Spike Island, 1990 | The People's Archive ®

Our crowdsourced archive from The Stone Roses’s gig at Spike Island, Widnes, Cheshire, on the 27th of May, 1990.

Although technically not the best gig by the Roses, Spike Island remains a legendary and pivotal moment within the Manchester scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The idea to play at Spike Island came from the band’s manager, Gareth Evans, who lived nearby. It was also in the band’s ethos to do something different from the usual. Speaking to the NME in 2010, Ian Brown said: “We wanted to do something outside the rock’n’roll norm and do it in a venue which had never been used for that sort of thing before. This was back in the days of raves, remember. We started out doing warehouse parties and we still had that mentality where we wanted to play different venues. We wanted to play places that weren’t on the circuit.”

Support acts on the day were a Zimbabwean drum orchestra, a ska/rock/reggae fusion band called Ruff Ruff & Ready, and the reggae artist Gary Clail. DJs included Dave Booth, Dave Haslam, Paul Oakenfold, MC Tunes, and Frankie Bones.