Select February 1998 Issue



Return Of The Super-Ape
Ian Brown resurface with 'Unfinished Monkey Business'



"So, 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, eh? Christ, where did he get that one from?" As he prepares to release his debut solo album, 'Unfinished Monkey Business', Ian Brown lets out an amused sigh and reflects on the tales that have done the rounds during his absence. No, the former Stone Roses frontman didn't embark on some biblical survivalist holiday, but he did spend time in Arabian climes. Indeed, the album cover features "holiday snapshots" taken by Brown's American girlfriend in Morocco.

"Yeah", explains Brown. "I did some DJing in Sweden and went down to Morocco. What was the most memorable thing? The Muslim call to prayer - it lifted me off my feet."

'Unfinished Monkey Business' is a "consciously lo-fi" record, produced by Brown and written mainly by him - with occasional assistance from John Squire's replacement in the Roses, Aziz Ibrahim. However, the way the album also features one track by Roses keyboardist Nigel Ipinnson ('Nah Nah'), plus the unearthed Brown/Mounfield/Wren Roses groove 'Can't See Me' emphasises the way the record skips across Brown's musical history. And, as well as several performances from new kid Simon Moore ("the best new drummer in Manchester," says Brown), Roses stickman Reni on drums on 'Can't See Me'.

Brown is pleased to relate that Reni's own solo album is going well, with the former drummer playing guitar and "singing with a good bit of Smokey Robinson". With the benefit of hindsight, he now traces The Stone Roses' demise to John Squire's dismissal of Reni's drumming skills.

"I remember when The Stone Roses were recording the 'One Love' single," he recalls. "John Squire said to me, 'Reni hasn't the ability to do this'. I couldn't believe it. That was the beginning of the end of The Stone Roses. After that, Reni was frozen out and John was off in his own world."

The title for Brown's solo album stems from misinformation given to a journalist by Dodgy drummer Matthew Priest - it was alleged that during the making of the Roses' 'Second Coming' album, Brown insisted on being called 'King Monkey'. However, the Brown album was almost called 'Under The Paving Stones The Beach', a reference to a Situationist slogan. The vocabulary of the '60s revolutionaries is also alluded to in the title of the 'Unfinished Monkey Business' song 'Corpses In Their Mouth'.

"The Situationists are my favourite philosophers," explains Brown. "I probably first heard about them through the Sex Pistols. I like the idea you could alter your destiny by affecting the events around you. The Roses lived that idea."

Brown plans to tour the album in the summer. He stresses that he's already working on the next album and that 'Unfinished Monkey Business' is very much a snapshot of his own learning process as an instrumentalist (Brown plays anything from guitar and drums to harmonica). Whatever, Brown is maintaining his Manc Zen cool. He knows that if it goes wrong, he has other career options. Prior to the album he had planned to work as a gardener.

"Everyone must till the earth at some point," he says. "I thought it'd be nice to earn a living looking after old folks' gardens - working with the soil reminds you of where you're from. Then I got the bug to make music again. Gardening'll have to wait."

Roy Wilkinson





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