I’ve been having difficulty formulating, and understanding, my own thoughts on The Stone Roses’ reunion. It’s a unique feeling: One of my favourite ever bands announces a reunion, and I wish it wasn’t happening.
In the press conference Ian Brown said they have no intention of destroying the legacy, but I worry that’s precisely what will happen. History does not suggest anything different (I’m thinking Sex Pistols and Happy Mondays among others). I suppose the Pixies reunion was well-greated though.
The same press conference reminded me of one of the things I love(d) about the band: their gobbiness, and they’re political views. I love the way Ian Brown laid into this Daily Mail reporter.
The fact that the 2 initial dates at Heaton Park, priced at £55 a ticket, with 75,000 capacity each day, would gross £8.25m in gate receipts doesn’t bother me. I genuinely believe they’re not in it for the money.
Wondering whether to get a ticket, I thought “I really shouldn’t but…”. I never got to see them first time around. However, from the live recordings and first hand accounts I’ve heard, they were never much cop live. Having said all that, at the end of the day, it is the blinking Stone Roses, one of the bands who (thanks largely to the persistence of my brother Phil) stopped me just listening to the charts.