STONE are no ordinary band: they are a movement; they are a lifestyle; they are one of the most hotly anticipated bands of this year. Talia Robinson tells of their tales as they performed at Nottingham's very own Rescue Rooms...
"Sarah used to say she hates me.”
The finetuned echoes of their soundcheck still ringing through the speakers, STONE frontman Fin Power has diverted his perception for detail to finding himself a spare lighter.
“What can I say? I'm a hateable guy who loves to play the game.”
We’re sat in the beer garden of Rescue Rooms. An appreciative amount of patrons can’t help but wander over throughout our chat to shake the hands of the up-and-coming household band name.
Among the unfiltered noise of the alternative landscape, nestled between the punkish powerhouses and introspectively indie rock bands, lies STONE. When it comes to the guessing game of ‘What genre can we box them into?’... “Post-apocalyptic scally-rock!” Fin decries without hesitation, bassist Sarah Surrage chuckling along.
Supporting them at Rescue Rooms tonight are local top lads The Chase, a close second in terms of encapsulating that genuine feel-good feeling. Their helter-skelter songwriting has them weaving between ska and reggae inflections, and their arrangements never go without a bit of humour. It’s enriching how they fire full-throttle throughout their set without mellowing their tunes, a testament to their tightknit relationships both on and off the stage.
As for STONE, headlining Rescue Rooms is one of the many sentiments they hold near and dear to their familial ethos. “Instead of burning out and turning on each other, we’re very honest with each other whenever we’re upset. That’s what being on the road means to us."
Sarah explains that between good days and bad days, being on the road is one of the highest achievements for the group. “Once we’re on stage, it’s amazing. It makes it all worth it, that little window of time where we do what we love doing.”
And boy, does the Rescue Rooms audience return the favour. The collective passion amalgamates into a blurred, synchronised body of movement from the get-go; I Gotta Feeling is sleek in its pounding rhythm, the spittle following not too soon after, while Let’s Dance To The Real Thing is viscerally literal in getting us moving. You can’t help but find yourself getting swept into it all.
It’s impossible to single out one member as the driving force for the stage presence of STONE, intertwined so thoroughly with a setlist boasting of older signature material and newer nuances from their debut album, Fear Life For A Lifetime.
The crowd tonight is so intoxicatingly loyal to the soundscape they’re paving that it doesn’t quite matter what noise their instruments make. With their latest artillery of inaugural Britpop-esque classics Roses or Sold My Soul being sung just as loud as their earlier work, it’s safe to say they have no fears that they’re heading in the wrong direction.
“I feel like the whole set leads to Waste and then it’s like, ‘Oh my God, here it comes!’”
Sarah tells me before the show, and ponders on her favourite song to play live. “I do enjoy My Thoughts Go. The chorus hits and you close your eyes and it’s just lovely, it just bangs."
“At the moment I love playing Queen.” Fin decides. “The way we’re playing it at the moment is just so... it’s my girlfriend's least favourite song because I wrote it before I met her. But I love how we’ve got it. It just sounds like STONE.”
So what does STONE represent? “It represents whatever you want it to represent. That sounds like such a clichéd thing that bands say!” Fin stubs out his cigarette, fingers tapping against the edge of the ashtray as he gathers his thoughts.
“Stone is my last name before Power from mum’s side of the family. My dad is a musician and when I was younger, I'd have people saying ‘You’re so and so’s son’. It would really get to me ... Gary, the tour manager of Inhaler, came up to us in Liverpool and he was the one who said, ‘Why don’t you just call yourself Stone?’"
"Yeah. Go on, we’ll call ourselves Stone," Fin adds. "I rang El, he said that people will google it and they won't find us; I said we’ll be so big it won’t f*****g matter..."
Talia Robinson spoke with Stone before they performed at Rescue Rooms on 23rd October 2024.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
