By Gillian Ralph
When it was announced that Stone Roses had reformed music fans across the planet became delirious with delight. Formed back in the 1980s, this seminal Manchester group took off from where The Smiths left off and pushed the British indie music scene onto the next phase of its evolution.
The Stone Roses eponymous debut album wasn’t the only thing which catapulted them to the nation’s attention. Style-savvy lead singer Ian Brown took the baggie ‘Madchester’ vibe from the realm of the ravers into the mainstream.
Back in the early ‘90s the baggie look was all about the big jeans and big t-shirts of the US hip-hop scene. Acts like the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses took to the style with aplomb, but Brown, perhaps more than his contemporaries, chose to add a British edge to the look. This consisted of short cut military jackets, mod apparel and darker more mainstream colour tones. Gaunt and gangling, Brown’s memorable features added to the iconic look he helped create. His wasn’t a look for fat boys; it was a look for the lean, confident and culturally couth urban rascal. Still sporting similar garments today, the singer’s style has become a staple of the British High Street. Adidas trainers, paper thin box jacket, loose fitted t-shirt, combat belt and a good pair of jeans are everyday apparel today. It’s in no small part down to trendsetters like Brown, that these styles and cuts are going strong over twenty years since they started to saturate the market.
This summer The Stone Roses will be hitting the festival circuit for the first time in over a decade. And with each performance we can expect to see Ian Brown sporting the same sort of threads as he did the last time we saw his band play together. Some might call him a dinosaur. Maybe he is, but he’s an important one in
