More about: The Stone Roses
Ian Brown personally asked for the band to open the gig
News of who would have the ultimate honour of supporting The Stone Roses at Wembley Stadium emerged yesterday and joining Blossoms and Sleaford Mods are The G-O-D. “Who?” you ask. Well that's fair question because The G-O-D aren’t a particularly well known group having been together just over a year. But the history of a couple of the band members make them far from an ordinary new band.
Drummer Si Wolstencroft is a bit of an icon, and rock ‘n’ roll CV’s don’t get much better than his. He was the first drummer in The Smiths and famously turned them down because he didn’t like Morrissey’s voice. He is known as Funky Si after Johnny Marr gave him the nick name and it stuck.
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But he didn’t dwell on them and was in The Fall from 1986 to 1997 which is just as cool. Being a childhood friend of Ian Brown and John Squire, Funky Si was also in a very early incarnation of The Stone Roses – we’re just scratching the surface here but we think you get the picture, it’s a great drummer to have in your band.
Meanwhile, singer/songwriter and founding member of G-O-D Chris Bridgett was the guitarist in post-punk band Dub Sex. In the late 80s his group was all the rage, and they landed four John Peel sessions and performed on local and national TV. However, their post punk /rock sound didn’t fit into the Madchester scene and commercial success alluded them.
Nevertheless, Bridgett tells Gigwise he still loved the Hacienda and was a tour hand with Happy Mondays for some time. Dub Sex remain an influential band, and stand the test of time with their sound evidently capturing the atmosphere of Manchester at its hedonistic best even if they didn’t have an Ibiza DJ come and spice things up.
In the years immediately following the first incarnation of Dub Sex, Bridgett left to Rude Club; it’s pop noir with a heavy punk rock edge. It was however short lived and in 1999 Bridgett stopped being in bands altogether. 14 years and a life spent raising family something changed: “I got asked to reform Dub Sex to do this show for a mate of mine who had died so we did that and I just got the hunger again and wanted to play again, ” says the singer.
However Dub Sex members proved difficult to pin down for a full time thing (although they do still do the occasional show) and the material he was writing slowly started to take on a life of its own and he formed The G-O-D after Funky Si (his first choice drummer) decided to join. In the first few months the band started off as a three piece with bassist Stuart Whitehead.
But with demand for their live shows increasing, Bridgett co-ordinated the expansion of the line-up: “I got Riven Seamarks on Keyboards taking it way from acoustic power trio thing that was going down and we’ve got two backing singers, Laura and Dee,” he says.
Now a six-piece the band are a hot live ticket and it’s no wonder Ian Brown has been so inclined to invite them on to one of the biggest stages in the world this summer. A quick listen to their debut three track EP Grafters Ov Denton and its shades of Iggy, Bowie, Buzzcocks, and Bolan – to name a few – will help you understand their quality, too.
For the EP the Bridgett has made accompanying videos and the visuals to ‘Drive Away The Rain’ and ‘There Goes My Baby’ are already out. Gigwise are pleased to introduce the third and final video from the EP to the second track ‘Just Looking’. It’s a beautifully styled performance video and you can watch it below.
The track is less glam rock than ‘There Goes My Baby’ and less electronically oriented than ‘Drive Away The Rain’. It starts with an Eels-esque arpeggio pattern on the guitar and a 60s keyboard sound adding colour to the background. But things don’t stay as sparse. It subtly builds in intensity and distorted guitar and echoing backing vocals fleshing out the sound of disaffected indie rockers wearing their hearts on their sleeve.
So how did this Stone Roses support slot come about? “Well, Ian (Brown) invited Si. He likes what we’re doing; it is good. I supported them when I was in Dub Sex twice before they exploded in 1990 and in 1997. I also did the first two shows with John Squire’s seahorses. So we go way back.”
It’s a refreshing change in approach to have such a new bad making such a big splash early no and it’s testament to the power of the Stone Roses being able to sell out the venue nearly instantly that they can do this. They don’t have to rely on other big names to shift tickets, and have the music they lov,e and that we love supporting them to make this summer’s gig one certainly not to miss.
The G-O-D play Wembley Stadium 17 June. Check here for ticket information.
Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.
More about: The Stone Roses
Photo: Press
