Ian Brown

Ian Brown
Background information
Birth name	Ian George Brown
Also known as	King Monkey
Born	20 February 1963 (1963-02-20) (age 46) Warrington, England
Origin	Timperley, Cheshire, England
Genres	Madchester Alternative rock Indie rock
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, Keyboards
Years active	1984 - 1996, 1998 - present
Labels	Polydor/Fiction Records (UK) Interscope, E1 Music (US)
Associated acts	The Stone Roses, UNKLE
Website	http://www.ianbrown.co.uk/ http://www.myspace.com/ianbrown/

Ian George Brown (born 20 February 1963 in Warrington ^[1]) is an English musician, best known as the former lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses. Since the break up of the Stone Roses has pursued a successful solo career releasing several top 10 solo albums. His latest studio album My Way was released on September 28, 2009.

Early life

Brown was born in Warrington General Hospital in 1963. His father, George, was a joiner and his mother Jean worked as a receptionist in a paper factory. Brown's family moved when he was young and he grew up in Timperley near Altrincham, along with his brother and sister, as a karate-obsessed admirer of Muhammad Ali, George Best and Bruce Lee. He was educated at Park Road County Primary Infant and Junior School and then Altrincham Grammar School For Boys.

His interest in music was inspired by the punk movement, specifically the bands The Sex Pistols, The Clash and Manchester band Slaughter and the Dogs. Brown and original Stone Roses bassist Pete Garner attended the recording of the Clash single "Bankrobber" in Manchester as he explained in John Robb's definitive biography of the band 'The Stone Roses And the Resurrection Of British Pop' (Ebury Books) John Robb

Brown attended northern soul "all-nighters" across the north of England in the late 70s and early 80s as the scene faded. Around this time, Brown met soul legend Geno Washington, who allegedly told him, "You're a star."

Musical career

Since the break up of the Stone Roses in 1996, Brown has released six solo albums and fourteen UK top 40 singles. He has sold out six UK tours, and appeared three times at Glastonbury including headlining The Other Stage in 2005, where he wore an Ethiopian Adidas jacket given to him by the marathon runner, Haile Gebrselassie. And since 1998, he has appeared five times at V festival, the most of any artist. Brown has also regularly appeared at T in The Park and Oxegen festivals.

Solo, Brown has worked with many notable musicians including UNKLE (adding vocals to the instrumental album track "Unreal", for its release as the single "Be There" and sings the vocals on the "Reign" single, released in 2004) and Oasis' Noel Gallagher. Previously, he acted as a mentor to the up-and-coming British band, South.

Ian Brown at the Witnness festival in Ireland in 2002

He has played two sell out tours in Australia, four appearances at Fuji Festival Japan and four tours of Japan, headlined the Rocket Festival in Hong Kong and appeared in Moscow and his song On Track features in the Russian movie Paragraph 78. He also played shows in New Zealand, Mexico City, Argentina, Chile, Thailand, Spain, France, Italy, Amsterdam, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, Serbia, New York, Los Angeles, Canada, Dubai and many more. He sold out the 16,000 capacity Manchester Evening News Arena on 3 December 2005 and two nights at Manchester Central in 2007 and sold out Brixton Academy 11 times as a solo artist.

In September 2005 Ian appeared to rule out a Stone Roses reunion saying "there's more chance of me reforming the Happy Mondays than the Roses". Happy Mondays in fact have reformed, but yet Brown appears pessimistic about a likelihood of any reunion.

At the 2006 NME awards, Brown was presented with the "Godlike Genius" award and in 2007 was given the Q "Legend" Award.

In September 2007, Brown released his fifth studio album, The World Is Yours. The album represented a more political approach in his music, particularly the anti-war single, Illegal Attacks, featuring Sinead O'Connor.

On 21 July 2009, Brown announced via NME that his sixth solo album would be titled My Way; it was released on 28 September 2009. Brown explained that the album was inspired by Michael Jackson's Thriller: "'Thriller' was our blueprint. Every time we wrote a song we didn't think was strong enough, we scrapped it. We mastered it on the day that Michael Jackson died too, so I'm taking that as a good omen." 'My Way' was recorded at London's Battery Studios with producer Dave McCracken; the first single, "Stellify", was released 21 September 2009.

Personal Life

Brown is reported to have been nicknamed "King Monkey" by Dodgy's drummer Mathew Priest.^[2][3]

Brown has had several run-ins with the law. In 1998, he was sentenced to 4 months after a threatening of a stewardess with plastic cutlery, offering to cut her hands off on a flight. Most of his sentence was served at Strangeways jail. In an interview with Dave Haslam he claimed "I saw more rocks in a couple of months in Strangeways than in the whole of the rest of my lifetime."^[4]

In 2005, he was arrested for assault during a San Francisco gig, but no charges were brought.

On 13 June 2008, Ian was dragged from the stage by a member of the crowd whilst performing at Sheffield's Carling Academy, hitting his head on the concrete floor. He was rushed to hospital where he received 10 stitches to a head wound, but was well enough to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival the following night as a special guest for the Sex Pistols.

In November 2009 Brown was arrested at his West Kensington home following an alleged attack on his wife^[5].

Brown was asked to design Adidas Superstars for the 35th anniversary in 2005 AND appeared in a cameo role in the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The singer became good friends with the movie's Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, who has personally promised to direct one of Brown's future music videos. Brown took only the standard extras fee of £200 for appearing in the film.

Since the demise of the Roses, Brown has stayed in touch with some of the former members. He has performed live with bassist Mani and remains friends with drummer Reni. Both Reni and Mani contributed to the track "Can't See Me" on Brown's debut album "Unfinished Monkey Business".

Awards and Achievements

He has won numerous awards in his career, in recognition of his work as a solo artist and his work with The Stone Roses. The awards he has won are as follow:

• 1997 The Stone Roses reached #05 in The Guardian '100 Best Albums Ever'
• 1998 The Stone Roses reached #04 in Q Magazine '100 Best Albums Ever'
• 2004 The Stone Roses reached #01 in The Observer '100 Best British Albums Ever'
• 2006 The Stone Roses reached #01 in NME Magazine Writers '100 Best British Albums Ever'
• 2006 The Stone Roses reached #07 in NME Magazine Fans '100 Best Albums Ever'

• 2002 Muso Best Single (Whispers)
• 2002 NME Best Solo Artist
• 2006 NME Godlike Genius Award
• 2007 Q Legend Award
• 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009 Nominated best British solo artist Brit Awards

Influence

Brown's work with the Stone Roses, has provided inspiration for numerous bands.^[6] Oasis frontmen Liam and Noel Gallagher have cited on numerous occasions the Stone Roses' and Ian's influence on the band. Noel recently quoting lyrics from Stone Roses track 'She Bangs the Drums' as 'my inspiration' for a recent HMV poster campaign and remarking on his initial thoughts on seeing the Stone Roses for the first time in (now defunct) Manchester club The Haçienda "That's what we [Oasis] want to look like" ^[7] Arctic Monkeys have cited that Brown is their 'musical hero'. Other bands influenced by Ian Brown/The Stone Roses are The Verve, The Charlatans, Kasabian, Coldplay and The Bluetones.

Liam Gallagher and Tim Burgess of The Charlatans have been influenced by Ian's physical appearance in the days of the Stone Roses. Both have, at some stage, sported replicas of Ian Brown's characteristic long, shaggy haircut, and have worn clothing on stage in similar fashion to what Ian would have worn on tour with the Stone Roses, particularly Adidas trainers and tracksuits.

Discography

Listed are chart positions for the United Kingdom.

Albums

Studio

• Unfinished Monkey Business (1998) #4
• Golden Greats (1999) #14
• Music of the Spheres (2001) #3
• Solarized (2004) #7
• The World Is Yours (2007) #4
• My Way (2009) #8

Remix

• Remixes of the Spheres (2002) #87

Compilation

Under The Influence (2004)

• The Greatest (2005) #5

The Greatest Promos (2005)

Singles

• "My Star" (1998) #5
• "Corpses in Their Mouths" (1998) #14
• "Can't See Me" (1998) #21
• "Be There" (1999) #8
• "Love Like a Fountain" (1999) #23
• "Dolphins Were Monkeys" (2000) #5
• "Golden Gaze" (2000) #29
• "F.E.A.R." (2001) #13,
• "Whispers" (2002) #33
• "Keep What Ya Got" feat. Noel Gallagher (2004) #18
• "Reign" (2004) #40 – UNKLE feat. Brown
• "Time Is My Everything" (2005) #15
• "All Ablaze" (2005) #20
• "Illegal Attacks" feat. Sinéad O'Connor (2007) #16
• "Sister Rose" (2007) #87
• "Stellify" (2009) GBUM70909308 #31
• "Just Like You" (2009) #137

References

External links

• Official site
• Official website celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Stone Roses' debut album
• Behind the scenes of Stellify music video