In pictures: Ian Tilton on photographing The Stone Roses
- Published
A Manchester photographer who helped mould the look of one of the city's most-renowned bands, The Stone Roses, has gathered together a collection of some well-known and some rarely seen shots for a new book.
Set In Stone gathers together over 400 of Ian Tilton's live and studio pictures and tracks "every key moment in the hectic first life of the band" from their beginnings in Manchester in the mid 1980s to their time as global stars and eventual split in 1996.
The photographer's relationship with the band began in 1985, around the time of the release of their debut single, So Young, which he admits he "didn't like".
"They changed when they brought out Sally Cinnamon, which is an amazing single, in 1987 and I did pictures of them from then, including for their first major music magazine piece in SOUNDS when Sally was released," he says.
He says in the early days, he remembers the band "trying and experimenting with clothes and haircuts that they loved - the Roses always wanted me to do something different from the classic four-piece line-up formula that other photographers always did".
"We were a creative team when it came to photos. Sometimes I came up with the ideas, sometimes they did and we developed those ideas together. We were all passionate about getting great photographs and they were also very patient, because some of the shoots were technically difficult," he said.
He admits that having witnessed the band's initial demise, he was worried when he heard they were getting back together in 2011, because "I didn't want them to mess up - I didn't want the bubble and magic of the past glories to burst".
Ian Tilton's Set In Stone is launched at Gorilla in Manchester on Saturday 13 April.
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