READ: Extract from John Robb's Stone Roses book

Journalist, musician and all-round punk fan John Robb is set to relase a fully updated version of his 1996 book The Stone Roses And The Resurrection Of British Pop, out now.

The Stone Roses: The Reunion Edition charts the monumental rise of band, using interviews, rehearsal tapes, and material from Robb's vast archives. Says Ian Brown: "Brother John Robb knows. He was there!"

The following excerpt is taken from the book. Order it here.

"Manchester Ritz had been many people’s favourite Manchester venue for years. Built in the 1920s, it retains the proper dusky music-hall feel that suits great rock’n’roll. It’s seen its fair share of history – The Smiths played their first-ever gig there on 4 October 1982 and the Roses themselves played a gig there on 7 July 1986.

I arrive at five o’clock and there is an ad hoc band soundchecking. It’s Ian Brown and John Squire playing in semi-public for the first time since the reformation. About ten people mill around in the room as they run through Clash classic ‘Bankrobber’ with, bizarrely, Simon Wolstencroft: school friend, Manchester drumming legend and the drummer in their first teenage band, The Patrol.

They had got there early, wanted to run through the songs, needed a drummer and Si was there. It’s the first of several circles that get closed tonight. It’s not The Stone Roses who have reformed at this soundcheck but The Patrol! Afterwards Si explains how strange it was to be playing with them for that brief moment after all this time. ‘I just got up and it felt like all those years ago. John nodding at me as we were playing. That was great. John was dead cool and sat down at soundcheck and we chatted. I’d not seen him since 1996. He was there with his guitar and with a big smile on his face doing in-jokes from the school days. It cracked me up right away like Ian always does when I see him and he does jokes about the old teachers from them days.’

‘Bankrobber’ is the perfect choice because it comes with its own great Roses story. In 1980 The Clash took a day off from their UK tour and recorded the song in Manchester with two teenagers hanging out in the studio – Ian Brown and Pete Garner, The Stone Roses’ first bass player. After the soundcheck Ian and I phone Pete up and get him to come down to the gig. He turns up and another great circle is closed.

The gig itself is already special. The Clash songs have grown men in tears and it’s an emotionally charged event. At the end of the mini Clash set the band walk off as the crowd hope for an encore. No one really knows what’s going to happen next. There had been some Twitter action but very few people in the venue have any idea of what’s about to happen.
The lights dim and two figures shuffle onto the stage. For about 30 seconds no one seems to notice them…

Then, wooosh – fuck me, it’s The Stone Roses!

Ian Brown and John Squire have chosen this tour, this cause, to make their post-reformation live début, to make their statement. It’s the perfect way to ease back into the spotlight. None of the big showbiz bullshit, but an important gig on an important tour and a chance to tie up a lot of loose ends, all at once.

There’s something quite moving and important about big Manchester United fans like John Squire and Ian Brown making this statement of solidarity with Liverpool fans over this call for justice – but then they know that this is a bigger story than one of rival clubs.

They know that the demand for justice on this tour is universal and not just about one team. Like Mick Jones – who’s a big QPR fan – this is about the bigger picture, this is about the way that people died that horrible afternoon and about the way that football and rock ’n’ roll integrate in our culture and resound so strongly with us. It’s about the way that the people’s music is the perfect match for the people’s game and it’s about that ancient cry of justice that is so part and parcel of all great rock ’n’ roll. For John Squire this must be a big moment. He may be in what has to be the biggest band of the moment in the UK but in his youth The Clash were everything to him. He had a Clash mural painted on his wall and the story goes that he had guitar strings used as laces on his brothel creepers the way Joe Strummer apparently once did. After all, he was a 14-year-old kid besotted with one of the greatest rock’n’roll bands of all time – what a cool way to start his long musical journey.

John stands there on stage looking cool as fuck, tousled hair, guitar slung, ready to go. The already-electric atmosphere is now cranked up a lot of notches. Everyone realises that this is a moment of pop culture history, the return of the Roses.

Mick has asked them to play ‘Elizabeth My Dear’, the very direct antimonarchist song off their classic début album. What a perfect moment; a strong political statement and not one of the obvious hits. It’s just like the comeback for Second Coming when they ignored the mainstream and only gave the Big Issue an interview, a statement of where they are coming from, using their power in a good way and never taking the easy, obvious route.

The song starts with John playing the guitar line with an effect on it that gives it an almost sitar-like drone and then Ian intones the words and the ‘Scarborough Fair’ melody. He sings in that great nasal, almost folk English voice of his that adds to the ballad’s English folksiness, giving it an ancient air. It could have been written hundreds of years ago and makes you think about the power of song and the way that protest songs have been so much part of our culture for such a long time.

Then Mick Jones, Pete Wylie and The Farm join the pair on stage andthey run through ‘Bankrobber’ with Ian Brown singing and then The Clash version of the Willie Williams’ 1978 reggae classic ‘Armageddon Time’. It sounds great, and the Roses pair are on form. Ian Brown does his Ali shuffle to break the ice while John Squire trades smiles and guitar licks with Mick Jones, who is grinning like a Cheshire cat. After the show Mick says Squire is a real joy to play with. ‘He’s so intuitive, the way he plays around you, an amazing guitarist.’

Even with only half the band on the stage, The Stone Roses are back in business. The story isn’t over yet."