I'm going to resist the temptation to say a bunch of warring Mancunians have set aside their differences to go in search of fool's gold and instead say, quite truthfully, that I'm thrilled iconic Manchester band The Stone Roses are to get back together again.
Anyone from Manchester will tell you The Stone Roses were one of the best-loved and most influential bands to emerge from the "Madchester" scene (not that I could tell you too much about those times, given that I was sitting my A Levels at the time) so to hear that they've reunited is, hand on heart, brilliant news. I've cancelled everything for next June because they're playing Heaton Park in Manchester at the end of that month.
You might remember their acrimonious split in 1996, when they vowed never to work together again and it got me to thinking about divorcing couples who say the same thing, then get married again years later (Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, anyone?)
It's therefore rather ironic to find out that the reason, supposedly, that The Stone Roses are reforming is because singer Ian Brown needs to pay for an expensive divorce from model Fabiola Quiroz.
I don't think anyone knows exactly why Brown and guitarist John Squire fell out quite so spectacularly - all one can find out is that it was over "legal wrangles" - but it's not surprising that financial need has brought them back together. I can think of quite a few couples who have done something similar.
One client was a woman who had an affair, left her husband for her lover and three months later packed her bags again and moved back in with her husband. The lover didn't have anywhere near as much money as she thought he did and she found that she loved her previous life of luxury rather more than she loved her new boyfriend. A forgiving husband took her back. He told me that maintaining a previously unfaithful and now guilt-ridden but grateful wife would be less expensive than maintaining her as an on-the-market divorcee. I rather felt they deserved each other, to be frank.
Maybe it's like that for The Stone Roses. One band member needs to pay off an ex-wife and the other band members haven't had exactly stellar careers (although bass player Mani did join Primal Scream) so they're all going to benefit from getting back together. It's amazing what people will do when they need the cash, isn't it? All that "never again" schtick gets forgotten.
Anyway, just as couples that break up then make up don't really care what their reasons are, they're just glad to be back together, so it is for the Stone Roses. I only hope that their new material lives up to their old.