Ian Brown
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| Ian Brown | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ian George Brown |
| Also known as | King Monkey |
| Born | 20 February 1963 Warrington, England |
| Origin | Manchester |
| Genres | Madchester Alternative rock Indie rock |
| Occupations | Musician, Songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, Keyboards |
| Years active | 1984 - 1996, 1998 - present |
| Labels | Polydor/Fiction Records (UK) Interscope, E1 Music (US) |
| Associated acts | The Stone Roses, UNKLE |
| Website | http://www.ianbrown.co.uk/ http://www.myspace.com/ianbrown/ |
Ian George Brown (born 20 February 1963 in Manchester [1]) is an English musician and former lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneering members of the Madchester scene.
Since the band's break up in 1996, Brown has released six solo albums and fourteen UK top 40 singles. He has sold out six UK tours, and appeared three times at Glastonbury including headlining The Other Stage in 2005, where he wore an Ethiopian Adidas jacket given to him by the marathon runner, Haile Gebrselassie. And since 1998, he has appeared five times at V festival, the most of any artist. Brown has also regularly appeared at T in The Park and Oxegen festivals.
Brown is widely considered to be a very influential artist, as well as an enduring indie cult icon. His work from his early Stone Roses days, to the present day have provided inspiration for numerous hugely popular indie groups today.[2] Oasis frontmen Liam and Noel Gallagher have cited on numerous occasions Ian's influence on the band, with Noel Gallagher recently quoting Brown's lyrics from Stone Roses track 'She Bangs the Drums' as 'my inspiration' for a recent HMV poster campaign. Sheffield indie icons Arctic Monkeys have also cited Brown as one of their biggest and most important influences, and have claimed that he is their "musical hero".
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[edit] Early life
Brown was born in Warrington General Hospital in 1963. His father, George, was a joiner and his mother Jean worked as a receptionist in a paper factory. Brown's family moved when he was young and he grew up in Timperley near Altrincham, along with his brother and sister, as a karate-obsessed admirer of Muhammad Ali, George Best and Bruce Lee. He was educated at Park Road County Primary Infant and Junior School and then Altrincham Grammar School For Boys.
His active interest in music was inspired by the originators of punk, specifically the Sex Pistols, but also the likes of Angelic Upstarts, local band Slaughter and the Dogs and The Clash (he and original Stone Roses bassist Pete Garner attended the recording of the single "Bankrobber" in Manchester) as he explained in John Robb's definitive biography of the band 'The Stone Roses And the Reserrection Of British Pop' (Ebury Books) John Robb
Brown attended northern soul "all-nighters" across the north of England in the late 70s and early 80s as the scene faded. From around this time, Brown met one of his idols, soul legend Geno Washington, who told him, "You're a star."
[edit] Musical career
Allegedly nicknamed "King Monkey" by Dodgy's drummer Mathew Priest,[3][4] It is his delivery of lyrics, enormous charisma and stage presence that make him stand out.
In his solo career, Brown has worked with many notable musicians including UNKLE (adding vocals to the instrumental album track "Unreal", for its release as the single "Be There" and sings the vocals on the "Reign" single, released in 2004) and Oasis' Noel Gallagher. Previously, he acted as a mentor to the up-and-coming British band, South.
Brown appeared in a cameo role in the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The singer became good friends with the movie's Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, who has personally promised to direct one of Brown's future music videos. Brown took only the standard extras fee of £200 for appearing in the film.
In 2002, Q magazine named Ian Brown in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".
Brown was asked to design Adidas Superstars for the 35th anniversary in 2005. He has played two sell out tours in Australia, four appearances at Fuji Festival Japan and four tours of Japan, headlined the Rocket Festival in Hong Kong and appeared in Moscow and his song On Track features in the Russian movie Paragraph 78. He also played shows in New Zealand, Mexico City, Argentina, Chile, Thailand, Spain, France, Italy, Amsterdam, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, Serbia, New York, Los Angeles, Canada, Dubai and many more. He sold out the 16,000 capacity Manchester Evening News Arena on 3 December 2005 and two nights at Manchester Central in 2007 and sold out Brixton Academy 11 times as a solo artist.
Brown has had several run-ins with the law. In 1998, he was sentenced to 4 months after a threatening of a stewardess with plastic cutlery, offering to cut her hands off on a flight. This demonstration that the title of 'punk' was well-earned, resulted in a spate of "Free Ian Brown" graffiti in and around Manchester. Most of his sentence was served at Strangeways jail. In an interview with Dave Haslam he claimed "I saw more rocks in a couple of months in Strangeways than in the whole of the rest of my lifetime."[5]
In 2005, he was arrested for assault during a San Francisco gig, but no charges were brought.
Since the demise of the Roses, Brown has stayed in touch with some of the former members. He has performed with bassist Mani and remains friends with drummer Reni. Both Reni and Mani contributed to the track "Can't See Me" on Brown's debut album "Unfinished Monkey Business".
At the 2006 NME awards, Brown was presented with the "Godlike Genius" award and in 2007 was given the Q "Legend" Award.
In October 2006, Brown made a surprising move to headline the Rockit Hong Kong Music Festival held outdoors in Victoria Park HK. His eventual stage performance was hailed by the South China Morning Post and other local newspapers as a great success.
In September 2007, Brown released his fifth studio album, The World Is Yours. The album represented a more political approach in his music, particularly the anti-war single, Illegal Attacks, featuring Sinead O'Connor.
On 13 June 2008, Ian was dragged from the stage by a member of the crowd whilst performing at Sheffield's Carling Academy, hitting his head on the concrete floor. He was rushed to hospital where he received 10 stitches to a head wound, but was well enough to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival the following night as a special guest for the Sex Pistols.
Brown announced via Myspace in December 2008 that he is writing songs with Dave McCracken (co-writer of F.E.A.R. and Dolphins Were Monkeys) and that he plans to record his new album in Japan in March 2009, with an expected release date of 28 September 2009. On the 30th March, it was announced he would be playing at Reading festival on Saturday 29 August and Leeds festival on Friday 28 August, 2009.
On July 21 2009 Brown announced via NME that his sixth solo album would be titled My Way; it was released on 28 September 2009. Brown explained that the album was inspired by Michael Jackson's Thriller: "'Thriller' was our blueprint. Every time we wrote a song we didn't think was strong enough, we scrapped it. We mastered it on the day that Michael Jackson died too, so I'm taking that as a good omen." 'My Way' was recorded at London's Battery Studios with producer Dave McCracken; the first single, "Stellify", was released September 21 2009.
[edit] Awards and Achievements
He has won numerous awards in his career, in recognition of his work as a solo artist and his work with The Stone Roses. The awards he has won are as follow:
- 1997 The Stone Roses reached #05 in The Guardian '100 Best Albums Ever'
- 1998 The Stone Roses reached #04 in Q Magazine '100 Best Albums Ever'
- 2004 The Stone Roses reached #01 in The Observer '100 Best British Albums Ever'
- 2006 The Stone Roses reached #01 in NME Magazine Writers '100 Best British Albums Ever'
- 2006 The Stone Roses reached #07 in NME Magazine Fans '100 Best Albums Ever'
- 2002 Muso Best Single (Whispers)
- 2002 NME Best Solo Artist
- 2006 NME Godlike Genius Award
- 2007 Q Legend Award
- 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009 Nominated best British solo artist Brit Awards
[edit] Influence
Ian Brown has provided influence for many hugely popular bands. Oasis frontmen Liam and Noel Gallagher have stated on several occasions that Ian Brown is their main inspiration for their band. Arctic Monkeys have cited that Brown is their 'musical hero'. Other bands influenced by Ian Brown/The Stone Roses are The Verve, The Charlatans, Coldplay, Lupe Fiasco, Stereophonics, Suede and The Bluetones.
Liam Gallagher of English rock band Oasis, and Tim Burgess of the English band The Charlatans have, in particular, visibly been influenced by Ian's physical appearance in the days of the Stone Roses. Both have, at some stage, sported replicas of Ian Brown's characteristic long, shaggy haircut, and have worn clothing on stage in similar fashion to what Ian would have worn on tour with the Stone Roses, particularly Adidas trainers and tracksuits. Many hardcore Stone Roses fans have in the past labelled both stars as 'Ian Brown impersonators' on social networking sites and message boards due to the unmistakable resemblance at times between the three. Said Noel Gallagher of Oasis, when remarking on his initial thoughts on seeing the Stone Roses for the first time in (now defunct) Manchester club The Haçienda "That's what we [Oasis] want to look like" [6]
In September 2005 Ian appeared to rule out a Stone Roses reunion saying "there's more chance of me reforming the Happy Mondays than the Roses". Happy Mondays in fact have reformed, but yet Brown appears pessimistic about a likelihood of any reunion.
[edit] Soundtracks
Brown's music has been used frequently in the CSI television series franchises. In CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Episode: 319 - A Night at the Movies, Brown's "F.E.A.R" is played when Sara is searching the warehouse and goes outside to look for evidence. In Episode: 414 - Suckers, "Set My Baby Free" is played when Nick is creating a photofit of the thief.
In CSI: Miami, Episode 116, Evidence of Things Unseen, "Forever and a Day" is heard at end of the episode while Horatio talks to a stripper.
In episode 3.16 of the BBC drama Waterloo Road it is played at the end of the episode.
Also, in iconic British soap "Eastenders", the character of 'Garry Hobbs' is often noted as a Stone Roses fan, with the soap using numerous Roses songs in his storylines, most recently 'I am the Resurrection' in the episode which saw the character apparently return from his death
[edit] Discography
Listed are chart positions for the United Kingdom.
[edit] Albums
- Studio
- Unfinished Monkey Business (1998) #4
- Golden Greats (1999) #14
- Music of the Spheres (2001) #3
- Solarized (2004) #7
- The World Is Yours (2007) #4
- My Way (2009) #8
- Remix
- Remixes of the Spheres (2002) #87
- Compilation
Under The Influence (2004)
- The Greatest (2005) #5
The Greatest Promos (2005)
[edit] Singles
- "My Star" (1998) #5
- "Corpses in Their Mouths" (1998) #14
- "Can't See Me" (1998) #21
- "Be There" (1999) #8
- "Love Like a Fountain" (1999) #23
- "Dolphins Were Monkeys" (2000) #5
- "Golden Gaze" (2000) #29
- "F.E.A.R." (2001) #13,
- "Whispers" (2002) #33
- "Keep What Ya Got" feat. Noel Gallagher (2004) #18
- "Reign" (2004) #40 – UNKLE feat. Brown
- "Time Is My Everything" (2005) #15
- "All Ablaze" (2005) #20
- "Illegal Attacks" feat. Sinéad O'Connor (2007) #16
- "Sister Rose" (2007) #87
- "Stellify" (2009) GBUM70909308 #31
[edit] Sound samples
- Download sample of Brown covering Bob Marley's "Redemption Song"
[edit] References
- ^ Larkin, Colin (ed.) (1998) The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave, Virgin Books, ISBN 0 7535 0231 3
- ^ [1]
- ^ Biography, Internet Movie Database
- ^ Biography, JamBase
- ^ Dave Haslam, Author and DJ - Official Site
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg3xYzX_bQs
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Official website celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Stone Roses' debut album
- Behind the scenes of Stellify music video
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