Liam Gallagher and John Squire are officially joining forces, with the two legends of the Manchester music scene's first single confirmed for early 2024 following online teases from the pair.
Gallagher needs little encouragement to play hype man to Squire. He has never hidden his affection and respect for the former Stone Roses guitarist, who has of late trained his creative energies on visual art since the Roses disbanded.
Gallagher posted a clip to Instagram of Squire playing Champagne Supernova onstage with Oasis at Knebworth in 1996, with a quote in voiceover – and in text in case anyone should miss it – “John Squire without a doubt the best guitarist of his generation and in the world in my opinion”.
Squire, for his part, has never made it a secret of what he thinks about Gallagher as a frontman, and on an Instagram post yesterday, he returned the compliment, and said Gallagher was up there with the best of them.
“Liam Gallagher is one of the all time great rock and roll voices,” said Squire. “I put him in the same class as Dylan, Lennon, Jagger and Rotten.”
And of course the first response to Gallagher from one of his followers was, “Johnny Marr?” But Marr vs Squire is a debate for another day. Right now, the question is what is it that Gallagher and Squire have planned?
Well, now we know. A press release reveals the single Just Another Rainbow will arrive in 5 January, released under the duo's names and can be ordered on 7" vinyl and pre-saved here.
To me, it's also one of the most uplifting tracks we’ve made together, which is weird
John Squire
“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," says its songwriter Squire. "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.”
The duo's friendship goes back to the recording of Definitely Maybe in Monmouth, Wales where Oasis and the Roses ran into each other and hit it off. Squire's band were creating what would become their Second Coming album. Gallagher would later pen Love Me and Leave Me’ with Squire for the guitarist's post-Stone Roses band, The Seahorses.
Fast forward to when Gallagher returned for a two-night headlining slot at Knebworth in June last year, Squire joined him once more to close out both sets with a cover of Oasis’s Champagne Supernova. And Gallagher has teased this supergroup before on social media. As reported in the NME, Gallagher revealed to Apple Music that he had some kind of conversation about a collaboration with Squire at Knebworth.
“I think John's a top songwriter," says Liam announcing the collaboration officially. "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.”
Squire initially sent three songs to the vocalist, and the project snowballed from there. Liam arrived at the guitarist's studio in Macclesfield to complete vocals for two demo recordings each day, a work rate he delivered on to create a catalogue of songs.
'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).' reveals the announcement statement. 'They unlocked a shared musical intuition that felt so natural it was almost as if they had always been a band.'
You can sign up for more information at Gallagher Squire.
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