Here’s a curiosity from The Stone Roses’ canon of songs. Where Angels Play was a track that always had a place in their live set, but it was one they never included on any album or as a single release.
In fact, there’s a great deal of mystery about it. No 100% finished recording of it exists, its inclusion on record label Silvertone’s early ’90s releases were unsanctioned by the band.
Away from that side, the song captures the brilliance of the John Squire and Ian Brown songwriting partnership. With beautiful melodies and dreamy sense of wonder, it’s a classic example of the band’s unique creativity.
Magic Carpets and a Classic Outro in Where Angels Play
One of the myths surrounding The Stone Roses is they released one great album, five years later released a bad second one, then disappeared. The people who believe that are only revealing their ignorance, as the band also wrote many other classic tracks that never graced an album.
Around their peak in 1989 and 1990, they pelted over a dozen B sides that most bands would kill to have as a lead single. The glorious and punchy Standing Here being a classic example.
Another was Where Angels Play, a song still shrouded in some mystery.
According to the band’s music producer John Leckie, it was a consideration for The Stone Roses (the band’s eponymous 1989 debut). They left it off that and this song never had a proper recording, with the above audio being an early and unfinished take of the song.
Despite its absence on any official album/single, the band liked it and it became a mainstay in their live set. The first recording of which we can find from 1987, as played here at Manchester International in Longsight. This version is vastly different to what the song would become a few years later.
Once they’d honed down the song properly, it took on a new life. The Stone Roses rarely wrote traditional love songs, but the lyrics for Where Angels Play seem to hint at a relationship that’s gone wrong.
Come with me to a place no eyes have ever seen,
A million miles from here where no one’s ever been,
God-given grace and a holy heaven face,
I’m on the edge of something shattering,
I’m coming through.“Ok, let’s fly”, she says, “this carpet’s made for two”,
This ugly little box, no place for me and you,
Our carpet falls on a dew-fresh dappled plain,
Take a look around, there’s something happening,
All the colours fade.I don’t want you now, bang bang bang gone,
Ooh I don’t need you now, the seeds are sown,
Ooh bang bang pretty pretty, bang bang.
It’s cryptic from Brown and Squire, suggesting a relationship that promised plenty but ended badly. Again, the band wasn’t about traditional love songs, with a possibility the lyrics cover the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve stuff from the Bible. Ultimately, it’s up for debate. But it does appear to be a song of betrayal and rejection.
The reason The Stone Roses’ career didn’t reach its full potential was down to warring record labels. Silvertone signed them up in 1988. As they suddenly the hottest band out there, it didn’t want to relinquish the band and a lengthy court battled ensued.
This derailed the band at a creative peak, ensuring a five year delay between albums.
In 1991, Silvertone (cashing in on anything it could anyway, against the band’s wishes) launched I Wanna Be Adored as a single, with Where Angels Play as the B side. That’s the version played above and generally considered the closest thing to a proper recording of the song.
It’s certainly one of our favourite songs by the band, it’s just a shame it wasn’t properly recorded and released with the band’s total consent. What we have instead are the live versions, which show what the band wanted to do with the song—including its often showstopping outro section.
Notable Live Versions of Where Angels Play
The best live version of Where Angels Play we’ve is from the band’s famous Blackpool 1989 gig. This was the only proper peak era professional recording of The Stone Roses in action and caught them at the peak of their powers.
Singer Ian Brown’s voice could be a bit on and off, depending on the night (he had an awful smoking habit), but the rest of the guys were on it big time. Guitarist John Squire is magnificent across the outro from the three minute mark onward, with the band’s genius drummer Reni going ballistic at the end.
Missing from the above clip is what followed, with the band merging the song seamlessly into Shoot You Down thanks to Reni’s jazzy drumming. Really a glorious thing to hear and eight wonderful minutes of music.
The above gig was from August 1989, but earlier in the year (27th February) they’d played at Manchester’s famous Haçienda club as run by Tony Wilson of Factory Records. It’s near Deansgate/Oxford Road train stations and marked a curious moment for the band—earlier in ’89 they hadn’t taken off yet.
So listening to the below (a bootleg recording) is a band pre-fame, followed by several months later in August ’89 and they were the biggest band in the UK.
The song captures the Ian Brown and John Squire songwriting partnership very well, those beautiful melodies across the chorus. Complemented massively by drummer Reni’s harmonic backing vocals.
Those two versions also show a band moving from a dingy small club to full headline gigs at the Blackpool Empress Ballroom, a huge shift in a matter of months. They really upped their game, too, moving into a proper anthemic band with all the skilled musicianship of all-time greats before them.
Simone: Where Angels Play in Reverse
At their creative peak, John Squire adorned the band’s singles with Jackson Pollock inspired artwork. He also had a habit of reversing some of their songs and releasing them as B sides to singles.
Simone is one example, which is Where Angels Play in reverse.
Some of these reverse songs worked better than others, but Simone is definitely one of the better examples of this little trick. Makes for some relaxing background vibes.
