Ian Brown Monkeys Around

06/29/1998 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Mac Randall

(6/29/98) - Former Stone Roses singer Ian Brown's first solo album, Unfinished Monkey Business, will be released in the U.S. by Mercury Records/ The Enclave on October 6. The album, produced and mixed by Brown, features backing vocals by Oasis's Noel Gallagher on two songs, including the U.K. top 5 single "My Star."

Brown will be performing a number of solo dates in Britain, Europe and Japan within the next two months; a U.S. tour should follow in the Fall.

In his spare time, Brown has been busy fending off charges of homophobia following some recent comments in the British music weekly Melody Maker. Brown said that homosexuals were largely responsible for the rise of Fascism in Europe and several other of the world's great banes throughout history. The comments, as might be imagined, have generated piles of outraged letters.

-- Mac Randall, New York