2. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
LG: I like to think of this as Lennon and Elvis, you know what I mean? Lennon wouldn’t have been there without Elvis and I wouldn’t be here without The Stone Roses. Ian Brown as a frontman had the look and he was cool as fuck. He was my Elvis. The first time I saw them, that was it! I thought, “I want that!” I’d heard our kid play ‘Sally Cinnamon’ round the house and I went to see them just before the album came out and it was like, “This is it, man! This is the next fucking step!” It was like growing up a bit and you’re thinking, “This is the band that’s going to guide me to chicks and being a cool young man.” You know what I mean? This was the album that was going to carry me through. They were my guiding star.
AB: I remember buying ‘Made Of Stone’ on 7” because of the sleeve and I knew just looking at it that it would be good. I bought it, took it home, played it and I thought it was great. And I liked ‘Going Down’, the B-side, much more than the A-side and that was my moment. I went to see them in Oxford and the Ally Pally and just loved them. It has a big effect on the early days of Ride. I was massively into John Squire. Before John Squire came along I was into Johnny Marr and that was very straight but John Squire had this whole other thing going on.
