Moviemaker Shane Meadows will be devastated if his documentary about the Stone Roses' reunion falls through because the rockers are his "favourite band of all time".
The This Is England director will film the British group as they prepare for their comeback shows next summer (12), and he plans to release the footage for fans.
But Meadows admits he'll be upset if the project doesn't work out since he is a longtime Stone Roses supporter and pal of frontman Ian Brown, who he first met at an art exhibition.
Recalling his first introduction to the singer, Meadows tells Shortlist magazine, "I thought, 'I'm going to have to go over and say hello, because he's my hero.' So I went up and said, 'Hi, my name's Shane and I used one of your songs in one of my films.' He went, 'F**king hell, you're Shane Meadows.' It was really lucky that he knew my stuff.
"Ever since then, we've kept in touch. He had a little cameo (as a policeman) in This Is England '86. I make no secret of the fact that the Stone Roses are my favourite band of all time. I'll be gutted if it doesn't come off."
Meadows has also defended the Love Spreads hitmakers after critics accused them of reforming solely to turn a profit.
He adds, "It goes way beyond that, because they're all f**king intelligent and very proud and they wouldn't go out there to the slaughter. I saw them rehearsing one verse of Bye Bye Badman for an hour yesterday. I looked at that and thought, 'They are taking this f**king seriously.'"