Aziz-Ur-Rahman Ibrahim (born 16 March 1964) is a British guitarist. He was born in
Longsight
Longsight is an inner city suburb of Manchester, England, located south of the city centre. It is bounded by Ardwick and West Gorton to the north; Levenshulme to the south; and Chorlton-on-Medlock, Victoria Park and Fallowfield to the west ...
, Manchester to
Pakistani parents. He is best known for his work as guitarist with
Simply Red
Simply Red are a British soul and pop band formed in Manchester in 1985. The lead vocalist of the band is singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall, who, by the time the band initially disbanded in 2010, was the only original member left. Since the ...
,
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. One of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band's classic and most prominent lineup consisted of vocalist I ...
(post-
John Squire) and their former vocalist
Ian Brown in whose band he regularly performs – both in the studio and live. He is also a member of the H Band with
Marillion's lead singer
Steve Hogarth
Steve Hogarth (born Ronald Stephen Hoggarth, 14 May 1956 in Kendal, Westmorland) also known as "h", is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Since 1989 he has been the lead singer of the British rock band Marillion, for which ...
and is involved in the writing of the second H Band album. He has also worked with
Paul Weller
Paul John Weller (born John William Weller; 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/ new wave/mod revival band the Jam (1972–1982). He had further success with the blue-eyed soul m ...
,
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosio ...
,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
and contributed to
The Players' debut album ''Clear the Decks''.
Ibrahim's first release was the CD EP ''Middle Road'' featuring guest vocals and guitar from
Paul Weller
Paul John Weller (born John William Weller; 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/ new wave/mod revival band the Jam (1972–1982). He had further success with the blue-eyed soul m ...
. Ibrahim also provided the vocals for Weller's spoken word song entitled "God", on his 2008 album, ''
22 Dreams'' along with guitars for previous Paul Weller releases, e.g. ''
Illumination''. He followed that with his début album entitled ''
Lahore to Longsight'', which he describes as being 'Asian Blues', the album title describes his family journey from
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
to
Longsight
Longsight is an inner city suburb of Manchester, England, located south of the city centre. It is bounded by Ardwick and West Gorton to the north; Levenshulme to the south; and Chorlton-on-Medlock, Victoria Park and Fallowfield to the west ...
, Lahore being the second city of Pakistan and Longsight Aziz's birthplace in inner city Manchester, where he still lives. He performed on the
Simply Red
Simply Red are a British soul and pop band formed in Manchester in 1985. The lead vocalist of the band is singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall, who, by the time the band initially disbanded in 2010, was the only original member left. Since the ...
1987/88 world tour but did not feature on the following album. He was called in to replace original guitarist
Sylvan Richardson
Sylvan Richardson is a British guitarist, composer, and masseur.
Music
Best known for being the one-time guitarist of Simply Red, after the second album '' Men and Women'' and a successful world tour, Richardson left the band after becoming d ...
who had left after recording the second album. At this point, apart from Sylvan the line-up featured all original members.
Most notably, Ibrahim was the guitarist for the last Stone Roses performance before they split, at the 1996
Reading Festival
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...
. After their split Ibrahim continued to tour and write with former Stone Roses front man Ian Brown, co-writing songs such as "My Star", "Corpses in Their Mouths", "Longsight M13", "One Way Ticket to Paradise" and numerous other songs from ''
Unfinished Monkey Business'', ''
Golden Greats'', ''
Solarized'' and ''
The Greatest''.
Ibrahim also scored the music for the Psygnosis
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
game ''Eliminator''. The music in the game features samples, electric guitars with effects, electronic drum kits, percussion, and techno sounds.
Ibrahim co-founded "No Label" – the name initially came from Ibrahim in a rant about major record labels, how he didn't need them and would start his own label and call it 'No Label Records'. The label was initially formed with co-directors John Sherrington, Nova Rehman and employing Ahsan Naeem as A&R scout. After No Label was established in
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
, Ibrahim later took a back seat to the set up concentrating on his music. The labels' first release was the début single 'Middle Road" from Aziz Ibrahim followed by the signing of Mark Coyle group '
Tailgunner'. No Label was liquidated in 2000. After the demise of No Label, Ibrahim founded the
Longsight
Longsight is an inner city suburb of Manchester, England, located south of the city centre. It is bounded by Ardwick and West Gorton to the north; Levenshulme to the south; and Chorlton-on-Medlock, Victoria Park and Fallowfield to the west ...
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
based label Indus Records Ltd.
[Poole, Lawrence (2003)]
Aziz, Denise Johnson, Leon Maya @ The Lateroom
, ''City Life'', 13 September 2003, retrieved 24 June 2010
In 2019 Aziz became patron of All Fm 96.9 community radio station in Manchester www.allfm.org
Ibrahim has also been involved in the British Guitar Academy, founded by
Steve Rothery
Steven Rothery (born 25 November 1959) is an English musician. He is the original guitarist and the longest continuous member of the British rock band Marillion. Outside Marillion, Rothery has recorded two albums as part of the duo the Wishing ...
of Marillion.
References
External links
Aziz – official websiteAziz on MyspaceAziz on AllMusic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibrahim, Aziz
Living people
1964 births
English rock guitarists
Musicians from Manchester
English people of Pakistani descent
Asia (band) members
The Stone Roses members
Simply Red members
People from Longsight
British musicians of Pakistani descent