Madchester band Stone Roses to reunite in UK

The Stone Roses, one of the best-loved and most influential bands to emerge from Britain's "Madchester" scene, announced on Tuesday that they are reuniting and working on new material. The band members, who split in 1996 after releasing two albums, said they will play two shows in their hometown of Manchester on June 29 and 30, followed by an international tour. "Our plan is to take on the world," said singer Ian Brown as the band announced its reunion at a London news conference. "It's not a trip down memory lane," he added. "We are doing new songs." Formed by Brown and guitarist John Squire, the band's self-titled 1989 debut album was a huge British hit. But fans waited five years for the followup, Second Coming, and the group soon split up amid internal wrangling and legal disputes. The band members insisted for years that they would not get back together, but Squire said he and Brown had met recently at the funeral of bass player Gary "Mani" Mounfield's mother and "in some ways it felt like 15 years ago was yesterday." The band's blend of rock, pop, psychedelia and dance influences made it one of the biggest acts to emerge from the "Madchester" scene in the late '80s and early '90s in and around the northwest England city of Manchester. Other bands grouped under the label include Happy Mondays and The Charlatans.