However much you might enjoy Squire’s art, he is still a long way from being known as an artist, as opposed to being known as a former member of The Stone Roses, and I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the phrases in the paintings were directed at, or about Ian Brown, and if that was the case, I wondered if this was to give the paintings a selling point


to the inevitable Stone Roses


fans among the admirers, and potential buyers of his artwork.


I have to say though, although all the words – the noise, if you like – in the paintings gave each piece interesting texture, they were not the feature of this exhibition which made it so successful. For me, it was the impressive, bold


landscapes serving as


background to the words. In same cases, like No Cattle, they were very Turner-esque, with similar colours being used, and the same, fabulously illuminating patches of light. But just as The Stone Roses’ influences were often said to be pretty blatant, and yet they still created amazing new music, so here, Squire is obviously paying homage to Turner, but still making his own mark in a refreshing way.


There were some more conventional skies, as


in paintings like Equilibrium and


Something Like Hatred, which I also liked. The sky in No Longer Did We Worship looks very effective, although was not on view, but in the Sales Sheet.


One of my favourite paintings was The Power To Destroy Governments. On the left side of it, there appears to be a giant fire blazing, as if burning up the canvas, or it could equally be viewed as something like a giant golden tap pouring fire into a raging ocean. The title of course really elevates the piece. I also liked the movement of High Speed Chase.


You could definitely see that a lot of time and thought had been put into these paintings, and this was respected by whoever had hung the paintings. They were, like my colleague Engleburt Bartfast, well hung. Ahem.


So anyway, after looking round and being suitably impressed, Faye and I turned our attentions to the artist himself, and managed to angle our way in as he wrapped up a conversation with a couple before us.


We each told him how much we liked the paintings, and Faye asked where all


the


words had come from. Apparently, they were from different


conversations, etc. and John had kept a dictaphone on him to record it all. At


time, I thought this sounded very much like how David Gedge sourced his lyrics for The Wedding Present. I didn’t mention this however, partly because I seem to remember The Stone Roses weren’t


fans of The


Wedding Present (or it may have just been Ian Brown), but also, I thought any reference to a band from the same era as The Stone Roses was probably out of bounds too, given that all talk of The Stone Roses is apparently not allowed.


11


sources, overheard the


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