24 January 1996 - The Complete Stone Roses Video Japanese Release Date

February 1996 - The Stone Roses Interview appears in Q Magazine

20 February 1996 - Ian Brown's 33rd birthday

February 1996 - Steve 'Adge' Atheron steps down and quits as tour manager.

From 06 April 1996 - Ian Brown & John Squire feature on the cover of NME (New Musical Express) Magazine, 85p: 

Steve Adge, the Roses long-standing tour manager, also left the band three weeks ago. It is understood Adge, who had been with the band since their inception and was in charge of their world tour, will now go into full-time management.

March 1996- The Stone Roses appear on the cover of Japanese Rockin' On 3 Magazine

In this interview, Ian said, "By the end of March, the live album, May and June. Will definitely release new work! "

21 March 1996 Thursday - John Squire leaves The Stone Roses

John Squire telephoned Mani, Robbie & Ian regarding his decision to leave the band.

From John Squire Interview 18 May 1997 - Sunday Mail, Scottish Daily Record: At the time, brief official statements explaining the reason for John's departure hinted at a breakdown in communication, especially between him and Brown.

 "That's pretty accurate," he says. "The final nudge was a letter from our lawyer saying that positive noises were being made about going back into the studio. "I mean when it gets to that stage you know it's time to get out of a situation like that. "It was no secret that on the last tour, I spent all my time with the crew and that there wasn't much co-operation between me and Ian. And people have said I was stealing the limelight on stage because Ian couldn't sing any more."

 But John takes the start of the split further back. 

He said it all began to go wrong when the original drummer Reni left. "When he left, the chemistry just wasn't the same," he said.

A 2007 Paul John Dykes Interview with Robbie Jay Maddix revealed "You were with the band when John Squire quit. Can you describe the reaction of the band? Ian and Mani were very shaken as was I, when John called us up to tell us he had left."

Ian Brown Interview from Uncut Magazine, June 2006, Issue 109: You often blame the Roses fall-out on John’s cocaine intake. Is that why you have been so virulently anti-cocaine ever since?

 “I was anti-cocaine before that, as I was a punk-rocker and against all those dinosaur cocaine groups. It was a city-boy drug, a vacuous thing. I was devastated when he got into it, because how clichéd is that? We were the special ones. Why were we suddenly in Spinal Tap?” 

How did John tell you he was leaving the band? 

“He just phoned me up and said he felt like a phoney onstage, and he was quitting playing guitar. He phoned Mani, too, and Mani said, ‘Why don’t you take your daughter to Africa for three months and come back?’ But he’d made his mind up. About a week later we were in the lawyer’s office signing off all our debts. And that was it. I’ve not seen him since.” 

It could have been worse. Didn’t Slash from Guns N’ Roses offer to play with you? 

“Slash offered to play guitar for us, through Doug Goldstein. I wish we’d taken him on, but at the time we were like, ‘No, we hate Guns N’ Roses, fuck off! Is he going to bring his python with him?’ and all that. But now I think it would have been amazing.” 

Was he aware of his increasing isolation? 

“Of course, but coke doubles isolation. In fact, he won’t have been thinking anything clearly. But when he phoned me up at home that night he said ‘Ian, I can’t do it. I’m a phoney.’ I said ‘Can’t do what?’. He said ‘Play the guitar anymore.’ I phoned him back in a couple of days and said ‘I waited for you all them years’. I went to see him and he wouldn’t open his door. He didn’t have the courtesy or the bottle. 

Next morning, he flies to London and has a press conference. Suddenly, he’s ‘just found’ a band and a management team and a solo deal. Yeah, sure you did. It was a surprise. I’d been phoning him through February cos we’d written six songs. He never phoned me back. I thought he was busy. Was he fuck! He was sorting out the rest of his life. He’s quite happy for some fat Hollywood guy to give him a schedule for the rest of the year, but I wasn’t. Cos that’s not what the Roses were about. Is that all he wants to be, a pop star?”

From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: 

You ended 1995 in triumph at Wembley, but on April 1st 1996 John Squire quit. Were you surprised? 

“Definitely. I thought we’d be recording in April and doing the festivals in the summer. It was a complete surprise. John never once said he was upset. He never said a word. We’d done over 180 shows around the world and he never once phoned anyone else’s hotel room.”

From 2001 I Am Without Shoes Exclusive Mani Interview: > IAWS: Was any Seahorses material demoed by the Roses? 

Mani: Well, that whole album was written during the Roses. I used to hear the demos coming out of John’s room. 

IAWS: … And when you knocked on the door, the tape went off? 

Mani: Yeah, the guy had his own agenda, what can you say?

From 04 February 2000 Friday - Dave Simpson Interview with Ian Brown in private bar room in Kensington, London for The Guardian: "The four of us carry equal blame... Whatever one man was doing, another could have told them to stop it. But none of us were big enough. Rather than being on each other's backs, which made us good in the first place, we gave each other too much space and too much respect."

01 October 2009 Thursday 12:14 - The Guardian Newspaper article, by Guardian Music - Hannah Pool Interview: Have you forgiven John Squire for quitting the band by phone?

 It's all way in the past. He made a big mistake and he probably knows that. I don't think he needs me to rub his nose into the dirt. He probably thought, "I'll go and form this band, the Seahorses, and go around the world and everyone will love us and say what a genius I am." He didn't care what happened to me. I put my head down and got on with it and I'm still making music...

2016 - Robin Murray "Slash Almost Joined The Stone Roses" 05 August 2016 article. Speaking on the StageLeft podcast, Aziz Ibrahim confirmed that overtures were made to the legendary rock guitarist. "There had been auditions. Slash had offered to play," Ibrahim recently said on the StageLeft podcast. 

"There was a lot of bitterness and anger and so forth, maybe they wanted to piss [Squire] off, so they thought, ‘Let’s get the greatest rock icon of all time.'" "Slash was in England and his manager wanted to manage the (Stone) Roses," Ibrahim continued. "They thought, ‘Yeah yeah, we’ll get this big rock icon, that would really annoy John.’ Then they said something to the affect of, ‘We’re not going to work with a guy with leather pants, are we?' So Slash wasn't in".

From 20 April 1996 - John Squire appears on the cover of the NME (New Musical Express) Magazine:

 “I’d started coming round to the idea that I didn’t want to go in for the next album and I thought it was fair that I let them know. I was starting to hear noises on the grapevine that they wanted to go in and start recording. I knew Mani was on holiday so I just waited for him to get back before ‘phoning round. I ‘phoned him on the Thursday but I couldn’t get Ian, so I ‘phoned him on the Friday. They didn’t really accept it initially and they thought they could talk me round. 

I was quite surprised actually because I thought it was fairly obvious, the way the tour had gone, that it wasn’t fulfilling. 

Onstage was fine but…” The eyes race, the arms unfold and he pauses for breath. The pitch of his voice raises, approaching incredulity. “Solo all week… I thought there’s got to be a bit more than this.”

From From 03 January 1998 - NME Magazine: Ian said: 

He never once expressed dissatisfaction with the group, or he never told me he was unhappy with anything. He just phoned me up and that was it. A few days later at 7.30 in the morning I go round to his house, he opens the door and shakes his head. I’m like ‘What’s happened to you? Get in the car, John, come on, let’s go for a drive, have a talk.’ No, he wouldn’t do it. They say you’ve got to be ruthless to make it, but I never had that kid down as that. It’s tragic. Unnecessary.”

23 March 1996 Saturday - Oasis at The Point, Dublin
The news of John Squire's departure leaked out to former The Stone Roses' road crew following his telephone calls to the band last Thursday. From there it leaked to the Oasis road crew, many of whom used to work for The Stone Roses. 

Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley was told about Squire's decision on Saturday (March 23) following an Oasis gig at Dublin's The Point and contacted the band's publicist to check whether the report was true. Terri Hall contacted Squire and they agreed to go public.

From 06 April 1996 - Ian Brown & John Squire feature on the cover of NME (New Musical Express) Magazine, 85p: Jo Whiley NME: "I was completely shocked. I feel very sorry for everyone involved. It was really ironic hearing about it at an Oasis gig. If it hadn't been for the Roses you wonder what Oasis would have been like."

From Stuart Fletcher interview by Matt Mead published 11 February 2019: Was there any of the Roses crew that hung around the band at the time? Was there any that wasn’t? I think everyone involved was someone that knew John.

25 March 1996 Monday - Evening Session, BBC Radio 1 announces Squire's departure.

 Jo Whiley telephoned senior staff at Geffen and NME editor Steve Sutherland shortly after 18:00 to confirm the news.

From 06 April 1996 - Ian Brown & John Squire feature on the cover of NME (New Musical Express) Magazine, 85p: And Black Grape's Shaun Ryder said: "Of course I'm sad. I'm like 'Oh f---, The Stone Roses have split up'. I don't know any more about it. It's f---ing sad."

27 March 1996 Wednesday - Evening Session, BBC Radio 1
BBC 'scrape the barrel' by interviewing former manager, Gareth Evans.

He said: "John Squire has always been a solo act. When Reni went out of the band it was the heart and soul of the band. He was the main music inspiration."

Asked for his reaction to the news, Evans admitted that it had come as "a major surprise" to him. He then added: "Reni was the band, and once Reni left, the band changed totally. The Roses blew it in 1992 when they didn't play Madison Square Garden and the LA Forum. Those dates were booked and sold out, and they refused to go. They said they didn't want to do the numbers that they'd done on the album. 

The Roses thought that it would just happen. They read too much music history, and they were too much into old rock 'n' roll. They didn't realise that we were in the Nineties, and that things were changing with the new media."

Asked if he felt that these crucial mistakes had been the result of naivety or arrogance, he unhesitatingly replied: "Arrogance. They might have pulled it off, but for Oasis."

Whiley then commented that "Oasis would be such a different band if it hadn't been for The Stone Roses," and Evans agreed.

"Exactly," he said, and then added, "I'm worried about the roadies, and the people who have stayed with them. How much have they earned?"

When asked if he believed that there could be a future for The Stone Roses without John Squire, Evans replied: "In my opinion, John Squire will make it. They could have been the biggest band on the planet. We always said that. They were the leaders." 

Asked, in conclusion, whether he felt saddened by the news of the split, Evans spoke for many with the single word: "Yes."

01 April 1996, April Fools Day - PR Agent an official statement regarding John Squire's departure.
'We feel as cheated as everyone else who's heard the news. We are now in the middle of recording the next LP. We're disgusted, yet feeling stronger and more optimistic than ever' 

01 April 1996 - John Squire.
'I wish them every success and hope they go on to greater things. My intentions are to continue writing whilst looking for partners in a new band, and to begin working as soon as possible. Thanks for everything' 

06 April 1996 - Ian Brown & John Squire feature on the cover of NME (New Musical Express) Magazine, 85p
The announcement was first made on the April 1st, but everyone thought it was an April Fools Day joke. Front page headline read 'The Stone Roses Split! John Squire quits'. The NME priced at 85p. 

06 April 1996 - Melody Maker News Special
'SQUIRE QUITS ROSES' 

20 April 1996 - John Squire appears on the cover of the NME
John hints on forming a new band and touring, this would turn out to be the Seahorses. 

April 1996 - Aziz Ibrahim joins The Stone Roses on guitar
Former Simply Red (1987/1988) & Rebel MC guitarist joins the band. 

I presume Robbie Maddix suggested Aziz, as they had played together in the band 'Gina Gina'.

Aziz attended Burnage High School, one of his classmates was former bass player Pete Garner.

From February 1996 - Rhythm Magazine, Interview with Robbie Maddix by Pat Reid:
Gina Gina, which featured former Simply Red man Aziz Ibrahim. Robbie describes his former cohorts as, "Definitely some of the greatest musicians in the country. It was like Tackhead but it was urban, it was underground, so you could hear some serious funk overtones, but the rock in it was like Vai, man, on heat. It was some serious stuff and, because we were close friends and got into each other pretty deeply, we fell out. We're still friends but we don't work with each other in that way. I think we're all waiting to find our feet and then we'll do it, 'cos we have this natural thing as a team anyway."

May 1996 - Music Review Live! Britpop Invasion Volume 4 No.5, $3.25
The Stone Roses High Times In Dope Land sleeve appears on the front cover of the Music Review Live! magazine. A review of the bootleg is also included inside.

June 1996 - John Squire features in Q Magazine

1996 Studio/Demo Session, Manchester
High Time / Black Sheep / Ice Cold Cube / Untitled

A 2007 Paul John Dykes Interview with Robbie Jay Maddix revealed "The band wrote new songs, some of which were aired at Reading in ’96. Rumour has it that you have the demo tapes for the ever-elusive High Time and a song called Black Sheep?

 Yeah I do have those demos somewhere buried."

From 1995 - United We Stand (Late) Fanzine: TJ - So you've got some new material ready?

John Squire - We've got eight or nine half, three quarter written songs that we need to get together and jam out.

Gary 'Mani' Mounfield - We've also just mixed some live stuff last week. So we could end up with a live album or stuff to use for extra tracks for future releases....

From 02 December 1995 - NME Magazine, John Squire Interview: Squire said: “The live EP is double. The album is double, too. It was refreshing recording the track for ‘Help’ (ie, in one day). We were just falling apart when we recorded the last album. It’s not that much of a mystery that it took so long. We didn’t all want to be there at the same time.

From October 1995 - Australian Radio Interview with Robbie Maddix:
Moving off the press and getting back to the music. I understand you’re writing some new songs for the Roses? 

R –Yeah.
M – OK, so how many songs are kind of in the pipeline at the moment?
R – You know it’s hard to say. You know we are working on stuff that could potentially be a song that could make the album in six months time but it doesn’t. There’s a few songs working around.
M – When do you see yourselves going into the studio?
R – More than likely in the next month… well next couple of weeks we finish touring on the 12th and we don’t start again until November 28th, that’s the UK, we are trying to do Ireland before that. So there is six or seven weeks before we start touring on the road so there will definitely be studio time there. And then straight away in January we’re really going to start recording. Hopefully it will get ready for spring, out for summer. That’s our plans.
M – That’s great. Any idea who will be producing this next record?
R – I don’t know. Ian wants me to produce a few. The rest of the guys say they want me to produce a few. I wouldn’t want to do the whole thing, I want to be part of what’s happening, so we might get someone, I might co-produce the whole thing and not take anything, you know, directly on my own head. It could be three songs, it could be one. I’d love to do a couple and I probably will, but like I say, I do want to change my hats, sit down on the stool and kind of be told from a different perspective what may sound good or what may not be....

From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: ...Why did you carry on the Roses after he left? “I wanted to finish the mystique and be real. I thought with Aziz and Robbie fired up we could bury our history. Yeah, we managed that at Reading…”

16 February 2000 Wednesday - music365.com Ian Brown Q & A Session: Rob: Will you ever record 'High Times'? 

Ian: I've already recorded it, but we've lost the master tapes, so one day, maybe...

June / July - Rehearsals, Manchester
High Time / Black Sheep / Ice Cold Cube / Fools Gold / Driving South

The band rehearse the set for the upcoming festival dates. 

They also work on some new material too.

02 August 1996 - Benicassim Festival, Festival Internacional De Benicassim, Valencia, Spain
I Wanna Be Adored / She Bangs The Drums / Love Spreads / Waterfall / Made Of Stone / Ten Storey Love Song / Daybreak / Fools Gold / I Am The Resurrection / Breaking Into Heaven

Aziz's debut show. The whole Ten Storey Love Song - Daybreak - Breaking Into Heaven medley is scrapped and weirdly split by having Breaking Into Heaven played as the last song of the night. 

Fools Gold makes a return to the set, with another different arrangement. Apparently audience members were leaving the stage throughout the set, heading for other bands who performing at the same time. 

The sound was awful, a mix of the outdoor festival sound and the bands onstage set up too. The band headlined the festival.

The dancing girl, who would later appear at Reading, makes her debut here. Not sure if it was a PR stunt in relation to Begging You, the video clip featured dancing ladies too.

Part of the gig was broadcast on Spanish Radio

10 August 1996 - Villar De Mouros Festival 96, Aldeia de Villar de Mouros, Caminha, Portugal * Support Act(s): Young Gods, Freakpower, Dancas Ocultas, Report.Estrabico, Cool Hipnoise, Tara Pedida and more.
I Wanna Be Adored / She Bangs The Drums / Love Spreads / Waterfall / High Time / Ten Storey Love Song / Daybreak / Fools Gold / I Am The Resurrection / Breaking Into Heaven

High Time is apparently performed here for the first time. The band headlined the festival. A short interview is recorded backstage with the band and broadcast on local TV. The interview is with the band and a short excerpt from She Bangs The Drums is played.

11 August 1996 - Smukfest Festival, Skanderborg, Denmark

On the same day in the UK Oasis were playing the second of two, sold out, consecutive nights at Knebworth. John Squire appeared onstage with the band.

4 August 1996 - Sziget Festival, Budapest, Hungary

3 August 1996 - Lowlands Festival, Biddinghuizen, Netherlands * CANCELLED *
Cancelled festival appearence. There was a couple of rumours regarding this one. One was several members of the bands passports/working visas had run out and they did not have enough time to renew them. The second was the show was not in their contractual obligations so they chose not to play.

24 August 1996 - Mani tells Ian he is leaving the band.
Notes Ian and Cressa go for a 'wild' night out.

25 August 1996 Sunday - Reading 96, Reading Festival, Main Stage, Reading * Doors Open: 12:00 * Ticket Price(s): Advance Day Ticket: £27.50, Three Day Ticket including Camping & Car Parking: £60.00 * Stage Times: The Stone Roses 22:00-23:15, 

I Wanna Be Adored / She Bangs The Drums / Waterfall / High Time / Ten Storey Love Song / Daybreak / Love Spreads / Made Of Stone / I Am The Resurrection / Ice Cold Cube / Breaking Into Heaven encore: Driving South

August Bank Holiday Weekend. Underworld headlined the NME Stage, Babybird played the NME Stage too. The Raincoats headlined the Dr Martens Stage. The Stone Roses headline the main stage. This would be classed as 'the last show' for several years. Legendary for all the wrong reasons.

Ice Cold Cube & High Time are both played here for the first and last time. Ice Cold Cube would later be recorded by Ian Brown and released on his debut solo album 'Unfinished Monkey Business'.

Ian had reportedly had big night out with Cressa the night before and was feeling worse for wear on the day. The press conference before the show became just a legendary as the show itself. 

During the conference Ian Brown said: “John felt his power threatened. It was all a bit too much for him. He was on a power trip. Good luck to him, whatever he wants to be, but we’ve got some other ideas now.“.

During the show The Jay & Nigel Ippinson can be heard shouting "Stone Roses - yeah", "Let me hear you sing it" and "Let's see those hands in the air". 

If you listen closely to Aziz's playing at the beginning of the show you can hear riffs from his song 'Murassi', Ian Brown's solo track 'Gettin' High' features another excerpt from the same song too. 

The dancing girl from Benicassim Festival (02 August 1996) made another appearence too.

From November 1996 - Mani Interview in NME: 

“I enjoyed myself there, I really did. I f---ing really did,” he laughs, “seeing f---ing 60,000 people jumping around. I didn’t think it was that shit, to tell you the truth. I know Ian didn’t have the best of nights, but, you know, shit happens.”

From 26 April 1997 Saturday - NME : John Squire said 

“I heard about the Reading gig. I read the block headlines, but I didn’t wanna read it. Stuart read a few bits to me, so I got the general impression.”

Did you want them to carry on? “Yeah I did. Definitely. Even after what they said about me at Reading. I mean, I knew there was no love lost, so I didn’t exactly expect fond wishes from them.”...

From October 1997 - Melody Maker Magazine: “I enjoyed that day, you know. When I came off the stage, I saw arms in the air and smiling faces. But when I heard the tape a couple of days later, I thought, ‘Oh, the singing is appalling.’

“I should’ve gone to bed the night before. I ended up staying up until about 8am. If I’d gone to bed, it would’ve been smoking. 

“Everything I’ve read about that gig is right. The band was smoking but the singer let them down, definitely.”...

From John Squire Interview 18 May 1997 - Sunday Mail, Scottish Daily Record: Singer Ian Brown said he felt "cheated and disgusted" at John's departure. John said: "I didn't try to break the band up. I know it upset a lot of people. I hoped they'd do well. I wanted them to carry on even after Reading."

From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: Were the criticisms of your voice justified? 

“Yeah, sure. I’m not the world’s best singer, but when you’re onstage stood in front of four Fender Twins and you’ve only got a little monitor, you try singing. When I was onstage, I wasn’t allowed to have my voice coming through the side because he didn’t want to hear a voice. He’s got his four guitar amps turned up to 11, I’ve got a speaker that big. And I’m struggling to stay in tune because I can’t even hear anything. 

I’ve got films of them shows. He’s not playing with no band, he’s on his own. But I still think the shows were great.”...

Why was Reading such a travesty?

 “I didn’t go to bed the night before, like a dick. We’d done five shows in Europe, and we’d been getting better each one. I saw Cressa [original 1989 Stone Roses dancer and “vibes man”] the night before and I went on the piss with him. Smoking weed all night, I was so excited. Normally I don’t drink. 

No powder? 

 No. I haven’t touched powder since 1990. But it must have fucked my voice. At the time, I didn’t realise it was all going wrong. From the stage, I couldn’t see anyone crying or leaving. But later, when I heard the tape, I knew I sounded terrible. It was a cabaret version.”

From 1999 - ID Magazine, Ian Brown Interview by Tobias Peggs: So what about the criticism of the Roses' last Reading Festival appearance, that it spoiled the myth? Do you wish in retrospect you'd never played that gig? 

"No, not at all. My memory of that is 60,000 arms in the air and smiling faces. They can never take that away from me. I've heard a live tape and I know the vocals were poor. But all this stuff about it being a mass exit, and all these people crying saying it's a karaoke… I could still feel the happiness at the end. Anyway, I had no choice. John Squire had gone, but the Roses hadn't finished just 'cos the guitar player left. It was like a refusal to let someone else determine the path of my life. I don't regret it whatever."

May 1999 - Select Magazine, Article On Reading - Death Of The Roses, Reading 1996
While most legendary festival appearances burn in the memory for the sheer quality and finesse of the performance, the Stone Roses at Reading is one of the few instances in which a band will be forever remembered for being shamefully bad.

The seeds of disaster had been ver publicly sown earlier in the day when the newly expanded line-up took their places for a press conference at the site. Squarely blaming John Squire for the five year wait for second album 'Second Coming', Ian Brown went on to accuse him of "being on a power trip" and blamed Squire's reluctance to continue with the band on drug problems. 

Even the usually good-natured Mani spat out his own share of vitriol against Squire. "He wouldn't even bother to phone me if my entire family and everyone I knew in my village was killed in a plane crash," he said of his ex-colleague.

Despite this open display of playground bickering there were many still willing to believe that Roses could pull it off; that after all the catastrophes and cancellations and delays, they could return and at least put on a respectable show. And with Aziz Ibrahim's first few opening chimes of I Wanna Be Adored it seemed they were about to salvage some dignity. Then Ian Brown started singing…

What followed was a case study on how to stamp on a legacy until it's truly dead. As if Brown's foghorn vocals weren't enough to drive away the by now bewildered crowd, having drummer Robbie Maddix yell, "How we doing out there tonight? Are we gonna have it?" followed by the bizarre entrance of a leather-clad dancing girl saw them departing in their droves.

Backstage, former Roses dancer Cressa was pacing about telling everyone within earshot what a tragic display it was. "It's a nightmare, it's awful," he ranted. "Tell him! Just tell him how bad it was. Tell him to finish it, it's a travesty." And in a few weeks, Ian Brown did just that.

Ian Brown Interview from Uncut Magazine, June 2006, Issue 109: Do you take any blame for the acrimony that split the Roses? “Yeah, I can’t point the finger and say it was all them. I think we’ve all got to take a portion of the blame for having this beautiful thing and fucking it up. 

But I did do my best. I was everyone’s mate, I felt like I was daddy-ing everybody. And then we hit a brick wall, but you can’t live like that. We were 32-year-old men when we did Second Coming we weren’t kids.” 

That last Roses show at Reading ’96. What went wrong?

 “I keep reading reports that everyone was leaving in tears because this beautiful thing had been destroyed. But, at the end of that show, there were 60,000 people with their arms in the air. I didn’t see anyone crying, or leaving. But my friend Cressa came running up to me afterwards and said, ‘You have to sack it, that’s not the Roses.’ Cressa had been there from the beginning, so I needed to listen to him. But it was only when I listened to it on cassette the day after that I realised, it wasn’t that I was out of tune, I was in a completely different key to the rest of the band. It sounded terrible.” 

You disbanded the Roses two months later. How soon after Reading did you know it was over? “Probably about a week later when we had a meeting with Terri Hall, our publicist at the time. I understood; it was like when Mick Jones left The Clash, it wasn’t really the same band. I did go to Reading with the intention to bury the myth of The Stone Roses and launch the new Stone Roses. And we did bury the myth, but not in the way I intended.”

A 2007 Paul John Dykes Interview with Robbie Jay Maddix revealed "Reading ’96: what are your memories of the performance and overall experience? Reading was a bad day at the office. Nuff said." "After Reading, it took a couple of months before the official split. 

Did you think the band would continue? 

Ian, Mani and myself finished the Roses before the Reading festival. We knew beforehand that it was the last one. We had to do the last gigs because of contracts we had signed." 

"The band wrote new songs, some of which were aired at Reading in ’96. Rumour has it that you have the demo tapes for the ever-elusive High Time and a song called Black Sheep? Yeah I do have those demos somewhere buried."

Paul C. said: ''I recall an enormous anticipation as we all waited for the Roses to come on stage. Aziz did an excellent guitar intro as Ian and co. appeared - Ian took an enormous mouthful of water and spat it out all over the stage! Then he did it again! I could not believe how flat he was delivering the first line of I Wanna Be Adored - it really was bad! I beg to differ from most people's views, Aziz was excellent, considering he had about, I think, four weeks to learn the set. I play guitar, and Squire is a hard act to follow! I must admit the set did get better as Brownie picked up the vocals. 

To be honest the band were fuckin tight, but the sound at Reading ain't that clever compared to other sites. A crew near us threw a spliff right near Ian's feet - either he didn’t see it, or he had enough the night before. Still, I enjoyed every moment of them looking the bollox in their rock star shirts and shades - Memorable!''

Mani Interview From Uncut Magazine 13 May 2016: What are your memories of that final Roses show at Reading in 1996? “Good memories, in a way, because I knew one way or another that would close the book. Ian had a fucking hell of a lot of weight on him at that point. Just imagine your best friend leaving you in the lurch like that – it ain’t good. There were reasons, and I’m still good friends with John – I’m godfather to three of his kids. But with my hand on my heart, I can proudly say I stuck with Ian until the fucking end out of an absolute sense of dignity and love.”

31 August 1996 - Ian Brown features on the cover of NME
Front page headline read 'And on the third day...The Roses again The ultimate reading review.'. 

31 August 1996 - Ian Brown features on the front cover of Melody Maker
Front page 'Reading Special. Stone Roses Death or Glory at Reading 96?'.

07 September 1996 - NME
Headline ‘A Bad Year For The Roses’.

1996 - The Stone Roses appear on the cover of Japanese Crossbeat Magazine

1996 - Ian Brown moves out of his parents and into a house in Warrington

01 October 2009 Thursday 12:14 - The Guardian Newspaper article, by Guardian Music - Hannah Pool Interview: 

After the band split up, there was a break before you brought out your solo stuff. What kind of a time was that for you? 

It was hard. I was skint and I had to move back to my mum and dad's house, back into the room I shared with my brother when I was a kid. I kept getting people on the streets telling me that they loved me: it didn't mean anything to me because I was still borrowing tenners off my pensioner father to go and get some chicken....

From Uncut Magazine, June 2006, Issue 109: ''With a Second Coming royalty cheque for nine grand, he puts a deposit down on an ex-council house in Warrington. Brown’s first impulse is to become a gardener and sell flowers at market, like his grandfather. A simple, honourable life. He digs over his garden. But friends keep nagging him not to give up on music.''

From 2002 Lindsay Baker Interview with Ian: Brown - penniless, he says - went to live in a council flat in Warrington. Kids would come to his door, saying, "You're a legend", and he'd reply, "If I'm a legend, where's me pool ?"

23 May 2006 09:41 - The Daily Mail article by Piers Hernu:

 "I had two sons in a council flat and no money to raise them," he finally says in a broad Mancunian accent. "People would knock on my door at midnight and tell me I was a legend, and I wondered how they could. I used to tell them, if you really do love me, please leave me alone. 

"The band had been together 12 solid years and ended up being signed to a big American label, Geffen, but still I ended up living like that. I never had self-doubt. But after all the bulls***, I certainly didn't have any inclination or will to work in music. "I wanted the simple life. I wanted to grow flowers and take them to market, like my grandad had done before the War. I've always thought that would be a beautiful, honourable way to live." 

After a bleak period of soul-searching, it was his fans who pointed the way forward. "Kids on the street would say to me, 'You're Ian Brown, make some music!', and it got me thinking. 

After a few months I regained my love for making music."

1996 - Sally Cinnamon Re-release U.K. Date

The continuous re-release of Sally Cinnamon, would be a long running joke for fans and a constant headache for the band.

29 October 1996 Tuesday - Mani leaves The Stone Roses to join Primal Scream Mani tried to persuade Reni to join too.

From Blood On The Turntable BBC TV Documentary, Mani said: I didn't like the way it ended, it was all messy, in the...of making music, not business, in the business of ruining friendship. The guys (Gareth Evans) got no morals, what-so-ever, but one day it's going to comeback and bite him on the arse hard, I can't wait to piss in his grave.

John Robb said: “It was the greatest free transfer in the history of roek’n‘roll"

From September - October 1999 - On Target Magazine, Mani Interview: When the Roses split after Reading in the summer of '96, didn't you join the Scream halfway through the Vanishing Point sessions?

"Really, halfway through the last Scream tour of Britain it was like at Brighton Conference Centre and I'd had a whiff that John Squire was up to something. When we were recording The Second Coming LP we were in this residential gaff and I'd go across the corridor to his room you know 'cause I'd hear a tune coming out. I'd think 'Oh that's a new one. I've not heard it before' and as I'd knock on his door the fuckin' tape would go off. 

That was half of The Seahorses LP he's fuckin' preparing there so I knew he was planning sommut. So I kidnapped Bobby Gillespie after the Brighton Conference Centre gig and just sort of said to him 'How about it?' so in a way we did the deal six months before I actually left. I was pretty happy. I knew I was probably gonna be heading there, you know what I mean? I'm fucking glad I did. I'd only be in trouble with the police or sommut now (giggles)."

November 1996 - NME
Ian is questioned regarding The Stone Roses demise.

Having spent the last ten years in the filthiest business in the universe, it’s a pleasure to announce the end of The Stone Roses. May God bless all who gave us their love and supported us throughout this time. Special thanks to the people of Manchester who sent us on our way. Peace be upon you.”

'One day I'll tell everyone's who's interested the real story behind The Stone Roses. All I wanna do is kick back and enjoy the new Audioweb LP'

"The remaining members of the band – singer Ian Brown, drummer Robbie Maddix, guitarist Aziz Ibrahim and keyboard player Nigel Ipinson – will continue to work together under a different name. Mani said he hoped to collaborate with them in the future."

From February 1998 - Uncut magazine Ian Brown interview: 

The band fell apart three weeks later. The final statement you issued seemed very bitter. “Why was it bitter? 

I said ‘Having spent the last 10 years in the filthiest business in the world, it’s a pleasure to announce the end of the Stone Roses.’ 

It was a pleasure and it is the filthiest business in the world. There were other problems. I got paid £9,000 in ’95. We made £1.2 million on the road and it disappeared – partly cos Evans was suing us and we were paying lawyers, and partly cos people in the camp got light-fingered. At the end, I was glad to get out.”

1996 - Ian Brown goes on a 'long' holiday to Morocco.
He may have rented a holiday home, or bought a dwelling, and took frequent visits.

1998 - Hot Press, Interview by Stuart Bailie, in a bar in Chorlton: Some of that sensibility also kicked in when he took a holiday to Morocco after the Roses had finished. There he witnessed the muezzin call to prayer – singing without any commercial purpose, a pure spiritual expression of Islam, and it blew him away. 

"It lifted me off my feet, like a Saturday afternoon when I was 14, it was so rough and raw, echoing off the walls. The most uplifting thing I’ve heard for a long time."

He is less accepting of the bohemian types who have used North Africa to indulge their sensual whims. "There used to be a thousand brothels in Tangiers. Westerners used to go to get smashed out of their faces, to pick up women and kids. ‘60’s intellectuals and pop stars – they all went over there to abuse the people."...

09 November 1996 - Melody Maker Magazine
Dave Simpson writes an article reagrding the band's split.

THE END

Having spent the last ten years in the filthiest business in the universe, it’s a pleasure to announce the end of The Stone Roses. May God bless all who gave us their love and supported us throughout this time. Special thanks to the people of Manchester who sent us on our way. Peace be upon you.”

That was it. No tearful goodbye. Just silence, confusion, and the lingering feeling that something extraordinary had ended in the least extraordinary way possible way.