Stone Roses release new single, All For One
- Published
The band last released new music on the b-side to Ten Storey Love Song in March 1995
The Stone Roses have released their first single in 21 years, an upbeat psych-rock track called All For One.
The song's fluid guitar riff and optimistic lyrics pick up exactly where the band left off in 1995.
It debuted on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show at 20:00 BST and was made available to buy and stream immediately after.
The release ends years of speculation, and is expected to herald a third album by the influential Mancunian band.
Hints about the track first appeared at the start of the week, when the Stone Roses' lemon logo appeared on billboards around Manchester.
On Thursday afternoon, they announced the single's imminent arrival on Twitter,, external but gave no clues as to the name or style of the song.
Band members had discussed new material ever since they reformed in 2011, but nothing has emerged until now.
Speaking in 2011, singer Ian Brown said: "It's not a trip down memory lane, not at all. We are doing new songs."
No songs appeared.
Last year, bassist Mani said the band had "been working on a few bits" and a new album was coming in "2015 man, 2015!"
No songs appeared.
And in March 2016, Brown confirmed to the NME that the quartet were in the studio with Paul Epworth (Adele, Primal Scream, Florence and the Machine, Paul McCartney).
"It's going like a dream," he said. "It sounds glorious."
Fans who had spotted The Stone Roses visiting Epworth's Church Studios in North London were previously told the band was rehearsing for upcoming shows at T in the Park, Madison Square Garden and Manchester's Etihad Stadium.
Single to make radio debut
Supposedly named after a novel by Sarah Gainham, the band were at the forefront of the "Madchester" indie scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which also spawned the likes of Happy Mondays and The Charlatans.
They scored hits with tracks including Fools Gold, I Wanna Be Adored, She Bangs The Drums and Love Spreads - their biggest single, reaching number two in 1994; while their eponymous 1989 album is regarded as a seminal work, combining psychedelic pop and funky basslines.
The Stone Roses' first record often appears in lists of the best albums of all time
Legal wranglings as they tried to part company with their original record label kept the band occupied until 1991, after which they took another three years to produce the follow-up, Second Coming.
Drummer Reni quit in 1995, followed months later by guitarist John Squire.
The band struggled on for another six months with former Simply Red session guitarist Aziz Ibrahim before finally splitting up against a backdrop of internal arguments and legal cases.
Frontman Brown went on to pursue a solo career (and made a brief cameo in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) while bassist Mani joined Primal Scream.
Squire formed his own band The Seahorses and has also forged a career as an artist.
Their 2011 reunion was triggered by the death of Mani's mother, as well as a detente between Brown and Squire, but recording sessions seemed to have been fruitless - with the band presumably wary of tarnishing their legacy.
Nonetheless, they became a bankable live act. Fans snapped up 150,000 tickets for their first two reunion shows in Heaton Park, Manchester, in summer 2012 in just 14 minutes.
- Published18 October 2011
