I must admit I am not too knowledgeable about John Squires work or The Stone Roses his former band, but I do know how highly The Roses were held by many, especially Oasis. And I understand that John Squire wrote the songs that were subsequently released with Liam Gallagher but had in mind a female singer. Somewhere along the way Liam must have heard them and hey presto, the number one album was released.

Now we have the tour. I really like the album and Liam suits the songs, which have a little feel of The Stone Roses, and although playing to a much smaller crowd than Liam’s used to – 3000 – it sold out in five minutes! The atmosphere was electric. I understand that it was well understood that there weren’t going to be any Oasis numbers, it hadn’t deterred the faithful. Kicking off with the slightly psychedelic tinged ‘Just Another Rainbow’, it didn’t take long for the first pint being thrown around, and although the album hasn’t been out all that long it was noticeable to even the deaf, that they knew the words, impressive. The songs on the album came alive on stage, and Squire is a superb guitarist, very impressive and we will be looking into his past work shortly. Liam, well Liam is Liam, striding around his “cage” of monitors, delivered with control and the odd wind up, remarking about Jack Grealish’s move to City from Villa, naughty naughty.

It was the first time for a while that songs I had heard on an album sounded even better live on stage, they rocked. And despite the two main men not really interacting, and the gig only being about 50 minutes, even finishing with a storming version of ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’, it was enough to show that this collaboration has legs and there should be another album. Make it quick.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe