Two of the greatest stars of Manchester music, Oasis’s Liam Gallagher and the Stone Roses’ John Squire, are teasing a collaboration together, expected to be an album released in 2024.
A new website, gallaghersquire.com, has been launched, and Gallagher has posted about Squire on his social media accounts. He posted a quote on Instagram: “John Squire without a doubt the best guitarist of his generation and in the world in my opinion,” alongside footage of Squire playing with Oasis at their landmark Knebworth concerts in 1996, where he guested on the song Champagne Supernova. Squire repeated the guest appearance for Gallagher’s solo dates at Knebworth in 2022.
No other details about the collaboration have been given, but it will be the first new music from Squire since 2016. The guitarist is best known for giving the Stone Roses their psychedelic edge and versatility, bringing beautifully chiming riffs to the likes of Waterfall, fiery soloing on I Am the Resurrection and funky playing on Fool’s Gold. The band had four Top 10 singles and their debut album is regarded as one of the greatest in Mancunian – even British – history. Since their split in 1996, Squire then formed Britpop band the Seahorses whose only album Do It Yourself reached No 2, and released two solo albums in 2002 and 2004.
Since then he has mostly focused on visual art, and in 2009 wrote the words, “I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group the Stone Roses” on one artwork. But the band did end up reforming in 2011 for a series of gigs, and in 2016 released a pair of new songs. In 2019 Squire told the Guardian the band was over once more.
Gallagher has had a more sustained musical career since Oasis disbanded in 2009. He first fronted the group Beady Eye, which released two albums in 2011 and 2013, then went solo, releasing three UK chart-topping albums plus three more live albums, two of which also reached No 1. The most recent studio album was C’Mon You Know in 2022, which featured guest songwriters including Dave Grohl, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and pop singer Tove Lo.
In lieu of an Oasis reunion, Gallagher is gearing up to revisit Oasis material by playing debut album Definitely, Maybe in full on tour in 2024, including a headline slot at Reading and Leeds festivals. Gallagher announced the tour by saying: “The most important album of the 90s bar none. I wouldn’t be anywhere without it and neither would you, so let’s celebrate together.”
A reunion has longed been hoped for by Oasis fans, admittedly with a giant pinch of salt given the frequent sniping between the Gallagher brothers in recent years. An olive branch of sorts was proffered by Liam recently though, after Noel and his wife divorced. Liam wrote on X: “Listen I love Rkid he’s going through a lot of snizxle at the moment and it’ll work itself out he knows where I am if he needs a cuddle n a hug Oasis till I die”.
