'This Is England' director Shane Meadows is interviewed about his new Stone Roses documentary 'Made Of Stone' which follows the band about as they make a comeback into music. He talks about the rehearsal process and the differences between making a film and making a documentary.
Continue: Video - Shane Meadows Talks About Making His First Documentary 'Made Of Stone' In An Interview
Made by a fan for fans, this documentary explores the iconic English rock band through raw adoration rather than a detailed narrative. But Shane Meadows (This Is England) is a seriously gifted filmmaker, and his approach wins us over by focussing on the bandmates' personalities, their passion for the music and their fans' devotion to them.
Childhood friends Ian Brown and John Squire formed the Stone Roses in Manchester in 1984, then set about to show the world that they were the greatest rock band ever. It took five years and a number of rotating bandmates until the lineup settled down with Ian, John, Reni (Alan Wren) and Mani (Gary Mounfield), and their first album in 1989 was a landmark hit. It took them five more years to release their second album, and that period was marked with terrible battles both within the band and with their record label and management. The band dissolved shortly after Second Coming was released in 1994. Cut to 2011, when these four men reunited to announce their comeback, starting with a major concert in Manchester in June 2012.
Meadows has access to an astonishing array of archival material, including home movies and private photos, vintage TV interviews and performance footage. He pieces this together without narration, letting the bandmates recount their own story, so naturally they skip over the more uncomfortable elements, such as the seven other musicians who came and went over the years. And there are no details about the various fallings out between them. Instead, this collage astutely captures their lively personalities, the way they work and how they come together to play their most memorable songs.
Continue reading: The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone Review
The director opens up on filming the unfilmable
Shane Meadows was sh****ing Himself" during filming of Stone Roses Film as a British director, taking on a film about your, and the nations’, favourite band is a daunting prospect.
That’s what hit Shane Meadows half way through filming the doc, and he’s let us know why. “I got a phone in a taxi on a way to a film festival in France and it was Ian Brown about ten o'clock in the morning and he was saying the Roses are getting back together,” explains Shane. “Literally before he had finished the sentence I was thinking 'if you let anyone else make a film I will kill you and I will kill myself'. I was praying the call was leading to something like that.” Luckily, for Mr. Meadows – the director of classics like This is England and Dead Man’s Shows – the gig was always going to be hits. Now for the faecal matter in the undies bit. ”I thought I could improvise but it is quite frightening because everyone was anticipating this amazing project when my name and theirs got put together so I was s****ing myself for a long time,” he divulged.
“These other dates like Warrington got announced and the first time I knew I had a got film was when we filmed at Warrington and filmed the fans and I realised I wasn't their number one fan there was a million of us who all felt the same.” Made Of Stone is showing at cinemas in the UK on Wednesday June 5. It will be released on DVD later this year.
Continue reading: Shane Meadows Was "S****ing Himself" During Filming Of Stone Roses Film
New film promises to portray gig that supposedly 'defined an era'
Don't believe that The Stone Roses and their perennially out of tune front man Ian Brown playing through a naff sound system somewhere near Warrington back in 1990 wasn't the near-mythological experience that it was for the 20,000 or so who made the trek to Spike Island? Well someone's gone and made a film based around that 'glorious' night just to really ram the point home. It was seminal. Honest. And they're going to tell you why through the eyes of a lad, played by an actor who used to be in Hollyoaks.
Watch the trailer for Spike Island
Continue reading: Fool's Gold: New Clip Of Stone Roses Spike Island Movie Revealed [Trailer]
Trailer released for The Stone Roses documentary, made by Shane Meadows. The documentary is released June 5, 2013
Shane Meadows has made no secret of his love for Stone Roses, in the making of his documentary The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone and his passion is spine-tinglingly evident, even in the short space of time that it takes to run through the trailer. When the Mancunian band announced their intentions to reform after 20 years, Meadows – the director of Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England – was set to the task of documenting the experience.
Modern footage of the band is interspliced with archive videos, but anyone expecting to see tell-scenes of the band’s more dramatic moments may be surprised to discover that Meadows did not go in for filming their more private moments together. In an interview with Jon Snow, for Channel 4, he explains “Because of my love for the band - I've not held back from what everyone saw - but I didn't go backstage sticking mics in the way, I made all my crew turn their cameras and sound devices off and we all sat in the room. A bit like being respectful - if someone's having a bit of a fall out, I don't think it's my place - you know, I'm not making the Jeremy Kyle show… they realised that they could trust me. I wasn't there trying to make Martin Bashir's Michael Jackson expose, I was making it with genuine love and affection. It's warts and all, don't get me wrong, but at the same time I also understood that certain things are private."
Continue reading: Shane Meadows Lets The Love Spread In The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone [Trailer]
The Stone Roses were a relatively short-lived indie phenomenon that inspired the lives of so many in the 1990s following the release of the influential self-titled debut album; an album described by many as the greatest album of all time. They disbanded, much too soon, in 1996 after they struggled to cope with the departure of guitarist John Squires and drummer Alan 'Reni' Wren. A reunion seemed the most unlikeliest of things for this band but, after 16 years, 2012 Ian Brown, John Squire, Alan Wren and Gary Mounfield together on stage once more in one of the most highly anticipated reunions in music history. This documentary follows their day to day lives, catching up on last decade and a half and rehearsing for their record-breaking comeback gigs that brought tears to the eyes of indie fans nationwide.
Continue: The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone Trailer
The documentary will roll out to other cities after its Manchester release
The Stone Roses Documentary, Made of Stone, will premiere in Manchester. Although, there really wasn’t another choice for the Shame Meadows-directed film, considering the band’s heritage.
"Making this film, I got to be part of something truly remarkable, the double decade awaited ‘resurrection’ of my all time favourite band, The Stone Roses,” said Meadows, who will host a Q&A after the screening on Thursday, May 30 at Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. “People say that you can’t recapture your youth, it’ll never be the same second time round etc, but that’s utter rubbish. The Roses were never allowed to reach their peak first time around so, as far as I and millions of fans around the world were concerned, with this comeback the Roses could be even greater,” he added.
Ian Brown and Shane Meadows are both national treasures
Continue reading: Stone Roses Documentary 'Made Of Stone' To Debut In Manchester [Trailer]
Watch the trailer for Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee
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Made by a fan for fans, this documentary explores the iconic English rock band through...
The Stone Roses were a relatively short-lived indie phenomenon that inspired the lives of so...
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