The Stone Roses - Relationship With The Media

Relationship With The Media

During the band's time in the public eye their relationship with the mass media was vastly different to other self-endorsing bands. They would often display no interest in promoting themselves, and many journalists were confused, and sometimes angered, when their questions were met with complete silence from the four Stone Roses.

A typical example of their approach with dealing with the press is the Spike Island press conference (attended by the world's media) in 1990. This ended in chaos when the gathered journalists began a small riot, believing the band to be deliberately stonewalling them. As John Robb commented, "The Stone Roses would stonewall the journalist. With shy guffaws, muttered asides, dispassionate staring, foot-shuffling silences and complete mind-numbing gaps, punctuated by the odd piece of incisive home-spun philosophy from Brown, who occasionally hinted at a well-read mind. There would be complete silence from John Squire, witty banter from Reni, and Mani spouting off if he let his guard drop." However, Robb clarified that "we're no fools when it came to the media". And that, "One feature of the band's career had been their ability to stay on the news pages of the rock press almost permanently for years on end, including the years when they did fuck all. And they did this by hardly saying anything at all."