Early Career
Reni taught himself drums in his youth as, due to his family situation, he was nearly always around musical instruments in a pub environment. A naturally gifted musician, he was equally adept at playing guitar, bass and piano. John Robb, in his 1997 book, The Stone Roses and the Resurrection of British Pop, notes that Reni could "play guitar almost as well as he plays drums," and Mani, speaking on a BBC Radio One documentary, mentioned that Reni could play better bass than he could, quoting that he could "piss all over me on bass." However, it was his drumming abilities which made him stand out. Whilst growing up in the Manchester suburb of Gorton, "the local kids thought Reni was a freak because he was such an amazing drummer, a total natural. Reni didn't care. He was already jamming along to anything and anybody."
Already in two bands before he joined The Stone Roses, it was perhaps friend Simon Wright's successful audition for AC/DC in 1984 which prompted him towards more serious ambitions.
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