Utilising an SSL E-series console and Studer tape machines, the Battery sessions took place between about seven at night and nine in the morning, and the day after they ended, the Studio Two complex was dismantled and converted into offices. 'Waterfall' would subsequently be re-recorded at Rockfield in Wales. The A&R guy, Roddy McKenna, was quite a tough Glaswegian, and he told me 'You're gonna make this good.' He didn't specify what this meant, but he'd come down to the studio and tell us when he thought something was good or something was bad." Battery PoweredĪfter mixing the Roses' third single, 'Elephant Stone', Leckie spent a few days rehearsing with them in Manchester before the album sessions commenced at North London's Battery Studios, where four tracks were recorded within the space of 10 days: 'I Wanna Be Adored', 'She Bangs The Drums', 'Waterfall' and 'This Is The One'. "Basically, I was brought in to do my thing. I can't now remember what songs were on the tape, but I know they included 'Waterfall', 'She Bangs The Drums', 'This Is The One' and 'I Am The Resurrection'. I then got the same kind of tape from Silvertone, so it was clear that the band had asked for me to work with them. "I initially received a demo tape from Geoff Travis at Rough Trade," Leckie recalls, "and by the time I got back to him they'd signed with Silvertone. Leckie at Mushroom Studios, Vancouver, 1990. After going freelance a couple of years later, he'd then worked with the likes of XTC, Public Image Limited, Simple Minds and the Fall, and it was on the strength of this resumé that, towards the end of 1988, he became involved with the Stone Roses. Originally a tape-op at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, Leckie had assisted on early-'70s projects such as John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, before making his production debut with Be-Bop Deluxe's Sunburst Finish album in 1976. During a halcyon year, and preceding ruinous legal wranglings with Silvertone Records, this single would prove to be the Stone Roses' crowning achievement, and it was also among the career highs of producer/engineer John Leckie, who in the next decade would be responsible for such classics as the Verve's A Storm In Heaven, Radiohead's The Bends and Kula Shaker's K. 'She Bangs The Drums' became the Manchester band's first top 40 single, yet it was the funky 'Fools Gold', recorded after the album's UK release and subsequently added to American pressings, that finally cracked the top 10, reaching number eight that November. Featuring the haughtily laid-back vocal style of Jaggeresque frontman Ian Brown, catchy hooks of guitarist John Squire, and infectious rhythms of bassist Mani and drummer Reni, The Stone Roses sandwiched anthems such as 'She Bangs The Drums' and 'Made Of Stone' between trance-like opener 'I Wanna Be Adored' and epic closer 'I Am The Resurrection'. Their self-titled 1989 debut album opened the doors to a host of other UK bands, including the Inspiral Carpets and Happy Mondays. The Stone Roses: Alan 'Reni' Wren, Gary 'Mani' Mounfield, Ian Brown and John Squire.Īs the '80s drew to a close, the Stone Roses made rock music cool again, melding '60s psychedelia and acid house under the production guidance of John Leckie.Īt the forefront of the late-'80s 'Madchester' scene that merged '60s guitar pop with dance rhythms, the Stone Roses made an indelible mark on the British rock canon.
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