In July 2004, Ian Brown surprised fans in Dublin, Belfast and Surrey by playing sets consisting mainly of old Stone Roses songs from 1989 and 1990. He followed this up by performing a mixture of Roses numbers and his own material on his UK and Ireland tour later in the year. At his return gig in Manchester, not only did he perform seven Roses tracks, including "Waterfall", "I Wanna Be Adored" and "She Bangs The Drums", but was also joined on stage for a bow by Mani, bringing the two former Roses members on stage together for the first time in over 8 years. Brown was also joined by his friend Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher to perform the single they wrote together, "Keep What Ya Got", and DJ James Lavelle, whose group UNKLE released "Reign" featuring both Brown and Mani later in the year, reaching number 40 in the UK singles charts.

In May 2005, Squire told Time Out magazine that he would consider a Roses reunion. In the same month, he, Mani and Reni were spotted together at a concert, leading to much speculation that a reunion was not just under consideration, but imminent. Later in May both Reni and Mani confirmed that they were open to the idea of the Roses reforming, but Reni said it would not happen in 2005. Reni also confirmed he has started writing songs with the intention of performing them with Mani. However, since all Stone Roses songs were written by Ian Brown and/or John Squire, any material produced will almost certainly be used for a different project.

Following Kylie Minogue's cancellation of her Glastonbury 2005 performance, rumours circulated that the Roses would reunite to fill Minogue's slot. Interestingly, both Brown and Primal Scream were booked to appear at Glastonbury, making some fans hopeful that Mani would join Brown onstage after Primal Scream's set. A performance by the Roses failed to materialise, but Ian Brown did break his silence on the subject of a reunion soon after the festival. He stated that Squire should contact him personally if he wants to reunite, rather than use the media as a vehicle for reunion. Brown is said to remain angry at Squire for leaving the band and as such is unlikely to consider a reunion in the near future. Squire reportedly sent Brown a box of Maltesers with a note reading "I Still Love You" for Christmas when Brown was imprisoned in 1998 (a throwback to a tradition the two held from Christmas as children), but apart from that the pair have been said to have not spoken since Squire left the band.

In September 2005 a reunion looked considerably less likely, as Ian Brown commented to several journalists that "there's more chance of me reforming The Happy Mondays than the Stone Roses". Happy Mondays in fact have reformed, but yet Brown appears pessimistic about a likelihood of any reunion. Fairly recently, on Soccer AM, bassist Mani jokingly claimed that the Stone Roses would reform "The day after Man City win the European Cup".

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