2012 is shaping up to be an extremely good year for the Roses with the reformed Mancunians – well, sort of! – selling 225,000 tickets for the three Heaton Park, Manchester dates they’re playing next July.

With a cool £12.3 million banked in precisely 68 minutes, the Roses are highly likely to be the biggest grossing British band of 2012. Well, unless there’s more interest in the original Sugababes line-up getting back together than we realise.Deemed a “priority” by Mani, an Irish date is expected to be announced within the next fortnight – stay tuned to hotpress.com for updates.

In the meantime, our trawling through the archives has unearthed this choice 1990 quote from the aforementioned Mr. Mounfield: “We’ll go on for as long as it’s still good. Could be three years. Could be thirty. We could be Francis Rossi. The Status Quo of the year 2012. I want to live till I’m a hundred…”

We look forward to the Roses’ cover of ‘Rocking All Over The World’.
Finally, we’re indebted to Colm Eyebrowy for the Best You Tube Clip In The World… Ever!