If you like the ‘Stone Roses’, then you’ll love ‘Made of Stone’, which follows the Roses on their recent comeback tour. Anyone who’s seen ‘This is England’ will know that Shane Meadows is currently one of Britain’s finer directors and his direction of this ‘rockumentary’ results in an inspired creative  mixture of film and music. The sounds, (from the searing ‘I am the Resurrection’ to the groove shaking genius of ‘Fools Gold’), the personalities (Ian Brown as Cool-Icon, John Squire as Guitar Hero and Artist, Reni, the temperamental drummer and Mani, bassist and band jester) and the nostalgia (wave after wave hitting this reviewer: the times, the clothes, the swagger of the band in their youth) all make this an intensely enjoyable experience.

Meadows is a self-confessed fan and it shows; from the flawless editing and compilation of archive clips to humorous, moving and seamless story-telling, we get an insight into what it must be like to be in a Band that shone so brightly and made an album that is still critically acclaimed and loved by tens of thousands of fans. And yes, there was something rather brilliant about seeing these middle-aged fifty-something men getting back together and still sounding great, 23 years after the release of the ground breaking and awe-inspiring ‘The Stone Roses’. Meadows doesn’t gloss over the low points; Reni’s walk-off at the Amsterdam Concert had many of their Irish fans worried about whether there’d be a Dublin gig. But the high points keep on coming – you just wished them well; Meadows’ directing making you feel part of it all, and also making the middle-aged (and younger fan) wishing he had could have been in one of the great rock groups of the last thirty years, a band that easily puts their Manchester fellow minstrels, Oasis, in the shade. It’s rare to feel so good after a cinema visit but this hits the spot. A must-buy when released on DVD. This IS the one.