The music world is rife with rumours that The Stone Roses are set to announce a reunion later today. Here are five things you might not know about the cult Mancunian outfit.
They said it would never happen…
Nearly every band who eventually reformed did so after previously stating that it would never happen and the Stone Roses are no different. The stumbling block to a potential reunion seemed to revolve around the less than cordial relations between frontman Ian Brown and guitarist John Squire, whose friendship deteriorated after the band split in the mid-90s.
The pair were said to have patched up their differences at the funeral of the mother of band member Mani earlier this year, but both Mani and John Squire moved to quash talk of a reunion that had been speculated by giddy fans.
“Two old friends meeting up after 15 years to pay their respects to my mother does not constitute the reformation of The Stone Roses. Please f**k off and leave it alone. It isn’t true and isn’t happening,” said Mani, while Squire added: “When it’s just a get-together for a big payday and everyone gets their old clothes out, that seems tragic to me.”
Famous last words?
They only ever released two albums
For a band that enjoy such cult status and almost universal acclaim, the Stone Roses weren’t exactly the most prolific of groups. In fact, their output looks positively paltry when you compare it to other iconic British bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, who released a combined total of more than 40 albums between them.
In 1989, The Stone Roses released their self-titled debut album and it wasn’t until five years later that they brought out Second Coming, with the delay caused by extensive touring and an acrimonious dispute with record company Silvertone.
Averaging an album every five years means that if they do reform, we can expect some new material around about 2017 with the follow up to come in 2022, by which time the voice of the already hoarse-sounding Ian Brown will probably be reduced to a barely-audible whimper.
They didn’t have much time for the media
Some say that The Stone Roses’ frosty relationship with the media was a deliberate ploy to ensure they remained the centre of attention; others would speculate that they simply didn’t like the intrusion. In any case, the relationship between the Manchester group and the fourth estate was decidedly frosty, perhaps best illustrated by Roses’ biographer John Robb’s description of an infamous press conference in Spike Island way back in 1990.
Robb described the press conference as a series of “shy guffaws, muttered asides, dispassionate staring, foot-shuffling silences and complete mind-numbing gaps, punctuated by the odd piece of incisive home-spun philosophy from Brown, who occasionally hinted at a well-read mind. There would be complete silence from John Squire, witty banter from Reni, and Mani spouting off if he let his guard drop.”
Perhaps, it’s where Alex Ferguson got his inspiration from.
Brown once lost the head on live TV
Although not quite along the lines of Henry Sellers famous ‘I made the BBC’ rant on Father Ted, the Stone Roses frontman also had a few axes to bear with the British national broadcaster. In 1989, while performing ‘Made of Stone’ live on television, there was a power outage and the performance was cut short.
While presenter Tracey McLeod attempted to deal with the embarrassing faux pas, Brown could be heard in the background roaring: “The BBC are wasting our time! Amateurs! Amateurs!”
Ian Brown sang at Gary Neville’s testimonial
Ex-Manchester United pest and surprisingly good football pundit Gary Neville doesn’t enjoy a great relationship with all of Manchester’s musicians – a request to Noel Gallagher to sign his guitar as a birthday present was met with a response that read ‘Happy Birthday Knobhead MCFC x’.
United fanatic Ian Brown was more than happy to sing at Neville’s testimonial earlier this year, however, and belted out a version of ‘This is the One’, the Roses classic that is played at Old Trafford before kick-off at every home game. It wasn’t one of Brown’s better performances, however, which considering it was only in May, doesn’t exactly bode well for a reunion.
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