M = Media
N = News
RS = Radio Session
TV = Television Appearance
Ian Brown = Release

M - January 1997 - The Stone Roses feature in Q Magazine
Notes: See The Stone Roses 1996 Media for the article, Q Magazine Stories.

20 February 1997 - Ian Brown's 34th birthday

The Stone Roses - 26 February 1997 - Garage Flower Japanese Release Date
Notes: Garage Flower Records. CD CTCZ-30001, Y2,300 Yen.
The Stone Roses - 26 February 1997 - The Stone Roses Japanese Re-release Date
Notes: CD CTCZ-30052 , Y1,600 Yen.
The Stone Roses - 26 February 1997 - Turns Into Stone Japanese Re-release Date
Notes: CD CTCZ- 30003, Y1,600 Yen.
The Stone Roses - 26 February 1997 - The Complete Stone Roses Japanese Re-release Date
Notes: CD CTCZ- 30004, Y1,600 Yen.

1997 - Noel Norman Walters & Hugh Calder take over as management.
Notes: Noel (Ian Brown's former security on the second coming tour) steps up as manager. Noel also appeared on several TV appearences during 1998 singing backing vocals and recorded vocals in the studio too. Noel was working under the company name 'Dub Strika Management'.
Hugh Calder is Ian's tour manager. Hugh was The Stone Roses drum technician on the second coming tour.

M - 1997 - Ian Brown Session(s).
Lions / Sunshine / My Star / Ice Cold Cube / Can't See Me / Corpses
Notes: Rumour had it Ian was working, part time, as a gardener & there was a sighting of him in Manchester buying a bass guitar. Throughout 1997 Ian Brown had some family time and started a writing partnership with Aziz Ibrahim. As well as Aziz, Robbie Maddix was drumming during most of the sessions. The initial sessions started in winter. One of Ian's earliest compositions was Lions, recording with an eight track studio in his bedroom.
From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: “Aziz plays on six tracks, he’s co-written four. He’s perfect for me because he doesn’t drink and he doesn’t take drugs. And he’ll chat.”
From February 1999 - Pulp Magazine Interview: Aziz said: "The band had dissolved. Mani had made up his mind as to what he wanted to do. Robbie (Maddix, Roses drummer at the time) and Nigel (Ipinson - Roses keyboard player) were nowhere to be seen. I hadn't spoken to them for quite a while. Even when we were in the same band I didn't know what they were thinking so I just decided to take the direct route and hear it from the man himself. I knocked on Ian's door every week. He lives in Lymm and I live in Longsight, Manchester, but finally one day he was in. He had a beard down to here," smiles Aziz, "and this attitude that he was gonna do gardening. It took me a while after that, of just talking as friends, to realise that musically he wanted to explore a solo career. In the initial stages it was very difficult for him to write the instruments so basically I was writing the music for him to put lyrics to. I showed him a little bit about electronic equipment, which set him off writing his own songs, and he became pretty prolific. The thing is it was only the two of us and it was the simplest way for us to do an album and it got done very quickly. "It shows what can be done without the aid of producers, engineers, or huge budgets. At the end of the day y'know, if you capture the simplest form of playing without having it taken away from you by giving it to producers, then that's the best form of music. It'll contrast with everything in the charts."...
From Uncut Magazine, June 2006, Issue 109: Slowly, he teaches himself songwriting from a Bob Marley anthology and an old blues songbook. He equips a mini-studio in his back room with second-hand instruments and soundproofing from B&Q. Together with Robbie Maddix and Nigel Ipinson, drummer and keyboard player in the final Roses line-up, he makes tentative plans for a group called The Brown. But, ultimately, a raw and ragged solo album takes shape.'
From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: What made you decide to return? “I’d seriously considered gardening. Fuck it, everything I’d believed in was finished. John had left me. Me best mates were robbing money off me. I had summonses up to here. I didn’t want to know any of it. Fuck it, I’ll do gardening for old people. But then I’m going out and kids are coming up ‘When are you doing something?’. In the end, I thought I probably should. So I spent last winter holed up with a bass, an acoustic guitar and a drum machine, learning audio techniques to add to the things I’d picked up over the years. The first song I came up with was Lions on the acoustic. I thought ‘I can do this’.”
From the lyrics to Lions, it seems you considered quitting England? “Nah, I got the idea from the England-Germany game. I thought it was pathetic, grown men crying. Years ago there was a religious programme on BBC2, and they had a dread answering questions about his faith. And, as the credits went up, this dread’s beating his staff going ‘There are no liiions in Inglannd’. Why do they have lions in Trafalgar Square and on the England shirt? There’s never been any lions here.”...“You’re a social chameleon, change to suit the people around you” from Corpses; who’s that about? “I didn’t write that one… that’s about girls who hang round people in bands for cocaine.”...The single, My Star, mentions “NASA corrupters”. Is this a continuation of the much-overlooked Roses political side? “I see it more as social comment than politics. I’ve always been principled. I was brought up that way. The song’s just pointing out that we have these wonderful space programmes, but they’re mainly used for military purposes. It’s vitriolic, but positive as well.”
From 1998 - Dazed & Confused (Spring Edition), Ian said: There's a song on the album called "Lions". It's about the fact that there are no lions in England and there never have been, but they've got lions in Trafalgar Square and lions in Glasgow, they're on the England football shirt, yet it's all robbed. They've taken the lion as a powerful symbol from a culture we've tried to colonise and appropriated it. It's typical of how this country has been run for centuries."
From March 1998 - The Band (gigging, recording, making it) Magazine. Ian said: I'd written Lions and Sunshine on acoustic guitar and I thought I could do the whole album like that until I realised that I only know five or six chords! Put it this way: I could go busking, but I wouldn't feel confident playing the guitar on stage because you have a responsibility towards people who have paid to see you."...Apart from tracks where you've used Simon Moore, you're also listed as playing the drums. I assume this largely meant drum programming, so when did you learn the technology?
"Years ago, this kid told me to get a Akai MPC2000 which is a sampler with a drum pad. I never got round to it. Recently I phoned him up again and he said he could sell me his, but what I really needed was an SP1200. I see an advert for one in this keyboard magazine and it arrives three weeks later. I plug it in, and I can't believe it. I realise that this machine's created most of my favourite records over the last ten years. I needed to get inside this machine, but I'm no good with manuals so I got Aziz round, and before you know it, I'm writing these great drum parts. We got a lot from messing about with keyboards too. I've got a Jupiter, a Prophecy, a Wasp… I wanted to use my TB-303 all the way through the album but I ended up not using it at all."...
From 12 September 2005 - The Greatest, Ian Brown said: Track by track...My Star - I had a set of lyrics that expressed the fact that USA space exploration is a military programme, and always has been. Aziz came around one day with the 'Dear Prudence' riff, that unmistakable guitar line that is only Aziz's, and I was blown away. The lyrical content may make the use of a military style snare drum obvious, but it works great and I was lucky to have one of Manchester's greatest drummers, Simon Moore, help me out for the beats. This track was recorded on the mixing desk that most of the great Trojan records were made on.
Corpses In Her Mouth - This is the first track I ever made featuring a harmonica, which is an instrument I play a lot in my own time for my own amusement. Me and Aziz came up with it in my front room with an acoustic
guitar one night. The original idea was to go electric and get a real drummer and bass player to play with us, but no sooner had I found the players than Aziz had already recorded the bass and drums! Best Guitarist Ever. Played with some greats but for sheernatural talent no one can touch Aziz Ibrahim. Longsight's best kept secret.
Can't See Me - I'm really proud of this track because I play bass and lead guitar. I remember working out the guitar line while watching the
6 o'clock news, then sitting down and putting stickers on the neck of the guitar to tell me where to play. It was then recorded in my bedroom that midnight on the same pink Fender Stratocaster that we used on 'I Am The Resurrection'.

28 March 1997 Friday - Ian spots John Squire for the first time since the band split
Notes: Good Friday.
From 03 January 1998 - NME Magazine: Ian said: Have you and John spoken since he left? “No. I saw him on Good Friday. I’m walking up the street with a newspaper in me hand and he’s in his Range Rover driving along. He gave me a look like there’s someone at his feet pointing a gun. So, no....

1997 - Ian Brown and Reni spotted in London
From 03 January 1998 - NME Magazine: Early in the year, King Monkey was walking through London’s West End with his old mate Reni, when on Tottenham Court Road he could have sworn he saw someone taking their picture. No, he decided. That’s stupid and paranoid, and besides, all that stuff’s behind him now. But come Old Compton Street, there he was! No doubt about it this time, some young bloke snapping away from a Citroen 2CV. From years of practice, King Monkey knew the routine: you’re taking pictures without permission, therefore I’m entitled to take them off you. Over he strode. “You’re a bit cheeky, aren’t you?”
“Well,” nodded the budding paparazzo, “you’ve got to be cheeky, haven’t you?”
“Oh, do you?” King Monkey exclaimed. “Do you think this is cheeky?” Whereupon he kicked in the Citroen’s headlamps. He then demanded the film. The panic-stricken snapper attempted to drive off, but not before Reni had climbed onto the roof of his and proceeded to jump up and down. Copper twitched, passers-by stared, the photographer cowered… and King Monkey? King Monkey just stood and laughed.

10 April 1997 - Reni's 33rd birthday

1997 - Ian Brown is attacked in a Warrington nightclub.
From October 1999 - NME Magazine: Despite hiding with his hood up, he was recognised in a Warrington nightclub, nutted and then given a kicking on the ground by club bouncers.
From 02 February 2002 Saturday 16:03 - The Guardian Newspaper article, by Lindsay Baker: Brown was beaten up no less than three times in three years, between 1995 and 1997. On the final Roses tour, in a club in Tokyo, he was set upon by three Australian bodybuilders (who, he says, took exception to the female attention he was receiving). Then he was attacked by four bouncers in a club in Warrington: "I took 25 or 30 punches to the head - a proper beating." A year later, he was attacked again, this time in the street by an assailant with a metal bar.

M - 1997 - Ian Brown Home Rehearsal Session(s), Warrington.
What Happened to Ya Part 1 / What Happened to Ya Part 2 / Nah Nah
Notes: Robbie set up most of the rehearsals (outside of Ian's home) during the year and involved former roses band mate Nigel Ippison.
1998 - Hot Press, Interview by Stuart Bailie, in a bar in Chorlton: So was it liberating, playing alone? "Yeah. I didn’t know if I could make anything musical. I didn’t want it to sound like punk. So it’s given me a confidence. I wanted to destroy the mystery of sound production and the pretentiousness of musicians. That’s what I was after. Where’s this singer who can’t sing? Now he’s playing all the instruments."
From 06 June 1998 - Melody Maker Magazine: People have picked up on the fact that a lot of the lyrics on the album seem to be digs at John Squire. Are there as many as people think?
"Probably not, no. There's one or two in there. I didn't actually write the Iyrics to "What Happened To Ya?" - Nigel Ippinson wrote the verses and Robbie Maddix wrote the chorus. They wrote it about a week after John phoned me up and said he'd left - and I understood what they were writing about. So he's included in that song, yeah."

1997 - Unfinished Sessions, Chiswick Reach Studios, London / Longsight, Manchester/ Tawny House / The Red Dragon Studios
Vocals: Ian Brown. Backing vocals: Aziz Ibrahim & Noel Norman Walters.
Guitar, Bass, Tabla, Drums: Aziz Ibrahim. Drums: Simon Moore.
My Star
Notes: Chiswick Studios was known for finishing several Trojan label records and recording several punk tracks too. Credits from The Greatest 2005 sleeve notes. Ian's manager Noel Norman Walters joined the sessions and sang backing vocals for My Star.
From October 1997 - Melody Maker Magazine: “I did them in Chiswick Reach Studios on the same desks they did all those Trojan [reggae] records on. I felt really good in there; it was great. I like that warm kind of sound.” Brown produced and mixed all 12 tracks himself, and employed two engineers.
From 06 June 1998 - Melody Maker Magazine: "I had all the songs in shape and I'm thinking, 'What kind of sound do I want?' I wanted a kind of warm sound, so I was looking for old valve studios. The only one I could find outside of America was in France - Mike Hedges' studio - and I really wanted to go there, but it was booked up. So I found this place in London that Denise Johnson [sometime singer with Primal Scream and Electronic who duets with Brown on "Lions"] told me about Chiswick Reach, where they've got all the old gear.
"So I went down there, got a nice rate, just thought 'Right, this is what I'm gonna do. I transferred all my eight-tracks onto 24s, and then spent the next two or three weeks just building up - either pulling out the eights and replacing it, or just building on the eights."

1997 - Unfinished Sessions, Chiswick Reach Studios, London / Longsight, Manchester/ Tawny House / The Red Dragon Studios.
Vocals Harmonica &: Ian Brown. Backing Vocals: Aziz Ibrahim / Noel Norman Walters. Guitar. Bass Guitar and Drums: Aziz Ibrahim.
(They've Got) Corpses In Their Mouths
Notes: Credits from The Greatest 2005 sleeve notes. Ian's manager Noel Norman Walters joined the sessions and sang backing vocals.
From Official Aziz Ibrahim Youtube Channel 21 August 2021 - "1978 Fender Jazz Bass old Stone Roses Guitar" Video "When I joined the Stone Roses in 1996 I inherited pretty much all the guitars, amps and pedals that were left behind by John Squire or they were owned by the band collectively. That included the 1959 Gibson Les Paul! One that is overlooked and not talked about much is this 1978 Fender Jazz Bass that the band told me belonged to John Squire and was one of his main writing tools. I used this bass when I recorded My Star, Corpses etc and Unfinished Monkey Business as well as songs on albums that followed during Ian Brown solo career. Hope you enjoy the insight."

July 1997 - My Star Sessions, Chiswick Reach Studios, London
My Star
Vocals & Guitar: Ian Brown. Backing Vocals: Aziz Ibrahim / Noel Norman Walters. Guitar: Aziz Ibrahim. Bass Guitar and Drums: Simon Moore. Engineered by Nick Terry & Dave Hyatt.
From Official Aziz Ibrahim Youtube Channel 21 August 2021 - "1978 Fender Jazz Bass old Stone Roses Guitar" Video "When I joined the Stone Roses in 1996 I inherited pretty much all the guitars, amps and pedals that were left behind by John Squire or they were owned by the band collectively. That included the 1959 Gibson Les Paul! One that is overlooked and not talked about much is this 1978 Fender Jazz Bass that the band told me belonged to John Squire and was one of his main writing tools. I used this bass when I recorded My Star, Corpses etc and Unfinished Monkey Business as well as songs on albums that followed during Ian Brown solo career. Hope you enjoy the insight."

1997 - Unfinished Monkey Business Sessions, Chiswick Reach Studios, London
Lions
Notes: Track found on in-house promo cd-r featuring unfinished mixes of Ian's debut solo LP. The cd was sent to Polydor to show Ian's progress with the new recording.
From 06 June 1998 - Melody Maker Magazine: But Brown admits the first few days of recording were something of a shock to his creative system. "Initially, I was too full of confidence," he says. "I thought, 'I don't fully understand compression, but I can learn; I don't fully understand equalisation, but I can learn'.
"Once I got in the studio- 'cause it's a really old desk they've got in Chiswick Reach, it's like the cockpit of a fighter jet - I thought, 'Oh shit, I've blown it, I've took too much on - I don't have this knowledge I thought I had, I don't understand the sonic range of recordings'
"But luckily the engineer in there was really good, really patient, so by day three or day four, I was thinking, 'We're on a winner, I've done the right thing'. I could hear the sound coming back that we'd put on tape and it was just electric, it sounded great.
"At home, when I was learning how to use the eight-track and the desk, I realised I knew a lot more than I thought I did from all the time I spent being in studios with the Roses. Then [smiles] I realised I didn't know as much as I thought I did."

M - 1997 - Ian Brown Session(s).
Can't See Me
Notes: Ian uses a Second Coming jam recording from The Stone Roses. Reni's drums and Mani's bassline are sampled, Ian overdubs the bass for the final recording. The bassline dates back to the Second Coming sessions, whilst the song Can't See Me apparently was being jammed during the 1996 rehearsal sessions. The guitar riff written by Ian was initially written by John Squire, see Ride On (The Stone Roses B-Side) and hear the live jams between Breaking Into Heaven and Daybreak for the riff, sped up, too.
From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: Who plays on the album? “I couldn’t have done it all myself. I’m not a virtuoso. But I play bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards, drums, harmonica, and a trumpet! Then there’s Reni, Mani, Simon Moore, a brilliant drummer, Aziz, Nigel [Ipinson, keyboardist with the ’95-’96 Roses]. I live near Warrington and I’ve got carpets all over my walls and an eight-track in my bedroom. I’ve got the buzz now, I writing all the time.” Mani and Reni appear on Can’t See Me, an amazing groove that sees you finally picking up the gauntlet that the Roses threw down with Fools Gold. How did that come about? “It’s a DAT that I had from ’95 of Mani and Reni. I play bass over the top of it. I phoned them up and said ‘Can I use it?’ – and they were cool. There’s every possibility that we’ll play together. I was jamming with Reni last week. He’s now singing, playing guitar. In ’95, me and him were in New York and we saw this kid playing drums on Times Square. Reni was looking at this kid and he knew the kid was better than him. It gutted him. He didn’t pick up his sticks for a year. But now he’s playing drums better than ever. He’s got big hair and a beard and I call him John The Baptist. Can’t See Me is my favourite, yeah. Very fresh. We never followed up Fools Gold because John never rated it! He felt embarrassed to play the funk.”
From October 1997 - Melody Maker Magazine: “Can’t See Me” is baggy, close to the sound of classic Roses. “It’s a groove that Mani wrote for the Roses but John wouldn’t play it,” Ian confirmed. “I just remembered it. I thought ‘I’ve gotta use it’. It’s the best thing Mani’s come up with. It’s the most dancefloor track on the album.”
From March 1998 - The Band (gigging, recording, making it) Magazine. Ian said: What's the story behind Can't See Me, on which Mani and Reni are credited, but didn't actually appear in the studio? "I've got a pillowcase full of tapes from the Roses. I found this thing, and it was great so I phoned Mani up and asked if I could put my own thing over the top. He said 'Yeah, sure'".
From 06 June 1998 - Melody Maker Magazine: The rhythm section for "Can't See Me" on this album came out of those sessions, didn't it? Mani and Reni are credited on the album for bass and drums.
"It came from Mani sitting down with his portastudio and coming up with a bassline, but we only found out last week that Reni doesn't actually play on it - it's a breakbeat Mani sampled. I thought it was a sample Reni took from the studio that Mani played to, but it was actually a breakbeat.
"I've got a big pillowcase of tapes at home of Roses live shows and rehearsals and stuff, and I was just going through them one day and I found this bassline and remembered it. So I phoned him up, said, 'Can I put some Iyrics over this for my record?' and he said, 'Course you can'."...

1997 - Unfinished Sessions, The Forge Studios Oswestry.
Ice Cold Cube (Chiswick)
Ice Cold Cube (Forge) (New)
Ice Cold Cube (Forge) (Old)
Lions (Forge)
Notes: Ice Cold Cube recorded and mixed at Chiswick Studios. Forge means the tracks were mixed at The Forge Studios, Oswestry. The new and old indicate which mix.
From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: You’ve got a song, Ice Cold Cube, which was played at Reading in a different, inferior form. What’s it about? “Ice Cold Cube was Reni’s nickname for John.” Some of your new lyrics are the most vitriolic you’ve ever sung.
From March 1998 - The Band (gigging, recording, making it) Magazine. Ian said: But I was jamming with Aziz and we realised we had enough material for an album so we decided to go for it. We started off at home on 8-track. Then we transferred the recordings onto a 24-track in Chiswick Reach Studios and played the overdubs. Finally we went to North Wales and mixed it. The whole thing only took about 29 days."
From 06 June 1998 - Melody Maker Magazine: Following an aborted attempt to mix the album at Chiswick Reach, Brown and Ibrahim decamped to The Forge studio in Oswestry. "I did a few mixes in Chiswick, but with it being old speakers and stuff - plus my lack of experience - the mixes weren't good.
"Aziz persuaded me to go to The Forge because they've got the Euphonics desk, which is the complete opposite way to how I'd done it. Hearing all the stuff on this really clean, digital, super-automated desk, it was just fantastic.
"I redid all the vocals there. I thought I could get a bit more out of them, so as we were mixing we laid the vocals in again mostly just one or two takes - just a warm-up and then go for the thing, just to keep it fresh."...
Bootleg: Unfinished Sessions - CD-R

1997 - Reni was asked to drum for Finley Quaye

1997 - Ian Brown signs to Polydor Records
Notes: Ian meets John Kennedy, ex-Stone Roses lawyer, head of Polygram. John offered Ian a choice of labels including the Island Records label, Ian went with Polydor.
From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: Were you wary of getting involved in the music business again? “I wanted to avoid it. In the end I paid for the record myself, finished it and said to the company [Polydor] , ‘Here it is’. I sold it to them rather than let them pay for the recording and have them telling me what to do. I said ‘Look, I’ve got no band, I’m not planning any live shows. This is it.’ A week later it’s, ‘Where’s your band? When are the shows?’ So [laughs] there will be shows. Probably March.
1998 - Hot Press, Interview by Stuart Bailie, in a bar in Chorlton: At one stage Ian resolved that he would press up a load of albums at his own expense, get a van and drive round the record shops, offering to put them in the shops on a sale or return basis. "I wanted to destroy the thing where you sign yourself away, when you’ve just got one option. But I realised that, on my own, I can’t destroy the business. I didn’t want to become a president. At the end of the day, I haven’t got time."
So he took the tapes to John Kennedy, the old Roses lawyer, now the boss of Polygram, who liked what he heard. He offered Ian his choice of label. He toyed with the idea of working with Island, Bob Marley’s old home, but they wanted to remix bits of the album. Instead he chose Polydor, one time host to Jimi Hendrix.

1997 - John Robb's book 'The Stone Roses And The Resurrection Of British Pop' U.K. Release Date
Notes: First published by Edbury Press, Edbury Publishing. 260 Page Effort, Recommended Retail Price £9.99. The Reunion Edition would be published in 2012 with additional content.

1997 - Fabiola Quiroz Photo Shoot, London
Notes: Some photos would appear in the Unfinished Monkey Business booklet. Ian would later marry Fabiola in 1999.

1997 - Fabiola Quiroz Photo Shoot, Barcelona Zoo, Spain
Notes: The cover of Unfinished Monkey Business was taken here.

1997 - Corinne Day Photo Shoot, New York, U.S.A.
Notes: The photo appeared on the 1998 tour pass with Ian's hair all over the place with his eyes closed. The picture was also used in the centre fold of the The Greatest hardback book sleeve.

1997 - Fabiola Quiroz Photo Shoot, New York, U.S.A.
Notes: The photo features Ian with Aaron on the subway to Coney Island, the picture was inside 2005 - The Greatest hardback book cover too. Fabiola Quiroz lives in New York and Ian would frequently fly over to New York to see her. Ian admitted in an interview, with the NME, that he would haved moved there but he wanted to stay close to his two children.

29 August 1997 - Reni appears in Manchester Magistrates Court for driving without car insurance.
Notes: See 13 October 1997

1997 - Ian Brown is attacked in the street with a metal bar
Notes: The photo on the sleeve of Corpses shows Ian's hand bandaged after the attack.
From October 1999 - NME Magazine: Then someone gashed his head open with a metal statue and broke two of his fingers with a bar while Brown was walking home. ("I think what stopped him was the noise it made when my fingers cracked.")
From 2002 Lindsay Baker Interview with Ian: ...A year later, he was attacked again, this time in the street by an assailant with a metal bar. With his slight frame and boyish looks, Brown may look like a soft touch, but there's a tough, unyielding obstinacy to him. Clearly, he is not one to walk away from a fight...

October 1997 - Ian Brown appears in Melody Maker Magazine
Notes: MONKEY BUSINESS!. See Media for the interview/article.

M - 1997 - Jamie Beeden Photo Shoot for Dazed & Confused Magazine (Spring Edition)
Notes: Jamie Beeden shoot took place Winter 1997, photos later featured in the 1998 publication.

13 October 1997 - The NME reports that Reni was recently jailed for contempt of court.
Notes:
Reni was in Manchester Magistrates Court on 29th August on a charge of having no car insurance when he launched a verbal attack at stipendiary magistrate, Derrick Fairclough. The magistrate ordered Reni to spend lunchtime in the court cells as a result and although he apologised, Fairclough sentenced Reni to a further seven days in Prison for contempt of court. He was released after three days.

16 November 1997 - Mani's 35th birthday
24 November 1997 - John Squire's 35th birthday

24 November 1997 - My Star is mastered and ready for release.
Tape To Tape, 19 Heathmans Road, London, SW6 4TJ Mastering Promo CD-R
My Star (Radio Edit) 4''29 Polydor Master CD REF ()
Notes: See 12 January 1998.

December 1997 - The Metropolitan Hotel, London
Notes: Ian Brown interview with Dave Simpson for Uncut Magazine, see February 1998.

December 1997 - I Wanna Be Adored - The Story of The Stone Roses, BBC Radio 1 Documentary is aired
Notes: Presented by Mary Anne Hobbs.
Includes contributions from with Mani, Noel Gallagher, Alan McGee, John Leckie, as well as snippets of Ian Brown. See Media 1996 for transcripts from Mani and John Leckie.
The debut air date was followed by a repeat of In Concert: The Stone Roses (Live Leeds 1995) at 22:00.
I have a conflicting date for 1998 January, note sure if this was the initial broadcast or a repeat.
Broadcast: BBC Radio 1 FM, Aired: 21:00
Bootleg: I Wanna Be Adored (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). "This is a documentary on the Roses, and has interviews with Mani, Noel Gallagher, Alan McGee, John Leckie, as well as snippets of Ian Brown. It is well done, and although it will not tell the experienced Roses fan anything they didn't already know, it will be a great experience for a new or novice fan." Cassette Originally Priced: £2.50, Running Time (Approx): 60mins) Tape
Bootleg: Memorex dBSI audio cassette

1998
1998 - Mint Royale - Pop Is featuring The Stone Roses
2013, David Wood wrote an piece for North West Music Store's website 'Promenade Music'. The article included: Neil Claxton, my co-director in Faith & Hope, was the remix producer for the Sone Roses 'Begging You' single 'Stone Corporation Vox' mix that was released on Geffen Records ten years after the 'So young' single. In 98 Neil was asked to do a further re-mix for the Silvertone Records 'The Stone Roses - The Remixes' album. 'Elephant Stone' the 'Mint Royale Remix' appeared on the album and the same track later appeared on Neil's own 'Mint Royale' album 'Pop Is' which was released on our record label.
Elephant Stone (Mint Royale Remix) - Remix and additional production for Mint Productions. 1998 Silvertone Records Limited
From 30 October 2000 - The Remixes sleeve notes:
Mint Royale - "The Stone Roses took up the reins of geat Manchester guitar music after the demise of The Smiths had left us stranded with clumps of assorted flowers stuck out of our jacket lapel, broken hearing aids and dodgy quiffs. They wrote great songs; they must have, because eleven years down the line they're still as played and reversed as they ever were, and that's all the endorsement you need."

02 January 1998 - IQ Pete & Jeff Show, Piccadilly Key 103, Manchester
Notes: Interview
Bootleg: FM - CD-R

M - 03 January 1998 - Ian Brown features on the front cover of NME Magazine
Notes: Front page 'Welcome To The Court Of King Monkey!' Magazine Priced at 95p. Interview took place at The Palace Hotel, Manchester. See Media for the article/interview 'TAKING CARE OF MONKEY BUSINESS'.

Ian Brown - 12 January 1998 - My Star U.K. Release Date
Photography by Corinne Day. Sleeve design and direction by Mission.
My Star - Written by Ian Brown/Aziz Ibrahim. Published by Sony Music Publishing Ltd/Notting Hill Music (UK) Ltd. 1997 Vocals: Ian Brown. Backing vocals: Aziz Ibrahim, Noel Norman Walters. Guitar, Bass, Tabla, Drums: Aziz Ibrahim. Drums: Simon Moore. Recorded at Chiswick Reach Studios, London / Longsight, Manchester/ Tawny House / The Red Dragon Studios. Produced and Mixed by Ian Brown. Extra Production: Aziz Ibrahim. Recording Engineer: Nick Terry. Extra Recording Engineer: Nigel Luby. Mixed at The Forge Studios, Oswestry. Mixing Engineer: Dave Hyatt.
See The Dawn - Written by Ian Brown/Aziz Ibrahim. Produced by Ian Brown, Extra Production: Aziz Ibrahim. Mixed by Ian Brown. Recording Engineer: Nick Terry. Extra Recording Engineer: Nigel Luby. Mixed at The Forge Studios, Oswestry. Mixing Engineer: Dave Hyatt. Vocals: Ian. Guitar, bass and drums: Aziz.
Fourteen - Written by Ian Brown & Aziz Ibrahim. Produced & mixed by Ian Brown. Mixed at The Forge, Oswestry. Recording engineered by Nick Terry, assisted by Nigel Luby. Mixing engineered by Dave Hyatt. Extra production by Aziz.
Promo Video Directed by W.I.Z. (aka Wiz), London, 1997.
24/11/97 Reference CD Tape To Tape London / 24 November 1997 - Advance Polydor Master CD-REF CD-R Promo (Tape To Tape, 19 Heathmans Road, London, SW6)
My Star (Radio Edit) 4:29
CD (571 987-2, PY 940)
My Star (Single Version)
See The Dawn
Fourteen
Limited Edition 7inch
Cassette
Promo CD
My Star (Edit) 4:24
1998 - Polygram Promo Invendavel (2 Track Brazillian CD. 2802 237 Brasil Ltda) Brazil Promo Rock 7. Promocional Invendavel - Echo & The Bunnymen - Don't Let It Get You Down (Album Version) / My Star (Radio Edit) 67735899 4:29
Notes: My Star, debuts in the charts at number 4 in the UK & number 9 in Ireland.
Wiz had produced several music videos for artists including Manic Street Preachers and Flowered Up's "Weekender". Ian asked him to produce Ten Storey Love Song but the band went with Sophie Muller. Wiz is short of Wizard, a nickname he got from once having long hair and a big long beard.
From 1998 - Hot Press, Interview by Stuart Bailie, in a bar in Chorlton:
Yet before he comtemplates some of that history, Ian describes the video that he’s just made for his first solo single, "My Star". It’s been directed by Wiz, the guy who made some spectacular promos for bands like the Manics and Flowered Up – especially the latter’s seminal "Weekender" clip.
Ian was given an amusing role. He was cast as Captain James T Spender, back from a mission to Saturn. Three of the other crew members had died in suspicious circumstances. Spender wasn’t involved in the deaths, but the authorities had him locked up in a penthouse, under observation, afraid that he had dangerous information, that he could bring them all down. A spaceman who knew too much. "It ends up alright though" says Brown, smiling. He’s hunched up at the bar with the gentlemen from the press and a few other business friends. There’s a mate that he picked up nearby, plus his manager Noel, an old Roses associate. Ian’s Mexican girlfriend, Fabiola, has taken out a digital camcorder and is capturing the event for posterity.
1998 - Top Of The Pops Q&A Session, Ian Brown said: Fran Philips asks: "What's the new single - "My Star" - about?" Ian Brown: "It's an anti-propaganda song against the lie that NASA are probing space for the benefit of mankind, when it's really a military exercise by military men."
Joy Bradley asks: "Are you obsessed with space exploration?" Ian Brown: (taking a sip of tea)"No! I'm interested in the fact that two-thirds of people on the earth don't have enough to eat, but that billions is spent on rockets and bombs." Paul asks: "One of the b-sides of "My Star" is a kind of jungle/drum'n'bass-type affair. Is that a one-off, or can we expect more like that on your album?" Ian Brown: "I think you can expect more."
From October 1997 - Melody Maker Magazine: “My Star”, relatively up-tempo, is probably one of the most immediate cuts. “I wanted to put it out as a single because it’s current, with the Mir space station and all the excitement about going to Mars, setting up satellite stations and things,” says Brown. It’s backed with “See The Dawn”, which has got “a kind of Indian lead break thing” and “Fourteen” – “a jungle track with just drums”, played by Ian.

M - 19 - 25 January 1998 - Ian Brown appears on the cover of The Big Issue, Number 267
Notes: Priced at £1 (60p of cover price goes to Vendor - Please buy from badged vendors only). "Coming Up From The Streets. The Drugs, The Feuds, The Truth About The Stone Roses."

TV - 24 January 1998 - Top Of The Pops, BBC Studios, London
My Star
Notes: In a Question & Answer Session, Ian said: Reed asks: "When you split the Roses you said you were leaving the "...filthiest business in the universe"...but now you've come back. Has it cleaned itself up or don't you mind about the filth now?" Ian Brown: "If you want young boys, you can still get your record company to supply them...That's my answer!"
Will Drayton asks: "What was the best thing that the Roses ever did?"
Ian Brown: (munching a prawn sandwich) "Playing the Budokan Martial Arts Centre in Tokyo."
Harry Good asks: "Are you sad that the Roses ended?" Ian Brown: "I was sad at the time, yeah."
johanna asks: "If you had your time over, would you have done things differently with the Stone Roses?" Ian Brown: "I'd have made sure we had a manager from 1991 to stop Hollywood fat cats coming between us."
Jack Lewis asks: "Is it weird being a solo act now compared to being in the Roses?" Ian Brown: "It's just a different experience, but just as enjoyable.
Lee Williams asks: "How does it feel being back in the charts?" Ian Brown: "Great! That's it really, ain't it?"
Fran Philips asks: "What's the new single - "My Star" - about?"
Ian Brown: "It's an anti-propaganda song against the lie that NASA are probing space for the benefit of mankind, when it's really a military exercise by military men."
Joy Bradley asks: "Are you obsessed with space exploration?" Ian Brown: (taking a sip of tea)"No! I'm interested in the fact that two-thirds of people on the earth don't have enough to eat, but that billions is spent on rockets and bombs."
Paul asks: "One of the b-sides of "My Star" is a kind of jungle/drum'n'bass-type affair. Is that a one-off, or can we expect more like that on your album?"
Ian Brown: "I think you can expect more."
Paul asks: "Is it true that you have some of the "lesser-known" members (ie. not you or Squire) working with you on your new stuff? If so, who?"
>Ian Brown: "Yes. There's Aziz Ibrahim, guitars and co-writer of four songs, and also Nigel Ippinson, keyboards and composer of a track called "Nah-Nah"."
Pete Nord asks: "How much of the new album did you actually play yourself?"
Ian Brown: "About two-thirds...I play acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, harmonica and trumpet."
Kerry Whitehead asks: "Did you teach yourself to play instruments or did someone teach you?" Ian Brown: "I learnt from the Bob Marley Songbook, that's how I learnt my chords. This week I'm practising on bar chords."
johanna asks: "Do you have a favorite line from all your songs?" Ian Brown: "'I am the resurrection and I am the life, I couldn't ever bring myself to hate you as I'd like.'"
Charlie Gardener asks: "Are you pleased with your new album?" Ian Brown: "Yeah! I made it to uplift."
Chinny asks: "How much more creative freedom have you got now as opposed to when you had John Squire trying to guitar lick his way into Rock God history?" Ian Brown: "Well, Chinny, I've never been interested in putting myself into history books, I've only ever been interested in the future."
Paul asks: "Do you feel sorry for John Squire, now he's come out of the Roses making much worse music than you?" Ian Brown: "When a man makes his bed, he must lie in it."
Taity asks: "Hello Ian! Do you like wearing dark glasses?" Ian Brown: "(laughing) I do, especially indoors in the dark in the winter."
Paul asks: "Did you ever consider changing your name to something a bit more Rock'n'Roll?" Ian Brown: "If you take all the letters in the name Ian Brown you'll find you can spell Born Wina or Born a Win."
Paul asks: "DAT, MiniDisc or Recordable CD - which is the true way forward?" Ian Brown: "(thinking) All three have their merits. Dear Paul, get a life! However, I will say that for the album I used an analogue, quarter-inch, eight-track and standard two-inch twenty-four track. And then I mastered onto hard-disc."
Jacqueline asks: "What has been the greatest venue you've played at?" Ian Brown: "Brixton Academy, because of the designs on the ceiling."
Taity asks: "what is your favourite band Ian?? Is it the Seahorses????" Ian Brown: "Surprisingly, it isn't. No, Taity. But it would be James Brown's "All Stars"."
salem asks: "What's your fave single at the moment?" Ian Brown: "Hills and Valleys by Buju Banton."
bossman asks: "Any tours planned?" Ian Brown: "I'm hoping to play the festivals in the Summer, because I've not got enough material for a headline tour at the moment."
Sarah Jones asks: "You say you're into travelling now: where's the best place you visited and why?" Ian Brown: "Mexico, for the eagles, pelicans, the jungle, the chilli and the peyote."
Vera Krasic asks: "Do you like being called "King Monkey"?" Ian Brown:(with an American twang) "No. Don't be calling me no monkey, Miss Vera!"
Taity asks: "How long did it take to have your hair done like that?" Ian Brown: "I cut my own hair, when it gets too long I shave it bald."
Paul asks: "When The Stone Roses formed, did you think: "Right, here we go, let's try and change the face of music!" or did it just happen naturally?" Ian Brown: "We wanted to change the music business and the world and the universe."
Paul asks: "Were you disappointed that "My Star" didn't go to Number One, seeing as how it's so much better than the whole Oasis back catalogue put together?" Ian Brown: "No. I didn't expect it to."
Jacqueline asks: "Is there any pop star you'd like to give an image makeover?" Ian Brown: "No!"
bossman asks: "What is the album title all about?" Ian Brown: "Unfinished Business alludes to the end of the Roses, The Monkey comes from the King Monkey, as mentioned in the press."
Gavsky asks: "Ian, what does it feel like, to be competing with so many excellent new and upcoming bands? Do you find it daunting, or do you see it as a challenge ?" Ian Brown: "I don't feel in competition with anybody, there's room for everybody."
Taity asks: "Ian, do you model yourself on Jarvis Cocker or should it be the other way around?" Ian Brown: "I model myself on Liam Gallagher, actually."
Ian Brown asks: "Who inspired you?" Ian Brown: "The sun, because it shines every day and also all the greats, people like Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Ottis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Buju Banton, Garnett Silk, Sizzla."
Yarrow asks: "Where do you want to go this year?" Ian Brown: "Wherever my heart takes me."
Chinny asks: "Would you say that the Blackpool gig in 1989 was the definitive moment in the arrival of the Stone Roses as the best band in the world as people make out? Or was it just another gig?" Ian Brown: "Yes, the former."
Robin Jerzy asks: "Do you regret the way "The Second Coming" turned out?"
Ian Brown: "I'd like to hear a remixed version with a few less guitars. But I have no regrets."
Taity asks: "How many tambourines do you own, Ian?" Ian Brown: "Usually at the end of the show somebody steals them, so only the one."
Grant Rathdowne asks: "You seem happier now than ever before - is that true? Why?" Ian Brown: "Yes, I am happier, I have two beautiful sons."
Deirdre O'Neil asks: "What's the best thing that's happened to you in the last year?" Ian Brown: "Going to Morocco and hearing the call to prayer five times a day."
George Krakis asks: "What's all this about God and reading the Bible? Have you got religion?" Ian Brown: "Religion does nothing but divide. Look to the source."
Paul asks: "I can see where you got your solo name from, but who came up with the name The Stone Roses and why?" Ian Brown: "Underneath the desert the sand is blown by the wind and forms what are called desert stone roses. The name was thought up by John Squire."
guest205 asks: "If in the future the Roses were offered stacks of dosh for a "farewell tour" would you consider doing one?" Ian Brown: "No. Definitely not."
anthony asks: "Has Ian got a band formed yet for touring and will any musicians appear on TOTP with him?" Ian Brown: "Yeah, and yes."
anthony asks: "Will Ian prefer to play a few large venues or more smaller ones for the new stuff ?" Ian Brown: "I'd like to play in all types of venues."
beeb: "Sadly, we have run out of time. Thanks to Ian Brown. Sorry to all of you who have posted brilliant questions which he didn't have time to answer."
Ian Brown: "I'd like to say thank you for all your questions, and to those unable to get through, thank you also. Keep the faith."
From February 1999 - Pulp Magazine Interview: Aziz said: "Top Of The Pops was easy. There was nothing to it. You see people make it hard on themselves because they go there and think 'oh I've gotta put some make-up on'. We just got there and didn't even bother getting changed or any of that stuff. Thing is, make-up just doesn't look right on stubble. It's very easy. You just walk on, do one take and that's it. It's more the boy groups who have the problems because they've got to get their routines right and they've gotta check their arses in the mirror and check that it shines right."...
Video Bootleg: BBC - My Star / Interview
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 150 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) / Ian 30 minute interview, 1998 - never broadcast! / Ian The Works Documentary, 2001 - Video VHS (PAL, NTSC)
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos DVD (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 120 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) - DVD

26 January 1998 00:02 Monday - The Independent, Nick Hasted Interview
Notes: See Media for the article. Interview conducted at Polydor Offices, London.

M - February 1998 - Q Magazine, The Stone Roses debut appears at number 4 and Second Coming features at number 83 in The Best 100 Albums Of All Time

M - February 1998 - Ian Brown features on the front cover of Loaded Magazine, Issue 47, £2.60
Notes: Ian Brown Interview. Photographed, unshaven, with a monkey on his shoulder. 'Ian Brown in Stone Roses Oasis Baby Cocaine Monkey Shocker'

M - February 1998 - Ian Brown appears on the cover of UNCUT Magazine £2.75
Notes: ''There were too many drugs'' The Stone Roses by Ian Brown plus Noel Gallagher 'No Roses, no Oasis...' Uncut Magazine features an Ian Brown interview with Dave Simpson. See Media for the article.

M - February 1998 - Hot Press Magazine
Notes: Irish Magazine. Interview by Stuart Bailie, in a bar in Chorlton. Fabiola Quiroz recorded the interview with a handheld camera. Noel Norman Walters sat in the bar whilst Ian did the interview. See Media for the article.

1998 - A promotional 'Ian Brown. Unfinished Monkey Business' pewter statue is issued by Polydor.
Notes: To celebrate the release of his debut solo LP. A limited run of pewter monkey statues were issued. Some were given to Polydor officials, band members, crew and eventually were made prizes in official fanclub and related competitions. The statue shows a monkey, evolution of darwen, holindg an sphere (earth) whilst pondering. These rare promo only items are quite scarce.

Ian Brown - 02 February 1998 - Unfinished Monkey Business U.K. Release Date
Intro Under The Paving Stones: The Beach 1:49 - Written by Ian Brown. Ian Brown plays all instruments.
My Star - Written by Ian Brown/Aziz Ibrahim. Published by Sony Music Publishing Ltd/Notting Hill Music (UK) Ltd. 1997 Vocals: Ian Brown. Backing vocals: Aziz Ibrahim, Noel Norman Walters. Guitar, Bass, Tabla, Drums: Aziz Ibrahim. Drums: Simon Moore. Robbie Maddix is also credited to playing Drums on this recording. Recorded at Chiswick Reach Studios, London / Longsight, Manchester/ Tawny House / The Red Dragon Studios. Produced and Mixed by Ian Brown. Extra Production: Aziz Ibrahim. Recording Engineer: Nick Terry. Extra Recording Engineer: Nigel Luby. Mixed at The Forge Studios, Oswestry. Mixing Engineer: Dave Hyatt.

Can't See Me 4:54 - Written by Ian Brown & Gary Mounfield. Produced by Ian Brown. Original Bass/Lead bass: Mani. Drum sample: Reni. Rythm Bass Guitar, Acoustic and Lead Guitar - Ian Brown. Recorded: Chiswick Reach Studios, London & The Red Dragon Studios. Recording engineered by Nick Terry.
Ice Cold Cube 6:27 - Written by Ian Brown/Aziz Ibrahim. Ian Brown plays keyboards, bass guitar & drums- -Aziz plays guitar & drums- -Simon Moore plays drums- -Robbie Maddix plays drums-
Sunshine 3:58 - Written by Ian Brown. Ian Brown plays all instruments.- -Robbie Maddix plays drums-
Lions 6:52 - Written by Ian Brown. Ian Brown plays all instruments.- -Robbie Maddix plays drums- -Denise Johnson on backing vocals-
Corpses In Their Mouths - Written by Ian Brown/Aziz Ibrahim. Published by Sony Music Publishing Ltd/Notting Hill Music (UK) Ltd. 1997. Recorded at Chiswick Reach Studios London/Longsight Manchester/ Tawny House / The Red Dragon Studios. Vocals Harmonica &: Ian Brown. Backing Vocals: Aziz Ibrahim / Noel Norman Walters. Guitar. Bass Guitar and Drums: Aziz Ibrahim. Robbie Maddix is sometimes credited for playing Drums. Produced and Mixed by Ian Brown. Extra Production: Aziz Ibrahim. Recording Engineer: Nick Terry. Extra Recording Engineer: Nigel Luby. Mixed at The Forge Studios Oswestry. Mixing Engineer: Dave Hyatt.
What Happened To Ya Part 1 (Brown, Ippinson, Maddix, Ibrahim) 3:16 - Ian Brown plays acoustic guitar- -Aziz plays slide guitar & drums- -Robbie Maddix plays drums-
What Happened To Ya Part 2 (Brown, Ippinson, Maddix, Ibrahim) 5:38 - Aziz plays guitar- -Simon Moore plays drums- -Robbie Maddix plays drums- -Abdul Ibrahim provides the backing vocal chant-
Nah Nah (Ippinson) 3:55 - Aziz plays guitar- -Robbie Maddix plays drums- - Nigel Ippinson plays keyboards & bass guitar-
Deep Pile Dreams 3:39 - Written by Ian Brown. Ian Brown plays all instruments. - Robbie Maddix plays drums-
Unfinished Monkey Business 3:10 - Written by Ian Brown. Ian Brown plays all instruments.- -Robbie Maddix plays drums-
Production
Ian Brown - design, production, mixing (tracks 1, 2, 5 to 9, 11, 12)
Nigel Luby - additional engineering
Dave Hyatt - engineering
Nick Terry - engineering
Fabiola Quiroz - photography, sleeve photo taken 1997 - The Zoo, Barcelona, Spain
Aziz Ibrahim - additional production
CD (Polydor, 539 565-2, CD) / LP (Polydor, 539 916-1, Limited edition gatefold vinyl) / Cassette (Polydor, 539 565-4, cassette)
Intro Under The Paving Stones / My Star / Can't See Me / Ice Cold Cube / Sunshine / Lions / Corpses In Their Mouths / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Nah Nah / Deep Pile Dreams / Unfinished Monkey Business
Japan CD (Polydor, POCP 7272, Japanese CD)
Intro Under The Paving Stones / My Star / Can't See Me / Ice Cold Cube / Sunshine / Lions / Corpses In Their Mouths / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Nah Nah / Deep Pile Dreams / Unfinished Monkey Business / Come Again
Limited Edition Gatefold Vinyl
Cassette
Notes: The album got to number four in the U.K. charts. Promo leaflets read 'Limited Gatefold Vinyl, CD & Cassette'.
Fabiola Quiroz took the photo of Ian, used on the cover, in 1997 at The Zoo in Barcelona, Spain.
The monkey statuette on the back of the sleeve is late 19th century German sculptor Hugo Rheinhold's 'Affe mit Schädel' ('monkey with skull').
Come Again was released as a Japanese only bonus track, the only other cd source for the track was a two track See The Dawn French only CD promo.
Unfinished Monkey Business was never marketed in the U.S.A. (due to Polydor's dissolution) Check out the 2005 Koch label, for the U.S. Re-Release with bonus tracks.
An advance tape ''Advance Tape Polydor Limited.'' was released prior to the album, in late 1997, it features the same version as the released LP.
Recording: Recording began in 1997 at Ian Brown's home studio (Manchester) and was completed at Chiswick Reach Studios, London. The album was self-financed and produced by Ian Brown. The 'Can't See Me' drum loop was sampled from the Second Coming sessions, performed by Reni. Another of his loops surfaced on a solo Aziz Ibrahim track. Apparently The Dust Brothers (aka Chemical Brothers) were originally lined up to mix the album. Ian Brown Interview from Uncut Magazine, June 2006, Issue 109: Was Unfinished Monkey Business meant to sound that rough? “Yeah, I didn’t want to do a polished 24-track production. I wanted it to sound like you were sat on the end of my bed listening to me working through these songs. There was a chance that the Dust Brothers would mix it, but it meant I had to wait eight weeks and I didn’t want to wait. I’m curious how it would have sounded. I don’t regret it, but I think they would have made it sound 10 times better.”
The track "Intro Under The Paving Stones: The Beach" was inspired by a slogan from the French May 1968 protests, an event that also inspired the song "Bye Bye Badman" from The Stone Roses. A popular protest slogan at the time, "Sous les pavés, la plage!" is translated into English as "Beneath the pavement, the beach!", and refers to the sand found under paving stones ripped up by rioters to use as projectiles aimed at the police.
Can't See Me uses a riff from The Stone Roses Ride On. The riff was adapted by John during the 1995 Second Coming Tour and can be heard during the jam between Daybreak and Breaking Into Heaven on several occasions. Aziz included the riff in his renditions during 1996 and finally Ian used the riff during the demo recordings. Along with Reni loops, Mani basslines from the Second Coming recordings (Breaking Into Heaven demo) this song would later be remixed for the single release.
The tracks What Happened To Ya & Ice Cold Cube were discussed by Ian with Kirsten Borchardt in March 1998 ''"The lyrics to What Happened To Ya were written by Robbie and Nigel, Robbie wrote the verse, Nigel wrote the chorus. I just arranged it. I've got a feeling, yeah, that he's (Squire) mentioned in it. Because we never knew why he left the band. We were living together, me, Robbie and Nige after the '95 tour and we saw the Roses as - wow, we're back, we've just done a great world tour, we've improved all the way and in '96 we're gonna make a new LP. He left. We don't know why he left. Yeah, I'd say that What Happened To Ya was probably directed at John. Ice Cold Cube is the name that Reni used to call John, like, where's the Ice Cold Cube ? - knowing that he wasn't feeling welcome. But the rest of the song isn't about John. What Happened To Ya probably is. But I never asked them. If I asked them they'd probably have said yes and then I wouldn't have done it."''
12 / 13 February 1998 - Kirsten Borchardt Interview: ...And maybe Denise Johnson guesting on vocals... "Oh yeah, that would be great."
That is a really amazing track - how did that came about? "I did the music - the idea comes from - there used to be a TV programme in England years ago where someone would come on to defend the faith, one week it would be a Hindu, or a Sikh, a Buddhist, and this particular week it was a rasta, and the rasta was going like, there are no lions in England, and he's beating his staff. In England, you know, on the football shirts, on the all the town and city crest there's lions."
Same here in Germany. "So, where do these lions come from?" Crusades, probably.
"Yeah, they come from the crusades, they brought them back as a symbol of power. There are no lions, it's true. - So, I've sung it and I thought, there's something missing, a woman, a woman is needed to make it more powerful. So luckily I knew Denise and she said she'd do it."...Some of the songs - most notably What Happened To Ya and Ice Cold Cube - seem to be addressing John Squire more or less directly in the lyrics. "The lyrics to What Happened To Ya were written by Robbie and Nigel, Robbie wrote the verse, Nigel wrote the chorus. I just arranged it. I've got a feeling, yeah, that he's mentioned in it. Because we never knew why he left the band. We were living together, me, Robbie and Nige after the '95 tour and we saw the Roses as - wow, we're back, we've just done a great world tour, we've improved all the way and in '96 we're gonna make a new LP. He left. We don't know why he left. Yeah, I'd say that What Happened To Ya was probably directed at John. Ice Cold Cube is the name that John - that Reni used to call John, like, where's the Ice Cold Cube? - knowing that he wasn't feeling welcome. But the rest of the song isn't about John. What Happened To Ya probably is. But I never asked them. If I asked them they'd probably said yes and then I wouldn't have done it."...
1998 - Hot Press, Interview by Stuart Bailie, in a bar in Chorlton: Nigel Ipinson and Robbie Maddix, who played keyboards and drums in the last stand of the Roses at the Reading Festival in ’96, wrote another song, What Happened To Ya. Again, the listener is tempted to ask Ian if the departed guitarist is the subject of the lyric. "I’ve got a feeling that at the time that they wrote it, certain situations had been mentioned, yeah."
And what about the song Deep Pile Dreams, which mocks the misplaced rock dream of the stretch limo and the $60 bag of powders? Another reference to a former colleague? "I think my mind had fallen into that category, definitely. We’d been given too much love; too many people believed in us. I don’t think he knew that. I know that he didn’t know that."...
From October 1997 - Melody Maker Magazine: “Nah Nah”, whose melancholic melodies lead to a nagging chorus comprising the title words.
It was recorded in 20 minutes after a burst of inspiration from Nigel Ipinson who was still a bit worried that it sounded “daft”. “No, it sounds great!” enthused Brown....“Unfinished Monkey Business” is named after Ian’s “King Monkey” nickname and his amusement at Dodgy’s recent prank on a Guardian journalist. Matthew Priest convinced the hapless scribe that “You can’t call him Ian, you’ve gotta call him King Monkey.” Ian: “I thought ‘I’ll go with that.’ It just felt right as a title.”
A 2007 Paul John Dykes Interview with Robbie Jay Maddix revealed "I told Ian to go solo and gave him the title for his debut album. I knew he would have no trouble maintaining his appeal. The fans love him, so his success is no surprise to me."
Ian referred to the title in a interview with Los Angeles Daily News. From The Vindacator Magazine, 05 August 1998: "The press used to refer to me as 'simian lead singer'. My arms have always been too long for my body. But I've been called 'monkey' all my life, so I thought I'd keep that theme.
From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: What’s the origin of the title, Unfinished Monkey Business? “When the Roses had disappeared, recording Second Coming, the press were desperate for any stories of what we were up to. The drummer from Dodgy told this Guardian journalist that I was making everyone call me ‘King Monkey’. I thought it was really funny.
From 1998 - Top Of The Pops Q&A: bossman asks: "What is the album title all about?" Ian Brown: "Unfinished Business alludes to the end of the Roses, The Monkey comes from the King Monkey, as mentioned in the press."
From October 1997 - Melody Maker Magazine: “I did them in Chiswick Reach Studios on the same desks they did all those Trojan [reggae] records on. I felt really good in there; it was great. I like that warm kind of sound.” Brown produced and mixed all 12 tracks himself, and employed two engineers.
From 06 June 1998 - Melody Maker Magazine: Most of the actual recordings on the album stem from the home demos Brown recorded as he wrote the songs.
"I bought a Fostex eight-track and mixing desk. I decided I'd do as much as I could on an eight-track, with a view to taking it and swapping it over to 24. I've got a Groovetube pre-amp and compressor, a Fender Jazz 1973 bass, a Gibson 45 acoustic guitar and a Stratocaster from the Roses days.
"The best thing I've ever bought was the E-mu SP1200. I got all the soundcards in Brooklyn, I paid about £100 for about 200 soundcards they've got every drum on there.
"In the winter of 1996, I decided I was gonna stay in - not go to any nightclubs, not go to any bars, not waste any time, just stay in until I had ten or 12 songs done for the record. So that's what I did. Aziz [Ibrahim, guitarist and latter-day Roses Colleague] came round as I was writing and said he'd like to do a track with me. So we started fucking about and we ended up with "Corpses".
"The next day, he came round and said, 'I've got this music, what do you think of it?'. And it was the music for "My Star". I said, 'It's fantastic', so I put the lyrics and the melody over that and we had another one. Now I was thinking, 'Wow, me and Aziz are getting on really good, let's do another one'.
"I had "Ice Cold Cube", which I'd written on acoustic, so I said, 'We need brand new music behind this'. We'd played it at Reading, but it was too slow, it didn't really go. So we re-organised it, put it in shape, and there was another one." Barred. Did he have a specific way of approaching the songwriting? "I did it all different ways. Sometimes I'd start out with a drum pattern. But then I'd read that Otis Redding had written all his songs on an acoustic guitar, so that's what I really wanted to do.
"I wrote about three or four on the acoustic guitar, but at this time I only knew four or five chords. I couldn't do barre chords, I could just do E, C, D, A - so I was limited. "I got three or four songs out of the chords I knew, then I did a couple from basslines. Then I worked some melody lines out on keyboards, which is what we used to do with the Roses. Everything on that first Roses LP was written with an acoustic guitar and a Bontempi organ. So I wanted to try and keep it simple like that."
By the end of February last year, Brown decided that since he was out of contract, he'd self-finance the solo album.
"I had all the songs in shape and I'm thinking, 'What kind of sound do I want?' I wanted a kind of warm sound, so I was looking for old valve studios. The only one I could find outside of America was in France - Mike Hedges' studio - and I really wanted to go there, but it was booked up. So I found this place in London that Denise Johnson [sometime singer with Primal Scream and Electronic who duets with Brown on "Lions"] told me about Chiswick Reach, where they've got all the old gear.
"So I went down there, got a nice rate, just thought 'Right, this is what I'm gonna do. I transferred all my eight-tracks onto 24s, and then spent the next two or three weeks just building up - either pulling out the eights and replacing it, or just building on the eights."
But Brown admits the first few days of recording were something of a shock to his creative system.
"Initially, I was too full of confidence," he says. "I thought, 'I don't fully understand compression, but I can learn; I don't fully understand equalisation, but I can learn'.
"Once I got in the studio- 'cause it's a really old desk they've got in Chiswick Reach, it's like the cockpit of a fighter jet - I thought, 'Oh shit, I've blown it, I've took too much on - I don't have this knowledge I thought I had, I don't understand the sonic range of recordings'
"But luckily the engineer in there was really good, really patient, so by day three or day four, I was thinking, 'We're on a winner, I've done the right thing'. I could hear the sound coming back that we'd put on tape and it was just electric, it sounded great.
"At home, when I was learning how to use the eight-track and the desk, I realised I knew a lot more than I thought I did from all the time I spent being in studios with the Roses. Then [smiles] I realised I didn't know as much as I thought I did."...
2000 - Manchester Uni Paper, Ian Brown Interview: "When I read the first review and they said I was simian-like I took that as an offence when I read up what the word simian meant - It meant monkey-like. But the fact is that my arms are too long for my body. I don't like being called a monkey. But I meant Unfinished Monkey Business just as a joke, because they called me King Monkey. If you make records and you're gonna stick your head up, you have be prepared to have shots taken at you.
From 02 February 2000 - Adam Walton Interview for Adam Walton Show, BBC Wales Music, Wise Buddha, London: To me Unfinished Monkey Business sounded like someone stretching their wings, and Golden Greats sounds like someone in flight. IB: Very eloquently put! A nice thing to say, I think I'll use that myself. Making Unfinished Monkey Business and being accepted as a solo artist gave me the confidence to then go and make another record. The fact that people went out and bought it gave me the confidence. My Star was straight in at number five and I had no idea. With the Roses I knew we were great, I felt that we would achieve something. On my own I had no idea. It felt good to me, but I truly didn't have any idea what anyone else would think about it. The fact that people went out to buy it gave me the confidence that I'm on the right lines.
From 2000 - VH1's The Wire -FOOL'S GOLD: IAN BROWN by Alison Tarnofsky:
You have had some bad luck in the past with record labels and are on a brand new label in America. A lot of your past work and your prison term isn't really known here. Do you feel like you have a clean slate in a way?
The Polygram organization collapsed so I didn't have a label to release [the last record] on. But yeah, I feel like a brand new fresh start. I got a new LP and the millennium's been a great thing. It's like I can put all that behind me and say "The Stone Roses were a 20th century thing- I'm a 21st century man now." That's been a good thing to clean everything out.

04 February 1998 Wednesday - Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street, London
Notes: From 12:00 mid-day Ian appeared in-store. He was interviewed by, and spun records with, in-house DJ Claire Kember for about an hour. Ian played records including Sizzla, Buju Banton, Curtis Mayfield, Genius, Audioweb (Policeman Skank), Shabba Ranks and Bob Marley.
After a short break, Ian returned, 13:30, downstairs for an LP signing session. 500 people turned up throughout the day to see Ian. The signing session ran over by an hour, so Ian could meet all the fans. The event finished at approx 15:45. Ian signed copies of his the new LP, single and other memborilia too.
Has also been noted as "02 February 1998", "05 February 1998" by Q Magazine.
From 27 June 1998 - NME Magazine: Hundreds of fans packed into the London Oxford Street Virgin Megastore on February 4 when Brown made his first solo public appearance since the demise of The Stone Roses to DJ and sign autographs. Brown played mostly dub and reggae from artists including the hotly-tipped Sizzla during his hour-long DJ set.
From February 1998 - Melody Maker : CHIMP AND CHEERFUL. Ian in Virgin Megastores, London. IAN BROWN returned to public life last Wednesday by giving Virgin Megastore "one of the biggest personal appearances we've ever had" at their branch in London's Oxford Street.
One member of staff described the scenes as "just insane" as more than 500 people from all over the country strained for the first glimpse of Brown.
The queue was spiralling around the entire ground floor and down the stairs into the basement by the time Brown took his place in a glass booth upstairs.
There, from midday, he spent about an hour chatting to instore DJ Claire Kember about his debut solo album, "Unfinished Monkey Business", which had been released two days earlier.
As staff wondered whether or not to close the queue to avoid having to disappoint anybody, Kember played three tracks from the album, and Brown flexed his DJ muscle with some of his own turntable favourites. These included tracks by Ethiopia's up-and-coming reggae star Sizzla, Buju Banton, Curtis Mayfield, Genius, Audioweb and a Shabba Ranks song which jumped more than it played.
Asked about his favourite tracks from "Unfinished Monkey Business", Brown said he liked them all equally and that "they make me feel happy, delighted."
"Is there a real feeling of satisfaction?" inquired Claire, to which Brown retorted: "No, satisfaction can lead to complacency, which is dangerous."
There were questions about John Squire and the suspected references to him in Brown's lyrics.
Ian answered: "There's a couple of tunes where maybe he's mentioned, almost... A lot of people wrote a lot of things, you know... They keep carrying on about coke. It [the album] isn't about cocaine and it isn't about John Squire... Some people get too deep."
Kember played Brown's album track "Lions", which features Denise Johnson, and mentioned its reviews: "This track either instills hatred or absolute love, what do you think about that?" Brown replied, "It's like the Roses, y'know, they either loved us or hated us." Asked about his favourite UK or Irish artists and people he felt were "doing something good" at the moment, Brown enthused about Moke, Finlay Quaye and Audioweb, before playing Audioweb's forthcoming single, 'Policeman Skank', to be released in April.
The session finished with a Bob Marley track and Brown's declaration that of the five records he would take to a desert island, Marley's would account for three.
After a short break, Brown returned at 1.30pm, moving downstairs to meet the crowd, sign copies of his album, shake hands and answer fans' questions.
In a special photocall for the press, he told The Maker that the response at the store was "beautiful" and added: "If it [the album] goes to Number One, I'll be made up. At the moment, the biggest opposition is the 'Titanic', so just its existence is a success and that's enough for me."
Brown allowed his hour-long meet'n'greet with the fans to run over schedule by another hour so he could speak to everyone.
Elizabeth Martin, 16, from Orpington, Kent, had earlier told us: "He's just brilliant. I loved the Stone Roses and I think the album is excellent. I've bought a copy for him to sign... I just wanna meet him, I think he's an excellent bloke and he's just The Man. It's my brother's birthday and I'm gonna get me album signed for him."
Steven Belfrage, also 16, from Aylesbury, Bucks, said: "We went down to HMV first, cos we thought it was there, and we were really gutted. Then we came down here and saw loads of baggy people... As long as I see him, that's all that really matters.
"He's King Monkey, he's down-to-earth and original. He's come back and he's beat The Seahorses. It [the new LP] easily beats the Seahorses - they are basically Ocean Colour Scene... I reckon the album will swift into Number One probably, or definitely in the Top Five. I hope he'll play some festivals."
Steven added, in a reference to The Stone Roses' disasterous last performance at Reading Festival: "Maybe his voice will be better this time!"
Scott Debenham, 25, from Carshalton, Surrey, said of the long queue to meet Brown: "Anything from them is worth the wait. If it was any of the Stone Roses, I would have come. The album is brilliant, excellent. I've waited eight or nine years to meet him, so it was worth it."

M - 05 February 1998 - Ian Brown appears in City Life Magazine
Notes: See Media for CityLife article.

08 February 1998 Sunday - Ian Brown Interview by Pete Mitchell on Key 103 Radio
Notes: Key 103 Manchester.
Bootleg: FM - Tape

February 1998 - Michael Hogan gives Ian a poor review for his debut
Notes: Slime bag Michael Hogan gives Ian a poor review for his debut effort. Ian retaliates and Michael continues to write for the media, The Telegraph.
From The Telegraph, 27 October 2020 11:26am, Michael Hogan wrote: It’s Ian Brown.” Pause for effect. “Yeah, the Ian Brown.” Back in 1998, I was working on a pop culture magazine. One bleak winter’s afternoon, my desk landline (remember them?) rang. I picked up and the afternoon became even bleaker. I guessed why the former Stone Roses frontman was calling. The previous day, our latest issue had hit the shelves. It included my short but not terribly sweet verdict on Brown’s new album, Unfinished Monkey Business. As a huge fan of the Stone Roses, I’d eagerly volunteered to review his solo debut, but found it a mumbling, self-indulgent mess and said as much in print. I gave it one star out of five. What I didn’t know was how incandescent with rage he would be. He proceeded to tell me that he’d read my review and, in language too ripe to be repeated here, vowed violent retribution. His choice threats included the phrase: “I’m gonna come down there on the coach and give you a proper Manchester kicking”. I later appreciated how he’d specified the mode of transport. More thrifty than the train. Shaken by the call, I told my boss and mentor Mark Ellen – a terrific fellow who’d edited Smash Hits in its Eighties pomp, launched Q and Mojo, and presented The Old Grey Whistle Test. (Brilliantly, he was also in Tony Blair’s band Ugly Rumours at Oxford University.) His reaction was a mix of sympathy, sage advice and barely-concealed glee. Mark himself had once had his head banged repeatedly against a wall by Elvis Costello’s combative manager, Jake Riviera; one of his former NME colleagues was set on fire by Rat Scabies from The Damned, and another was left gaffer-taped to a tree in a desert by The Stranglers. Another of my bosses, Barry McIlheney (another ex-Smash Hits editor and founder of Empire magazine), left the Melody Maker office to find Kevin Rowland of Dexy’s Midnight Runners waiting outside with his fists raised, claiming Barry had misquoted him. They stopped traffic as their brawl spilled into the road. Being “duffed up” (as Mark put it) by disgruntled rock stars was, I realised, a journalistic rite-of-passage. Still, he recommended I call Brown’s record company and tell them that their “talent” was going around threatening critics, which presumably wasn’t part of their marketing strategy. They were effusive in their apologies, yet somehow gave me the impression this wasn’t the first time. My “Manchester kicking” never came. A few days later, a bunch of flowers arrived with a “Sorry” card from Brown. I strongly suspected it came from the press office and he knew nothing about it. For a time afterwards, if we happened to see Brown at a gig or festival, my friends and colleagues would boisterously shout over to him: “Ian! Look, he’s over here! Michael Hogan! One star! Manchester kicking! Now’s your chance!” Most amusing.

12 / 13 February 1998 - Kirsten Borchardt Interview
Notes: See Media for complete interview.

TV - 13 February 1998 - Canal+, Nulle Part Ailleurs, Paris, France
Corpses
Notes: French TV Show.
Broadcast: TV
Video Bootleg: TV Appearances Compilation Video (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Originally Priced: £17.00) Video (PAL) - Running Time (Approx): 150 mins
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances (90 mins) + Seahorses TV Appearances (60 mins) () (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Priced: £17) - VHS Video

13 February 1998 - Ian Brown BA1611 Flight Incident
Notes: Ian Brown, apparently, threatened to chop of Christine Cooper's (British Airways air hostess) hands off for trying to sell him duty free in Club Class. Ian was also accused of knocking on the cockpits door as it came in to land and for using threatening and abusive behaviour towards Christine Cooper and Captain Martin Drake. Flying from Charles de Gaulle Airpiort, Ian was arrested for the public order offence upon arrival in Manchester Airport.
Ian Brown, apparently said: “I said, ‘Don't wave your hand at me like that’,” “She apologised. I said, 'An apology's ok, but if you do it again I’ll cut your hand off.' I got four months for that."
Magistrates heard how Brown approached the door of the flight deck when the seat belt signs were on and the plane was coming in to land, and knocked repeatedly for 20 or 30 seconds as flight BA1611 began its descent into Manchester. Captain Drake radioed for police help after becoming concerned that someone was "potentially attempting to break in to the flight deck". Ian also, apparently, swore at the aircraft captain “piss off and have a shave”, Martin Drake, 43. Martin was also a part time magistrate for the courts.
Ian Brown, said: "The captain told lies. The captain is a magistrate. I did not defend myself because I did not do it . I never did it."
Mrs Cooper said: "I realised I had made a mistake. I offered him an apology with an open- palm gesture. As we were about to continue I heard him shout: `Hey, you'. I looked back. He said: `Don't you wave your ... hands at me. I'll chop your ... hands off.' I was immediately shocked ... I apologised, but he kept up the abuse in a threatening way, pointing a finger with a menacing tone."
Ian Brown would be found guilty of threatning and abusive behaviour, by Judge Simon Fawcus, but would appeal the sentence on 02 November 1998 - Monday. Ian's lawyer Adrian Mould's appeal was squashed and Ian returned to Strangeways Prison. Defence counsel Mr Paul Chambers said Brown had been in Paris for his first live performance as a solo artist and had little sleep before the incident took place. "He was an individual pushed to the limit ... it grew entirely over a misunderstanding on his part. "He was annoyed at being approached by the stewardess on the aircraft and said: 'I'll chop your hands off' - a phrase that came from one of his earlier songs. "He regrets his dreadful behaviour. It has had a major effect on his life. He spent the night in a police cell and four nights in prison. The shock of jail has been immense."
From March 1998 - NME Magazine: Ian Brown will appear at Manchester Magistrates' Court on March 13 following an incident on a Paris. Ian Brown, whose ‘Unfinished Monkey Business’ album reached Number Four in the UK charts in February, was arrested and charged with a public order offence at Manchester Airport last month. Brown’s arrest, which has only just come to NME‘s attention, occurred after an incident on a flight from Paris on Friday, February 13. A spokesman for Manchester Airport Police confirmed that a 36-year-old man had been arrested at the airport after a British Airways pilot radioed ahead for police to meet the flight. Brown was bailed to appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on March 13. His UK label, Polydor, have refused to comment on the incident. BA have also refused to comment until after the court hearing. Brown was travelling in Club Class with other members of his band following a promotional visit to Paris for the album.
21 April 2000 - Ian Brown appears in Leagues Magazine: "She [the air hostess] asks me if we want duty-free and she waves her hands dismissively. So I says 'don't wave your hand at me.' So she says 'OK' because she knew there was no need. So I say 'Sorry, it's OK but if you do it again I'll chop it off.' Five minutes later, the captain runs out, right up to the kid who's sat next to me, nose to nose [saying] 'Who's got a problem?' I said 'I've got a problem 'cos she's got no manners.' He said 'It's my plane and I've had to stand up.' 'So go and sit down.' So he went and sat down and that's when he phoned the police. They said was I pissed out of my head and I'd gone wild, but I don't even drink."
From 2002 Lindsay Baker Interview with Ian: His mother always told him that his mouth would get him into serious trouble one day. She was right. In February 1998, on a flight from Paris to Manchester, Brown became involved in an argument with a stewardess. She summoned the captain, and Brown, complaining that the staff were rude, hammered on the cockpit door. On landing, he was charged with threatening behaviour on board an aircraft. He maintains that he was made an example of: "To send a message out not to mess about on aircraft - but I never messed about on no aircraft. I didn't even swear."
23 May 2006 09:41 - The Daily Mail article by Piers Hernu: He can't talk about the air-rage incident that resulted in his imprisonment without a visible display of bitterness and outrage. "I was flying home on British Airways in first class from Paris with four black friends, two Asians and a couple of white kids, and our stewardess was not best pleased. She was obviously used to white middle-class guys with suits and ties. "Being teetotal I'd had nothing to drink, but when she brought round the duty free she waved her hand dismissively at me, which was rude, so I challenged her. She apologised and I said flippantly, 'Do it again and I'll chop it off.' 'Sometimes the best revenge you can have is success' "She didn't seem to mind but ten minutes later the captain came flying out of the cockpit to have a go, and when I got off the plane the police were waiting for me. "I was let out on bail but there was a genuine air-rage incident in Spain just before my court date, which put the subject in the news. They wanted to make an example of me. I was a free advertisement for BA, which needed to show they were enforcing the new laws."
03 October 2009 Saturday 00:07 - The Guardian Newspaper article, by Rich Pelley: You spent some time in Strangeways for air rage. Did you sing your cellmates to sleep? Everyone knew who I was. They also knew I wasn't a criminal. They wanted to know what the fuck I was doing in there. I wondered too. I didn't cuss the woman; I didn't swear at her. She had to lie to get me in jail. So did the captain. I never beat down the cockpit door. If I had they'd have charged me with endangering lives. They never did. I was jailed for using words I never used.
Pete Doherty gets arrested more often than most people clean their teeth. Got any advice? He's not going to get any benefit in prison. In Strangeways they threw drugs over the wall inside dead pigeons. You could get an ounce of weed inside a dead pigeon!...

20 February 1998 - Ian Brown's 35th birthday

Ian Brown - Vocals
Aziz Ibrahim - Guitar
Inder "Goldfinger" Matharu - Tabla & Percussion
Simon Moore - Drums
Sylvan Richardson - Bass Guitar

M - March 1998 - Ian Brown (& Aziz) appear on the cover of The Band (gigging, recording, making it) Magazine
Notes: 'Been there. Done it. Doing it again...Ian Brown on life after The Stone Roses.' See Media for the article.

M - 1998 - Ian Brown appears in Dazed & Confused (Spring Edition)
Notes: Interview conducted in a pub on Old Street. A Jamie Beeden photo shoot took place Winter 1997 with photos featuring in this publication. See Media for the article.

M - 1998 - Ian Brown features in Record Collector Magazine (Spring)
Notes: Interview conducted December 1997 - Hotel, Park Lane. See Media for the John Reed Interview/article.

03 March 1998 Tuesday - Big Issue Benefit Show, Blue Note, London
Little Wing / Corpses (In Their Mouths) / Can't See Me / My Star
Notes: Charity Show. Ian was advertised as the DJ but instead made his debut live with his band.

Ian Brown - 1998 - See The Dawn French CD Promo
See The Dawn
Come Again
Notes: France only Promo. With unique custom sleeve.

Ian Brown - 09 March 1998 - Corpses U.K. Release Date
Corpses sleeve photo taken by Corinne Day, Design and art direction by Mission.
Corpses In Their Mouths - Written by Ian Brown & Aziz Ibrahim. Published by Sony Music Publishing Ltd/Notting Hill Music (UK) Ltd. 1997. Recorded at Chiswick Studios, London & Longsight, Manchester & Tawny House & The Red Dragon Studios. Produced and Mixed by Ian Brown. Extra Production: Aziz Ibrahim. Recording Engineer: Nick Terry. Extra Recording Engineer: Nigel Luby. Mixed at The Forge Studios Oswestry. Mixing Engineer: Dave Hyatt.
Vocals & Harmonica: Ian Brown. Backing Vocals: Aziz Ibrahim / Noel Norman Walters. Guitar, Bass Guitar and Drums: Aziz Ibrahim.
Jesus On The Move - Written by Ian Brown. Recorded at The Red Dragon Studios. Produced & mixed by Ian Brown. Backing Vocals by David Brown.
Lions (with Denise) - Written by Ian Brown. Recorded at Chiswick Studios, London & Longsight, Manchester & Tawny House & The Red Dragon Studios. Produced and Mixed by Ian Brown. Extra Production: Aziz Ibrahim. Recording Engineer: Nick Terry. Extra Recording Engineer: Nigel Luby. Mixed at The Forge Studios Oswestry. Mixing Engineer: Dave Hyatt. Vocals by Denise Johnson. All instruments by Ian Brown.
Promo Video Directed by Lawrence Watson.
CD
Corpses
Jesus On The Move
Lions (With Denise)
Limited Edition 7inch Vinyl
Cassette
CD Promo
Corpses (Clean Version)
Notes: The single got to number 14 in the U.K. charts and number 26 in the Irish charts. U.K Promo Poster and Polydor promos noted '23.03.98', not sure which is correct date? 23 March 1998. New tracks feature on all formats'. See 17 March 1999 for the Japanese E.P CD
The photo on the sleeve of Corpses shows Ian's hand bandaged after he was attacked by an man with an iron/steel bar.

13 March 1998 - Ian Brown appears in Manchester Magistrates' Court relating to the British Airways BA1611 Paris Flight Incident
Notes: Ian Brown was formally charged with threatening and abusive behaviour following his arrest.

TV - 20 March 1998 - TFI Friday (Thank Four It's Friday), Channel 4 TV Studio, London
Corpses
Notes: T.F.I. Friday, Series 3, Channel 4 TV Programme. Jerry Sadowitz, Kylie Minogue, Ian Brown, Morcheeba, Warm Jets also appeared on the show.
The series ran over 4 years and included 205 episodes with long term cast Chris Evans, Will Macdonald and Andrew Carey. The show made a brief, unwelcome, comeback in 2015.
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 150 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) / Ian 30 minute interview, 1998 - never broadcast! / Ian The Works Documentary, 2001 - Video VHS (PAL, NTSC)
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos DVD (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 120 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) - DVD

TV - 1998 - Top Of The Pops, BBC Studios, London
Corpses
Notes:
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 150 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) / Ian 30 minute interview, 1998 - never broadcast! / Ian The Works Documentary, 2001 - Video VHS (PAL, NTSC)
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos DVD (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 120 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) - DVD

1998 - Ian Brown visits Jamaica
Notes: Paul Moody from the NME interviews Ian whilst he is there. Ian is with his manager Noel Walters. They visited Blue Mountain Hills and then Kingston. They flew British Airways (1504) to Miami via Kingston. Initially they intended to meet Sizzla but the meeting was cancelled. They visited The Bob Marley Museum, 56 Hope Road, Kingston 6, former residence of Robert Nesta Marley. Ian said: “Someone asked me what my Top Ten records would be and I said they’d be ten Marley LPs,” See 21 March 1998 - NME in the Media section for the article.

21 March 1998 - Ian Brown appears in NME Magazine
Notes: ‘i LOVE KEEPiNG OUT OF TROUBLE, ME…’ by Paul Moody, Photos taken by Hamish Brown. See Media for article.
“Yeah, I love collaboration,” he stresses, warming to the theme, “that’s what it’s all about. I’m working on this tune at the moment with DJ Shadow. I haven’t got a title yet. And this kid sent me a mix the other day of ‘My Star’ and I rang him up, I’m gonna put it on the B-side of the next single. Maybe I can get the kid hooked up with some good people…”
Ian Brown mentions, The Charlatans singer, Tim Burgess: “… I didn’t lay into anybody. I just said that this kid (Tim Burgess) imitates me. I’ve seen him, I know he does because me family laugh at him. I’m not laying into nobody by saying that. But if I’m supposed to be sat here saying the kid done great, well I can’t, because for me he didn’t… (pause)… but y’know, I like him, he’s a nice kid…”

31 March 1998 - Big Issue Fundraiser Event, Blue Note, London
Notes: Ian's live debut. Ian Brown explained: “Aziz Ibrahim and drummer Simon Moore appear on ‘Unfinished Monkey Business’, and Inder and Sylvan were chosen for their musical skills.”
The Line up included:
Former Trans-Global Underground and Fun^Da^Mental percussionist - Inder Matharu (Goldfinger)
Former Eek-A-Mouse and Maxi Priest drummer - Simon Moore
Former Simply Red bass player - Sylvan Richardson Jr
Former Simply Red guitarist and Stone Roses guitarist - Aziz Ibrahim

April 1998 - Ian Brown meets DJ Shadow
Notes: UNKLE collaboration begins.
From 21 March 1998 - NME: “Yeah, I love collaboration,” he stresses, warming to the theme, “that’s what it’s all about. I’m working on this tune at the moment with DJ Shadow. I haven’t got a title yet. And this kid sent me a mix the other day of ‘My Star’ and I rang him up, I’m gonna put it on the B-side of the next single. Maybe I can get the kid hooked up with some good people…”
From 02 February 2000 - Adam Walton Interview for Adam Walton Show, BBC Wales Music, Wise Buddha, London: AW: THERE'S A BRILLIANT MIX OF THE SINGLE (Dolphins Were Monkeys) BY UNKLE, EXTENDING A COLLABORATION THAT BEGAN WITH YOU RECORDING 'BE THERE' WITH THEM AND SOME SUBSEQUENT LIVE DATES, HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH JAMES AND DJ SHADOW? IB: James sent me the tape (James Lavelle - head honcho of Mo Wax Records) with the song on it, telling me about the album (Psyence Fiction) and who he would like to appear on it... I listened to it and thought that it didn't need vocals, as a piece of music. So it was released as an instrumental called 'Unreal' on Psyence Fiction, but even after it was released James was still keen for me to do some vocals on it... so he's kind of bullied me into attempting it! So, I sent him a tape and he's just loved it and he released it.

April 1998 - Ian Brown appears in Melody Maker's singles review pages.
Notes: The remarks, belowm came in response to hearing Divine Comedy's "Marvellous Party" single for Twentieth Century Blues - The Songs of Noel Coward, the proceeds of which went to the Red, Hot, Blue Aids charity.
"I don't trust the British fascination with homosexuals. All the best heroes in England are pantomime dames, you know, Danny La Rue. From working-class neighbourhoods right through to the Queen Mother, the hero is the man dressing up as the woman and I don't trust that shit, me."
Why the hell not? "Violence comes from Romans, Nazis, Greeks - they were all homosexual. And I've got gay friends that will back me up. I just think Noel Coward is an old tosser who got on with the Queen Mother and ... I don't think he's anything to be idolised. He's their hero, not ours."
Ian Brown, Melody Maker
From 03 April 1998 Friday 00:02 - The Independent, Jennifer Rodger article:
"It just came out of nowhere," says Ian Watson, Melody Maker's singles editor. "We printed it word for word, exactly how it was said." Those involved with Twentieth Century Blues were hesitant to get involved. A spokesperson said: "Ian Brown's review of the Divine Comedy single is a personal point of view," adding that Neil Tennant, who conceived the project, "is appalled by Ian Brown's obviously stupid remarks, but doesn't want to enter into a public row."
Why did Melody Maker run the piece? "We felt if we were to take it out that would be protecting Ian Brown," Watson said. "I re-interviewed him on the phone and was amazed that he brought it up again. And the fact that he did, completely unprompted, was a real shock. If we cover it up we are working on the side of homophobia and helping hatred."
16 August 1998 Sunday 00:02 - The Independent, Kira Jolliffe Interview: "It was misconstrued and misrepresented by people being cheap and wanting to make a name for themselves. It's a reminder that not everybody is seeking to make things more intelligent,"

May 1998 - Ian Brown appears in court (again) relating to the British Airways BA1611 Paris Flight Incident
Notes: Ian will appear at Manchester’s City Magistrates’ Court on October 22 and 23. His defence team have called another pre-trial hearing (his third) for next month (June) in order to hear from more witnesses.

26 May 1998 Tuesday - Ian Brown DJ Set - The Breezeblock Session, BBC Radio 1, London
Notes: Ian Brown Session playing his choice of records.
Bootleg: Breezeblock Session (one long track, times in at 1:01:00 includes the BBC news interlude too.

May 1998 - Making Music Interview, Belgravia Square, London
Notes: See 06 June 1998 - Melody Maker Article in Media for the story.

Ian Brown
Aziz Ibrahim - Guitar
Inder Matharu (Goldfinger) - Percussion
Simon Moore - Drums
Sylvan Richardson Jr - Bass

Ian Brown
Aziz Ibrahim - Guitar
Inder 'Goldfinger' Mathrau - Percussion
Sylvan Richardson - Drums
Simon Moore - Bass

30 May 1998 Saturday - Umea Festival, Sweden
Notes: Umea, northern Sweden. Ian DJ'd before coming onstage. According to Q Magazine Ian came on stage as outdoor festival headliner at 1am - in bright daylight, due to the georgraphical location - the gig had been a catalogue of disasters, played out in front of 300 people in a 15,000 capacity field.
March 2000 - Jockey Slut Magazine includes a Ian Brown Q&A Session: Have you ever considered Djing like so many pop stars seem to these days? Christina Agar, Newcastle. "I did a couple of nights in Sweden in '98 before I came out singing. But it was hard work. One of the turntables broke down, then the CD player. I did it for two nights. I was offered another two nights in Belgium and I said 'Forget it'. It's too much like hard graft, that."

31 May 1998 Sunday - Studion Club, Stockholm, Sweden
Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / My Star
Notes: Martin Gardner took photos for the media. Ian is two hours late for the soundcheck. Despite a cold Ian carried on and played the show, he also DJ'd before coming onstage.
From July 1998 - Q Magazine Article by Tom Doyle article. (Includes photos from 31 May 1998 Sunday - Studion Club, Stockholm, Sweden, taken by Martin Gardner.)
The Future Is Or.... Amidst a brewing storm of media hostility, Ian Brown is in Scandinavia practising being a live act. Observers at The Stone Roses' risible Reading might say he needs it. But, perhaps quixotically, the self-appointed King Monkey has no Fear for the Future. "I'm more into it now," he tells Tom Doyle.
He hasn't turned up yet. But then, when it comes to being late, nobody does it better than Ian Brown. Eventually, he arrives with a pimp—rolling swagger all too familiar to anyone casually acquainted with the manner ofone Liam Gallagher. The shoulders are cockily pinned back, the knuckles seemingly trailing below the knees. There is a heavy alr of nonchalance.
In this instance, Brown has a decent excuse for his creative take on the punctuality thing. It is mid way through a three-date, warrn-up tour of Scandinavia — the first real dates the singer has negotlated since the implosion of The Stone Roses — and he is choking with 'flu. As a result, he has spent most of the day in bed, regularly wringing the sweat out of his T-shirt. Two hours after he was expected for a soundcheck at Stockholm's 400-capacity Studion club, Brown rolls up in a cab — wearing two-dollar shades and with an anorak zipped up to his neck arm-in-arm with Mexican girlfriend Fabriola Quiroz. Throwing open the car door, he hawks and deposits aprojectile grolly close to the feet of a gag gle of Swedish fans.
This is not the most opportune moment for the singer to get ill. Despite having the odds stacked against him (of the former Stone Roses only John Squire was deemed talented enough to outlive the band), Brown's solo album, Unfinished Monkey Business, Ins tallied nearly 200,000 in sales.
More recently, a pitiably dim foray into controversial me - '"Violence comes from Romans, Nazis, Greeks. They were all homosexual " - placed further question marks againsthis longevity. These live dates are effectively dress rehearsals for Brown make-or-break return to the UK live arena during October.
Given the critical mauling he suffered at the Reading Festival in 1996, where the Squire-less Roses were put to an agonising, tuneless death, there is still much to prove to his legion of detractors. Naturally, the trauma has failed to dent Brown's confidence one iota.
"Did it fuck!" he snorts. "I knew I was never going to be the greatest singer, y'know. But it's just about expression, innit? I know actually that I'm a way way better singer than I've ever been able to record. When I do impressions of other people, when I do Jimi (Hendrix) or whatever, I can sing way better than when I do my own songs."
As if to reinforce the point, when he and his four-piece, multi-racial band take to the Studion stage at the second number is a sweet rendi-tion of Hendrix's Little Wing. Brown stares blankly into the mid-distance, shuffling throughout and maintaining maximum attitude. Perhaps to his own amazement, when the band fire up the military backbeat to comeback single My Star, a sea of hands reach Out in an effort to touch their icon. Iconically,
Brown coughs his way through the opening lines flobs onto the stage and then offers a powerful, largely note-perfect delivery.
Backstage, the mood is livelier than the virtually alcohol-free dressing room environment might suggest, although the band members are clearly itching for a joint or three. "Weedless Sweden! Not even a seed!" hollers (perhaps lapsed) Sikh percussionist Inder Mathrau, baiting a Swedish fan. "You would think with all the fresh air and land out here, you'd be growing fields of the stuff."
It is agreed that tonight's show tops the previous evening performance in Umea, northern Sweden. Arriving on stage as outdoor festival headliners at
1am - in bright daylight, due to the Pole-skirting location - the gig had been a catalogue of disasters, played out in front of 300 people in a 15,000 capacity field....
"I don't feel no rivalry with The Seahorses... - I make music for the people, John Squire makes music for himself."

01 June 1998 Monday - Aarhus Huest, Denmark
04 June 1998 Thursday - Caribana Festival, Crans-sur-Nyon, Switzerland

06 June 1998 - Ian Brown features on the front cover of Melody Maker Magazine
Notes: See Media for the Interview/article. Tom Doyle article.
From 2000 - Q Magazine Cash For Questions: Do you still feel the same about homosexuality? Although not strictly an activist, I've boycotted buying your albums. It may be my loss musically, but I could never knowingly support someone in favour of hatred. Alex Cho, by email.
Who wrote that? (Reads name) Well, Alex, you're a mug because you are believing the words of some Journalist over me. I'm not down on homosexuality, never have been. I marched against Clause 28 in Manchester in 1987. I went and supported people who were under attack, and I played a benefit gig. Me and my girlfriend used to live with a gay guy' and he would cook tea for us every night and he's one ofthe campest guys around. I've known gay people all my life and to this day they still throw their arms around me and kiss me on the cheek. They know the truth.
What I was talking about in that article was simply the fact that the Greek civilisation was basically a homosexual civilisation, and to the Romans Julius Caesar was every wife. But that doesn't make me down on gays, I was going to sue the Melody Maker for that, but I was told it would cost me £30,000 and the fact that I'd had a threatenig behaviour charge would inevitably act against me in court.
From 2002 Lindsay Baker Interview with Ian: In 1998, some incoherent remarks he made to Melody Maker, linking the military force and violence of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Nazis to homosexuality, prompted astonishment and disapprobation. He insists his words were twisted. The subject of conversation was a Noel Coward record, "and I went on too much. I'd been reading about it and it was on my mind". He claims that he was simply making the point that the main power bases in Europe were well known for being cultures in which homosexuality was commonplace. "It was just the knowledge of history," he says, adding that he received a letter from a university professor saying that he had his facts right. "It happened. Me saying Hitler happened, that doesn't make me a Nazi. I was saying it happened, not putting anyone down." His voice brims with indignation. "It annoys me, because the gay people I've known all my life might read that and think I've gone like this." Clearly, Brown prides himself on his intellectual curiosity - he reads voraciously, on all manner of obscure historical and spiritual subjects - but it's easy to see how his musings might be misinterpreted; there is a righteous edge to his conversation, a sense of a clear-cut moral universe. There is good and bad in Ian Brown's world, pure and impure, black and white. His thinking has its own unequivocal, internal logic, and although his principles may not be the most fashionable, some do make sense. Family life: good. Marijuana: good. The music business: bad - "It's a filthy business. If you're a superstar, you can get supplied with young children, if that's your thing." Class A drugs: bad - "They take all comers". Including ecstasy. "The best thing it did was it finished football hooliganism - bullies and hooligans were finished overnight. But if you were doing five Es a night, then you were going to pay for that - the rave scene ended up like ancient Rome, just getting out of your face for the sake of it, and it isn't about that, is it ?" And cocaine: "I've watched people turning into a bag of dirty washing in an hour. It actually takes your love away, it doesn't increase it. And if you take cocaine, you're contributing to the system where gangsters force poor farmers to live in poverty." Alcohol: bad. "It numbs you." And a very drunk woman is worse than a very drunk man: "I hate to see anyone demeaning themselves with alcohol, but with a man you expect it, because a man's half beast, anyway." Sexual promiscuity: bad. He "monked it" on tour in 1995, after the break-up with his partner.
From Ian Brown Interview 1999 for City Life Magazine, published 2000: In 1988 I organised an anti-Clause 28 benefit gig and approached The Stone Roses to play. They were only too pleased to do it. Ian put down a heckler who questioned why they were onstage for a cause like that. I’m telling you this because it impacts on an incident that blighted Ian Brown’s early post-Roses career. In April 1998 he caused a furore in Melody Maker when he talked about the part homosexuality played in violent Greek, Roman and Nazi cultures in a way that many people took to be homophobic. But I had first hand knowledge of his commitment to gay causes. He did the benefit gig but also went on the demo; there was a picture of the march in Gay News and Ian, Reni and John are right at the front (Mani didn’t come on the march because he thought that Moston would laugh at him, says Ian).
Ian doesn’t retract what he was quoted as saying, nor does he say he was misquoted; “I’ve had letters from university professors and students telling me that historically I’m correct, but I was probably talking about an issue that was too complex for the singles page in Melody Maker.” He does regret, however, that a negative spin was put on his ideas, and the context of his own life was ignored; “In 1988 we walked with those gay people in Manchester. In these days of political correctness it’s easy to be politically correct, but I was there ten years ago. “We used to go to gay clubs, Heroes, the Number One club; we’ve come out of a city where we’ve never had prejudice. In my own mind I’ve got peace of mind because I know I’m not homophobic. I’ve got the same gay friends who’ve I’ve known and loved in Manchester since I was 16.”

Ian Brown - 08 June 1998 - Can't See Me U.K. Release Date
Photography by Fabiola Quiroz. Sleeve design by Ian Brown & Mission.
Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Remix) / (Bacon & Quarmby Vocal Dub) - Written by Ian Brown / Gary 'Mani' Mountield. Published by Sony Music Publishing Ltd. Vocals: Ian Brown. Guitar & Bass: Kevin Bacon. Keyboards: Jonathan Quarmby and Andy Cook. Organ: Jonathan Quarmby. Produced by Ian Brown. Recorded at Chiswick Reach Studios, London & The Red Dragon Studios. Engineered by Nick Terry. Additional Production and Mix by Kevin Bacon & Jonathan Quarmby for Manna Productions.
Can't See Me (Harvey's Invisible Mix) - Produced by Ian Brown. Additional Production and Mix by Harvey, Remixed by Harvey for The Unmanageable. Remix recorded and mixed at Sound Suite Studios, Camden, London. Additional guitar - N. Heywood. Engineered by Nick Terry, Remix Engineered by J. Gordon Hastings.
Under The Paving Stones: The Beach (Gabriel's 13th Dream Remix) - Written by Ian Brown. All instruments by Ian Brown. Produced by Ian Brown. Recorded: Chiswick Reach Studios, London & The Red Dragon Studios. Engineered by Nick Terry. Remix and additional production - Samuel for Gabriel's 13th Dream.
Remix Engineer - Duncan Cameron at Riverside Studios, Glasgow.
All Instruments - Ian Brown.

Promo Video Directed by Dolores Remedios.
Label: Polydor
Advance Tape Polydor Limited 6 Track Cassette.
Can't See Me / Can't See Me (Harvey's Invisible Mix) / Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Remix) / Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Vocal Dub) / Come Again (Part 2) / Under The Paving Stones: The Beach (Gabriel's 13th Dream Mix)
Promo 12inch Vinyl 567 093-1 PY 102 LC 0309
Matrix Side A: 567-093-1+A ORLAKE
Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Remix)
Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Vocal Dub)
Can't See Me (Harvey's Invisible Mix)
Can't See Me (Harvey's Instrumental Mix)
Under The Paving Stones: The Beach (Gabriel's 13th Dream Remix)
7inch Vinyl
Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Remix)
Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Vocal Dub)
CD1
Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Remix)
Can't See Me (Harvey's Invisible Mix)
Come Again (Part 2)
ECD: My Star (CD-ROM Video)
CD2 044 047-2
Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Remix)
Can't See Me (Bacon & Quarmby Vocal Dub)
Under The Paving Stones: The Beach (Gabriel's 13th Dream Remix)
ECD: Corpses (CD-ROM Video)
Notes: The single got to number 21 in the U.K. charts. Conflicting date with 08 May 1998?
I always preferred the promo sleeve with the doctors eye chart design. Dolores would later work with Ian again on some of his promo videos, see Whispers, Keep What Ya Got, T.I.M.E. etc.
According to the NME "The remix of ‘Under The Paving Stone…’, the introduction to the album, is actually an unsolicited version sent to Ian by a fan.".

TV - June 1998 - Top Of The Pops, BBC Studios, London
Can't See Me
Notes: Casey Brown, Frankie Brown & Fabiola Quiroz appear with Ian on the long term BBC Music Chart TV show.
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 150 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) / Ian 30 minute interview, 1998 - never broadcast! / Ian The Works Documentary, 2001 - Video VHS (PAL, NTSC)
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos DVD (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 120 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) - DVD

TV - 12 June 1998 - TFI Friday (Thank Four It's Friday), Channel 4 TV Studio, London
Can't See Me
Notes: T.F.I. Friday, Series 3, Channel 4 TV Programme. George Best, Zoe Ball, Bernard Butler, Hanson also appeared on the show.
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 150 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) / Ian 30 minute interview, 1998 - never broadcast! / Ian The Works Documentary, 2001 - Video VHS (PAL, NTSC)
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos DVD (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 120 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) - DVD

Live Monkey Business Tour
19 June 1998 Friday - The Stage, Stoke-On-Trent, Stoke * Support Act(s): DJ Madface
Ice Cold Cube / Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Nah Nah / Corpses / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me / Unknown (Tambourine Jam) / Sunshine
Notes: Debut Ian Brown solo performance. Billed on his official website (http://www.ianbrown.co.uk) as a ‘secret’ gig in an 'intimate' venue. Tickets went on sale 09 June 1998 with a limit of two tickets per transaction.
Explaining the reasoning behind the secret gigs, Brown said: “I decided to play small clubs to give people a chance to experience the music in a hot, crowded situation. I am looking forward to seeing a few smiling faces and to help get everybody moving. I feel really excited about live shows. My band are really tight and powerful. We’re capable of throwing some great parties!”
Support on all dates comes from Manchester DJ Madface who DJed on the British leg of the last Stone Roses world tour.
From March 1998 - The Band (gigging, recording, making it) Magazine. Ian said: So it'll be yourself, Aziz, Nigel Ippinson on keyboards and Simon Moore on drums? "Actually, Reni's offered to play drums, but I'd rather he concentrated on his own stuff and getting out and about again this year. We still need a bass player."
16 February 2000 Wednesday - music365.com Ian Brown Q & A Session: My-Star: What are your opinions on bootlegs? I don't think they rip anyone off. People who tend to get bootlegs are usually big fans of the band & get everything available. Ian: Yeah, I agree. You can bootleg me any day you want.
Bootleg: Audience Recording - (Tape) - Ice Cold Cube / Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Nah Nah / Corpses / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me - Unknown (Tambourine Jam) / Sunshine
Bootleg: Ice Cold Cube (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Originally Priced: £12) - CD-R - Intro / Ice Cold Cube / Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Nah Nah / Corpses / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me / Unknown (Tambourine Jam) / Sunshine
Bootleg: King Monkey () Audience Recording with bonus 'FM' tracks
Bootleg: Monkey Magic (Copy of King Monkey without the bonus tracks) - Audience Recording
Bootleg: Monkey Magic (G-Productions Compact Discs.) - CDR - Audience Recording - Intro / Ice Cold Cube / Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Nah Nah / Corpses / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me - Bonus Tracks: Corpses (1998 - Live London) / Can't See Me (1998 - Live London) / High Time (The Stone Roses August 1996 - Reading Festival, TV) / Waterfall (The Stone Roses 1988 - Demo) / Sugar Spun Sister (The Stone Roses February 1989 - Hacienda, Manhcester TV) / Guernica (The Stone Roses reversed)

20 June 1998 Saturday - Zodiac, Oxford * Support Act(s): DJ Madface
Notes: Tickets went on sale 09 June 1998 with a limit of two tickets per transaction. Billed on his official website (http://www.ianbrown.co.uk) as a ‘secret’ gig in an 'intimate' venue.
21 June 1998 Sunday - Guildhall, Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Notes: Tickets went on sale 09 June 1998 with a limit of two tickets per transaction. Billed on his official website (http://www.ianbrown.co.uk) as a ‘secret’ gig in an 'intimate' venue.

23 June 1998 Tuesday - Tivoli, Buckley, Wales * Support Act(s): DJ Madface
Notes: Tickets went on sale 09 June 1998 with a limit of two tickets per transaction. Billed on his official website (http://www.ianbrown.co.uk) as a ‘secret’ gig in an 'intimate' venue.
Bootleg: King Monkey () (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Priced: £12) - CD-R
Bootleg: Audience Recording - FLAC (Johnky transfer)

June 1998 - Phase One, Wrexham * Support Act(s): DJ Madface
Notes: Unconfirmed specific date. Tickets went on sale 09 June 1998 with a limit of two tickets per transaction. Billed on his official website (http://www.ianbrown.co.uk) as a ‘secret’ gig in an 'intimate' venue.

24 June 1998 Wednesday - Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth * Support Act(s): DJ Madface
Notes: Tickets went on sale 09 June 1998 with a limit of two tickets per transaction. Billed on his official website (http://www.ianbrown.co.uk) as a ‘secret’ gig in an 'intimate' venue.

*Unconfirmed* 26 June 1998 Friday - Glastonbury Festival, New Bands Tent, Pilton, Somerset * *
From The Telegraph, 27 October 2020 11:26am, Michael Hogan wrote: As the record company had implied, Brown had form for this sort of thing. He also took issue with something a female music journalist had written and aggressively berated her at Glastonbury festival in front of his entourage, leaving the 23-year-old in tears. Even then, Brown wouldn’t leave it, referencing the offending article in the spoken word lyrics to a B-side.

Conflicting date: 27 June 1998 Saturday - Glastonbury Festival, Second Stage, Pilton, Somerset
Notes: Ian headlines the stage.
From 27 June 1998 - NME Magazine: 27 June 1998 Glastonbury - In this week’s NME, Brown says: “I’ve not got enough material at the minute for headline tours, so I’m doing festivals. I’ve never been (to Glastonbury) before and 80,000 people tripping in the mud doesn’t sound like much fun.”
“I didn’t get a chance to play Glastonbury with the Roses. It’s something I’m really looking forward to. I’d also like to reach the people who’ve never heard of me.”
Brown is to headline the second stage on Saturday night...Meanwhile, Brown is refusing to apologise for his recent criticism of Tim Burgess, which saw The Charlatans singer avoid the NME Brat Awards With Miller Genuine Draft in case he ran into Brown. Brown told us: “Look, I like the kid, he’s a nice kid, but yeah, my friends and family do laugh at him, and that’s it. If that’s for real that he didn’t go that night ‘cos he thought I’d be there, that’s a shame. That’s bullshit. If it had been on Wednesday, I would have been there, I’d have loved to have gone. But I was in Brighton, I was on a date with a girl that I’d promised her for ages.”
Not sure which Select Magazine issue this was for...
16 August 1998 Sunday 00:02 - The Independent, Kira Jolliffe Interview: His dark side isn't far behind, however. He got caught up in a typically Brownian piece of bad publicity at Glastonbury: "I did an interview with Select," he recounts, "and when the journalist wrote it up she put 'Ian Brown's oft-remarked manly odour wasn't present today.' Now what did that mean? Do people go about saying 'Ian Brown's got BO'? I don't think they do because I know I don't. [Readers, it's true, he doesn't smell.] So I said to her 'What do you mean, oft-remarked?' and she says 'Oh I had this one letter.' So I says 'Well one letter from someone who met me saying Ian Brown stinks is not an oft-remarked thing is it?' So she said 'Oh, I'm sorry.' Well, sorry's okay, but she had the freedom and power to write anything she wanted. So I told her to 'F*** off the bus, you stink.' The girl went mad, you shouldn't speak to people like that, but the fact is she wanted a cheap laugh."

11 July 1998 Saturday - Big Day Out, Galway, Republic of Ireland
Notes:
Bootleg: Audience Recording

12 July 1998 Sunday - T-In The Park Festival, NME Tent, Balado, Kincross, Scotland * Doors Open: 18:00 * Ticket Price: £29.50 (Day Ticket) £54.00 (Weekend Ticket) * Support Act(s): Natalie Imbruglia, Bernard Butler, The Aloof, Asian Dub Foundation, Alabama 3, Scott 4, Medal and more.
Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Nah Nah / Corpses / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Ice Cold Cube / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me / Sunshine
Notes: Seahorses performed on the Saturday, it is unconfirmed if Ian met with John during the festival. Festival Slot, Ian was second to headliner Portishead in the NME Tent.
From 1998 - Top Of The Pops Q&A: Taity asks: "what is your favourite band Ian?? Is it the Seahorses????" Ian Brown: "Surprisingly, it isn't. No, Taity. But it would be James Brown's "All Stars"."
From October 1997 - Melody Maker Magazine: Brown, whose current favourites run from Wu-Tang Clan to Jamaica’s Anthony B, isn’t that impressed by The Seahorses. “They sound like what they are,” he said. “A quarter of one band. They do sound poor, I’ve gotta say.”.
Bootleg: Doing The Business (1998 Wonder Boy Records. Cat. No. W.B.007. Leeds V98, T-In The Park 98. Wonder Boy Record 007. Matrix: WB-007) CD
Bootleg: Monkey Man Vs The Squire ("classic Ian Brown set from T in the Park 11/7/98") (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Priced: £12) - CD-R
Bootleg: THE SEAHORSES & IAN BROWN - T IN THE PARK 1998 (G-Productions Compact Discs. Originally priced at £13 plus £1 in the U.K.) - 2 CDR - Audience/Audience - CDR1 12 July 1998 Sunday - T-In The Park Festival Ian Brown: Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Nah Nah / Corpses / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Ice Cold Cube / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me / Sunshine - Bonus Track: Interview with Jo Whiley, Radio 1 - CDR2 11 July 1998 Saturday - T-In The Park Festival Seahorses: Tomb Raid / Blinded By The Sun / One In A Million / I Want You To Know / Love Me And Leave Me / Round The Universe / City In The Sky / You Can Talk To Me / Moth / Moving On / Love Is The Law - Bonus Track: Unreleased / unedited interview for KWVA Eugene, US Radio

14 July 1998 Tuesday - Clickimin Centre, Lerwick, Scotland
Notes: Lerwick is a tiny island off the North East coast of Scotland. The only other band i've known play there was The Smiths.

02 August 1998 - Fuji Festival, Tokyo Bay, Japan * Supporting: Primal Scream
Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Nah Nah / Corpses / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Ice Cold Cube / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me
Notes: Bootleg date noted as 'Fuji Festival, Tokyo Bay, Japan 2/8/98' and sometimes 08 August 1998.
Primal Scream came on after Ian. Mani met Ian at the show and they had a minor disagreement but remained friends.
From September - October 1999 - On Target Magazine, Mani Interview: Have you spoken to Ian Brown recently? "Last time I seen Ian was about this time last year at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, he was on before us and we had a little bit of a falling out over something and nothing but we're mates, you know what I mean? He's been a busy boy, I've been a busy boy - when we meet up with each other it'll be business as usual - I want him to get another scooter so we can get the old gang back together!"...
Bootleg: Climb Every Mountain (Catalogue Number SEM173) Audience Recording - Bonus Track: Processed Beats (Kasabian) vs. Waterfall (The Stone Roses) (Processed Mash aka Mix 10" Bootleg)
Bootleg: Tape () (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Priced: £7) - Fuji Festival, Japan 2/8/98
Bootleg: Its Alright She Said It’s Alright! Take Anything You Want from Me ("Live Japan / Studio Lives 1998 / Live with Uncle (3 tracks / 6 tracks / 2 tracks)") CD-R Audience Recording - Bonus Tracks:
Bootleg: Live Under A Mountain () CD-R
Bootleg: Gettin' Higher (Gettin Higher (10 November 1999 Wednesday - Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London + 08 August 1998 - Fuji Festival, Tokyo Bay, Japan + 1999 - Evening Sessions) (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Priced: £12) - CD-R

TV - MTV Up For It
Sunshine
Notes:
Bootleg: V98, Chelmsford 23/8/98 (G-Productions Compact Discs.) - CDR - FM Recording - Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me - Bootleg Bonus Tracks: V98 Interview - Corpses (Live) / Sunshine (MTV Up For It) / Corpses (Jo Whiley Acoustic) / My Star (Jo Whiley Acoustic) / Morassi (Aziz Ibrahim - Middle Road E.P. Track)
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown: The Interviews DVD (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). "" Originally Priced: £17) Ian on the Jo Whiley Show, 1998 / Ian MTV Interview, 1998 (*never broadcast, exclusive to IAWS*) / Ian The Works Documentary, 2002

TV - MTV
Ice Cold Cube
Notes: Unconfirmed if the same session as above. There's an unbroadcast interview with Ian which runs for approx 30 minutes, it was recorded in 1998 and is unconfirmed but was meant to be for MTV. It is unknown why it was never broacast and where the video was leaked from. The interview was available on several bootlegs in the earl 2000's.
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 150 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) / Ian 30 minute interview, 1998 - never broadcast! / Ian The Works Documentary, 2001 - Video VHS (PAL, NTSC)
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown TV Appearances/Promos DVD (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Running Time (Approx): 120 mins. Originally Priced: £17.00) Corpses (Promo video) / My Star (Promo video) / My Star (Top Of The Pops) / Corpses (Live on TFI Friday) / Corpses (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Can't See Me (Promo video) / Can't See Me (Live on TFI Friday) / Can't See Me (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Ice Cold Cube (Live on MTV) / Be There (Promo video) / Be There (Live at NME Premier Show) / Be There (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on TFI Friday) / Love Like A Fountain (Promo video) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Love Like A Fountain (Live on Jools Holland) / Golden Gaze (Live On Jools Holland) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on Top Of The Pops) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Promo video) / Golden Gaze (Live on The Priory) / Golden Gaze (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live at Homelands) / My Star (Live at Homelands) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Live on TFI Friday) / Dolphins Were Monkeys (Chart Show) / Love Like A Fountain (Live) / Billie Jean (Live) - DVD

BBC Radio 1 Jo Whiley 'Live Lounge' Session
Corpses / Interview / My Star
Bootleg: V98, Chelmsford 23/8/98 (G-Productions Compact Discs.) - CDR - FM Recording - Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me - Bootleg Bonus Tracks: V98 Interview - Corpses (Live) / Sunshine (MTV Up For It) / Corpses (Jo Whiley Acoustic) / My Star (Jo Whiley Acoustic) / Morassi (Aziz Ibrahim - Middle Road E.P. Track)

16 August 1998 Sunday 00:02 - The Independent, Kira Jolliffe Interview
Notes: See Media for the article.

22 August 1998 Saturday - V98, V Festival, NME Stage, Hylands Park, Chelmsford * Ticket Price: Weekend without camping £55, Weekend with camping £64, Day Tickets £30
Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Corpses / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me
Notes: Broadcast on BBC Radio1. Ian Brown was second to headliners on the NME Stage. The Charlatans headlined the main stage and James also played the festival too.
Ian was interviewed at the festival which was broadcast later. Corpses was broadcast too but unconfirmed where.
Bootleg: Doing The Business (1998 Wonder Boy Records. Cat. No. W.B.007. Leeds V98, T-In The Park 98. Wonder Boy Record 007. Matrix: WB-007) CD
Bootleg: Monkey At V.best (Catalogue Number SEM172) FM Recording - Bootleg Bonus Tracks: Golden Gaze (Jools Holland 1999) / Love Like A Fountain (Jools Holland 1999)
Bootleg: V98 Festival () FM Recording - Bootleg Bonus Tracks: 23 August 1998 Sunday - V98, V Festival, Leeds
Bootleg: V98, Chelmsford 23/8/98 (G-Productions Compact Discs.) - CDR - FM Recording - Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star / Can't See Me - Bootleg Bonus Tracks: V98 Interview - Corpses (Live) / Sunshine (MTV Up For It) / Corpses (Jo Whiley Acoustic) / My Star (Jo Whiley Acoustic) / Morassi (Aziz Ibrahim - Middle Road E.P. Track)
Bootleg: Nah Nah (Date was incrrectly noted as '"Nah Nah" - live Chelmsford V98 23/8/98') (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Priced: £12) - CD-R
Bootleg: Tape () (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Priced: £7) - Chelmsford V99 Hylands Park 21/8/99

23 August 1998 Sunday - V98, V Festival, NME Stage, Temple Newsam Park, Leeds * Ticket Price: Weekend without camping £55, Weekend with camping £62, Day Tickets £30
Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover) / Nah Nah / Corpses / What Happened To Ya Part 1 / See The Dawn / What Happened To Ya Part 2 / Ice Cold Cube / Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover) - My Star
Notes: Ian Brown was second to headliners on the NME Stage. The Charlatans headlined the main stage and James also played the festival too.
Bootleg: V98 Festival () Audience Recording - CD-R Bonus Tracks: 22 August 1998 Saturday - V98, Chelmsford
Bootleg: Tape () (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). Priced: £7) - Leeds V98 22/8/98 (DAT master)

TV - 1998 - Jo Whiley Show, Channel 4, London
Notes: Unconfirmed date.
Video Bootleg: Ian Brown: The Interviews DVD (IAWS I Am Without Shoes / stoneroses.net (Will Odell). "" Originally Priced: £17) Ian on the Jo Whiley Show, 1998 / Ian MTV Interview, 1998 (*never broadcast, exclusive to IAWS*) / Ian The Works Documentary, 2002

1998 - Ian Brown meets Adidas representitive Gary Aspden
Notes: Gary Aspden, designer and curator of Adidas Originals x Special
collection, would become friends with Ian and supply him with trainers and later co-design an Ian Brown range of shoes.

1998 - Manc.uk Interview (Autumn) Ian Brown Interview
Notes: See Media for the complete article.

22 October 1998 Thursday - Ian attends Manchester Magistrate’s Court
From October 1999 - NME Magazine: "In court my layer says, 'How was he abusive? What did he say?' The policewoman says, 'He didn't say anything.' 'So how was he abusive?' 'It was just his manner.' 'Threatening? Did he threaten you? Did he put his fist near ya? Did he motion to throw a kick, or anything?' 'No, it was just his manner?' 'So he's standing still and he's not opening his mouth?' 'No, but it was his manner.' The magistrate says, 'Jail him.'

23 October 1998 Friday - Ian Brown is found guilty and sentenced at Manchester Magistrate’s court
Notes: Ian Brown was arrested after a flight back from Paris, see 13 February 1998, and is sentenced to four months in prison for 'Threatening Behaviour' towards an airline stewardess and captain, a charge he denied. The sentence would cause his tour to be rescheduled. Ian was represented by lawyer Adrian Mould.
Ian was bailed late October.
His appeal was on 02 November 1998.
From Uncut Magazine 13 May 2016, Ian Brown March 2006 Interview by Stephen Dalton: Your confrontation with a BA stewardess in 1998 was a pretty dark chapter. You’ve always disputed the official version. Did you really threaten to chop her hands off? “Yeah. In a joke way. She’s come into First Class, and she’s obviously used to seeing guys in suits and ties. Suddenly she sees four black kids, an Indian kid with his turban on, Aziz, and a white kid asleep next to me. And instead of saying, ‘Do you want duty free?’ she waved her hand dismissively as if to say, ‘You won’t want this.’ I’m like, ‘Don’t wave your hand at me like that.’ So she says sorry, and I say, ‘An apology’s OK, but if you do it again I’ll chop your hands off.’ And she just tutted and carried on pushing her trolley.” Hand on heart, you never threatened anyone? “Not at all, hand on heart. Like my lawyer said, what was he going to chop her hands off with, one of the plastic knives? It obviously wasn’t a serious thing and they knew it. I didn’t even cuss her.”
From 2002 Lindsay Baker Interview with Ian: That October, he was sentenced to 60 days in Strangeways prison. He bristles with indignation: "I got the same as Gary Glitter. I was sent away for words I'm supposed to have said, and I didn't even say the words they put me away for. He had 4,500 images of kids……." He trails off, shaking his head. "And me and him get the same sentence." He says that, when he was taken from the courtroom, the jailer wouldn't jail him, because he'd seen the Roses play. "He said, 'It's Ian Brown, I can't do it, I love 'im.'"
From 04 February 2000 Friday - Dave Simpson Interview with Ian Brown in private bar room in Kensington, London for The Guardian: Today he's ready to spill the beans. The Gospel According to Ian Brown states that he really shouldn't have a paragraph in his rock CV saying, "Jailed for threatening behaviour towards a British Airways stewardess." "I couldn't recognise myself in the statements," he insists. "The police said I was 'threatening and abusive'. My lawyer asked them to clarify what exactly I was supposed to have said, as I'd been silent. The police said, 'It was his manner.' I was jailed for having an attitude!"

23-25 October 1998 Friday - Prisoner BE9311 is sent to HMP Risley
Notes: Ian was kept in solitary confinement for three days in HMP Risley remand centre. Locked up for 23 hours because, Prisoner BE9311, had difficulty using the word "sir". He was released Monday pending the appeal.

26 October 1998 Monday - Ian Brown was released from jail pending an appeal
Notes: Ian spent the weekend in jail.
From October 1999 - NME Magazine: "That's when I just got put in Risley (remand centre), and you look out and it's barbed wire fences 60ft high, dogs and big walls...

02 November 1998 Monday - Ian Brown's loses his appeal at Manchester Crown Court, Minshull Street, Manchester
Notes: Judge Simon Fawcus denies the appeal, Ian is charged £250 for the court costs and is sent to Catergory A prison, Strangeways, in Manchester. Ian was represented by lawyer Adrian Mould.
From October 1999 - NME Magazine: "I get put behind the court and from the court jail to the sweatbox. And the jailer's saying, 'I can't jail him, it's Ian Brown! I seen him at the Hacienda, I seen him at Blackpool, I seen him at Alexandra Palace, I can't jail him.' So they had to get another jailer because this guy wouldn't do it. He looked like one of the Chuckle Brothers. You know, them comedians? I never thought I'd get took to jail by one of the Chuckle Brothers!
See Media for the BBC article.
From 04 February 2000 Friday - Dave Simpson Interview with Ian Brown in private bar room in Kensington, London for The Guardian: But it was fate as much as Brown's mouth that earned him such a severe sentence. "My appeal was on the Monday, and on the Sunday night that bloke hit the stewardess with the vodka bottle. I got the same sentence as Gary Glitter!"

November 1998 - Ian served four days in HMP Kirkham, a Category D open prison near Preston.
Notes: Fans sprayed 'Free Ian Brown' on the walls Manchester including in Longsight.
From October 1999 - NME Magazine: "Then the zoo began. It was like being in a zoo. I got put in me cell and they opened the door and the toilet's level with the door and there's about 30 people standing there and there's a kid at the back going, 'There he is! There he is! Waaaah! I've just seen his dick!' 'cos I was having a piss when they opened the door.
From 07-13 February 2000 Monday - The Big Issue, Number 372: But back to Brown's penis. "So I get to the jail and they all know I'm coning 'coz they've heard it on the radio. I get taken down to my cell and I know they're all craning for a look. Suddenly the cell door opens and I'm like, having a piss. And I can hear this lad shouting 'I've seen his penis!'. Being known and to be in a jail house, it's like a zoo...A Short Tour Of Northern Jails - he was also briefly in HMP Risley and HMP Kirkham - is to be Brown's next release, a mini-autobiography of life inside...
March 2000 - Jockey Slut Magazine includes a Ian Brown Q&A Session: Did you see the 'Free Ian Brown' graffiti around Manchester? Neil Davies, Manchester. "Yeah, someone sent me a photograph, it's on a wall in Longsight. I was made up. We sprayed the city in '86. I used to write 'Ian Brown is a vandal' in marker pen everywhere. It's still up in Battery Studios from the '80s.".

02 November 1998 - Ian Brown is imprisioned in Strangeways Prison, Manchester
Notes: While in jail, Brown wrote the lyrics for "Free My Way", "So Many Soldiers", and "Set My Baby Free".
John Squire sent Ian a letter and some malteasers as a present, a long tradition between the former friends.
Reni wrote to Ian every three days whilst he was inside.
Simon Wolsteneroft wrote to him in Strangeways but, like others, was kindly instructed not to visit. “He (Ian) said he didn’t want me..."
Kevin Rowland, leader of Dexy's Midnight Runners, wrote to Ian whilst in prison too.
Ian was released on parole after two months.
Ian shared a cell with young smackheads who regularly chased the dragon on foil from Kit—Kats after first giving Brown the chocolate.
From October 1999 - NME Magazine: How did your time in Strangeways affect you? "It just reminded, I suppose. I read this book Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver and in it he goes to his education class and the teacher says to him, 'I can walk, I can talk, I can see, I can hear - I'm a walking miracle'. And I related to that because that's all you've got in there. So, I suppose it's like anything, your suspicions get confirmed. "I can't say it was peaceful because after the first couple of weeks of being locked up 23 hours a day, me cell was full. Everyone wanted to talk to me. I suppose the way it was for me was I hadn't done it, you see. If you done something then you're prepared to pay your debt, get scrubbing the landings. I might have been some dirty smackhead robbing houses at three in the morning when all's asleep. But I didn't have no payback. They owed me 60 days. "You can't remain angry all the time. If you're innocent you're still better laughing all the way through it because it's a laugh-or-cry situation. After three days I'd had absolutely nothing, and a kid give me an orange one day and I was looking at this orange for about half-an-hour before I opened it, just looking. The thanks I was giving for that orange. It was like a Christmas hamper!
"That's when I just got put in Risley (remand centre), and you look out and it's barbed wire fences 60ft high, dogs and big walls. Later on in Strangeways they give me a job giving bread out at breakfast and dinner time. I could see who was the vulnerable prisoners, 'cos they shake like on Roobarb And Custard. Then you get to hear about their offences and you've got to stand and give a guy a piece of bread when you've just been told he's given an 18-month-old girl from Eccles 45 stitches. And you're supposed to give theses guys bread."
Were the other prisoners alright to you?
"Yeah. The screws were giving me a hard time, so they all come on me side because they could see what was happening. You walk past them and they're like, 'You brushed past me'. Shouting in your face and trying to get you to respond. So then it's 21 days on report. Even when you're getting out they're still working on you. They're like children going 'You're not getting out, you know. There's been a mistake.' The problem isn't doing the time, it's trying not to get given more time."
As well as dealing with the game-playing of the prison staff, Brown indicates there were more insidious pressures. "I seen more drugs in jail than I've seen all the time in the music business, nightclubs, anywhere else," he says. Heroin was a particular problem, the singer finding himself close enough to a Kit-Kat foil wrapper to see his reflection.
"They say it makes the walls disappear," he comments. "But I was like, 'No thanks. Not interested. I'll just have the chocolate'."
From 1999 - ID Magazine, Ian Brown Interview by Tobias Peggs: Now let's talk about jail. You got released from Strangeways over Christmas after 60 days banged up for threatening and abusive behaviour towards an airline hostess. What was it like inside? "It was a bit of a problem. I kept getting stripped searched in prison. In 21 days I had eight strip searches. Each time I had a visitor, it meant a strip search and a cell search. And when they do a cell search they take your books and things away from you. But they never took my cell mate's radio. The first time I heard the UNKLE tune properly was in jail. I didn't know it'd been mixed. I thought they'd wait till I get out." What else did you listen to? "Someone sent me a tape of Bob Marley. But my cell mate didn't like Marley. I normally don't trust people who don't like Marley but this guy had six tapes with him - and five of them was The Stone Roses."
He must have been well made up, sharing a cell with his hero? "Yeah, he was flyin'. He was buzzin'. He kept getting kids asking him to get my autograph. I certainly broke their monotony. I was a creature at the zoo. Ten minutes after I'd been put in, I was having a piss in the cell and the door got pushed open. And as it opened there was about 30 lads on the landing outside saying 'There he is! There he is! I've just seen his dick!'"
You've always protested your innocence throughout this whole affair. But once inside, did you just have to sit there and suffer it? "Yeah. Strangeways is a proper jail. There are people in there doing 20 years. As soon as you walk through that door, you're really aware of the love that's outside for you. It's all magnified inside you. But you've got to accept that it's a laugh or cry situation. Book reading is a big thing in prison - there's not a lot else you can do. If you've got a good book, it will be passed all over the jail. I had a Frankie Fraser one, but someone pinched it. There's a lot of thieves in jail."
Notes: From Uncut Magazine 13 May 2016, Ian Brown March 2006 Interview by Stephen Dalton: All the same, you ended up serving two months in Strangeways. Did you learn anything from prison? “That this system is still abusing the poor like 100 years ago. It’s a Victorian jail and it still felt Victorian. These kids are straight out of kids’ homes at 16, then detention centres. Before they know it they’re in a fucking man’s jail at 21. And I saw more drugs in there than at the Hacienda. Every day I got offered heroin and crack. Kids call it a jail bag; it takes the walls down.”
And John Squire sent you a box of Maltesers in jail… “Yeah, we used to send each other Maltesers every Christmas as kids. He sent me a box, and a note saying he hoped I was out for Christmas, and he still loved me. He didn’t put a phone number or address on it, though, heh heh!” Didn’t Kevin Rowland write to you, too? “He did. I wrote him a letter back, but I don’t know if he got it. It would be nice to say thank you, what a top man. He said, ‘I’ve been in this position myself, I’ve been in the charts and I’ve been in jail, I know what you’re going through.’ That was amazing.”
Did you really convert to Islam in jail? “My sister bought me the Koran in 1990. I always thought the stories in it were magical. So I’d already had a love affair with it, but when I got in jail the first day, I saw what everyone else was eating. I didn’t know what the fuck was in the pies, but the lads said if you were Muslim you get chickpeas, lentils, rice, chicken curry on a Friday. So I said my religion was Muslim.” Not a genuine religious conversion, then? “I don’t go to a Mosque, no, but I still love the stories in the Koran. It just seems magical to me. I’ve always said prayers. I’ve always said there’s some truth to something that’s 2000 years old.” Is it true you are now planning some prison gigs, Johnny Cash style? “Yeah… I might have a chance of getting in Preston jail. I’m trying to get three or four prisons, do a little prison tour, heh heh! Instead of doing little clubs as a warm-up for a big festival. That would be really cool.”
From 2002 Lindsay Baker Interview with Ian: So, what was it like in Strangeways ? "Dirty. The food was like dog food. And boring. About as low as you can go, unless you were confined to a wheelchair, I'd say." But he got on with it. With characteristic pragmatism, he "turned Muslim", to avoid the prison meat pies. "With halal food, you get lentils and rice and chickpeas, and every Friday you get chicken." When it came to Ramadan, and he failed to fast, the prison officers challenged him over his faith. "I told them, 'That's between me and Allah. If you read the Koran, it says that when you're starving you're not expected to fast' - because, in there, you've got a belly hunger the whole time." He's never liked being told what to do, he says, ("Even me mum can't tell me what to do"), and he couldn't get "Sir" out of his mouth when he was in prison - having been beaten up so badly before, he thought, "What's the worst they can do to me ?" "Them screws in Strangeways are like dogs, so it was tricky, because you have to keep your mouth shut, and they tell you you're a knob and try and get you to respond, and you can't respond, because that's what they want." He says that they tried to set the other prisoners against him, but that they saw what was happening. "Then I was one of them." He'd sign autographs for sisters and girlfriends, and in turn they'd give him tobacco and newspapers. "They took me in and looked after me. The lads were beautiful, there's an honesty there. They were criminals, but they were honest." Brown says that he wasn't threatened once in jail. He kept his head down, and his spirits up, without resorting to drugs, except for the odd joint. Heroin was rife - he was offered it every day: "But I'd avoided it all my life, so there was no way I was picking up a habit in jail in my 30s." He read a lot, and did 500 sit-ups and 400 press-ups a day. By the end of his sentence, he was leaner and fitter than he'd ever been. "I had a 19-pack." So, was there anything positive to come from the experience ? Nothing, he says, firmly. What about the increase in fame ? "Yeah, people said that to me in prison, 'You're sorted now, you're infamous, you've got street cred,' and I'm, like, 'Fuck off, I had street cred before I came in here.'"
From 04 February 2000 Friday - Dave Simpson Interview with Ian Brown in private bar room in Kensington, London for The Guardian: "There's a lot to be said for going inside," says the leather-clad singer in a private Kensington bar room. "I came out of there leaner and fitter than I've ever been. When I went in I was doing 30 press-ups and 50 sit-ups. Within six weeks I was doing 500 sit-ups and 400 press-ups, cos you've got the metal bed with the shape to put your feet in. I came out with a flippin' 19-pack!" He sips at a Coke, pours another cup of Earl Grey tea, then sips them both at the same time. "I turned Muslim in jail too," he reveals, a curious admission from a man whose legendary songs are steeped in imagery from the Bible. Muslim? "It was the only way I could keep alive, foodwise. It was all dog-food pies, so I went Muslim and I got lentils, chickpeas, rice and chicken curry on Friday. They told me that half of Manchester's Muslim in Kirkham nick. It's the only way you can be guaranteed chicken." What was it like being a 20th-century icon in prison? "The lads said, 'Don't count days', but I was," admits Brown. "I'd be there at night: '32 days, 31 to go.' In the holding rooms the jailer went, 'I can't jail him. I've seen him at the Hacienda. I've seen him at Blackpool.' They had to get another guy to do it." Brown spent two days in Kirkham open prison. Before that he was kept in solitary confinement for three days in Risley remand centre, locked up for 23 hours because Prisoner BE9311 Brown had difficulty using the word "sir". "I couldn't sleep cos the cell was so dirty. You've got this itchy blanket, and people suddenly start moaning at five in the morning. No fun." The bulk of his sentence, though, was spent in the notorious Strangeways, new home to Dr Harold Shipman. Brown insists that the first thing the authorities did there was mysteriously lose a bag belonging to him containing face cream, £80 and his house keys. "They said, 'Are you saying we stole it, Brown?' Hyenas, they were." Brown paints a picture of life inside as vivid as any of his song lyrics - pool ball beatings, slashings, relentless hard drugs ("They say heroin takes the walls away. I wasn't tempted"). Didn't he feel threatened? "I was sure someone would try knock me out, just to say they'd done it," he says. "But in Strangeways there was this big Somalian kid I gave some tickets for Spike Island in 1990. He says, 'Ian Brown. I owe you one. If anyone gives you any problems, come and see me.' But I didn't have any problems on that score." Brown insists the problems he did have came from some of the "screws", who would try various methods of intimidation. Once the inmates saw how the officers were with Brown, they adopted him as one of them. He found a further, unlikely ally in the governor. "First day in Strangeways the governor says to me, 'You shouldn't be here, but you're my problem now. Are you writing songs?' " reveals Brown. "He said, 'I've got a 19-year-old son who loves your Unfinished Monkey Business [Brown's flawed but charming first solo album]. Get grafting. Get him a pen.' " As the governor walked away, an officer threw one at him. "It was beautiful, because it bounced off the walls and floor and just landed near my foot. I just bent down to pick it up, dead casual. I said, 'Thanks very much.' "Bolstered by books ("Marcus Garvey's biography, The Scramble for Africa, all sorts"), sessions autographing cards to prisoners' girlfriends, and letters, Brown made it through. After a typical act of insurrection - "I had a little smoke. This lad said, 'You can't be in Strangeways and not get stoned' " - he was released in "total elation" on Christmas Eve 1998. "I didn't look back, didn't look back at my cell or the wing and '99 was such a great year. I've not looked back since." "I got a little card off John telling me, 'I still love you. I hope you're out for Christmas.' I was surprised, yeah. He sent me a box of Maltesers." Maltesers? "When we were kids we used to get each other a box of Maltesers every year for Christmas."
From City Life Magazine 2000 article: How close, I wondered, did the trial, the uproar, and the prison experience itself come to disillusioning him; “To avoid crime all my life in a city full of criminals and then end up in Strangeways at the age of 36 wasn’t funny. I could look back on my whole life and question why but then I think the about what they say in the Bible, that the devil will put you in jail to test you. And I believe those people were devilish to say that I said those things when I didn’t.”
So how did he keep his head together in jail? “I read books, and I kept fit. When you’re first locked up you’re in the induction wing and you’re locked up for 23 hours a day so you’re not doing much. Then in the main jail you’re locked up for 12 hours a day and for the other 12 hours all the cells are open, and you drag it out like a school dinner time. One guy says You get some biscuits, I’ll provide tea bags, and you find some sugar and you drag it out, swapping stories, having a laugh, and listening to music. Everyone’s got a sound system and all you hear is Tupac and Biggie all day long. But I was counting the days- 32 days to go, 31 days to go. It was painful, dead painful. A weekend lasts a week.”
He was a Category D prisoner – unlikely to harm himself or anybody else – in a category A prison, and, to an extent, he was singled out when he was in Strangeways. He had to stop his family visiting him because the visits were being used as excuse to strip search him and do a cell search straight after. “They can strip search you whenever they like; The screws are like hyenas. You would maybe be three feet away and they’re Don’t fucking push past me lad when you’re nowhere near them. When you’ve got twenty days to go you know that if you respond you’re going to get an extra 21 days.
“I thought there’s going to be someone in there who’ll knock me out just to say that they’d done it but the screws were such dogs, that with the other lads I was one of them then.
“At eight o’clock they bang you up, but the light in your cell can stay on for an hour; Most of my pad mates were smack heads so as soon as that flap shut at eight o’clock, out would come the Kit Kats and they’d give me the chocolate and I’d have to sit and watch them disintegrate before me.”
From 07-13 February 2000 Monday - The Big Issue, Number 372: "Kevin Rowland [of Dexy's Midnight Runners] sent me a nice letter saying he'd been in jail and had found it hard to cope. He'd been through it was offering a shoulder of support," say Brown. "I was made up to receive it, I love that group Dexy's, I'd never met him before and I thought it was a really nice thing to do."..."One kid had six cassettes and four of them were Stone Roses. I had to ban him. No way could I hear the Roses in there!" "All I got was love off the inmates. And hate, that was all I got from the screws. I had seven strip searches in 21 days. They were on me case all the time. When they came to give the mail out they'd say my name - "Brown, Brown, Brown, Brown, Brown," just to piss the lads off. But I didn't get any grief off them, I got looked after beautiful. They'd lend me a CD player for the night, give me a newspaper. Give me an orange or a bag of sugar."
From 02 February 2000 - Adam Walton Interview for Adam Walton Show, BBC Wales Music, Wise Buddha, London: AW: What was your mindset when you wrote those songs? IB: I wrote a lot of lyrics in prison, but they'd all be like "crawls upon the shoulders, hatred in the eyes". I wrote about 50 songs in there that were all about jail. I've come out and thought I've only served eight weeks, I can't really write a concept album about jail. I did, though, want to include a jail tune on the album.
AW: Do you have more of a sense of urgency because of the time that was taken from you? IB: In a way, yeah. I do feel like 60 days were robbed from me. I have to try and take those back.
February 2000 - The Sun Newspaper Interview: He says: “I couldn’t believe I was in a prison with rapists and murderers. Most of the people on B Wing were armed robbers, burglars and drug dealers. I even saw Dr Shipman when he was on remand. That was quite chilling. Inject “The other prisoners were shouting at him, ‘Doctor, I’ve got a bad arm, can you inject me?’ But I kept my distance... “I witnessed slashings and a kid being hit over the head with a sock full of pool balls – just like you see on films like Scum. “They have these stampedes where a gang charges someone. The screws show pictures from the paper of some old lady that’s been beaten up and point out the guy who did it and the inmates smash his head against a cell door. “All the granny beaters get targeted and the prison officers love it. They are the lowest of the low – just thugs who enjoy violence.”...Ian says: “I had five different cell mates and they were all doing heroin. I had to watch them all night doing it. They’d buy KitKats and let me eat them. They just wanted the silver foil so they could smoke smack. “Every night I had to watch these young men turning into bags of dirty washing before my eyes. “I’ve been all round the world, to Amsterdam, to parties and concerts, but I’ve never seen as many drugs as there are in prison. I was offered heroin every day. “The warders don’t mind people taking drugs as it makes their job easier if everyone’s smacked out in front of their eyes.”...He says: “On my first day, even the Governor said he knew I shouldn’t be inside. He gave me a pen to write some songs and said his son was a fan of my music.”
March 2000 - Jockey Slut Magazine includes a Ian Brown Q&A Session: What did you think of Kevin Rowland's Reading appearance last year - surely as memorable as yours in '97? (The 40-something Rowland took to the stage in lingerie accompanied by two prostitutes - Ed) Jeff Pearson via e-mail. "Kevin Rowland sent me a nice letter when I was in prison. I've never met him but he sent me this letter saying that he didn't know me but he'd been a pop star, he'd been in jail and he felt lonely and confused. At the time I had about 500 kids trying to get into my cell. I thought 'I wish I had the time to feel lonely!'. Good luck to the guy. But when I saw him at Reading licking that whore's bum on stage I thought that was a bit sad."
From 06 September 2002 - The Guardian Newspaper John Squire interview: In December 1999, as prisoner BE9311 Ian Brown languished in Strangeways jail, the result of a notorious altercation with an air stewardess, he received a Christmas gift of a box of Maltesers, the present Squire had given him each year when they were kids. "He knew what it meant," sighs John. Inside, was a little note: "I still love you." Brown responded with thanks through a third party, but there has been no further communication...
23 May 2006 09:41 - The Daily Mail article by Piers Hernu: 23 May 2006 09:41 - The Daily Mail article by Piers Hernu: "I got the same sentence as Gary Glitter: four months. He had 4,000 images of babies being tortured and abused on his computer and I got the same. And as far as I know I'm the only Category-D prisoner that had to serve his full sentence in a Category-A prison. "I expected someone in there to try and knock me out just so they could brag about punching a celebrity but I was treated beautifully by the lads inside. I had five different cell mates, all heroin addicts who used to buy Kit Kats, give me the chocolate and keep the foil wrappers so that they could chase the dragon. "I used to have to watch them doing it every night, and I learned that prison is full of kids from homes who have had no love and have been dumped on the street at 16 with no one to look after them. They're from the poorest areas of the city and they end up becoming institutionalised."

Live Monkey Business Tour
*Cancelled* 12 November 1998 - Limelight, Belfast, Northern Ireland
*Cancelled* 13 November 1998 - Olypmia, Dublin, Ireland
*Cancelled* 15 November 1998 - Music Hall, Aberdeen, Scotland * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
Notes: This date and the rest of the tour were cancelled as Ian Brown was sentenced to four months in prison, although he was let out on parole after one month.
Regarding the Aberdeen (see Media for the full 26 October 1998 - Aberdeen Evening Express article) date Promoter, Ewan MacLeod, for DF Concerts urged fans to hold on to their tickets as they said the concerts would be rescheduled. The dates were cancelled. Sad as this would have been the first time Ian had played some of the venues since the Roses demise. Barrowlands & Aberdeen for the first time in three years & Lancaster the first time in nine years too.
*Cancelled* 16 November 1998 - Barrowlands, Glasgow * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 17 November 1998 - Barrowlands, Glasgow * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 19 November 1998 - University, Newcastle * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 20 November 1998 - University, Lancaster * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 21 November 1998 - UEA, Norwich * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 23 November 1998 - The Event, Brighton * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 24 November 1998 - Civic Hall, Wolverhampton * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 25 November 1998 - Rock City, Nottingham * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 27 November 1998 - Octagon, Sheffield * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 28 November 1998 - University, Leeds * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 29 November 1998 - Parr Hall, Warrington * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
*Cancelled* 01 December 1998 - The Ritz, Manchester * Ticket Price: £11 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
Notes: Sold Out Show.
*Cancelled* 02 December 1998 Wednesday - The Astoria, 157 Charing Cross Road, London, WC1 * Doors Open: 19:00 * Ticket Price: £12 * Support Act(s): Audioweb
Notes: Sold Out Show.
*Cancelled* 03 December 1998 Thursday - The Astoria, 157 Charing Cross Road, London, WC1 * Doors Open: 19:00 * Ticket Price: £12 * Support Act(s): Audioweb

16 November 1998 - Mani's 36th birthday
24 November 1998 - John Squire's 36th birthday

Japanese Tour
*Cancelled* 16 December 1998 Wednesday- The Garden Hall, * Doors Open: 18:00 * Price: 5500yen (Advance) * Support:
Notes: This date and the rest of the tour was cancelled as Ian Brown was sentenced to four months in prison, although he was let out on parole after one month. The dates were rescedhuled, see 28 March 1999.
*Cancelled* 17 December 1998 Thursday - The Garden Hall, Japan * Doors Open: 18:00 * Price: 5500yen (Advance) * Support:
Notes: Rescedhuled see 29 March 1999.
*Cancelled* 18 December 1998 Friday - Club Quattro, Nagoya, Japan * Doors Open: 18:00 * Price: 5500yen (Advance) * Support:
Notes: Rescedhuled see 24 March 1999.
*Cancelled* 20 December 1998 Sunday - Imp Hall, Osaka, Japan * Doors Open: 18:00 * Price: 5500yen (Advance) * Support:
Notes: Rescedhuled see 25 March 1999.

1998 - UNKLE release the album Pysence Fiction
Notes: The album includes the track 'Unreal', an instrumental. The track would later be recorded with Ian Brown, as guest vocalist, and become 'Be There'. The album already featured guest vocalists Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) & Richard Ashcroft (The Verve). The album would see a re-release featuring both 'Unreal' and Be There too. The first time Ian would hear Be There on the radio would be in Strangeways Prison.
From 02 February 2000 - Adam Walton Interview for Adam Walton Show, BBC Wales Music, Wise Buddha, London: AW: AW: I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO INTERVIEW BOTH JAMES AND JOSH PRIOR TO THE RELEASE OF 'PSYENCE FICTION' AND THEY WERE SAYING THAT OUT OF ALL THE COLLABORATIONS THAT THEY'D HAD, MIKE D, RICHARD ASHCROFT, THOM YORKE, THEY STILL REALLY WANTED TO DO SOMETHING WITH YOU. IT MUST HAVE BEEN AN INTERESTING WAY TO WORK.
IB: Yeah it was; to have a piece of music of that quality to work with is flipping superb, I couldn't go wrong you know. Lock a chimpanzee up for a week and he's gotta come out with something.
AW: THE SUCCESS OF THAT RECORD, AND THE KNOWLEDGE THAT PEOPLE LIKE JAMES AND JOSH WOULDN'T ASK SOMEONE THEY DIDN'T TOTALLY RESPECT TO BE INVOLVED WITH THE RECORD, MUST HAVE ENDOWED YOU WITH CONFIDENCE TO TRY THE DANCIER APPROACH TO 'GOLDEN GREATS'? IB: It did because I've got most of the Mo Wax collection. I've been collecting Mo Wax over the years, so for James to ask me to appear was an honour.
From 12 September 2005 - The Greatest, Ian Brown said: Track by track... Be There with UNKLE - I was originally asked by James Lavelle to put a vocal with this DJ Shadow tune, but I thought it sounded great and didn't need vocals. After much persistence, Lavelle persuaded me to come up with a set of lyrics and a melody. The first time I hear the finished mix, I was in B wing of Strangeways - I flipped my radio on at about 1 in the morning and it was on.

24 December 1998 - Ian Brown is released from Strangeways Prison
Notes:
From 04 February 2000 Friday - Dave Simpson Interview with Ian Brown in private bar room in Kensington, London for The Guardian: Never mind the multitudes that were captivated by the Stone Roses; the best reception Ian Brown has ever had came on Christmas Eve 1998. "The last day when they let me out, the lads were running up and down hugging me, saying, 'Go make a million,' " recalls Brown with a smile. " 'Go sing your heart out.' The love that they were giving me was unbelievable. I was choked. It was as up there as Spike Island, definitely." The venue wasn't Spike Island, where the Stone Roses announced the arrival of a new decade in 1990, nor Alexandra Palace in 1989, where they sealed their status as a legendary band. Instead, it was an unusual environment just off Deansgate, Manchester not used to accommodating rock'n'rollers (give or take the odd Smiths' album cover shoot). The venue was Strangeways jail....Most of us, in this situation, would have taken an immediate holiday, but Brown - typically contrarily - went to his parents, had his kids round for tea and then immediately began work on a new album, only retiring to a Mexican beach some six days later. "I went into prison with no respect for authority, and came out with even less. It's done one thing for me, though," he grins. "I used to be known as the singer from the Stone Roses. Now I'm Ian Brown."
From 2002 Lindsay Baker Interview with Ian: When he got out, he walked up Deansgate in Manchester carrying a black binliner full of his stuff. He'd missed walking, he says ("I'm someone who walks everywhere. I'm from Manchester - that's what we do"). Then he took his mum and dad out for dinner.
From 08 October 2004 Friday 00:00 - The Independent, Andy Gill Interview: "My lawyer told me I was the only man who was category D - meaning unlikely to harm myself or anyone else - that served his full sentence in a category-A prison,"

25 December 1998 - Ian finishes some new songs.
Free My Way / Love Is Like a Fountain / So Many Soldiers
From 04 February 2000 Friday - Dave Simpson Interview with Ian Brown in private bar room in Kensington, London for The Guardian: "By 4am on Christmas morning I had the music for Free My Way, Love Is Like a Fountain and most of So Many Soldiers," he says of cornerstone tracks from Golden Greats.
From 2000 - VH1's The Wire -FOOL'S GOLD: IAN BROWN by Alison Tarnofsky: Did you spend a lot of time working on your album in prison? There are a lot of freedom references on your new album: "Set My Baby Free" and "Free My Way". This album is much more uplifting than the last one.
I wrote three of the new songs in prison. One's called "Free My Way," one's "So Many Soldiers," and me girl sent me a letter that said "Hey you ugly people, I want you to set my baby free," and so I did that "Set My Baby Free" tune. I was focusing on the day that I got out! I was counting days definitely. I'd never been in prison before, and I didn't like it!...
February 2000 - The Sun Newspaper Interview: He says: “On my first day, even the Governor said he knew I shouldn’t be inside. He gave me a pen to write some songs and said his son was a fan of my music.”
From 12 September 2005 - The Greatest, Ian Brown said: Track by track... Love Like A Fountain - I started work on this song on Christmas Eve 1998 and had it in the bag by dawn on Christmas day. It's an ode to the great Acid House days and I love the sound of this track.

30 December 1998 - Ian Brown & Fabiola Quiroz fly to Mexico for a holiday.
Notes: Simon Wolstencroft, unemployed after leaving The Fall, drove Ian down to Heathrow airport. On the drive Ian asked Simon to join his band.
Simon said: “He's very loyal to his friends like that. Even last year when I was writing mybook [You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide] he took a day off to sit down and help me go over the old days. His memory’s better than mine. He's also great with figures too. Ever since the Roses he’s managed himself. It made me realise maybe he was paying more attention back in school than I thought."
From 1999 - ID Magazine, Ian Brown Interview by Tobias Peggs: You've just come back from Mexico. How was the flight? "Hmmm… Mexico was great. I ate food, swam in the sea, watched the sunsets. I've got a suntan and a big bag of Mexican weed. Beautiful. Now I'm back and working."