1. Next year is going to be rough for most people. Everyone needs a dream and just in time a band that have become shrouded in mystery, question marks and are folk heroes to many have returned.
2. There was a real sense of unfinished business when the band fizzled out spectacularly in 1996. Within one announcement that was sorted out. The Stone Roses always had destiny. There was always a sense that they could take the world and when they fucked it up that seemed to be the end of the story till now.
3. Having a press conference is very rock 'n' roll. Bands don't do enough of these. I remember seeing the Beatles' and the Stones' press conferences on documentaries and it was like something from another age, a time when music mattered that much. The press conference seemed so much part of the rock 'n' roll parlance - a real performance, maybe a performance that was as great as the gigs. The Roses' press conferences echo that. They have done two classics - the Spike Island stand-off and the one last week - both so different in terms of atmosphere.
4. There are no happy endings in rock 'n' roll is one of the maxims that rings true through the decades. Bands fall apart, everyone hates everyone else and the lawyers get rich. For once someone has bucked the trend and it would take a hard heart not to feel good at this particularly acrimonious breakdown being repaired.
5. This will not be a greatest hits package and a replay of the classic album that so many bands do. There is talk of new material and enough talented individuals in the band who can still deliver - it's intriguing to see where this could go - with a bit of luck the band will try and create a lived-in album with their optimism intact but life's creases in the grooves, oh and the grooves interlocking with John Squire's exquisite melodies.
6. The press shots of the band were great - in these days of photo-retouching and digital smoke and mirrors, the Stone Roses looked lived-in and older, but the casual love they had for each other in the shots was heart-warming, the total lack of fakeness was what has perhaps kept the band in the public affections for years. When they fell out they couldn't hide it and the hurt was everywhere.
7. When the band walked into the press conference they got a huge cheer from the hard-bitten hacks - how often does that ever happen?
8. There is some criticism of Ian Brown's voice, but in Manchester we don't have singers we have communicators - the only person from that generation who could sing properly was Mick Hucknall - I rest my case...Ian Brown is a communicator, he will walk on that stage and 75,000 people will understand and, anyway, his vocals sounded great on the albums, listen to them now - make your own mind up.
9. I got a great tweet from some who said 'Move over Simon Cowell the grown ups are back', it made me laugh - pop music has been stolen from the people by the corporations and we want it back.
10. The mainstream of showbiz is full of plastic surgery - plastic faces with plastic voices and plastic celebrity careers. X Factor gets 99 per cent of the media attention so it was great to see someone else get it. At the press conference in the posh Soho Hotel it felt like the lunatics had taken over the asylum, the ruffians were running amok and people who could actually do stuff were back on the front pages.
11. Every garage in the country is going to be full of youth playing music again, they will start with the buzz of the Stone Roses and take it in their own direction, use the energy to create. With X Factor all you get is a fat arse from splodging out in front of the TV. The Stone Roses came from punk and punk was about DIY. All pop culture should be DIY. You don't need a judge to tell you what to sing. Louis Walsh? See ya mate...
12. The press conference was like no other, the band didn't seem to care about giving the 'right answers' like they were reading from an autocue. There was contradictions, hilarity and straight talking...
13. U2 can't be the only band my generation, the generation of punk, gives to the world. The Stone Roses were born out of the punk, the kids who fell in love with the Clash, they were immersed in youth culture and they understand its power and its sense of community - that's why the community is jumping up and down this week.
14. You will get to see Reni play the drums on a stage. The greatest drummer of his generation live. An hour before the press conference I bumped into Ian Brown and we both agreed this was a good thing. We nodded and said that if Reni has set up his drum kit in Manchester Apollo on his own it would have sold the place out to watch him play and we would have both paid a fortune to see him do it.
15. Rock 'n' roll is full of 'if onlys' and 'what ifs'...the Stone Roses will now provide their own answers on their own terms.
16. When was the last time you can remember so many people were so excited about a gig?
17. The naysayers- who lurk on the internet and are always anonymous when signing off go on about nostalgia- they are correct in a way but the band will be playing new songs unlike many other groups who returned like Pulp- who played a fab greatest hits set round the European festivals this summer. Personally for me music is music, it can be a great new young band, some undiscovered gem from the past, or a band I love playing old songs, if it sounds good it's good. I love a new Fall album and I love Rammstein, Kate Bush, the Beatles, Bad brains, Rudimentary Peni, the Stranglers, Poly Styrene, new bands like Deadbeat Echoes, Dirty North and Frazer King or crazy old punk bands like Paranoid Visions and Cock Sparrer and the Stone Roses, I can't rationalise but they all click with me, new or old, the sound transports me.
18. At the press conference Ian Brown slagged off the Daily Mail- that was pretty funny.
19. Every band that wanted to reform but wouldn't do it is now in meltdown, can you reform as spectacularly as this? Will every reformation feel like damp squib from now on?
20. The atmosphere ten minutes before the Stone Roses take the stage for the first gig will be unlike anything else. Their gigs in the old days were pretty intense- this has now been cranked up...
21. Rock n roll needs myths, it needs folk heroes, it needs great stories...and it helps to have a good soundtrack.