well, it was perhaps inevitable that i would get around to posting yet more (sort of) pictures from The Stone Roses at Heaton Park i guess! and why not? i mean, every day in the car i feel like screaming "I SAW THE STONE ROSES" at the world. it's one of those experiences that, whilst you wish you could have again, will perhaps never ever diminish or fade as a memory.
i say sort of yet more pictures as some of these, two in particular, featured earlier in the month when i had a go at scanning them with the equipment of the sensational Harlo Gang. as you may recall, though, the class equipment of the Harlo Gang as an extra benefit added a streaky smeared line to the pictures. without taking away from the artistic merits of that, i thought non-streaked images might be of interest to some.
onwards with the pictures, then, and where better to start than not longer after we had arrived and got through the security checks. all of that ran very smoothly indeed, by the way!
here's a rather empty looking Heaton Park, then. well, empty in regards of what was to follow, and what you shall see!
you will notice that above, and every now and then, the sky looks kind of strange in the pictures. i have no idea if this relates to the general pyschedelic vibe of the day or is in some way related to the disposable Kodak camera i used!
here's one of the three people i was fortunate enough to go to the gig with, which i think was taken not too long after the picture above. probably after we had been for a bit of a stroll around the grounds as John has his ace Stone Roses shirt on. it's mostly likely from just after the Dirty North had finished their set, hence so many people mulling around.
as i said in one of the first posts on Heaton Park, the Dirty North were well impressive on the day, and seem to have got a bit of unfair treatment from the press in their reviews. what i had heard of them on things like you tube was somewhat lacking in quality or appeal, but they sounded much, much better on the day. i am pretty sure i read that they are presently not interested in recording, rather wanting to just do gigs instead. hopefully that frame of mind will adjust, a record of them would be class.
i am pretty sure that the next picture is of the legendary band The Wailers in action. that would certainly explain the, if you will, hazy shade caused by grass look in the skies!
what an added bonus to the day to have walked away from it knowing that we'd seen The Wailers. yes, sure, everyone thinks "Bob Marley" and only a few think of the "and The Wailers part" at the end of it. the truth is these were his friends and equals in making the music that made the world pay attention to reggae.
this next one is probably taken around the time either The Wailers or Justice Tonight had either taken to the stage or just left it. it's included so you can see that formidable stage for the most part. however, i do seem to have managed to get a fair few faces in the crowd, so if you were there on 1 July 2012 and are looking for pictures of yourself, outstanding!
and now for two that i know full well i posted before, but here they are streak-free. here, thanks to the friend of John Payne, are images of the four of us, with that simply awesome stage in the background.
yes, i am the only one sans ale! i wanted to take it a bit easier on the sauce to be honest, as i didn't want to be hammered by the time The Stone Roses came on. several people at the gig didn't quite take this approach and were laid passed out even before Plan B hit the stage. that's a shame, but you can't go living other people's lives for them!
these two pictures are excellent, even i do not look all that bad in them. i would imagine that one or perhaps both shall end up printed and framed before too long!
here's one that might be the excellent, worthy Justice Tonight band on stage. quite difficult to tell, and i do not have the high-res scans here so i can't really zoom in and see for sure!
i really should get around to sending Pete Wylie a message, congratulating him on a great gig and thanking him once more for all the effort, energy and time he has put in to this good cause. Mr Wylie is available on the majority of the social network thingies and is a top, friendly bloke (as long as you are not called Thatcher). if you are aware of his Justice Tonight work and support him just as much as i and any football fan in the world does, do take the time to send him a message of support.
this next picture is most certainly (probably) of the Justice Tonight band in action, as it shows one of the special guests they had on the day - the chap from a band called Reverend & The Makers.
to be honest, i just knew that one of the guests for Justice Tonight would be from this band. no inside knowledge at all, it's just that my mate Shaun from LA (Man) was supposed to be at the gig with us, until costs and time made it impossible. as Reverend (as their fans probably call them) are one of his top bands, something like this was bound to happen, sadly!
now then, if there are any fans of an earlier post of the one that John Payne dubbed as the personification of his phrase Tatty Slapper (the phrase "tatty slapper" and all variants being © John Payne Lexicon, which in itself is © John Payne Linguistic and that name further being © John Payne Dutch Rudders) they are likely to be pleased with the accidental shot of her to the left of this next one. even if she has her tights more or less in tact, i guess. i say acciental, as the actual intended subject is sort of to the middle-right in a picture taken at the rather good suggestion of John Payne (see previous sentence for copyright details).
whereas the kids of today seem to get their jollies by holding their blueberry or iTwat phones up towards the stage in the hope of making a bootleg video or sound recording, back in the golden, mobile device-free era, we had concert flashers to help entertain and pass the time. that lady you can see sort of in the distance a bit was engaging in this much appreciated activity, although i didn't quite catch the moment. i tried for you gents, even though it would have meant a difficult time getting them developed if anyone at Tesco was checking!
there were quite a few flashers at Heaton Park, it has to be said, and indeed those who went on Saturday were treated to a gent going "the full monty" for most of the day. those pictures are not ones you will find here, but should be easy enough to find on the net. as for why a gent would strip to the full, no idea. perhaps, looking at the bill, something performed by either Professor Green or Beady Eye inspired him to do it.
on we go, perhaps wisely, then to some images of the "main support", Plan B.
i am reluctant to repeat what i said in my first post on the lad, but why not in case you did not read it or just cannot be bothered to search for it. he was really on top form with his more conventional songs and indeed won over a large chunk of the crowd. when he started with his rapping, alas, he tended to lose some of the crowd, very much to the gain of the bar. the beat boxes and sounds being made were ace, but "rap" and "outdoor gig for The Stone Roses" don't really go together as much as Ian Brown would like to think they do.
please don't think that the last comment is intended as bad or negative. i am one of what you would think was quite a few who went and purchased the most recent CD, The Defamation Of Strickland Banks, within days of the gig. granted, the songs on it that are rap heavy shall not get all that much of a play, but the ones which are not - in particular ace Free - shall get regular airings.
i believe when not on the stage or in the studio film is the game of Plan B. Andrew tells me to get the film Harry Brown with him in, and i believe he is in the soon to be released film adaptation of The Sweeney, in the Dennis Waterman role no less!
go on then, one more picture of the Plan B in action, if for no other reason than it will impress Andrew and Christopher.
in his capacity as my Modern Music Advisor (MMA), Andrew would wish to make it clear that the new album from Plan B, the soundtrack to his film Ill Manors, is out on Monday 30 July. the title track is one that i have heard and consider rather too shouty for my tastes, but i will give the whole album a chance to impress.
finally, then, three pictures of the moment we were all there for, The Stone Roses on stage, doing that which they do which no one else on earth can.
apologies that they are not as close to the stage or as clear as they could be, but we saw no reason to get squashed in the pit at the front. no offence to those who went in, as there was certainly no deliberate aggro, pushing or squashing, but i think we are all a bit too old for that sort of thing now, and thus had an amazing time in the middle, with a fair amount of space and still being able to be part of the groove. good luck to those who got to the front and stayed there for the day and night!
i am still wrestling with getting my head around the concept that i/we were there, to witness The Stone Roses in their home town conquering the world. there remained a sense of disbelief that they had (happily) just started talking to each other again before the gig, to be honest. it can be little wonder that Mani and Reni had a look of disbelief at just how powerful and how loved their music is, something that certainly pushed them to amazing performances. if you could play the guitar like John Squire then you'd be confident all the time too, and words like "disbelief" do not exist for Ian Brown. he is Ian Brown, take him or leave him.
there were reports of people who went to Heaton Park on the Friday and Saturday trying to get tickets for the next nights or night, so amazing was the experience. in this respect i cannot but help understand - i would love to live through it all again. which kind of throws up the question as to whether or not i would get the chance to see them again before, as Ian Brown put it, "the wheels fall off". it's unlikely, i would have thought. i doubt that we shall be able to afford to travel again to see them any time soon, and the chances of them arriving here for a gig are limited to say the least. you never know, though.
with some luck we will get something released from the gigs they have done, be it a DVD, CD or both. all the gigs appear to have been filmed, and yet i am not aware of any footage being broadcast anywhere. i've heard talk that the filming has been for this proposed Spike Island film, but with the band signing two record deals i suspect some sort of release will not be out of the question.
and that picture above, alas, represents the last of the photographs i took with a sort of proper camera of the day and night at Heaton Park. i have not had a proper look at the pictures i took with my blueberry thing so there might be more from The Stone Roses at a later stage, but not today.
hope you've enjoyed seeing these pictures, and if you happen to be in one of them, far out and i trust you are glad to appear!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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