The Stone Roses have reformed after fifteen years of saying they wouldn’t. The band will play two shows at Manchester’s Heaton Park on 29 and 30 Jun next year, which will form part of a world tour. At a press conference in London’s Soho Hotel yesterday, they also announced that they would be playing new material at the shows.
John Squire said that the seeds of the reunion were sown when he and Ian Brown met earlier this year at bassist Mani’s mother’s funeral (of course, at the time Mani said he was “disgusted” by rumours the funeral might lead to a reunion). Squire explained: “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. I think it’s in some ways a friendship that defines us both and it needed fixing and two phone calls later the band was no longer dead”.
Although the band insisted they weren’t reuniting for the money, Brown responded to a question about Shaun Ryder’s recent comment, that the singer needed cash to pay for his divorce from his wife, by saying: “There’s always truth in Shaun Ryder’s comments”. Although he added: “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. We’re also doing it for ourselves – I’m not gonna lie. But I know it’s not going to be shit because we’ve played together [over the summer] and it sounds magic”.
Mani also pointed out: “I’ve been touring for the last fifteen years since the Roses finished and I get stopped in every city in every country in the world every day … and get asked [about a Stone Roses reunion]. People have dreams about seeing us and we want to satisfy their dreams cos I’m getting fucking sick of being asked the question and answering it!”
As for the prospect of a new album, despite the fact that the band admitted they have written new material already, they were non-committal. Brown said: “We hope [to record a third album], but we said that before didn’t we? We’ll ride this until the wheels come off, like we did last time”.
Tickets for the Heaton Park shows went on sale this morning. More info available here
In definitely related news, Stones Roses fans will all surely be very pleased to hear that Steps have added five extra dates to their own reunion tour, due to popular demand obviously. They are as follows:
20 Apr: London, O2 Arena
22 Apr: Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena
23 Apr: Glasgow, Braehead Arena
25 Apr: Birmingham, LG Arena
26 Apr: Manchester, MEN Arena
27 Apr: Sheffield, Motorpoint Arena
Sections: Gigs & Tours News - Reunions & Splits | Tags: Steps, Stone Roses
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