21 June 2013
What's with all the Stone Roses love? I was at the Spike Island gig, in 1990, and even THEN it felt like the we-can-change-the-world moment had passed.
Two weeks after Shane Meadows' exhaustive, engrossing documentary about the band's legacy, Mat Whitecross's drama – in which five wannabe Madchester pop stars try to score tickets to the show – does its best to avoid gush. And the young cast are sparky, especially Elliott Tittensor (as Tits) and Adam Long (Little Gaz). Still, the piece as a whole gets bogged down in rites-of-passage cliches and, ultimately, seems out of time. Manchester's past is still relevant but here's a funny thing: all the youngsters I know are into The Smiths...
