The Stone Roses – La Cigale, Paris (3rd June 2013)

Where do I start with how I feel about the Stone Roses……..? Well, it’s all so meaningful and quite emotional to me, the music of the Stone Roses and the timing of their reformation gigs at Heaton Park in Manchester last year. I’ll leave my feelings to another post. Lots of people have their stories, there was such an outpouring of love for the band on the news of their reformation and then, what can I say about those Heaton Park gigs last year? It was such a special shared moment in time. It is blatant how much of an impression the band had and still has on people. Let’s just get on with how it was the other night in Paris.

We live near to Paris and have been to the venue La Cigale a number of times. The acoustics are great in there, it’s one of my favourite small venues.  I was excited, in almost a teenage way (as I was for the Heaton Park gigs) to be going to see the Stone Roses at such an intimate venue. I’d only ever seen them at outdoor events previously. Anyway, the sun was shining, it was a beautiful evening in Paris. We made our way over to Montmatre where the atmosphere was decidedly Manchester. Loads of people had made the trip over which was good to see. There was such  excitement and eagerness to see these 4 men from Manchester take to the stage.

We caught the last few tracks of the support band – The Strypes. I believe that they are only 16 years old. They were suited and booted, they looked cool and had a superb air of nonchalance. They were tight and sounded excellent. I can’t imagine how they must have felt supporting the Stone Roses – what a gig! They had good support, the crowd seemed to enjoy them. It was of course all about the Roses though, the atmosphere became electric as we waited for them to enter stage.

‘I Wanna Be Adored’ – the bass kicked in, the hairs stood up on the back of the neck, oh, the joy – the atmosphere in La Cigale was euphoric and it remained that way for the hour and 1/2 ish they were on stage.

Such a happy electric atmosphere, it’s nostalgic and also a perfect in the moment experience.  It was so uplifting. They are almost worshipped and Ian Brown does such a good job of being legend-like. He swaggered around the stage, appearing to be loving it. He engages with the crowd who are happy to take turns taking his maracas, he takes a flag from someone but is really careful to give it back to the right person and at one point takes someone’s camera to take a photo of the group for them – sweet moment! John Squire (hidden behind his hair for most of the gig) really is an accomplished guitar player, it was quite mesmerising being so close to be able to see play, he is all over it and the sound coming out of it was incredible. Technically he is faultless (unlike Ian’s vocals at times). Reni was lost within his drums, I have never seen or heard a drummer like that, he is superb and it all just looks so natural, and it’s such an integral part of the music. Mani is a fabulous bass player and still looks made up to be back in his group.

Anyway, back to the music, ‘I Wanna Be Adored’, perfectly delivered, it builds and builds, it is the most wonderful starter to an incredible night. Here’s the rest of the set-list:

• ‘Elephant Stone’
• ‘Ten Storey Love Song’
• ‘Standing Here’
• ‘Going Down’
• ‘Shoot You Down’
• ‘Fools Gold’
• ‘Something’s Burning’
• ‘Waterfall’
• ‘Don’t Stop’
• ‘She Bangs the Drums’
• ‘Love Spreads’
• ‘This Is the One’
• ‘Made Of Stone’
• ‘Breaking Into Heaven’
• ‘I Am The Resurrection’

‘Elephant Stone’, ‘Going Down’ and ‘Breaking Into Heaven’, were additions to the setlist at Heaton Park. Welcome additions, totally brilliant. ‘Ten Story Love Song’ is a song I adore, such a dark love song – but so beautiful. The sound was enormous. I could go on and on about each track, ‘Waterfall’ was just stunning and perfectly transitioned into ‘Don’t Stop’ with the mental backwards singing, ‘Fools Gold’ was funky, it went on for ages, we didn’t want it it stop, a real jamming session displaying the great musicianship of John Squire, Reni and Mani. ‘This Is The One’, ‘She Bangs The Drum’, ‘Made of Stone’, the crowd were jumping and singing along throughout the whole gig but these have such anthemic elements, they really did create a massive euphoria. They have such meaning too, that can transition you back to thinking of a time of your youth or history when you sing along. (I had a hoarse throat the next day). They finished with ‘I Am The Resurrection’ which was so amazing, the music was perfect. I didn’t want the night to be over, it was an emotional feeling. The band hugged each other and thanked the crowd. They do seem genuinely to be glad to be back together and grateful and pleased at the crowd reaction.  Ian did speak a little French. I always find it nice when bands make a little effort when performing over here. Mani came back on the stage to say ‘à bientôt’ which was funny. I enjoyed the gig immensely and so did my other half and our friend who had made the trip over the channel. We are all 40 (as a lot of the crowd were, along with plenty of younger / older gig-goers) and we, again, like in Manchester last year enjoyed a perfect night of emotional music from a band who mean so much to us.

WHAT A GIG, WHAT A NIGHT! I wish I was going to Finsbury Park.

Just a couple of shots – it wasn’t a night for photos it was a night to embrace the music.

Euphoric crowd