Liam Gallagher on The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989)

My older brothers were ahead of me with The Jam, but I was the one who discovered the Stone Roses. Hell knows what would have become of me without this record. It’s not only the soundtrack of my youth, it IS my youth: beautiful, sun-kissed pop songs with guitars.

The Stone Roses was released in spring, but I can still remember the unusually beautiful weather we had in England at the time. That fit because there couldn’t be a better summer album. Of course, the album also got promoted cleverly. Even when nobody had heard it yet, everyone was talking about the Stone Roses and their drummer, who was supposed to be superb and looked like an alien.

At parties it was always the same back then: I arrived, walked straight to the turntable, pulled down whatever record was spinning and put on The Stone Roses. Then my friends and I formed a semicircle around the turntable, we allowed nobody to get too close to it, and whoever wanted to put on another album got into trouble. That might have been a bit rigorous, but you have to keep in mind that everything else sounded shit back then. I know I always say that, but that’s how it was. I’ve always seen things black and white. The Smiths? Sounded perfumed to me. But then the Stones came and everything changed. With Beady Eye we did the support for some Stone Roses reunion shows in 2011. We had a glorious men’s trip with them. Like a bachelor party without bachelors.

by Liam Gallagher

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