Is this the most cringeworthy Stone Roses interview ever?

12 January 2020, 20:00 | Updated: 12 November 2021, 13:07

Rapido Feature On The Stone Roses

Ian Brown tries to act interested when confronted with a camera… but just LISTEN to the track they’re recording!

If you’re an indie fan of a certain age (or just like searching through YouTube for rare clips), then you’ll remember the BBC2 series Rapido.

This music show was produced and presented by Antoine De Caunes between 1988 and 1992 and featured interviews, videos and live footage from the coolest new indie bands in the years preceding Britpop.

Having championed The Stone Roses on the release of their classic debut album in 1989, the Rapido crew headed to Battery Studios in Willesden, London that October to interview the band as they recorded the vocals for their forthcoming new single.

As de Caunes says in his introduction: “We ‘ad a bit of trouble interviewing them… because they were not in the best of moods, to put it mildly.”

The interviewer spoke to the assembled Roses about comparisons between their debut LP and classic 1960s psychedelic groups. But the question did not go down well. AT ALL.

A visibly unimpressed Ian Brown stares at the poor interviewer and mumbles: “It might remind people of the sound of the 60s, sound of the 70s, who cares? It’s not been done before… (HUGE PAUSE) Has it?”

The Stone Roses - Fools Gold (Official Video)

Watch the whole, toe curling clip here - but stick with it as you soon realise which song they’re recording that day. An amazing moment in Manchester music history.

After being compared to Alan McGee’s pre-Oasis proteges The House Of Love, Ian Brown smarts, saying: “The independent scene’s a joke, there’s no good music come out of it. Hardly, Not England, anyway.”

Crikey. And if that’s not bad enough, the interview is narrated by Tracey McLeod, who a month later would introduce The Stone Roses on their infamous appearance on The Late Showclick here to see how that ended up.

But seriously, though. The Stone Roses. How cool were they?