so the short version, if you're in a rush, is that i bought a record. ostensibly two, but one record of vinyl and one a disc of the compact nature, look you see. and then technically one, as my (considerably) better half was so kind, to be sure, to buy the more grown up priced one for me.
if you are not in quite so much of a rush and can tolerate a couple of pictures featuring me, well then do stick around and read on. i shall try ever so hard to make it of interest as i write away.
we went off to Manchester for a couple of days, then. quite a few pictures were taken of quite a few things done whilst there. this shall, so far as i have planned, be the first of a few posts showcasing some of the better images. but for now, a story.
i wouldn't really say that i have a "bucket list" as such in the sense of wanting to tick things off before time calls it quits on me. to me it makes more sense to look at it as the things you want to live to do. anyway, whatever you wish to call that (reach for a dream, going on my title), one thing i have long since wished to do is to visit a HMV in Manchester.
yes that is a HMV in Manchester - the rather impressive Trafford centre, fact fans - but no that is not me, or if you like moi, going in. that's my (considerably) better half, of course, and yes i can only wish that i looked quite so good or was quite so readily liked and accepted into a wider society as she. but that's not why we are here right now.
right, so going to a branch of HMV is hardly a difficult dream to achieve. indeed, it's something i've done on a frequent basis. going to one in Manchester, however, is something that i have not had the chance to do before. i wished to do so for a very, if not quite, specific reason.
simply put, i wished to buy a record of The Stone Roses in Manchester. no more, no less.
why? well, why not. it's just something that has always struck me as "right" in terms of a conceptual idea. fitting and apt, perhaps. yes, i know that the exact same records pressed are sold everywhere, and there's nothing overtly special about a copy purchased in Manchester compared to one i purchased anywhere else. but still, something felt quite right about it, as if in some way i was buying into a mythology i was long since sold to.
but of course this dream was reached, hence the blog post existing. the question was simply one of which recording by the band to get, and in which format. advance warning for you now, as i feature in a couple of the pictures coming up next and i know many of you do not particularly care to see me as such.
thanks to a nifty sale late last year (indeed at HMV) i already had the debut album on vinyl, coming as it did in the form of a Christmas gift. and yes, i still hold hope that a third record proper will be released by the band and if it is called Christmas With The Stone Roses then so much the better. Second Coming or Turns Into Stone would be suitable purchases if i went with vinyl. but no, instead it was to be this one you can see me holding.
yes, the vinyl edition of The Very Best Of The Stone Roses. i've had the CD since it came out in the early 2000s (2002 at a guess), but had not seen nor had reason to get the vinyl. and now, thanks to the generosity of my (considerably) better half, i have it, for she purchased it for me. to quote the other famous Manchester one, she was aware that, in a nice way, such a little thing makes such a big difference in my life.
on that note, why The Stone Roses and not, say, The Smiths or a Morrissey solo? or an Oasis for that matter? Happy Mondays or Black Grape, even. perhaps Joy Division or New Order, tricky to answer. all are of course inherently Manchester, but my overall compelling sense was that The Stone Roses were, to me, the top most excellent band of Manchester that i love above all the others that i so dearly love. compounded, of course, by the fact that we saw The Stone Roses in Manchester.
cost of The Very Best Of The Stone Roses on vinyl? just a penny south of £20, or if you like £19.99. for the record they did not appear to have Turns Into Stone on vinyl, and Second Coming was £20.99. whilst i have no quarrel with Second Coming, the one i picked seemed like the by far better deal.
my own wallet of funding was able to make a second Stone Roses purchase whilst in a HMV in Manchester, using coins of money that were my own. for some reason the CD The Remixes was one of the very few - perhaps only - official releases that i'd not bought. for £5.99 that was then quickly resolved and made not to be the case.
as an aside i was delighted to see that the debut solo single off of Liam Gallagher, Wall Of Glass, was available as a single sided 7". it was somewhat less delightful to see that the price on that particular record was £12.99, so no i did not purchase it. to put it mildly, no i would not have purchased it at half of that price. it having "second pressing" stuck on the back kind of says to you don't even think about it as some sort of investment.
back to what i did get, then, and here you go, the last picture in this particular post to feature me. and yes i am aware that my beard and hair are getting quite long and unkempt. i am seeing how long my patience lasts with both before making any fashion decisions.
how accurate is it to say that The Very Best Of The Stone Roses does what it says on the box? not far off, really. the only disappointment of sorts on it is a bizarre edit of Breaking Into Heaven. the original 15 minute of an opening to Second Coming is cut down to just under 7. it doesn't work. had they instead elected to drop this edit and put on, say, Where Angels Play and Your Star Will Shine or a personal favourite in the form of Tightrope then you'd had the perfect compilation. otherwise, it does the job and anyway what one should do is simply listen to absolutely everything the band has ever done again and again for it is all good.
like many of my age, and those indeed older and younger, i do wonder how it is that a generation is coming through that has never ever thought of music as a physical thing. all this "download" and "streaming" stuff is brilliant for convenience and access. but, as i have said before, touching, feeling, holding and owning a record is how you form a much deeper bond with it.
a look within the gatefold of the packaging of the double vinyl record of The Very Best Of The Stone Roses? of course.
the big picture is perhaps the "classic" pose of the band. i'm not sure if it was commissioned specifically for NME, but NME is where most of us would have first seen this "paint picture". done not long after the four members of the band (i don't believe Cressa was an official member, although he is treasured as "the fifth Stone Rose". making Robbie the sixth, i suppose) were detained by the constabulary and put on trial for a "misunderstanding" between them, a former record label and some tins of paint. on the other side them 16 details you can see are highlights from artwork for singles. so far as i am aware all artwork by John Squire, although i would hesitate to attribute the classic David statue to him. perhaps he took the picture used.
yes there was another dream in Manchester, but it was an "either / or" thing. time permitted for me either to take the family off to HMV to get a Stone Roses record or to go through Salford so as to find the doorway of Salford Lads Club and have my picture taken, a la The Smiths for the artwork for The Queen Is Dead. decision made, as you by this stage are aware. this simply means that we, or in a worst case i, must make another trip to Manchester to reach that dream too.
the inner bags for the records, plus one vinyl record size sheet, does an admirable job in replicating what was always a lavish and generous booklet with the original CD version. many of the pictures and memorabilia shots are gone, but one still gets the lyrics (not printed for either of the albums or other compilations) and comments from all four of the band about the songs. many of them being, but of course, "historical" comments, since at the time this set was originally released the band were not talking to each other across the board. and few thought that they would again.
so was this experience and that i would have hoped for? yes, indeed. the staff at HMV were as friendly and chatty in Manchester as every branch i have visited, bar London where of course everyone is simply too busy and important to speak to anyone else. i have a great and beautiful to behold vinyl record by The Stone Roses bought in their home town. also, a not at all too bad to listen to CD of remixes of their work (when the originals are just fine) to round out the complete collection.
well, that picture of one of four sides of the vinyl seems like the best one to end off with. just look at the groove, man. beautiful.
so, then, a dream reached. splendidly and most happily so. onwards i go to the next one, then. and yes, as suggested above, further posts about the magnificence of Manchester to follow.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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