Gary Flockhart: Please do not stone the Roses

Please, enough of all the talk about how the Stone Roses’ reunion is shameless profiteering.

Yes, it surely is down to the lure of loot - but you can’t begrudge anyone for trying to make a living.

Besides, if they’re making thousands of people happy in the process, where’s the harm?

All this talk about them ruining their legacy is nonsense, too.

Their final show, sans original guitarist John Squire and drummer Reni, at Reading festival in 1996, has entered rock history as one of the worst live performances of all time.

Ian Brown could never sing live, and by all accounts he’s no better now, but a band that meant so much to so many should not have Reading as its last memory.

And even if they do suck, the atmosphere and anarchy of these gigs will be enough to justify the hefty admission price to the throngs of 30-something males in attendance.

Interestingly, the band are going back into the studio.

That’ll be the tricky bit - even though recent years have seen a whole host of reunions (Blur, Pulp, Suede et al), only a couple of bands, Take That being one of them, have managed to write anything that could be considered on a par with earlier work.

Hats off to the Roses for trying, though.

Yes, there’s little chance of them making anything as vital as their first album, but as for the reunion gigs, they only need to turn up and play the hits.