Ex-Stone Roses drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren is back with an album’s worth of material and is now looking for a record deal.
Reni has been writing songs since he left the Roses in 1995 and his new material has drawn comparisons to The Police and Love.
Now playing guitar and singing, Reni‘s hooked up with current Happy Mondays percussionist Lee Mullen and is looking for a bassist and second guitarist to complete the line-up.
His manager, John Nuttall, told NME: “The main problem is that he wants someone who plays with a plectrum.
“We don’t want any dopers either, which cuts out about 90 per cent of people. We want some clean-living chaps.”
Nuttall went on to reveal that, contrary to music industry rumours, Reni did not withdraw from the public eye because of drug problems. Rather, he wanted to concentrate on raising his family and make new music.
The spokesman said: “He’s the complete antithesis of Mani (ex-Stone Roses bassist) who’s out every night.
“He’s not really been in the rock’n’roll scene, he’s been working, playing music.
“Some of the things that have been said about him are not nice and they’re grotesquely untrue. There were some Internet sites that said he’s withdrawn from it all because he’s an addict. It’s a bit ironic, considering what the other three were up to. He was the clean one.”
Reni now has 14 songs and most have been demoed at studios in Manchester.
A tape is circulating around record companies and those who have heard it rate the new material highly.
There are no plans for Reni to make a live appearance in the near future, but it’s thought that once he’s found a line-up, a low-key appearance could be on the cards.
Reni recently recorded a drum loop for ex-Stone Roses guitarist Aziz Ibrahim, now in his own band with ex-Smiths Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke.
The loop appears on a new Ibrahim track, ‘Mummy’s Boy’, which is being tipped as a possible single release. Ibrahim, Joyce and Rourke – who now go under the name Aziz – are on the verge of clinching a major record deal with releases expected next year.