REVIEW: Ian Brown Nottingham Rock City 6.10.22

‘Karaoke!?’, ‘don’t waste your money?!’, ‘everyone walked out?!’, ‘the guys a fraud?!’ all these judgements and many many more have been made all over social media at the long awaited return to a live setting of The Stone Roses front man Ian Brown on his solo autumn 2022 UK tour, his first live outing since the break up of the Roses in 2017.

This short tour visited some stellar indoor venues of the UK, tonight I caught up with him in the hallowed walls of Nottingham’s Rock City. It’s one of those venues where no matter your position you can refreshingly see the whites of the eyes of the artist on stage. Tickets are sold out leading the atmosphere to resonate a jam packed sports stadium. There was a comment regarding the Blackpool 89/Spike Island crowds being wall to wall bouncing, tonight the crowd were of a similar energy, which was justified with the entertainment up front on the floorboards.

Support act for all of the tour is Northside’s front man Dermo. Accompanied by Steven Ness on guitar and Leah Wallis on backing vocals, the trio are in great form. A similar act to Brown with the majority of the music performed via backing tracks apart from the aforementioned guitars and vocals, tonight’s set is jammed packed full of Madchester stone cold classics. Shall We Take A Trip, Moody Places, My Rising Star and Take 5 all get a run out receiving a great reception from the ever building crowd, new song Where We Can Be needs to be released as a single. Dermo is one of the unsung heroes of the 90’s, full of charm with a cheeky Cheshire cat grin, dressed in the best clobber with his distinctive voice to match, he’s outshone many with his blissful sunshine guitar rock anthems.

Fast forward to the main event Ian Brown enters the stage to a deafening crowd noise whilst Born Free rings around the PA, spectacular spinning/swirling lights and strobes propel images of his iconic figure all around the bricks and mortar of the venue; The Feeding Of The 5000, Be There, Love Like A Fountain and Getting High achieve a red hot atmosphere. Brown’s presence on his own singing to backing tracks suits his music and his love of Hip Hop/Rap. Rewind to the Roses reunion shows where he was waxing lyrical at the end of Love Spreads, no doubt these shows are in small portion his own tribute to the old skool live shows of Run DMC, Beastie Boys and the like, when performing to backing tracks was the norm, the spotlight firmly on the performer.

This performing to backing tracks has been a major discussion point for the masses who have either made a judgement from attending a gig or being an armchair critic. From my stance on his performance in Nottingham I found nothing out of place. Ian has always done what he wanted to do, maybe his stance is that he wanted to try something different and long may artists continue to do things differently than their audience want them to. That’s always been part of the appeal of evolving artists, trying to be inventive rather than exercising plagiarism or reinventing the wheel, which Brown has defiantly been steadfast against.

Back to tonight’s proceedings, Dave McCraken, Ian’s musical spar for the night hiding in the wings deserves a shout out. Thinking back to those great hip hop gigs when the turntable masters like Mix Master Mike, Grandmaster Flash were spinning phat beats for their audience, Dave’s presence is aka to these iconic figures, unleashing tracks for the fans to enjoy. There will always be the doubters to artists going solo when they have been apart of an iconinc band such as The Stone Roses, but give credit where it’s due, Ian Brown’s solo material is what he wants to do, it’s his music, he makes no excuses and so he shouldn’t for the music he’s created, its different to the Roses material and wouldn’t life be boring if all music was the same. Bravo Mr Brown for giving us uplifting new music.

There’s also the debate on Brown’s voice. Being a fan of Ian’s since 1988 I have always enjoyed his voice, even the off notes, that’s always been part of the appeal. He’s real and doesn’t hide away from that fact which is refreshing and far away from the soulless perfectionists. The set continues with his reinterpretation of Elizabeth My Dear, encouraging the crowd to sing a long as he shifts the wording to Charlie My Dear, Dolphins Were Monkeys, Stellify, First World Problems, Golden Gaze all appear to be given a new lease of life from McCracken, the sound in the venue is probably on par with the loudest gigs I’ve been to.

The night closes with F.E.A.R., last chance to get your dancing shoes on, the crowd firmly playing their part on the nights proceedings; crowd surfing, a mosh pit, security scrambling around the front of the stage not knowing what to do with the over exuberant contingent, Brown asks the security at the front to leave the ecstatic crowd alone to dance freely, the hoards at the crash barrier were also treated to Brown cheekily taking their phones and filming himself on stage before giving their possessions back, he’s a true crowd pleaser, wanting everyone in his presence to have the best time, his energy on stage was kinda miraculous, dancing and showing his best Bruce Lee moves from the first note to the last. The 59 year old would give Mr Motivator and Lizzie Webb a good run for their money.

Midway through the gig Brown asked the crowd in attendance if any journalist were in attendance, I sheepishly said nothing as the crowd looked around for any guilty parties, but I would hope Ian will let my review ring out around the net as I duly applaud him for doing something different, ripping up the rule book, giving the fans something diverse to enjoy whilst our lives are taxed by lethal politicians. The King that we all want, King Monkey, is thankfully back, better than ever and long may his reign continue.

For further news on Ian Brown check out his website HOME | ianbrown

All photos by Carl Wright