Press
The Stone Roses
1990

full text (at last...)
The night they stormed Paris
MOBS of lads spilled through the streets of Paris last Saturday eve¬ning, chanting "Manchester, la, la, la."
Loud as Britain's periodical export of football faithfuls, they were jubilantly drunk, and ridicu¬lously dressed in flares and long-sleeved T-shirts. Without them, their home city must have been as empty as The Arndale on Christmas Day.
What was it all about? Well, this was the night The Stone Roses stormed Paris. The culmination of a European tour that was both riotous and prestigious, it was a spectacular final encore.
The performance at Amster¬dam's Melkweg the previous eve¬ning was insane enough, but Paris was the most extreme moment of The Roses' career yet.
Imagine the scene. La Cigale, a circular continental venue, some¬thing like The Apollo, except smarter and more intimate, Here, Manchester's scruffy, yobbish
youngsters outnumbered the smart, cravat-wearing locals by at least two to one!
Felt, The Chills and Liverpool's The La's warmed the atmosphere before The Roses truly set it alight. The La's and The Stone Roses may both be denim-wearing Sixties-influenced bands from The North of England, but they couldn't be more different.
The La's captured the taut, small sound of an R & B pub act, tightly hugging guitars to their chests and plucking at the strings. The awesome panache of their set was soon forgotten when Ian Brown and Co blasted them away with huge psychedelic melodies and even a few new songs.
Whistles were blown and bodies slammed into each other in reck¬less dancing displays, before half the audience were sent scurrying to the exit with the explosion of a tear-gas canister. Meanwhile, out¬side there was even more madness, for Manchester had not only exported its music, but also a con¬voy of bootleg T-shirt sellers and ticket touts.
Mancunian fans travelled for, on average, 15 hours by coach, car, plane and train just to be there. All part of a growing fanatical following which even encompassed fanzines devoted to the band, like Until The Sky Turns Green and Made Of Paper.
These have proved such big sellers that Tim, Made of Paper's exuberant editor, says that people have even gone to the extreme of bootlegging his magazine! A new issue is promised when The Roses make London's Alexandra Palace on November 18,
In Paris, the fans were certainly determined to enjoy themselves. Many had been drinking since joining cross-Channel ferries up to 24 hours earlier, and revelled in the Paris red light culture. T-shirts proclaiming such slogans as "Then God Created MANchester" and "Born In The North" were much in evidence.
"There are only two good things to come out of London," exclaimed one Mancunian called Cess, as we hit the homeward leg. "The Ml an Oliver Cromwell!" Bristling with Manchester pride, Cess organised one of the coach trips. He called it The Cess X-Press! For those with the stamina, he promises an even wilder adventure when Happy Mondays hit Europe in November.
"The Manchester vibe is taking over the area of Europe," he pro¬claims. After last weekend you can't help but agree with him!