Profile of Ian Brown on Famous Like Me

For the Canadian radio broadcaster, see Ian Brown (journalist).

Ian Brown (born February 20, 1963) is a solo British musician and former lead singer of The Stone Roses, a popular indie rock band. After the Roses broke up in 1996, Brown has released 4 solo albums and achieved moderate success in his native country. He has appeared on several club tours and has performed at the Glastonbury Festival three times since 1998.

Nicknamed "King Monkey" by Dodgy's Matthew Priest, Brown is noted for his wispy singing style. He is not the most technically sound singer and some critics have compared his delivery to "a man shouting into a bucket".

In his solo career, Brown has worked with many notable musicians including UNKLE and Oasis' Noel Gallagher. Previously, he acted as a mentor to the up-and-coming British band, South.

Brown recently appeared in a cameo role in the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The singer became good friends with the movie's director Alfonso Cuarón, who has personally promised to direct one of Brown's future music videos.

In 2002, Q magazine named Ian Brown in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die", although this was part of a sub-list of "5 Bands That Could Go Either Way".

Brown has had several run-ins with the law. In 1998, he was sentenced to 4 months in jail for air rage, after threatening a pilot and stewardess on a flight. In 2005, he was arrested for assault during a San Francisco gig, but no charges were laid.

Since the demise of the Roses, Brown has stayed in touch with many the former members. He has performed with bassist Mani and remains friends with drummer Reni. Both Reni and Mani were sampled on Brown's debut album "Unfinished Monkey Business" on the track "Can't See Me". Although Reni maintains that this was in fact a drum machine and not his good self.

Brown has also worked with Aziz Ibrahim (who regularly acts as the support act at Brown's gigs), Nigel Ippinson and Robbie Maddix, who all performed with the Roses on their ill-fated 1996 summer tour which included the Benacissam Festival in Valencia and the now infamous Reading Festival performance.

Notably however, Brown has had no contact with his former song writing partner and childhood best friend John Squire. Brown's key reason for the band not reforming is his lack of contact with Squire and their differing musical tastes. In a 2004 interview with Q magazine, Squire went as far as branding Brown as a "tuneless knob", although this was taken out of context by some members of the press as it refered to Brown during the recording of the Stone Roses' second album, Second Coming due to his large in-take of cannabis.

Squire has once contacted Brown since the demise of the Roses. When Brown was in jail before Christmas 1997 for air rage, Squire sent Brown a box of Maltesers (as this was the gift that they traditionally exchanged in their youth at Christmas) with a note reading "I Still Love You". Whilst Brown was released just before Christmas and did not directly contact Squire afterwards, he is said to have been touched by the gesture.

Discography

Chart positions listed are for the UK, he has not charted in the US.

Albums

Chart positions for the United Kingdom.

1. Unfinished Monkey Business (1998) #4

2. Golden Greats (1999) #14

3. Music Of The Spheres (2001) #3

4. Solarized (2004) #7

Remixes

- Remixes Of The Spheres (2002)

Compilations

- The Greatest (2005)

Singles

• "My Star" (1998) #5
• "Corpses" (1998) #14
• "Can't See Me" (1998) #21
• "Be There (UNKLE feat. Ian Brown)" (1999) #8
• "Love Like A Fountain" (1999) #23
• "Dolphins Were Monkeys" (2000) #5
• "Golden Gaze" (2000) #29
• "Thriller/Billie Jean" (2000)
• "F.E.A.R." (2001) #13
• "Whispers" (2002) #33
• "Keep What Ya Got" (2004) #18
• "Reign (UNKLE feat. Ian Brown)" (2004) #40
• "Time Is My Everything" (2005) #15
• "All Ablaze" (2005) #20

Sound samples

• Download sample of Brown covering Bob Marley's "Redemption Song"

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ian Brown