Mani's funeral took place just before Christmas, an outpouring of love and respect for The Stone Roses bassist, a man that no one seems to have had a bad word to say about. This song appeared on Soundcloud at the same time, a wonderful cover of Shoot You Down by Alfie and kids from Crowcroft Park Primary School in Longsight that dates from a north west BBC TV show at some point in the early 00s. Listen here.
There's something about the massed choral voices of primary school children singing the words to Shoot You Down that is a bit counter- intuitive and also very affecting. 'I'd love to do it and you know you've always had it coming... I never wanted/ The love that you showed me/ It started to choke me/ And how I wish I said 'no'/ Too slow/ I want you to know/ I couldn't take that too fast/ I want you to know'.
The recording is from a cassette tape, taped off the radio (BBC Manchester) so sonically it's not the best but it doesn't really spoil it too much. The hunt for the masters is on apparently. Also, at the end it cuts into the show and Terry Christian's voice appears, something you don't necessarily want to hear every time you listen to the song.
Here's the original from 1989, nestled away towards the end of side 2 of The Stone Roses, between Made Of Stone and This Is The One, a song where the rhythm section of Reni and Mani show their strengths, subtle and blues/ jazz influenced, and John finds a smoky, low key Hendrix vibe, all three building while Ian croons sweet kiss offs and rejections.
Alfie were a Manchester band, formed in 1998, and who made four albums before calling it a day in 2005. They were part of a late 90s/ early 00s scene that included Doves, I Am Klute and Elbow. Doves and Elbow especially both went onto big things. It never really happened for Alfie.
These pair of songs are from their 2005 album Crying At Teatime. The first, Your Own Religion, is the albums opening song, punchy and melodic, guitars and pianos powering out of the speakers, cymbals splashing and singer Lee Gorton drawling and cool.
On Wizzo they sound superb, confident and full of life. They split up not long after the release, Lee saying 'it's hard to keep the faith when it feels like no- one's listening'. The major they'd signed to, EMI, wanted a Coldplay style song from them and they didn't feel like they could do it.
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