T in the Park: Stone Roses join fellow Mancunians Happy Mondays at this year’s festival

THE reformed Stone Roses will share a bill with former Manchester scene leaders the Happy Mondays at this year’s T in the Park with a line up that would not have looked out of place in the late 1980s.

Fellow Mancunian veterans New Order will also play this year’s festival at Balado near Kinross, in July.

Snow Patrol and Kasabian have been named as headliners along with the Stone Roses, who announced that they were reforming last year after an acrimonious split in 1996.

Other highlights will include David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Twin Atlantic, Jessie J and Brits Critics’ Choice winner Emeli Sande, with more still to be named.

Festival organiser Geoff Ellis said that securing the Stone Roses was a career peak for him.

“People have asked me in the past, if I could have any band from any era in the past, which would it be? And I’ve never really wanted to say it, in case I jinxed myself or if they did reform and didn’t play T in the Park then I’d look stupid, The Stone Roses are the ones I wanted to play with us,” he said.

He said that the influence and iconic stature of the band meant it was still relevant and popular with younger T in the Park fans. He also insisted that he was not concerned about the preponderance of veteran Manchester acts as they were “seminal acts”, who had bridged the gap between guitar and dance music and whose influence could still be felt today.

Other big names that were named yesterday to appear during the July weekend include: Tinie Tempah, Professor Green, Kaiser Chiefs, the Darkness, Mastodon and Elbow, as well as Scottish acts including Amy MacDonald.

The event takes place at Balado Park from 6-8 July.

“It’s one of the strongest launches we’ve had and it’s a very diverse line-up,” said Mr Ellis. “It’s important to have something for everyone because we’re a very small country, and to sell 85,000 tickets has us on a par with the biggest festivals worldwide.

“If we were too one-dimensional we wouldn’t be selling 85,000 tickets but if you’re not a fan of pop you don’t need to go and see any pop acts. If you’re not a fan of dance music you can go and see guitar bands. I think because we have so many stages it does give us the ability to have lots of different bands playing over the weekend.”

Mr Ellis said T in the Park offers good value for money.

“We’ve only gone up £4 on the weekend tickets on the previous year and our costs have gone up a lot more than the equivalent to that. We’re very conscious that money is always tight, whether there’s a recession on or not, so we’ve always been conscious of ticket prices.

“It works out at around 89p per band which is like downloading one track from iTunes. So you could say the festival is like an iPod playlist for live music.

“I think festivals generally are good value but I think T in the Park, because it has more bands playing than many festivals, is even better value for money.”

Scottish DJ Jim Gellately said: “T in the Park is predominantly a mainstream festival, it’s not about grass roots music, but still manages to cater for that as well.”

The line-up so far...

FRIDAY: Snow Patrol, Tinie Tempah, New Order, Florence + the Machine, Example, Professor Green, Kaiser Chiefs, The Temper Trap, The Darkness, Miike Snow, Labrinth, Mastodon, Pulled Apart By Horses, Tribes, Sven Väth

SATURDAY: The Stone Roses, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Jessie J, The Vaccines, Two Door Cinema Club, Emeli Sandé, Ben Howard, Amy Macdonald, The Courteeners, The Maccabees, Enter Shikari, Rizzle Kicks, Peter Doherty, The Wailers, Dappy, Alabama Shakes, Major Lazer, Skream featuring Sgt Pokes, Benga, Erol Alkan, Fake Blood, Jack Beats, Crookers

SUNDAY: Kasabian, Elbow, Chase and Status, Skrillex, Happy Mondays, James Morrison, Frank Turner, The Enemy, Miles Kane, The Wanted, Maverick Sabre, Twin Atlantic, The Horrors, Christina Perri, Devlin, Bellowhead, Little Roy, Spector, Band of Skulls, Dubfire, Joris Voom, Maya Jane Coles, Len Faki, Pan-Pot