Things you should know about Britain - 1. The Stone Roses

In a regular series of articles, our UK correspondent, Prof. Kevin Lagerlout, will take you through some important aspects of British culture of which you may not be aware. This week he's looking at music; specifically The Stone Roses.



Everyone knows the Beatles, some people have heard of Oasis, but for people in the know, there's one English guitar band which leaves all the others standing. Sadly no longer together, The Stone Roses were not only the best band ever, they not only recoreded the best album ever (The Stone Roses) but, perhaps equally importantly, they were also the coolest cats ever to swing a microphone.



In the summer of 1990, when some of you were just thinking about walking for the first time, the cool kids were wearing baggy clothes, scruffy, longish hair and listening to music from Manchester or 'Madchester' as it was dubbed at the time. As well as The Roses, there were The Happy Mondays:



The Inspiral Carpets:



And, of course, in many ways greater than them all, The Charlatans:



The Charlatans are still going, and still great. Their latest album was available as a free download. Now you'll have to steal it, but here's a taste:




All these bands were important in rebuilding the popularity of guitar music as opposed to the computer generated pop of the '80s. They made records you could dance to: and how we danced!