The Complete Stone Roses are one of the UK’s most well-known, most seen and most successful tribute bands. Selling out venues across the UK and Ireland regularly, they have helped to carry on the music of one of the UK’s most influential bands - The Stone Roses.
The Stone Roses played a pivotal role in the history of the UK’s indie music scene. Famous hits like Fools Gold, I Am The Resurrection and I Wanna Be Adored are as recognisable now as were the heyday of Madchester and the Hacienda, the cultural icons from which the original band were born.
The Complete Stone Roses play to acclaim from fans themselves, the press, and even original Stone Roses band members. Stone Roses bass player Mani has not only just appeared as a warm up DJ for the band on the odd occasion but has also played onstage with them as their guest bassist playing She Bangs The Drums on more than a few times when he was touring about with the band. Mani says "they do our songs real justice. At times, they play even better than we did".
They have also performed alongside Peter Hook (New Order), Clint Boon & Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets) and the legendary Bez (Happy Mondays), all Manchester legends in their own right and have even created a somewhat celebrity fan-base with artist’s such as Chris Helme, Stuart Fletcher and Andy Watts (the seahorses) Andy Rourke (The Smiths), Rick Witter (Shed 7), Andy Couzens (The Stone Roses), Richard Fearless (Death In Vegas) and Shane MacGowan (The Pogues) who each, individually over the last few years, have either appeared as a support DJ/Guest for the band or have attended one of their gigs purley as a fan of stone roses music being played to perfection in a live enviroment.
The Complete Stone Roses have performed on stages with audience capacities spanning from 300 to a staggering 40,000 people. In the summer of 2002 the band played their first major music festival to a packed dance arena, at the Witness festival in Ireland, those who came and saw always remember that gig, and it showed as the band were invited back to the newly renamed Oxygen festival in 2003 and 2004 (a hat trick and surely a first for any tribute band - 3 yrs on the trot and packing them to the rafters in their thousands), It just goes to show how much The Stone Roses music still has a massive effect on people even today.
One of the bands most recent successes was playing to a sold out crowd at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom (Nov 2016).
Another of the many highlights for the band so far was appearing at Scotlands T IN THE PARK music Festival 2004, where thousands and thousands of Stone Roses fans were united under one roof in the King Tuts tent together performing possibly one of the biggest and maybe loudest sing-a-longs the festival has ever heard!. A staggering 10,000 (or thereabouts) stone roses fans took over the vocal duties on opening number I wanna be adored, the excitement was clear to see.
The Completes have since appeared at many major festivals over the years such as Rock Ness, The Isle of White, Live at loch Lomond and Get Loaded during which the band have shared a stage with major acts such as The Sex Pistols, The Prodigy, Biffy Clyro, The Happy Mondays, Glasvegas and Faithless to name but a few. Probably their biggest crowd to date was at Edinburgh Hogamany in 2009, the band had been asked back for the second year running and played to a rapturous crowd of 40,000 New Year revellers. DJs such as Clint Boon, Alan McGee, Peter Hook and the one and only MANI have performed in between bands so as to keep the entertainment flowing. Good Times!
Manchester Academy 1, 2 & 3, Sheffield Leadmill, York Fibbers, London’s Mean Fiddler, the Garage & Islington Academy, Birmingham Carling Academy, Liverpool Carling Academy, Norwich Waterfront, Aberdeen Lemon Tree, Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom, QMU, the Garage, o2 ABC, o2 academy & Carling Academy, Belfast Limelight’s & Empire Ball Room, Dublin Olympia, Red-box, Temple bar & Tripod and Edinburgh Liquid Rooms amongst many, many other top UK and Ireland Venues have all seen sell out shows by the band through the years. The set that The Completes play consists of either the early Roses material and B-sides with anything from Tell Me and Here It Comes to classics like Waterfall and Fools Gold on to the Second Coming era with Love Spreads and Tightrope and all recent Stone Roses material. The band and their management pride themselves on recreating for the legions of fellow Stone Roses fans, both the live sound and the clear and unmistakable sound of the studio recordings.
The Completes have travelled far and wide and played to Stone Roses fans in many different countries all over the world. International shows include Dubai, Bahrain, Holland, U.S.A and Australia.
The Completes have also had their fair share of TV performances, BBC Choices The Eleventh Hour seen them play Tightrope and Your Star Will Shine live in the studio, something the Roses never did themselves live on TV. The Complete Stone Roses were also featured on BBC TV (UK) production Liquid News to coincide with a film called Rock-star (featuring Mark Walberg) about being in a tribute band which was due for release in 2004, and have also filmed dramatic reconstruction scenes for a BBC documentary on The Stone Roses (Blood on the Turntable) and their bitter feud with Silvertone Records. The band have also been featured on MUTV shows Good Morning Manchester and The Terry Christian show with both featuring charity single releases and kids Charity shows in Manchester.
UK music publications such as NME, Q, Guitarist and other top music tabloids have either featured, or interviewed the band at some point. Articles in newspapers such as The Sun, The Star, The Guardian, Manchester Evening News, Scottish Sunday Mail, Scottish Daily Record, The Evening Times, Irish Star, Ireland on Sunday and The Sunday Herald are not to be overlooked either.
The Completes are perfectionists at their art though and are always improving and have gone from strength to strength after several changes in the line-up - something very few bands manage to do so effortlessly. Of their commitment, Mani says "their attention to detail is amazing. The bass I use a Rickenbacker 3000 which is as rare as rocking horse shit but they have found one"
The Completes current line-up are the longest serving so far and have been playing together now for over a decade.
The bands recent projects seen them raise a whopping £17,000 donated to "Cancer Research UK" from their show at the Glasgow Carling Academy in December 2007 as well as filming and producing a music video for worldwide distribution to help promote a charity single release with a double a-side featuring Love Will Tear Us Apart ala Stone Roses style along with the bands own composition song titled Tell Me Moses which was written using ONLY the titles of The Stone Roses catalogue. This is in addition to the band releasing a DVD (formatted on NTSC and playable throughout the world in any region) of their live concert at Glasgow Carling Academy during December 2006 and which also features special guest Peter Hook of New Order performing with the band Love Will Tear Us Apart, securing worldwide distribution via Plastic-head, The Completes are leading the way in regards what good tribute bands can actually achieve out with live performances.
So there you have it, a brief history of The Complete Stone Roses in a few paragraphs, with an obvious great love for The Stone Roses and their music. Although there is only so much you can say about a tribute band or is there?
OXEGEN – DANCE TENT (IRELAND) 2002 - 2004 (3 CONSECUTIVE APPEARANCES)
EDINBURGH HOGMANAY (ASSEMBLEY ROOMS) (SCOTLAND) – 2003-04
T IN THE PARK – KING TUTS TENT (SCOTLAND) 2004
GET LOADED – MAIN STAGE (SCOTLAND) 2005
CARDIFF CALLING – MAIN STAGE (WALES) 2006
TRYST O’ GAL - HEADLINERS (SCOTLAND) – 2006
EDINBURGH HOGMANAY (ENTIRE EVENT CANCELLED) (SCOTLAND) – 2006-07
LIVE AT LOCH LOMOND – MAIN STAGE (SCOTLAND) - 2007
LIVE AT LOCH LOMOND – MAIN STAGE (SCOTLAND) - 2008
EDINBURGH HOGMANAY – THE MOUND STAGE (SCOTLAND) – 2008-2009
ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL – BIG TOP STAGE (IOW) – 2009
ROCKNESS – MAIN STAGE (SCOTLAND) – 2009
SWN FESTIVAL – CARDIFF (WALES) – 2009
STEREOFUNK – MAIN STAGE (SCOTLAND) - 2014/15
RICHMOND FESTIVAL – MAIN STAGE (ENGLAND) - 2016
DUBS AT THE HALL VW FESTIVAL – MAIN STAGE (ENGLAND) - 2016
11TH HOUR BBC CHOICE TV- 2001
LIQUID NEWS BBC CHOICE TV - 2003
BLOOD ON THE TURNTABLE BBC 3 TV UK - 2004
LYDVERKET NRG TV NORWAY - 2005
GOOD MORNING MANCHESTER MUTV, MANCHESTER UK – 2007
THE TERRY CHRISTIAN SHOW MUTV, MANCHESTER UK – 2009
LIVE AT GLASGOW CARLING ACADEMY + SPECAL GUEST PETER HOOK DVD - RELEASED 3RD SEPTEMBER 2007
LOVE WILL TEAR US APART (STONELOVE VERSION) – SINGLE RELEASED FOR CANCER RESEARCH UK – MONDAY 23RD JUNE 2008
TELL ME MOSES – TRIBUTE TO THE STONE ROSES 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEBUT ALBUM – SINGLE RELEASED MONDAY 10TH AUGUST 2009