(Photo of a notice outside Spike Island 27.05.1990 - uploaded by Cody)

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 June 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”.