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Ian George Brown (born February 20, 1963) is an English musician and former lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses. Since the band's acrimonious and prolonged break up in 1996, Brown has released five solo albums. He has appeared on several club tours and has performed at the Glastonbury Festival three times since 1998

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[edit] Early life

Brown was born in Warrington, Cheshire in 1963.

His father, George, was a joiner and his mother Jean worked in a paper factory. Brown's family moved when he was young and he grew up in Timperley, Greater Manchester, along with his brother and sister, as a karate-obsessed admirer of Muhammed Ali, George Best and Bruce Lee. He was educated at Altrincham Grammar School For Boys.

His active interest in music was inspired by the originators of punk, specificially the Sex Pistols, but also the likes of Angelic Upstarts, local band Slaughter and the Dogs and The Clash (he and original Stone Roses bassist Pete Garner attended the recording of the single "Bankrobber" in Manchester). The first gig Brown attended was however a Joy Division gig at Bowdon Vale Youth Club in 1978.

He shared his musical interests with friend John Squire, who lived on the same street; the pair attended northern soul "all-nighters" across the north of England in the late 70s and early 80s as the scene faded. Brown joined Squire's band The Patrol on bass before it evolved into Garage Flower, whilst Jason Livesey was playing lead guitar at the time; they became The Stone Roses in 1984. Around this time, Brown met one of his idols, soul legend Geno Washington, who told him, "You're a star. You're an actor. Be a singer."

[edit] Musical career

Allegedly nicknamed "King Monkey" by Dodgy's drummer Mathew Priest ^[1], Brown is noted for his wispy, raspy, and throaty singing style. Particularly live, he is not the most technically sound singer; some critics have compared his delivery to "a man shouting into a bucket".^{[citation needed]} However, others have described his voice as pure and angelic based on his singing on his debut album with The Stone Roses. It is his delivery of the lyrics, enormous charisma and stage presence that make him stand out.

In his solo career, Brown has worked with many notable musicians including UNKLE (providing vocals to the instrumental "Unreal", apparently the first ever instrumental with vocals, which was released as "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. Brown 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.

In 2002, Q magazine named Ian Brown in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die", although this was part of a sub-list of "5 Bands That Could Go Either Way".

Brown has had several run-ins with the law. In 1998, he was sentenced to 4 months in jail for air rage, after a threatening of a stewardess with plastic cutlery, offering to cut her hands off on a flight. This demonstration that the title of 'punk' was well-earned, resulted in a spate of (presumably) ironic "Free Ian Brown" graffiti in and around Manchester. Most of his sentence was served at Strangeways jail. In an interview with Dave Haslam he claimed "I saw more drugs in a couple of months in Strangeways than in the whole of the rest of my lifetime." ^[2]

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

He undertook a sell out UK tour in 2005, including selling out the 16,000 capacity Manchester Evening News Arena on 3 December 2005 and visited Australia (Falls Festival, Southbound Festival, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne) in 2006.

Since the demise of the Roses, Brown has stayed in touch with some of the former members. He has performed 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". Although Reni maintains that this was in fact a drum machine and not his good self.

Brown has also worked with Aziz Ibrahim (who regularly acts as the support act at Brown's gigs), Nigel Ippinson and Robbie Maddix, who all performed with the Roses on their ill-fated 1996 summer tour which included the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim in Spain and the now infamous Reading Festival performance.

In the 2006 NME awards, Brown was presented with the "Godlike Genius" award. He said that as well as his work with the Stone Roses, he considered the track "F.E.A.R." to be one of his moments of genius.

In October 2006, Brown made a surprising move to headline the Rockit Hong Kong Music Festival held outdoors in Victoria Park HK. During the two-day event and prior to his appearance on stage he strolled around anonymously and mingled with members of the crowd. His eventual stage performance was hailed by the South China Morning Post and other local newspapers as a great success.

[edit] Relationship with John Squire

Brown has had no contact with his former song writing partner and childhood best friend John Squire. Brown's key reason for the band not reforming is his lack of contact with Squire along with Squire's cocaine abuse and their differing musical tastes. In a 2004 interview with Q magazine, Squire went as far as branding Brown as a "tuneless knob", although this was taken out of context by some members of the press as it referred to Brown during the recording of the Stone Roses' second album, Second Coming due to his large in-take of cannabis.

Squire has once contacted Brown since the demise of the Roses. When Brown was in jail before Christmas 1998 for air rage, Squire sent Brown a box of Maltesers (as this was the gift that they traditionally exchanged in their youth at Christmas) with a note reading "I Still Love You". Whilst Brown was released just before Christmas and did not directly contact Squire afterwards, he is said to have been touched by the gesture.

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.

In June 2007 John Squire said he wouldn't reform the Roses even if Ian Brown phoned him up personally. ^[3]

[edit] Personal life

Brown and his Mexican wife Fabiola Quiroz Brown have one son, Emilio. The family currently resides in Holland Park, London and also have a house in Lymm, near Warrington in Cheshire. He has two older sons, Frankie and Casey from a previous relationship.

Brown has been a fan of Manchester United football club since boyhood, although in an issue of United We Stand Mani claimed he rarely went, although he now has a season ticket in K Stand. He did however request that his NME "Godlike Genius" award was presented by one of the club's treble winning side of 1999, Teddy Sheringham.