Pitchfork

"I Am the Resurrection"...yet again? Rumors continue to circulate regarding the possibility of a Stone Roses reunion, as three-quarters of the legendary "Madchester" band were seen together taking in a gig in their hometown a couple of months back. With online fans petitioning for a historic reconciliation (or at least some semblance of closure), this has been the most serious talk about the subject since the band unceremoniously split following an undisputed disastrous Reading Festival show in 1996.

Both former drummer Reni and bassist Mani have made it clear that they're interested in closing the book on the Roses' legacy in style, but a most surprising admission has come from guitarist John Squire, who recently told Time Out that "the plan is to make a ferocious guitar record on my own. And then to put the Roses back together."

This is an even more unanticipated quote given that, earlier this year, Squire referred to ex-frontman Ian Brown as a "tuneless knob" and a "paranoid mess." The singer struck back, claiming, "For me, right, he split up the best band in the country at the time, the Roses, and he went on to do what? Nothing. Nothing to write home about, so he must be a bit bitter because he's got to watch me steaming forward."

Certainly, Brown has found a splinter of post-breakup success, but hasn't been shy about waxing nostalgic for the old days, as he regularly shuffles Roses songs into his solo gig playlists, and even went so far last July as to hire Stone Roses cover band Fool's Gold to back him for a complete hour-long set of old material.

Of course, this is all unsubstantiated gossip, coming mostly from the UK, the bastion of unsolicited scandal and scuttlebutt. But momentum is certainly growing into what would be, well, an unexpected reunion of one of Britain's greatest alternative rock bands, if nothing else. With fervent speculation as to who will fill Kylie's still-vacant Glastonbury headline spot and when you've got to pay the bills, stories of "tuneless knobs" can flip-flop fast...