Every Roses gig has its thorns

These days I seem to spend a lot of my time writing excitedly about band reunions, but one that wasn't greeted with any enthusiasm whatsoever here at SWSL Towers was Stone Roses' reformation. So it was with some irritation that I read the BBC's Ian Youngs claiming: "The band's 1989 debut album is one of the greatest ever recorded".

However, much of the rest of his review of their homecoming show in Manchester's Heaton Park raised a smirk on the face of this committed Rosesphobe...

"'As you can see, we've still got it,' [Ian Brown] assures the crowd early on. Luckily, during the first few songs, the crowd is singing too loudly to be able to tell whether he has gained the ability to sing in tune."

"Mani, meanwhile, whose potent basslines underpin the band's best songs, seems to wear a slightly strained expression, as if he is high on Immodium rather than the ecstasy that is associated with their baggy heyday."

"But the Stone Roses can also sound awfully ordinary at times. After five or six songs, the energy levels in the crowd start to drop dangerously and the band move into a mid-set lull. It becomes clear that Brown's vocals are still rather wayward and the sound from the PA, which is being blown about like the dry ice, does not help."