Former Stone Roses guitarist John Squire has spoken of his frustration at repeated rumours the iconic Manchester band were to reform.
The Stone Roses’ shadow lingers across the British musical landscape. Despite the band’s debut album turning 20 years old this summer it seems that its influence continues to provide a source of inspiration to new bands.
The group split in 1996, after John Squire walked out. Since then, Squire and his former sparring partner Ian Brown have never spoken with their only communication being a postcard the guitarist sent to Brown’s jail cell.
Re-union rumours reached fever pitch earlier this year, however, amid a stream of reports that the band were to reform. However John Squire put paid to these rumours in some style – designing an enormous artwork outlining his refusal to join the band.
Concentrating on his artwork, Squire has organised a series of exhibitions around the world. The one time guitarist always had an artistic streak, designing the iconic cover art for The Stone Roses’ releases.
Even on his 2004 solo album ‘Marshall’s House’ the singer looked to art for inspiration, basing his songs on paintings by American realist Edward Hopper.
In a new interview with the BBC he admits “that wasn’t intended as a finale. But in retrospect I think that might have been a turning point.”
“I didn’t decide to stop doing one thing and start doing another, it just seemed to happen organically. Initially painting became more important, more interesting, more challenging, and gradually took over.”
After completing the album Squire converted a barn in Macclesfield into an art studio, and has staged a number of exhibitions since then.
“I don’t have a great amount of musical knowledge and technical ability, but I find that the structure of the business cycle of popular music quite narrow and limiting,” Squire says.
“Whereas in this world, you can do anything you want. And it’s more open to interpretation than a pop song. It can mean more things – maybe to a smaller audience, but I think ambiguity is the key.”
“The relationship that somebody might have with one of these pieces is likely to be more varied than a relationship they’d have with a song I’ve written.”
John Squire’s new exhibition ‘John Squire: Heat, Light, Death and Industry’ is at Gallery Oldham until September 9th.
