Films - The Stone Roses - Made of Stone - directed by Shane Meadows

Star rating - 8/10

This is not an objective documentary about The Stone Roses - it can't be, as director Shane Meadows is one of their biggest fans. It's more of a love letter from him to them, and therefore is more a celebration of their brilliance rather than an expose or an in depth analysis of them. They're not really that sort of band.

And as their first album is one of my all time favourites - with every track a classic - I'm a bit biased too. But this is a really delightful film about how the Manchester band they reformed last year, and treated still adoring fans to a free concert in Warrington. Some of the best bits are actually from fans desperate to see their idols, builders leaving jobs half finished, men who to this day have their hair modelled on Ian Brown's, and just manic, mad dashes to get their hands on a precious wristband to gain entry. 

There's great footage from the early days too. Only Ian Brown would have the audacity to make super 8 films of himself going about town on his scooter before he was even famous. He knew he would be, he was, and so the footage is priceless. My favourite part is an early interview with Brown and guitarist John Squire with a very stupid interviewer whose questions are so banal she could hardly have been surprised by their short impish answers. 

It covers the bust ups in passing, one of which happened during the making of this film, but does not really explore them in any detail. It climaxes with their triumphant home coming gigs at Heaton Park last year, of which the aerial night-time shots are fabulous.

The Stone Roses don't think they are the best band in the world, they know they are, and this film captures their swagger, audacity and arrogance brilliantly. And of course there are all those wonderful tunes....