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Liam Gallagher and John Squire announce new collaboration, "Just Another Rainbow"

22 December 2023, 18:20 | Written by Tyler Damara Kelly

Liam Gallagher has teamed up with John Squire of The Stone Roses. The pair have announced the release of their first single together, "Just Another Rainbow".

“To me the most obvious take on ‘Just Another Rainbow’ is that it's about disappointment, and the sentiment is that you never get what you really want. But I don't like to explain songs, I think that's the privilege of the listener, it's whatever you want it to be. To me, it's also one of the most uplifting tracks we’ve made together, which is weird," says Squire.

Gallagher adds, “I think John's a top songwriter. Everyone always bangs on about him as a guitarist, but he’s a top songwriter too, man, no two ways about it as far as I'm concerned. There's not enough of his music out there, whether it's with the Roses or himself. It's good to see him back writing songs and fucking good ones. The melodies are mega and then the guitars are a given. But I think even when you take all the fucking guitars off, you can play the songs all on acoustic and they’ll all still blow your mind.”

While this represents the duo’s first collaboration together, the first time they were in a room together was way back in 1989. The then 16-year-old Gallagher attended a Stone Roses gig at the International 2 in Manchester around the time their self-titled debut album was released, a show that he describes simply as “life-changing.” It was another four years before they met when both bands were recording in Monmouth, Wales: Oasis had just started work on what would become Definitely Maybe while The Stone Roses were deep into sessions for The Second Coming.

Their friendship continued in the subsequent years, notably with the pair writing "Love Me and Leave Me" for The Seahorses, who also toured as guests to Oasis. But it wasn’t until Squire jumped on stage at Gallagher's gargantuan Knebworth Park show for a performance of "Champagne Supernova" that the prospect of working together on something more substantial became a reality.

Gallagher arrived at Squire’s studio in Macclesfield and vowed to complete vocals for two demo recordings each day, a promise that he stuck to, and soon enough they had a catalogue of killer songs to choose from. From there it was off to Los Angeles for three weeks of sessions with revered producer Greg Kurstin who plays bass on the record, with drums courtesy of Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M., Atoms for Peace).

"Just Another Rainbow" is set for release on 5 January, with vinyl pre-order available now.

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