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And Finally Artist News
Have the Stone Roses split up? Yeah
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 17 September 2019
What are The Stone Roses up to these days? It’s what everyone’s asking, isn’t it? Everyone. No one ever shuts up about it. True, Ian Brown off of the Stone Roses basically said on stage two years ago that the band was splitting up again, and they’ve done nothing since then, but why should that mean nothing’s happening?
It could be happening. They could be doing something more. They could be doing loads more. They could be planning the loads more right now. Touring! Records! A VR show! A cruise! Two weeks at Butlins! The possibilities are endless. So, come on now, let’s all ask ourselves, have The Stone Roses really split up? “Yeah”, says John Squire off of the Stone Roses.
Elsewhere in a new interview with The Guardian, Squire also gives some insight into his famously strained relationship with Brown, saying “no” and also “no” when posed two questions about his former bandmate. It’s all very insightful.
It is, of course, more than a decade now since Squire confirmed that he had “no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group The Stone Roses” by participating in any kind of reunion. Before then deciding to reform the band after meeting up with Brown at a funeral two years later.
Then, in 2017, Ian Brown finished a Stone Roses show by saying, “Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy that it happened”. And they’ve done nothing together since. But did that mean they had actually split up again? Probably, but not certainly. Hence The Guardian’s question.
To be fair, Squire’s monosyllabic answers on all things Stone Roses are part of an interview where he was aiming to talk about his latest art show. In it he notes that, whenever he does the press circuit to promote his art, he’s used to journalists asking a one or two general questions about his paintings before trying to figure out what the “scoop is on the band”.
If the scoop is that there is no scoop, then I suppose you can see why that would be annoying for Squire. Though if the scoop is that, despite them insisting there is no scoop, there is, in fact, a scoop, you can see why journalists keep asking.
Anyway, you can see Squire’s new art show, ‘Disinformation’, at the Newport Street Gallery in London until 10 Nov. Will The Stone Roses reform to perform in the gallery at some point next month? If you see John, you should definitely ask him.
