News: Don't Expect a Stone Roses Reunion

Ian Brown is the only obstacle to a Stone Roses reunion, the band's former bassist Mani said this week. And if the Manchester band are ever to get back together, it will be up to fans to twist Brown's arm.

"Me, John and Reni are up for doing it and Ian just needs some working on," Gary "Mani" Mounfield told the Channelbee website. Counting Mani, guitarist John Squire and drummer Alan "Reni" Wren, that's three-quarters of the band accounted for. But frontman Ian Brown is stone-hearted, and has hardly spoken to the others since their acrimonious split in 1996.

"Next year is the 20th anniversary of the first album," Mani continued. "It's the ideal time to do it. It's something I would love to do before we are all fat and bald. Start the campaign."

Of course by "Start the campaign" he doesn't mean, "Let John, Reni and I write a heartfelt, conciliatory letter to Ian, putting the past behind us and emphasising our desire for forgiveness, friendship and the mutual generation of millions of pounds". What he means is, "Fans' peer pressure will break him!"

However, the last time Brown spoke out on the subject, he wasn't exactly enthusiastic. There was "no chance," he said, "not in the next three lifetimes," that the Stone Roses would get back together.

If Ian Brown puts the skids on the Stone Roses re-forming it won't be the only reunion plan scuppered. Yesterday, Johnny Marr declared that rumours of a Smiths reunion were no more than that. He told NME.com that he was committed to his current band the Cribs. "The stories circulating about a Smiths reunion are, as usual, untrue. I'm currently very excited about writing and recording with the Cribs for a new album to be released next summer and we're playing shows in February, so going back in time isn't in my plans."

Maybe an internet petition will change their minds? (Source)