Say It's Your Birthday: Stone Roses John Squire

Today is the birthday of John Squire, the guitarist for the Stone Roses, born on this day in 1962. Squire and his childhood friend, Ian Brown conceived the idea of the Stone Roses behind the Chemistry lab while they were still in Grammar school in Manchester. The proto-type for their eventual neo-psychedelic dance fusion was called the English Rose. The Rose tottered under it's own weight and collapsed in 1984, but Squire and Brown were still bent on constructing their own vision of rock and roll--a vision dreamt up after an adolescence spent listening to Beach Boys and Stones compilation records. The band drafted another childhood friend, Alan "Reni" Wren on drums, Andy Cousens on guitar, Peter Garner on bass (eventually replaced by John "Mani" Mountford) and put their feet upon the road that would lead to them being heralded by some as the most important English band of the '80s. The Roses came on the UK scene in one of those epochal moments, when it desperately needed a new Messiah who could return rock back to the glamour, power, and insanity of the past. This self-assured, ambitious band moved into the void and filled i the vacuum left by the fall of punk. They were as cocksure as Noel Gallagher in their hey day, claiming to all that would listen in 1989 that they would be massive. "How massive? The New Order aren't massive. Michael Jackson, that's massive. That's what we're aiming for." Unfortunately they never reached those heights, and instead hit the self-destruct button sometime after their last live show June 2, 1990 at Glasgow Green. They canceled their American tour soon afterward, with Ian Brown flippantly commenting that "America doesn't deserve us yet." Soon after, the Stone Roses went to court to get out of what they deemed a bogus contract with their record company Silvertone. After four months the Stone Roses won their case, signed with Geffen Records for millions, and took five years to record an album. When the irreverently titled Second Coming was finally released in December of 1994, fans found that it had been entirely written by Squire. (The first was written by both Brown and Squire.) Roses fans were sorely disappointed, claiming that it was a pale imitation of their magnificent debut. After six months the Roses began to tour in support of the record, but had to cancel dates because mountain bike enthusiast Squire broke his collar bone riding in the hills above San Francisco. The band is just about to embark on a long-promised UK tour, and are said to be planning to release a live album sometime next year. It is also the birthday of Bev Bevan (The Move/ELO), and Pete Best (The Beatles).