Review: The Stone Roses documentary sure to delight

So an admission first of all - for quite a few years I thought Ian Brown was singing "I wanna be a dog". Yes I know. Every time the documentary showed the band performing that song and "I wanna be adored" soared through the cinema at the press screening I grimaced to myself.

I was the only one because Made of Stone is quite simply a love letter from one adoring fan to his beloved favourite band, and the audience were smiling and swaying through the whole thing.

Shane Meadows, the renowned director of This is England has long been pained that illness prevented him from using the ticket he'd bought for the Stone Roses legendary gig on Spike Island in Cheshire in 1990. So at last he gets to make amends.

The documentary - or should that be rockumentary - sees Meadows joining the band as they prepare for their first tour in 15 years and their three homecoming concerts at Manchester's Eaton Park.

There is plenty of unseen archive footage of the band in their youth, as friends embarking on their musical careers and boasting to unwitting reporters that they intend to take over the world even before their debut album is released to a rapturous reception.

There is a laugh aloud exchange with an interviewer, trying to get more than one word from a young Ian Brown and John Squire who hide behind their fringes: She asks, "If you're so good, why aren't you number one?", Squire deadpans: "Cos the record hasn't been released yet."

Meadows is clearly out to make a promotional film of the Roses - the drugs and rows that saw the band painfully disintegrate after only two albums gets little mention, and when there is a bust-up in Amsterdam during the bands warm-up tour for Heaton Park, it happens off camera and we catch only a fleeting glimpse of the drummer Reni storming away from the venue.

Meadows is out only to celebrate a band whose debut album is regularly cited as one of the best British rock albums of all time. He can barely disguise his glee at being backstage or at the side of the stage filming as his idols perform. It is actually touching. Amongst the best bits captured by Meadows is the rush for tickets when the band announce a warm up concert in Warrington just hours before they hit the stage.

It is moving to hear what the Stone Roses meant to so many people in their youth, and Meadows dwells on their comments because he feels the same way. One fan says:

Another, a builder, has left his job half done so he can join the queue. Meadows leaves us in no doubt as to why the band produce such passion - there is plenty of concert footage, both from the old Top of the Pops era, the rehearsal room and of course Heaton Park.

Those comeback concerts sold out in 15 minutes and the shots of the swaying singing crowd are just magical. The music is of course wonderful - Liam Gallagher pays a brief tribute on camera - and fans hoping for a musical trip down memory lane will not be disappointed. The concerts are brilliantly filmed.

This is a comeback that has clearly worked, the band sound great and, it may not bevery rock and roll, but what a nice bunch of men they have matured into.

Made of Stone is warm, moving, and funny. And it sounds just sublime.