Ian George Brown was born in Ancoats,
Lancashire on 20th February 1963, and was best known as the lead singer with the hugely infuential
Madchester band,
The Stone Roses from 1987 to 1996. He met the future lead guitartist of the Roses,
John Squire in a local sandpit at the age of four. A
teenage Squire invited Brown to join his band
The Patrol, originally as bassist, but eventually as the lead singer, and with the addition of Alan '
Reni' Wren, and Gary '
Mani' Moundfield, and a quick name change, The Stone Roses were formed.
After the very public breakup of the group and (apparently) dismissing his idea of becoming a landscape gardener, Ian now has a moderately successful solo career, having released 'Unfinished Monkey Business' in 1997 and more recently 'Golden Greats' in 1999. Unfortunately most of the media hype surrounding him at the time of its release revolved around the charges of threatening behaviour made towards a stewardess when he told her if she didn't stop mithering him, he'd 'chop off her hands', which resulted in him spending 60 days in Strangeways Prison. When talking about the incident he claims "I’m the most fucking polite fucking guy I know. I’m over-polite, so the fact that I’ve now been portrayed as this thug from the North who goes berserk on aircraft, it just wasn’t me."
Ian has three sons. Frankie, born in 1992 and Casey, born in 1995 (I can't find the name of the third mentioned anywhere, /msg me if anyone knows).