The Stone Roses played their first official gig after 16 years last Friday (8th June) in Barcelona, Spain. 2000 fans witnessed the 90 minute reunion show, one of whom was Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher who tweeted during the gig that “the Stone Roses are back!”

The band emerged from the Manchester Indie Rock scene in the late 1980s before bitterly disbanding in 1996. Members Ian Brown, John Squire, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield and Alan ‘Reni’ Wren recorded just two albums including their self-titled 1989 album which gave them their notoriety.



Barcelona was the first time that Wren has officially performed with the band since his departure in 1995. Squire left the band a year after, citing it as “the inevitable conclusion to the gradual social and musical separation we have undergone in the past few years”. Brown’s notoriously unpredictable voice was thought to be to blame after some disastrous performances, namely their 1996 Reading Festival appearance and another at the Benicassim Festival in the same year.



The band reunited last year after Squire and Brown patched up their differences at the funeral of Mounfield’s mother. Their reunion tour will see them performing on 27 dates including three at Heaton Park in Manchester. 225,000 tickets for the home-coming shows sold out in just one hour, which is a British record.

The gig in Barcelona saw the band perform the following setlist:



'I Wanna Be Adored'


'Sally Cinnamon'


'Mersey Paradise'


'Ten Storey Love Song'


'Where Angels Play'


'Shoot You Down'


'Waterfall'


'Fools Gold'


'Standing Here'


'She Bangs The Drums'


'Made of Stone'


'This Is the One'


'Love Spreads'



“2012 is the year of the comeback”, Brown said from the stage before giving in to an encore and playing an extended ten minute version of ‘I Am The Resurrection’.