Ian Brown

Ian George Brown (born 20 February 1963) is an English singer and multi-instrumentalist.

Brown was born in Warrington on 20 February 1963 and grew up on Forster Street, Orford until the age of about six.

His father, George, was a joiner, and his mother, Jean, worked as a receptionist in a paper factory.

He then moved with his family, including a brother (David) and sister (Sharon) to Sylvan Avenue in Timperley, Altrincham.

He attended Park Road County Primary Infant and Junior School and then Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, leaving aged 16.

Brown's music career began in 1980, playing bass guitar in a band with John Squire and Simon Wolstencroft.

They eventually became the Patrol, with Andy Couzens on vocals.

The band soon split up, with Brown selling his bass to buy a scooter.

Brown moved to Hulme and attended Northern soul "all-nighters" across Northern England in the early 1980s as the scene faded.

Around this time, Brown met soul legend Geno Washington, who told him, "You should be a star."

The Stone Roses rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their debut album voted the best British album of all time in 2004.

He was the lead singer and the only continuous member of the alternative rock band the Stone Roses from their formation in 1983.

In 1983, Brown joined the Waterfront, the band that would evolve into the Stone Roses, as co-vocalist.

Following the band's initial split in 1996, he began a solo career, releasing seven studio albums, a greatest hits compilation, a remix album, an 11-disc box set titled Collection, and 19 singles.

The band's second album, Second Coming, received a mixed reaction, and after several changes of line-up, the band split up in October 1996.

After a break from music in Morocco, Brown established his solo career with the debut solo single "My Star", which was released in the UK on 12 January 1998.

The debut album Unfinished Monkey Business followed on 2 February 1998.

The album was produced and financed by Brown and featured ex-Roses members Mani, Nigel Ipinson, Aziz Ibrahim, and Robbie Maddix.

The album sold over 300,000 copies.

Brown toured in summer 1998 with a band that included Aziz Ibrahim (guitar), Inder "Goldfinger" Matharu (tabla/percussion), Simon Moore (drums), and Sylvan Richardson (bass), including performances at the Glastonbury Festival and the V Festival.

Brown was arrested after a flight back from his live show in Paris and later sentenced to four months in prison for using threatening behaviour towards an airline stewardess and captain, a charge he denied, causing his tour to be rescheduled.

His bandmate Aziz Ibrahim condemned the sentence, saying that Brown was "just being cheeky".

He had threatened to cut off the hands of the stewardess and hammered on the cockpit door, as the plane came in to land.

A few weeks before, he had threatened a magazine critic, who had given his album a one-star review, to a "good kicking".

While in Strangeways Prison, Brown wrote the lyrics for "Free My Way", "So Many Soldiers", and "Set My Baby Free".

He was released on parole after two months.

His second album, Golden Greats, was released by Polydor Records in 1999.

On 17 October 2011, Brown alluded to a Stone Roses reunion via text message, saying, "We are going to rule the world again. It's happening."

On 2 December 2011, Ian Brown and John Squire performed together live for the first time since 1995.

They joined Mick Jones from The Clash, The Farm, and Pete Wylie at the Manchester Ritz in a concert in aid of the Justice for Hillsborough campaign.

They performed "Elizabeth My Dear" as a duo before being joined by Mick Jones and The Farm for renditions of the Clash's "Bankrobber" and "Armagideon Time", with Ian Brown taking on lead vocals for the three songs.

The Stone Roses reunited in 2011 and went on a reunion tour in 2012.

On the following day, a reunion was announced for the band with performances planned for June 2012 in Manchester.

In a press conference interview, the members of the Stone Roses have said that a new album is planned.

In 2015 and 2017, he testified against a former teacher at Altrincham Grammar, Fred Talbot, who was found guilty of sexually abusing pupils in the 1970s.

Brown's interest in music was inspired by the punk movement, specifically the bands Sex Pistols, the Clash, and Manchester-based Slaughter & the Dogs.

He was also an early follower of psychobilly music and was a regular at many scooter rallies in the north of England.

Brown and original Stone Roses bassist Pete Garner attended the recording of the Clash single "Bankrobber" in Manchester.

They continued to tour until 2017 when the band disbanded for a second time.

He returned to singing for the Stone Roses in 2011, although this did not spell the end of his solo endeavours, releasing First World Problems through Virgin/EMI Records on 25 October 2018.