22nd May
What happened on this date in Stone Roses history ?
"Stone Roses play Dingwalls, London"
The Navigation
Andy Connor
Other Band Members
So tell us your name and what do you do in the band?
My name's Andy and I play the guitar for the complete stone roses.
What age are you?
I’m 32 years old, the oldest in the band ha-ha, started the band when I was 29 and I’ve aged every year since.
So have you been in any other bands?
Well to be honest, I started playing the guitar when I was 12, and I was playing for a couple of years but then I fell out of the guitar thing and got into DJing, I was right into the rave scene, I used to DJ under the name DJ chaos, I done a few gigs in Cumbernauld, but I really wish I never got into that because it was years I could have spent playing the guitar! When I was about 19 my Mrs. bought me a guitar for Christmas and I started playing the guitar again, I’ve played in hundreds of bands since then but nothing major. Just gigging in and around Glasgow, playing boozers and the like.
Are you a big roses fan?
Massive roses fan! I’ve always been a massive roses fan! When I was at school in first year I used to be into guns and roses and getting into bands like Metallica and things until I herd the first stone roses album, and that completely changed my outlook. The first song I ever heard was waterfall, and I think I played it 6 times or something, in my lunch break at school and I used to go home and just play the song for a full hour ha-ha. And after that, that was me, started to wear flares and shit, chopping my hair getting it into a sort of squire – Ian brown kind of mess ha-ha.
What kind of music are you into?
Right now I’m really into jack white, the raconteurs. Cozzy is amazing on the guitar man!
So what’s your role in the band? where do you fit in ?
I’m another party animal. Me and Nelly and magoo (Brian) are the partiers, its weird it’s always been like that, the drummers rend to be more quiet, our last drummer Scott he never smoked or drank, and the new drummer maldo, he isn’t quite Scott but he isn’t quite the party animal ha-ha. He can party when he wants to, when you sneak a few shots down his neck he can go for it! We were in Brighton last week, and it was just me magoo and maldo, Nelly was in his bed. We were in a pub and hatched this plan; we pretended maldo was a footballer who had just signed for Man city! , so we made a big fuss about him and he played along, with his Brazilian accent he fitted the part! He was surrounded by all these woman and people were getting pretty excited ha-ha! That’s the kind of things we do as a band, when it comes to it were all the same! I just try and have a good time.
So do you have any musical idols, or people you look up too?
My biggest musical idol is jimmy Hendrix, there was a spell in my life where I just listened to nothing but Hendrix for about 2 years, when I came out of that haze, I started to look at the music and what was going on and I started to realise that I’m only really into bands with really good guitar players. Being a guitarist I like to hear nice guitar playing ha-ha, it’s got to have good guitar.
Who would you love to work with?
I would love to play guitar in several bands, I’d love to play the guitar in primal scream, kasabian, Oasis, and there are a lot of bands, like pink Floyd and bands like that. The guitar is a dying art, guitar solos as well. That’s why I love playing the roses , squire knew how to handle a guitar and hit out with some amazing solo’s , he knew how to rip the arse out it ! Ha-ha.
Is there anything you’d love to do as a band?
I just want more of what we have at the moment , i would love bigger gigs , playing with bigger Pa’s things like that. I love what im doing i am just looking for more of the same. I am happy where i am.
What would be the dream gig for you?
I’d love to see the band at places like Glastonbury! I’d love that, and I think why not?! .. I mean Ian brown played Glastonbury, when he was playing the roses tunes the response was unbelievable! So if there’s ever a year when he’s not playing maybe we can sneak in there! Its definitely possible because look at where the band have got to , 10 years ago it was un heard of for a tribute band to be playing the kind of gigs we play , t- in the park , live @ loch Lomond , gigs like that ! It’s all about the music; as long as we do it justice then I don’t see why not. Were not just a tribute band, were a stone rose’s tribute band, people dig the roses and still love to see us out there keeping it alive.
Where do you see yourself in a couple of year’s time?
My ultimate gig would be me playing the guitar, john Lennon singing, Mitch Mitchell playing the drums and Noel Redding playing the bass ... basically everyone from the Hendrix experience minus jimmy, I’ll take his place, and john Lennon to sing. I’m not that big headed to think that I’m anywhere near as good as him but that would be the dream gig. We would probably play my local, I would have a better time playing there than a stadium.
What’s been the most memerable thing that’s happened to you in the band?
I think it was the first rehearsal that I ever had with the band. The first rehearsal I had, peter (the manager) brought Mani to it. We were all playing love spreads just jamming, and all of a sudden I heard the bass drop out and magoo stopped singing. So I was just playing looking at the drummer , then he stopped playing , so I’m thinking what the fucks the matter , and I turn around and mani was standing there and I nearly broke the strings on my guitar! That’s probably the best thing to happen to me in the band. When that happened I was just new so for that to happen on my first day was unreal.
