On June 9th, 1990, The Stone Roses played at Glasgow Green in what would be their last live performance for almost five years. Many fans even refer to this as their final concert, disregarding everything the Roses would do afterwards.

In 1993, the Roses’ new label, Geffen Records, was growing impatient with the Roses lack of output. They finally demanded that Roses finish their second album or risk being dropped from the label. This prompted the lads to start working. Unfortunately, their return to the studio would not be as productive as their previous sessions. Unlike their debut album, which was recorded at lightning speed, the recording of their sophomore attempt proved to be a long and tortuous process. All of the Roses had recently become fathers which had changed their priorities and strained the writing partnership between Ian Brown and John Squire as the two began to spend less time together. Producer John Leckie had also cut ties with the band during their extended hiatus, so any product they released was bound to sound different from their past works.

In November 1994, the Roses finally released their long-awaited comeback single: “Love Spreads”. The new song was the first track released by the Roses to not feature any writing input from Brown; it was written entirely by Squire. The song became the band’s highest charting single, peaking at number two on the UK Charts. The chart success of the song did not reflect popular opinion though. Hype for the Roses return to the music world was so great in 1994 that they could have released a ten minute recording of Mani farting into a microphone overlaid with Reni shouting racial epithets and it still would have at least cracked the top ten. Although it would go on to receive greater appreciation in later years, many were initially turned off by the song’s departure from the band’s original sound.

While “Love Spreads” retained the dance inspired drum beats the Roses had become known for, the guitar in the song was markedly different from the soft playing of shoegaze tracks like “I Wanna Be Adored”. “Love Spreads” was the band’s most guitar heavy song to date, with Squire abandoning his 60s jangle pop inspired style in favor of a more harsh hard rock sound. To me, it sounds amazing, but I can see how the song might have disappointed 1994 audiences who were expecting the next “Fool’s Gold”.

The following month, the Roses would release their second album, Second Coming. The album would continue to display the fractured partnership between Brown and Squire, as nine of the 13 songs on the album would be written solely by Squire. Only one song, “Begging You”, would be credited to both Brown and Squire.

Second Coming proved to be an even greater disappointment than “Love Spreads”. The album’s Led Zeppelin inspired sound failed to capture the hearts of audiences and fell out of the UK Charts top ten after the first week and never returned.

After the release of Second Coming, the Roses embarked on a worldwide tour that would ultimately kill the band. Before the tour even began, Reni quit the band after a series of arguments with Brown. Roughly a year later, Squire would leave as well. After a disastrous performance at the 1996 Reading Festival in which Brown’s singing was described as “so off-key it was excruciating to have to listen to”, The Stone Roses finally disbanded in October of that year.

Reni would leave the music business after the split while the other three members would go on to pursue other projects. Mani would become the new bassist for Primal Scream and Squire attempted to form a new band, The Seahorses, which lasted only three years before breaking up. Brown had the most successful post-Roses life, beginning a career as a solo artist that would spawn 15 top-40 UK Singles.

Next week, for my final post I will be discussing the Roses’ 2011 reunion and their two 2016 singles: “All for One” and “Beautiful Thing”.

The Stone Roses | Second Coming