It is festival season but The Stone Roses have always done things their way, they created their own festival in Manchester – complete with rain.

While the crowd grabbed macs, paint-splattered hats, hoodies and plastic bags they could rest assured that they would not need festival wellies on the covered pitch.

We were there for the final night of five sold out concerts, with support from The Courteeners and Public Enemy.

Liam Fray sported a very stylish blush pink mac with his huge beard as he took to the stage with The Courteeners. It was only a short 20 minute set and we were left crying out for an encore. But at least we know they are on tour in November and December.

There was no mac for Flava Flav, who followed up with Public Enemy, but the trademark massive clock round his neck and a bright red t-shirt. Coincidence, or was he showing support for City’s rivals?

With a mutual respect for the 1980s and 1990s, Flava chops up Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and moving so close to the cameras that his face  fills the screens. It looks like his appearances on reality TV series The Surreal Life, Strange Love and Flavor of Love have served him well.

However we are all here for The Stone Roses, one of the bands that put Manchester on the music map in the 1990s. Looking round the crowd there are many that could claim that they were there at Spike Island. Chris Coghill, who wrote a film about the historic gig in Cheshire, is in VIP.

Yet alongside them are a younger generation of fans that look far too young to have heard The Stone Roses debut album in 1989.

Ian Brown swaggers on in a bright pink Adidas jacket launching into I Wanna Be Adored. This is a night of the old favourites. It is followed by Elephant Stone, Sally Cinnamon, Mersey Paradise, Sugar Spun Sister and Bye Bye Badman.

The screens behind the stage are huge, flags and lemons cascade down as John Squire looks like a classic guitar hero with long hair, leather jacket and huge beard. Reni was wearing a Brazil football shirt and looked like he’d forgotten his trademark bucket hat. But then it reappeared. Meanwhile Mani nonchalantly makes it all look so easy on bass.

However since their reformation at Heaton Park in 2012, the Stone Roses have started recording new tracks. There is only one in this set tonight, All For One, their first single in 21 years.

It is not an experimental set it is a crowd-pleasing set. Ian dances and sings a compilation of their greatest hits including Shoot You Down, Waterfall, Elizabeth My Dear, Fool’s Gold, Made of Stone, She Bangs the Drum, This is the One and the Resurrection.

The crowd love it, they can sing along, some reliving memories of Madchester in the 1990s, most creating new memories taking selfies and filming their favourite tracks.

Flares again fill the stadium with smoke, making it look like the Roses are emerging from another world, but the Roses can go one better, finishing their set with fireworks, just like they did at Heaton Park four years ago.

Our evening started and finished at Lammars in the Northern Quarter, where the Donnellys had organised a pre and post Madchester party with DJs that included Viva Ems. It was so busy that we had to step behind the bar to help out for an hour, before we hot stuck into our partying.

Our hand made paint-splattered hats, complete with lemons, were from A Little Red Original.

And that just about sums the evening up. The Stones Roses inspired generations of bands, and many imitations, but they are the originals and the best. They deserve their place at the top of the premier league, even if we have to wait a long time for a follow up.

Album 1

Photo Credit: Karin Allbinsson

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