Smiths’ Johnny Marr, Stone Roses’ Ian Brown planning to record album together

Turns out Peter Hook’s Freebass may not be the only Stone Roses/Smiths collaboration afoot: Ex-Roses vocalist Ian Brown this week told the BBC he’s planning to write and record an album with Johnny Marr, the Smiths’ erstwhile guitarist.

According to Brown, he and Marr hope to write soundtrack music for a friend’s in-the-works TV series: “The idea is that Johnny writes the music and I write the words and melodies,” Brown told the BBC. He added that they may enlist former Roses bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield or Paul Ryder of the Happy Mondays to fill out the group’s sound.

Brown explained:

“We’ve got a mutual friend who’s writing a drama series. One of them’s about ticket touts, another one’s about grafters — kids who sell T-shirts and things like that — and another one’s about pickpockets. We’re going to get together and do the soundtrack for these dramas.”

This week saw the release of Brown’s sixth solo CD, My Way (check out video below of the singer covering “All You Need is Love” at an album-release gig Monday night), while Marr continues to lend his six-string talents to acts such as Modest Mouse and, most recently, The Cribs, which released its latest, Ignore the Ignorant, earlier this month.

See video of Ian Brown performing “All You Need Is Love” after the jump…

Video: Ian Brown, “All You Need Is Love,” The Garage, Islington Highbury, 9/28/09

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• New releases: Ian Brown’s ‘My Way,’ Elvis Costello’s ‘Live at the El Mocambo’
• Morrissey ‘irked’ at Andy Rourke’s claim he was fired from The Smiths via postcard
• The Stone Roses’ 20th anniversary round-up: Video, audio, links, interviews, podcasts
• Cassette art: Turning old tapes into Robert Smith, Ian Curtis, Ian Brown
• Smiths, New Order, Stone Roses spotlighted in new book on Manchester scene
• Johnny Marr interviews Pet Shop Boys