Back in the day, Victoria Coren's dad, Alan, wrote a book of amusing prose and he titled it Golfing For Cats, with the cover graphic a swastika. At the time, the biggest selling books were about golf, cats and Nazis, so he figured he couldn't go wrong...
...Fast forward to the now and we have San Diego based Stones n' Roses; what they call "a blasphemous/genius combination of the Stone Roses, GnR and the Rolling Stones". They dress up as Guns n Roses, play Stone Roses covers and sprinkle it all with bits of Rolling Stones and GnR classics What could possibly go wrong?
"While audiences in the US have enjoyed watching a schizophonic singer switch between the moves of Jagger, Brown and Rose and hearing Welcome To The Jungle smash right into I Wanna Be Adored, the Roses songs are mostly lost on Americans" the band states, adding that there are precisely 28 Roses fans in California.
"When you live in California and play Stone Roses songs, there's only one thing to do" they insist "start swimming..."
They reckon the indie music motherland will "really get it" and so they arrive this month for their first ever tour of the UK, playing Manchester Zombie Shack on Friday 14th July, and the King's Arms in Salford on Saturday 15th July, as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival. And the band love the Salford connection...
"The Smiths are more popular in southern California than anywhere else in America, so the iconic photo of them in front of the Lads Club always made it a dream destination for me" singer Ian Brownstone told the Salford Star "We can't wait to pose under that sign....if they'll let us. As big as they were, I was shockingly more of a New Order guy in high school, so the connection was still unknowingly there. I never got to see the Mondays but I wore out Pills, Thrills and Bellyaches in college.
"The King's Arms is the very first venue outside of San Diego to have us" he adds "My jaw dropped when I saw photos of it. Hearing that Paul Heaton had once owned it made it all the more amazing for this Anglophile. Without the King's Arms and the Fringe Festival's acceptance, we never would've tried to make a tour out of this. We literally owe it all to Salford. You've obviously got great taste!"
With production advice from Stones Roses producer, John Leckie, and a front man called Ian Brownstone, there's sure to be an eager audience for the most ridiculous, yet somehow sublime, Stone Roses covers ever. Isn't there?
"Sometimes we piss off the purists" states the band "People stomp in crying 'Blasphemy', then stumble away gasping 'Brilliant'."
As Ian Brown himself once said, 'It's not where you're from, it's where you're at...' Fuck knows where this lot are at, but it's sure going to be one hell of a night down at the King's Arms...unmissable, we'd say!
Stones n' Roses
Saturday 15th July
King's Arms
Tickets £10 for more details and to book see GM Fringe website click here
To get a taste of Stones n' Roses see the YouTube videos click here and click here
See also the website www.stonesnroses.com
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