Manchester Reunited

“No, It was brilliant, but never return to a lit firework.”

That was Ian Brown’s response in 2002 when I asked him backstage in the Dublin Olympia: “Is there even the remotest chance of The Stone Roses treading the boards again?”
Earlier King Monkey had spoken of how he “hates, loathes and fucking detests nostalgia” and taken a potshot at a favourite old target.
“You know what one of our objectives was when we started? To save the world from U2! As it happens, the only thing we saved was their career. They took The Stone Roses and Mondays’ LPs with them into the studio and came out with Achtung Baby. They’d heard the records and thought, ‘We can do a bit of Beatles, a bit of Jimi. Add a few dance beats and away we go.’”
There’d been no dissing of U2 in 1997 when I’d chinwagged with John Squire, but like Brown he was adamant that he was done with the Roses.
“It’s great being in a band that talks to each other face-to-face rather than through lawyers or managers,” he said of his then new band The Seahorses. “The Roses started off as a gang of mates who wanted to make music but, towards the end, there was hardly any communication. Artistic or otherwise.”
As for their concerted attempt to bankrupt Geffen Records who’d signed them on the back of their eponymous debut album going multi-platinum, Squire noted: “The Second Coming seemed to drag on forever. We were all sleeping at different times, going off to the pub when we should have been in the studio and generally not behaving like a band.”
Squire was even blunter in 2009 when appearing on BBC’s Newsnight. Asked the obligatory, “Any chance of the Roses reforming?” question, he’d gone: “None whatsoever. I’d rather live my life than attempt to rehash it.” To reinforce the point he produced a piece of artwork bearing the message: “I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal pop group The Stone Roses.”
Add in constant, “It ain’t happenin’, mate” denials from Mani – the latest was in April 2011 when he described the latest batch of rumours as “total fantasy. It isn’t true.” – and a lot of people were genuinely shocked when it was announced that on Tuesday October 18 unspecified members of The Stone Roses would be holding a press conference in London’s Soho Hotel.
Reni had seemed to rule himself out of the reunion with his, “Not before 9T will I wear the hat 4 the Roses again”, but come 3pm there he was sat next to Messrs. Brown, Squire and Mounsfield.
Looking far better than they have a right to given all that youthful chemical abuse, the chaps were keen to emphasise that this is more than just an exercise in nostalgia.
“It’s not a trip down memory lane,” their singer insisted. “We’ve got new songs. This is a love resurrection that we’re inviting you to.”
The reunion, John Squire explained, stems from them all meeting up in March at Mani’s mother’s funeral. “Everything changed when me and Ian started seeing each other again. It was surreal. We went from crying and laughing about the old days to writing songs in a heartbeat. In some ways it’s a friendship that defines us both and it needed fixing and two phone calls later the band was no longer dead.
“We’ve rehearsed, we’ve written songs and in some ways it’s like 15 years ago. It’s quite strange.”
A casualty of the Roses’ kissing and making up is Mani’s membership of the Scream Team...
“I’m going to have to back off,” he rued. “It’s been heartbreaking because Primal Scream have been my family for 15 years. They saved my arse. It’s never been about the money. I’ve been touring since the Roses finished and I get stopped in every city in every country in the world and am asked about a Stone Roses reunion. People have dreams about seeing us and we want to satisfy their dreams because I’m getting fucking sick of being asked the question and answering it!”
As for the inevitable, “Why now?” question, Brown replied, “Because I think we’re great and I think we’ve still got it and I think we’ve still got something to give to people, and I think that at times like this we can uplift people. We’re doing it for ourselves, I’m not going to lie, but we wish… We wanted to announce our reunion the day after the riots, but it was important to me, in particular, that we play together before we announce to everyone just in case someone said, ‘When you play together, how do you know it’s not going to be shit?’ Well, I know it’s not going to be shit because we played together and it sounds magic.”
News of the Roses reforming was immediately welcomed by Liam Gallagher (“The Stone Roses getting back together… not been this happy since the birth of my kids”); Mark Ronson (“The Stone Roses reuniting is a bigger deal than Led Zeppelin. Strictly for the fact of how improbable it was before today”); and Reverend & The Makers’ Jon McClure (“Today I’m going to listen to solid Biggie Smalls and The Stone Roses in the studio and have myself a little party!”)
Dissenting voices? Well, there have been a few on the Hot Press message board from fans who remember the Roses’ decidedly below-par Feilé ’95 performance in Cork – no one knew it then but it turned out to be their last Irish gig – and the discordant nature of some of Ian Brown’s own solo shows.
Those concerns obviously weren’t shared by the 220,000 people who snapped up tickets for the three Heaton Park, Manchester dates The Stone Roses are 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 orginal Sugababes line-up getting back together than we realise!
Deemed a “priority” by Mani, Ireland will undoubtedly get a visit with the smart money currently on Slane Castle although we’ve heard one or two Croke Park and Phoenix Park whispers.
Wherever the Ireland leg of the Third Coming takes place, it promises to be the most eagerly awaited rock ‘n’ roll event of 2012.