Stockport · Willesden · Blackpool · Widnes · Glasgow · 1988–1990
John Squire flicked paint like Jackson Pollock, fans wore it to Spike Island, and in 1990 it landed the band in court. Here every splash holds a real place.
Twelve places · 1988 to 2012
Each flick throws a splash, and each splash opens the next real place in the story. The colour is yours.
Bare canvas. Pick a pot, or just flick.
Nothing has landed yet. The first splash is a studio in Stockport.
Stockport, Willesden, Monmouth · October 1988 to March 1989
The whole first album took 55 working days, from October 1988 to March 1989.
Waterfall
Waterfall, running the right way: recorded at Battery, re-recorded at Rockfield.
Before the first album
Strawberry was one of the first studios outside London to offer high-quality recording. Joy Division, The Smiths and The Stone Roses all recorded here. The Stone Roses came after Joy Division and New Order; Ian Brown is in the mosaic of artists who recorded here.
Offices now. Look at the front and the blue plaque from Waterloo Road; there is no way in.
Ten nights, 7pm to 9am
In about ten days here, John Leckie and the band recorded I Wanna Be Adored, She Bangs The Drums, Waterfall and This Is The One. They worked nights, roughly 7pm to 9am. The day after the sessions ended, the Studio Two complex was turned into offices. Ian Brown later sang his vocals in Battery Studio One, and John Squire added small wah-wah phrases there.
You can walk along Maybury Gardens; there is no studio to visit. Battery was two rooms of the old Morgan Studios on Maybury Gardens, taken over by Zomba and renamed.
October 1988 to March 1989
Part of the first album was made here: Waterfall was re-recorded, and Sugar Spun Sister, Made Of Stone, Shoot You Down and I Am The Resurrection were tracked. Rockfield says it was recognised in 1965 as the first residential recording studio in the world.
A working studio on a farm. Guided tours for up to 18, £50, booked by email; the Coach House sleeps groups.
Rockfield, near Monmouth · £50 per person
About an hour and a half round the Quadrangle and Coach House studios and the echo chambers, led by a member of the Ward family, with tea afterwards. No more than 18 people; booking by email is essential.
Book a tourCounty Antrim · Autumn 1988
John Squire said the deep green of his painting for the first album came from the colour of the water and the foam here.
After a show in Coleraine in autumn 1988, the band went to the Giant’s Causeway. There are over 40,000 basalt columns, formed some 60 million years ago. It was Northern Ireland’s first World Heritage Site.
John Squire’s painting for the first album is called Bye Bye Badman. Its splashes follow Jackson Pollock, and the same paint went on the band’s instruments. The title came from a television documentary about the student riots in Paris in May 1968, when protesters used lemons against police tear gas.
You can walk down to the stones for free. The visitor centre is open 9am to 5pm; the visitor experience is £16 for an adult.
Bushmills, County Antrim · £16 adult, £8 child
The stones are free to walk to. The visitor experience adds guided tours, an audio guide and the exhibition; the visitor centre is open 9am to 5pm. Booking ahead is strongly recommended.
Plan a visit1989 to 1990 · crowds as paint
Each crowd poured as a pool of paint: the area grows with the number of people.
0
Pick a pot to pour a crowd.
12 May 1989
The band played the ICA on 12 May 1989, the spring the first album came out.
Tuesday to Sunday, 12pm to 11pm; closed on Mondays. Charing Cross and Piccadilly Circus are the nearest stations.
10 July 1989
The band played La Cigale on 10 July 1989.
A working concert hall: go in with a ticket. Pigalle (line 12) and Anvers (line 2) are the nearest Métro stations.
12 August 1989
The Stone Roses played the Empress Ballroom on 12 August 1989. Tickets were £6; Dave Haslam DJed, for £185.
A working venue in the Grade II* listed Winter Gardens. See the ballroom at a show, or on one of the guided venue tours.
From 23 August 1989
Fools Gold was made here over 18 days, starting on 23 August 1989.
A working residential studio up a creek, reached by boat. It is not open to visitors and is closed from autumn 2026 for renovation. Golant, on the river, is the nearest village.
18 November 1989
The band played Alexandra Palace on 18 November 1989.
The park is open to walk in; shows and events inside the palace are ticketed.
Wolverhampton, then Rockfield · 30 to 31 January 1990
The lids are on.
On the way, the band stopped at a FADS DIY shop in Northenden for overalls and paint. Outside the label’s offices in Wolverhampton they threw tins of gloss over the boss, his partner, the offices and his car.
The label had reissued Sally Cinnamon, their 1987 single, and made a video for it that the band did not want. NME put the damage at £23,000.
On 30 January 1990, after the paint attack in Wolverhampton, the band drove on to Rockfield and recorded still covered in paint. Police arrested Ian Brown, John Squire and Reni there the next morning.
They were tried at Wolverhampton Crown Court in 1990. They avoided prison and were fined for the damage.
Spike Island, Widnes · 27 May 1990
On Sunday 27 May 1990 nearly 30,000 people came to Spike Island to see The Stone Roses. It was a reclaimed chemical waste site by the Mersey, ringed by factories and cooling chimneys, and reached by footbridges, so not quite an island.
The manager, Gareth Evans, chose it, near where he lived, after looking at quarries, caravan parks and speedway tracks. Tickets were £14. There was no support band, only DJs. The band came on at 9pm, after dusk, and played 16 songs in about 90 minutes.
The day was hot. At dusk the wind off the Mersey got up, and the underpowered PA was hard to hear. Fans came in bucket hats, with lemons and paint splatters.
The globe is flat.
Open parkland by the Mersey. Park free at Catalyst on Mersey Road, the science museum beside the island; it is open Tuesday to Sunday.
Visit Halton calls it the site of Widnes’ first chemical factory.
Widnes · £13, a pass for a year
The science museum on Mersey Road, next to the field where the band played in 1990. Tuesday and Wednesday 10am to 2pm, Thursday to Sunday 10am to 4pm; large free car park. Tickets are sold in person.
Plan a visitGlasgow Green, then Heaton Park
9 June 1990: the last show for five years.
Indoor rain
On 9 June 1990 the band played to about 8,000 people in a giant tent on Glasgow Green. It was hot and wet. Condensation gathered on the roof and fell inside the tent as rain.
It was their last show for five years, and the last with Reni until the reunion in 2012.
In 1450 King James II granted the land to Bishop William Turnbull and the people of Glasgow. It is the city’s oldest park.
An open public park by the Clyde. The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens on the Green are closed for refurbishment.
11 places you can visit. Sawmills is up a tidal creek and has no public access, so it is named here and not mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Offices now. Look at the front and the blue plaque from Waterloo Road; there is no way in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working venue in the Grade II* listed Winter Gardens. See the ballroom at a show, or on one of the guided venue tours.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open parkland by the Mersey. Park free at Catalyst on Mersey Road, the science museum beside the island; it is open Tuesday to Sunday.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open every day from 8am until dusk, and free.
3 Waterloo Road, Stockport, Greater Manchester
Strawberry was one of the first studios outside London to offer high-quality recording. Joy Division, The Smiths and The Stone Roses all recorded here.
Offices now. Look at the front and the blue plaque from Waterloo Road; there is no way in.
Winter Gardens, Church Street, Blackpool
The Stone Roses played the Empress Ballroom on 12 August 1989. Tickets were £6; Dave Haslam DJed, for £185.
A working venue in the Grade II* listed Winter Gardens. See the ballroom at a show, or on one of the guided venue tours.
Off Mersey Road, West Bank, Widnes
On Sunday 27 May 1990 nearly 30,000 people came to Spike Island to see The Stone Roses.
Open parkland by the Mersey. Park free at Catalyst on Mersey Road, the science museum beside the island; it is open Tuesday to Sunday.
Middleton Road, north Manchester
On 21 October 2011, 220,000 tickets for three comeback shows here sold out in 68 minutes: the fastest-selling rock concerts in UK history.
Open every day from 8am until dusk, and free.
Not on the map · From 23 August 1989
Fools Gold was made here over 18 days, starting on 23 August 1989. Sawmills is a 17th-century water mill in a creek on the Fowey. You reach it by boat, or on foot along the railway line when the tide is out. The drums stood in the middle of the live room, Mani’s bass amp in a small bare-rock room called the cave, and John Squire in a far corner behind screens.
A working residential studio up a creek, reached by boat. It is not open to visitors and is closed from autumn 2026 for renovation. Golant, on the river, is the nearest village.
Stay
The Coach House at Rockfield, on the farm where they recorded and where the police found them.
Rockfield, near Monmouth
Self-catering rooms on the Rockfield farm, where the band recorded part of the first album and turned up covered in paint in January 1990: seven en-suite rooms, two with jacuzzi baths. Prices by email.
Ask for datesGo there
Rockfield’s own tour, Catalyst beside Spike Island and the National Trust at the Causeway, with music walks and day trips on the marketplace.
Rockfield, near Monmouth · £50 per person
About an hour and a half round the Quadrangle and Coach House studios and the echo chambers, led by a member of the Ward family, with tea afterwards. No more than 18 people; booking by email is essential.
Book a tourWidnes · £13, a pass for a year
The science museum on Mersey Road, next to the field where the band played in 1990. Tuesday and Wednesday 10am to 2pm, Thursday to Sunday 10am to 4pm; large free car park. Tickets are sold in person.
Plan a visitBushmills, County Antrim · £16 adult, £8 child
The stones are free to walk to. The visitor experience adds guided tours, an audio guide and the exhibition; the visitor centre is open 9am to 5pm. Booking ahead is strongly recommended.
Plan a visitManchester
Live marketplace results for Manchester music walking tours. Check each itinerary for the stops you want.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursCounty Antrim
Live marketplace results for day trips to the Causeway coast from Belfast.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursLondon
Live marketplace results for London rock music walking tours.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
No Stone Roses show after today has been announced; Rockfield publishes dated studio tours, and the next ones are here.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
A 1995 original in stock and the 1989 album poster for reference, both from our own store, two books and three records made in the places on this page.
An original 1995 poster for the second single from Second Coming, part made at Rockfield. 40 × 60 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterAn original 1989 poster for the first album, with John Squire’s art. 23.4 × 33 in, rolled, mint. Sold out; shown for reference.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterSimon Spence
The band’s story told through new interviews. St. Martin’s, 2013.
Find the bookJohn Robb
A Manchester writer’s account of the band and their city. Ebury, 2001.
Find the bookThe Stone Roses · Vinyl LP, Silvertone ORE LP 502, 1989
Made at Battery and Rockfield between October 1988 and March 1989.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyThe Stone Roses · CD single, Silvertone ORE CD 13, 1989
Eighteen days up a creek at Sawmills.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyThe Stone Roses · CD, Geffen GED-24503, 1994
Parts recorded at Rockfield.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 13 of 13 Moments
3 Waterloo Road, Stockport, Greater Manchester
The Stone Roses record at Strawberry Studios, before the first album.
Maybury Gardens, off High Road, Willesden, north-west London
Four songs for the first album in about ten days of night sessions, then vocals in Studio One.
Amberley Court, Rockfield Road, near Monmouth, Wales
Waterfall re-recorded and four more album tracks put down at Rockfield.
After the paint attack in Wolverhampton the band record at Rockfield still covered in paint, and are arrested there in the morning.
44 Causeway Road, Bushmills, County Antrim
The band visit the Causeway; its water and foam become the green of Squire’s painting.
Nash House, The Mall, London
The band play the ICA.
120 boulevard Marguerite de Rochechouart, Paris 18e
The band play La Cigale in Paris.
Winter Gardens, Church Street, Blackpool
About 4,000 in the Empress Ballroom; the night Ian Brown knew they had made it.
A tidal creek of the River Fowey, near Golant, Cornwall
Fools Gold made at Sawmills.
Alexandra Palace Way, Wood Green, London N22
The band play Alexandra Palace to about 7,000.
Off Mersey Road, West Bank, Widnes
Nearly 30,000 people on a reclaimed chemical site by the Mersey.
Glasgow Green, by the Clyde, east of the Saltmarket
About 8,000 in a tent on Glasgow Green: the last show for five years.
Middleton Road, north Manchester
220,000 tickets for three comeback shows sell out in 68 minutes.
