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“Every time you make a record you want it to be the best record of all time” says John Leckie “Of course I didn’t think it would be after all these years, but we were going for something special, something spectacular.”
Constantly and consistently named as one of the most important British albums of all time, The Stone Roses and their eponymous debut need no introductions. Even in 1998 when Geoff Travis, keen on signing them to Rough Trade, sent John Leckie their demo tape, they stood out from a crowd of bands desperate for attention as the prolific producer explains to Gigwise
“What struck me was the songs; Waterfall, She Bangs The Drums, I Wanna Be Adored. The blend of instruments, the way the band supports the voice, the sounds of the guitar, the rhythm, that’s what really got me”
With two singles and a strong following to their name Rough Trade weren’t the only label to show interest. Their first and most notable signing, Silvertone snapped them up and subsequently approached Leckie, who still impressed with the demo met the band in rehearsals at Manchesters International 1 club before entering the studio with the four young Mancunians.
“You could say there was no leader in the studio, they were pretty democratic. Ian was very much the vibe person and he had all of these lyrics finished. A lot of bands that you work with often havent finished writing the songs, but with the Roses everything was written, they just needed rearranging, shortening and maybe introductions working out”
Recorded over a prolonged fiftyfive day period between Battery and Konk Studios in London and Rockfield Studios in Wales the sessions were an enjoyable mix of confident ambition and fun.
“It was never serious, it was never intense and there was always a party atmosphere” recalls Leckie with fondness “None of the band really drank, they’d smoke a bit of weed, but there was no hard stuff there. No one else was in the studio except the people concerned, no friends, no girlfriends, no groupies, no hangers on, so it was quite focused. We knew it was gonna start with Wanna Be Adored and end with Resurrection and that’s how it fell into place. When we finished Resurrection at Rockfield, that’s when I felt satisfied that we’d achieved something really special, I thought yes this is good”
More than good, demand for and interest in The Stone Roses has continued despite the bands demise and twenty years on its original producer to mark the anniversary year of its initial release has remastered the seminal album.
“Its like old silver, sometimes you have to get a bit of cloth on it and give it a rub down, nothings really changed its just been polished up a bit” says Leckie “It was great to hear it and realise what we’d put into it, you just sort of forget. People have asked me about the sounds at the beginning on the fade up of Wanna Be Adored and I can’t remember. I remember we had some synthesizer in the studio that someone had left behind and I started fiddling with it and John would do like ten minutes of wailing guitar feedback really loud and screaming but we’d mix it very quietly in the background and with reverb it sounds like something very different”
As well as the original tracklisting the reissue contains, among other extras, a disc of lost demos and the previously unreleased ‘Pearl Bastard’. But with little unreleased material in existence for Leckie its all about the detail.
“One of the things the mastering has brought out is a lot of the different detail, little things like before the tracks start sometimes people say something or someone sneezes or trips over and that triggers a little sound so all those little things are in there”
With rumours of a Stone Roses reunion quashed by John Squire’s public refusal to desecrate the grave of his former band, Mani’s commitments with Primal Scream and Reni’s low profile, its hardly surprising that despite an open invitation for all to participate in the remastering sessions, a studio get-together didn’t occur.
“They were all invited but only Ian turned up so he felt a little sad, there was a tear in his eye I think rather than a spark. Being in a band is a bit of a love affair so it’s a little bit like asking a man to go back to the wife he’s just divorced. No one would want them to get back together and fail”
The band might not have stood the test of time but the album has and if anyone knows the secret to its successful longevity it has to be the producer who helped shape its iconic sound… or so you’d think.
“I don’t know” admits Leckie “It was the summer of love, it’s a psychedelic love record and that should last forever”
Stone Roses photos: Ian Tilton
