The Reunion Fad: The Stone Roses Return

The rumours have been rife for a while now, but what was once derided as fantasy has now been confirmed as fact.The Stone Roses, the seminal four-piece formed in Manchester in 1983, have become the latest band to reform. And it’s fair to say that there is a great deal of excitement following the announcement. 

The band recently revealed that they will be playing three huge homecoming gigs in Manchester’s Heaton Park next summer. 

The 220,000 tickets made available, priced at £55 each, duly sold out in just over an hour when they went on sale a few days after the announcement. Impressive.

Reunions have become somewhat commonplace recently. The Verve reformed two years ago and recorded a well-received new album, just like The Stone Roses are planning to do. They also performed a successful headline slot at Glastonbury before breaking up yet again.

The Libertines also came together in order to headline Reading and Leeds festival, which could have been a disaster considering the past frictions between Doherty and Barat, but was actually a huge success. And more recently, there was the triumphant return of Brit pop band, Pulp, who were special guests at Glastonbury and co-headlined Reading and Leeds festival. So, overall reunions have been pretty well-received recently, which spells well for The Stone Roses.

The four-piece, made up of frontman Ian Brown, guitarist John Squire, bassist Mani and drummer Reni, admitted they each had personal reasons for the reunion. Brown criticised the current music scene, saying it was “boring, bland and corporate with nobody saying anything”. And considering the economical and political turmoil that the UK is in at the moment there is clearly a lot to say, and Coldplay just aren’t quite cutting it. 

Brown also said the band decided to finally reform because “at times like this you can uplift people” and they would carry on “until the wheels fall off”. Meanwhile, Mani said the reunion was a "suck it and see thing", while Reni revealed he “would be happy with 12 months”. The band seem very relaxed about the reformation and a positive atmosphere suggests there is a lot more to the reunion than the money. In fact, Squire previously stated that reforming just for the money would be “tragic”.

The band have also said that they have already been rehearsing in the studio and working on new material. Whether they will reach the high standards they set with their self-titled seminal debut album and their follow-up, Second Coming, is yet to be seen. However, with the songwriting duo of Squire and Brown back together, the mere possibility of The Stone Roses recording new songs matching the quality of a back catalogue featuring classics such as ‘She Bangs the Drums’, ‘Waterfall’, ‘Fools Gold’ and ‘I Am the Resurrection’, has left many salivating at the mouth. 

So, The Stone Roses are well and truly back. Whether they are here to stay is another matter, but if they can stick together long enough to make amends for the acrimonious end of their first stint together - which was swiftly brought to an end after Squire left and the remaining line-up put on a shambolic performance at reading Festival in 1996 - then they can consider the reunion an achievement.