Roll With It

 Bands always reunite!

This week’s announcement that Oasis are reforming for concerts next year came as a surprise to hardly anyone, not just because it’s been rumoured for months but because bands always reform in the end. As long as the members (or most of them) are still with us and  playing or performing they cannot resist.  There can be different reasons but there must come a point when they tire of the procrastination and think “Yeah, lets get ourselves to the O2 Arena asap”. Even bands who unequivocally rule it out end up coming around. At least Eagles – who had once stated they would reform “when hell freezes over”- had the wit to dub their comeback tour `Hell Freezes Over”!

 

Oasis looking delighted to be back together

These reunions can vary in length and content. After holding out for over thirty years Abba got back together and even created some new songs as well as a stage show in which they got back together once but covered in high tech motion capture gear. Now the recording of that plays to packed houses. Most reunited bands do a tour. Led Zeppelin did one concert, REM recently did an interview and performed one song, Talking Heads just did an interview. The Beatles made a documentary and unearthed old songs to tart up. Some bands like Suede or Ride manage to have a reunion that almost matches the length of their original career. Blur prefer to get back together periodically after years apart. However big or small the results they all do it in the end. Mainstream pop groups these days don’t actually split up at all- they go `on hiatus`, they “take a break”. Then after a suitable gap- usually ten years or so- they reunite for a lucrative tour. Absolutely nobody will be surprised when the One Direction reunion tour happens.

I suppose there are differing reasons to reunite. Perhaps public interest in their subsequent separate careers is waning, maybe they’ve reached that age where the past looks more appealing than the present career wise. They forget the stresses and the tantrums and remember the moments when everything went right, the good stuff. They also have a chance to look back with more clarity on their career which is difficult to do when they are in the midst of it. Now that they’ve reissued their album in extended editions and appeared in a documentary trawling through their career, it is all in he forefront of their minds and they start to think “Actually we could just do a tour…”

Led Zeppelin learned a new dance for their reunion

One of the things we now have to acknowledge is that pop / rock music or whatever you want to call has enjoyed the lifespan of a person. It started out in the Fifties as something for teenagers but those teenagers who rocked around the clock are now pensioners. The surviving Beatles are in their eighties. More veteran acts are either retiring or passing away. Below them the next generation were at their prime when modern music was as big as it will ever be. For generations of fans these were golden times and there is some sort of collective celebration when those bands reform and play to those audiences. Nobody can re-live their youth without looking ridiculous yet in the safe space of a reunion concert they actually can in the company of like minded souls.  I suppose too some of the musicians need the money. Bad contracts or corrupt management play their part plus it seems remarkably easy for rock stars to spend millions that would set the rest of us up for life. 

I suspect the band reunion is itself on the way out. Most of today’s biggest artists are solo stars who can’t split up (`Ed quits Sheeran`, `Taylor Leaves Swift!`). They can retire of course and in Frank Sinatra tradition un-retire. But they are only the one person. The chemistry and drama between band members fascinates people. Sure everyone wants to singalong with those Oasis anthems but really people want to know just how the Gallaghers buried the hatchet. Or maybe they never really fell out at all and it was a fifteen year pantomime?

The cardinal rule of reunions is not to try and add to the back catalogue. What most fans do not want to hear at a reunion concert are the words “this is a new song”. Abba made that mistake and delivered an album that is probably the weakest in their catalogue. Oasis, to date, have said there will be no new songs. Quite right too especially for a band who peaked with their second record.

Abba looked younger when they reformed than they did when they split up

The uncomfortable truth of these reunions is that none of us- the fans or the band- are what we once were. That performance which was full of fire thirty, forty years ago is not possible any more.  It’s not uncommon for reunited bands to take to the stage with a number of auxiliary musicians to provide extra fire power or more likely ensure that the music sounds as vital as it did back in the day. Some bands even recruit the offspring of deceased members to add a second hand authenticity.

Those of us who live an ordinary life cannot really imagine what a band reunion is like. Unlike, it seems, musicians, when we lose touch with someone that is the end of it. I suppose it would be like getting back together with people you went to school with and then sitting down to take those old lessons again. Which would be weird especially if the desks were tiny.

Btw I heard a rumour that Chaffinch Flan might be reforming. Now that would be epic.