The former Stone Roses frontman left Strangeways jail in Manchester just eight weeks into a four-month sentence for an "air rage" incident.

He left the prison quietly before dawn and was believed to be heading for home in Lymm, Cheshire, to be reunited with his girlfriend and two young sons.

Brown was jailed for using threatening behaviour towards an airline stewardess and the aircraft's captain on a British Airways flight from Paris to Manchester in February.

He spent two weeks of his sentence in Kirkham low-security prison in Lancashire, before being transferred to Strangeways to serve the rest of his time.

New year album

His trial heard how the singer had threatened to chop off the hands of the stewardess after she mistakenly offered him duty-free in the club class part of the BA flight.

He then knocked repeatedly on the flight-deck door while the plane was coming in to land and was arrested when the flight touched down.

Brown, who had to cancel a tour due to start in November when he was sentenced by Manchester magistrates, recently announced he was going to start on a new album after his release.