
sorry folks looks like the video has been pulled from YouTube due to copyright violations.

Here’s the next best thing, some behind the scenes footage from ePaxB – Roses @ Spike Island.

Time for something special. Unearthed is a trailer for the legendary Spike Island gig from 1990.

There’s been rumours of footage circulating for many years, and little bits and pieces have appeared. To date it’s mainly been rehearsal and behind the scenes footage.

This video is the first I’ve seen with actual stage footage from the gig itself.

John Squire’s Penguin Decades covers


Penguin has launched its Decades series, with five titles each representing the best novels of the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

The covers for 1980s series were done by someone you might have heard of: John Squire.

Head over to the Creative Review website to see the full range of Squire’s covers.