2008 has not been that great for new acts to emerge, but it has been quite a year for old bands getting back together again.
The Tindersticks overcame their creative differences, wrapped up the solo side projects, and put out their best album in years. Portishead got around to their Third after a long gap. Mark Stewart, Wire and Tricky all managed to get new albums out. Eno and Byrne will release their first collaboration since Bush of Ghosts. The new My Bloody Valentine album is rumoured to escape in the near future.
What band or artist would you like to see have a reformation? By reformation, I mean put out new relevant material, not just a bunch of has-beens touring their greatest hits because they want the cash (see The Police). By way of rules: enough of the original line-up needs to be available (i.e. not dead) to make a true reformation viable.
Please show your working.
33 comments:
This was asked in one of the music blogs (one of the OTHER music blogs, I mean) a while ago and I said Any Trouble; a few days afterwards they announced that they HAD reformed and were doing a gig in London; of course I thought it was all down to me, but I couldn't get to the gig so I emailed Clive Gregson to ask would he please tell me when they'd be coming further north preferably Scotland and he said he would, but...
...so, Any Trouble please!
Excuse my ignorance TFD, but don't know Any Trouble, can you "Spil some?
Perhaps I'd better center the pic before DsD has words again.
Generally, I don't like bands getting back together again, because they usually don't have anything new to offer.
I don't want to see a load of my favourites from my youth trotting out a Greatest Hits package but i think I'd like to see King Crimson get back together again.
I know that they played gigs in the USA earlier this year, according to the DGMLIVE website, but they don't seem to have anything planned for the UK for 2009.
Chaka Demus & Pliers?
Er... hang on a moment.
The Adverts. The Kinks. Catatonia. Husker Du. Big Star. The Meat Puppets. Josef K. Cotton Mather. Young Marble Giants. Family. McCarthy. The Rezillos. The Stone Roses. Buffalo Springfield. Colourbox. Jellyfish. Chairmen Of The Board. That Petrol Emotion. The Modern Lovers. The Soft Machine. The Dancing Did. Vinegar Joe. The Beat. The Rain Parade. The Left Banke. Black Uhuru. The Soft Boys. Penetration. Mr Fox. The Screaming Trees. Dexy's Midnight Runners (as long as they don't play anything post-EMI). The Moffs. Creedence. The dBs. The Move. Timebox. Elvis Costello & the Attractions. The Pandoras. Mott The Hoople. The Chills. Dave Edmunds' Rockpile. Opal/Mazzy Star. The Pirates (without Johnny Kidd, natch). Grant Lee Buffalo. Reparata & the Delrons. The Great Society. Shoes. The Beta Band. The Shangri-Las. Audience. The Mighty Diamonds. The Dukes Of Stratosphear. Fleetwood Mac (original line-up). Fleetwood Mac (with Christine McVie). Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Throwing Muses. Tommy James & the Shondells. The Supremes (with at least 1 original member). True West. Siouxsie & the Banshees. Five Hand Reel. Makin' Time. Cosmic Rough Riders (with Dan Wylie). Television. The Super Rail Band. John & Beverley Martyn. The Boo Radleys. Amon Duul II. Public Image Ltd. Richard & Linda Thompson. Les Fleurs De Lys (with Sharon Tandy). The Saints. The Dwight Twilley Band. Guided By Voices. Magazine. Fox (with Noosha). The Pixies. Help Yourself. The Icicle Works. Pylon. The Darling Buds. Booker T & the MGs. Deaf School/Bette Bright & the Illuminations. The Passage. Tomorrow. The Long Ryders. The Adult Net. Trees. Free. The Redskins. The Dream Syndicate. Wondermints. Pere Ubu. Lush. The Faces (assuming feasible without Ronnie Lane). X-Ray Spex. The Smiths.
"Please show your working".
Oh, bugger.
Blimey, Shiv...
Shoey, there's lots of Any Trouble on last.fm - try
http://www.last.fm/music/Any+Trouble/Wheels+In+Motion
Donds to The Shangri-Las reforming - there's only been three of them since 1970 anyway. And Wiki tells me that George 'Shadow' Morton is still alive, if somewhat the worse for wear.
This one's three years past being a biological possibility, and there's a chance it'd be a musical car crash but a reformation of The Steampacket would miss out on Long John Baldry but bring back together Rod Stewart, Julie Driscoll (now Tippetts) and Brian Augur. And if Brian didn't fancy it, the keyboard could be a toss-up between Elton John, reprising his own work with Baldry in the Hoochie Coochie Men, and Julie's old man, Keith Tippett, to see how Rod would cope with wordless free jazz improvisation.
Henry Cow/ Slapp Happy
The fusing of Anthony Moore & Peter Blegvad's pop practice with the proletarian, political imperative of the Cow boys, voiced by the magnificent Dagmar Krause ... the time is now, kapitalism kollapsing around us ... we just need a soundtrack we can dance to.
I'd like to see Brian Wilson team up with Mike Love and Al Jardine. Yup. I really would. Could happen. I'd like Van Der Graaf Generator to keep going too. Peter Hammill always seems too lonely on his own. Gentle Giant anyone ? Loads to offer...Donds to Audience. Always preferred David Byrne with Talking Heads personally. And lets put the original Roxy Music back toegether shall we ? And force them to write some new material. And from more recent times (slightly) Suede would be a good re-form. But which bands would ya'll like to see split up ? Apart from Oasis I mean.
Donds for PIL w/ Levine & Wobble, give Lyden something to do other than butter ads. Magazine, even without McGeoch, would be great too. The Pixies, alas, tried & failed. There was a documentary of their reunion (Loud, Quiet, Loud, I think) that showed them unable to talk to each other. Very sad.
Not sure who would be in Shiv's Banshees line-up. Original Scream era (very unlikely) or Robert Smith?
I think The Cure should call it a day. & The Stones must hang it up sometime mustn't they?
I reckon Ringo Starr ought to leave The Beatles and grab himself some me-time - he's clearly overworked:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7666826.stm
I love the line: "I'm warning you with peace and love I have too much to do."
Has to be said - such as what? Michael Angelis has the Thomas the Tank Engine gig; he's clearly not talking about the five minutes it must have taken to write that Liverpool 8 song we nearly had as the anthem for the Capital of Culture; Paul's not giving him any complicated drum patterns to master. What's eating up his time? Who else reckons he's a secret RR/'Spill obsessive?
May1336 said
>Who else reckons he's a secret RR/'Spill obsessive?<
Ringo Speng ... is that what you're implying?
Kenickie!
@shiv: you're not seriously suggesting Free without Kossoff?
Elastica!! They'd still be a right larf!!
Shiv, as far as I know, Pere Ubu are still going. There last album was "Why I Hate Women" in 2006 & there was also a remix version "Why I Remix Women".
Make that a their. Good call on Elastica, Blimpy.
Would be nice to have Bill Berry back with REM - his absence an unknown factor in their (alleged) creative decline...
I suspect a Stone Roses reunion would be awful, as would The Smiths, though we can dream. But I reckon a reformed Blur would be better than ever.
A Massive Attack extended family reunion would be quite something, with 3-D, Daddy G and Mushroom, plus Tricky, Shara Nelson, Horace Andy, Tracy Thorne, Liz Frazer, Nicolette...
@ carolebristol
I agree that reforming rarely works (never go back is a good motto for life generally) but one notable exception was the Go-Betweens who got back together after the best part of a decade of separation to record three wonderful albums. Unfortunately, Grant is no longer around so the next reunion will have to be in another place - and no, I don't mean the House of Lords...
I'd love Paddy McAloon to get the original Prefab Sprout line up back together again and I'd love to hear Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan working together again.
Difficult one. Just cant imagine a band who are a) all still alive, b)likely to have new and relevant material in them and c) who move me enough to nominate them. In your dreams, of course, anything can happen and even the likes of ABBA could have one more album in them that could reduce me to tears. But on the whole, I think Im with CarolBristol - the stats on reforming are none too good.
The Bunnymen also pulled off the reformation thing.
Housemartins, anyone? It would be interesting to see if Heaton & Cook could update each other's sounds, ace to see Whitaker back as band jester, and fascinating to find out if Cullimore still has anything to offer, given his subsequent other successful career.
Donds for Grant Lee Buffalo, though I suspect I'm on a nostalgia kick there. The Sundays probably wouldn't have changed much either, but it would be nice to get a fourth album just for some more songs to play!
I'd love to see OneEyedJacks-era Spear Of Destiny kick the doors down again, but I reckon the fire has long since burned out of that one.
Up until his death (CHRIST! FIVE YEARS AGO?!?!?!?) I'd have said Robert Palmer and Elkie Brooks to give us some more Vinegar Joe - add some experienced stagecraft to that raggedy old sound. And as only John Taylor is now still alive - Oh the injustice! ;o}
- I'm never gonna get The Power Station to rock my boat again. *sigh*
My list of nominations I'd hope wouldn't be complete disasters:
Faith No More, with Mike Patton.
Earth, Wind & Fire or Parliament, though I've NO idea how many band members have shuffled off this mortal coil ... speaking of whom ...
Actually I only have one I'd kill for:
Talk Talk, that would just be the greatest, and certainly would have something new to offer.
A car-crash reformation? Messrs Gabriel, Hackett, Collins, Rutherford and Hackett forced to come up with a coherent 21st century Genesis album!!!
DsD - I love the idea of two Steve Hacketts in the reformed Genesis at the expense of Tony Banks!
Hahahaha - oops! Sorry, TB, though on reflection it sounds like a better idea WITH the error than without, don't you think?
TatankaYotanka - Spengo Starr, even. It's a theory - both under-appreciated for their ability to beat out a rhythm on their Fab Four skins; both fixated on spreading peace and love / a piece of his love around the planet; Ringo was in a film where his dad was played by Wilfred Bramble, better known as Alfred Steptoe who was regularly called a dir-tty old man...it's a cosmic three-ball plant.
RIDE!!!
Getting Graham back in Blur would be amazing...and i'd love to see Elastica too, i'm one of the few people on the planet who thought that "The Menace" was ace! (mind you, I loved "The Second Coming" too, so...)
Band who I'd like the chance to see live and would hold out some hope of a decent new album would be The Danse Society, who really should have been bigger first time around, Robert Smith and Steve Severin's project The Glove, All About Eve and Strangelove because Patrick Duff's solo stuff felt like it needed a band to finish it off.
Would love to see the Pogues finish what they started before Shane's drinking botched things, but from all accounts of their reunion gigs so far, the edge is gone for good.
(Always a fine line for artists to get just drunk/stoned enough to be truly great without crossing that line)
Just off to see Jackie Leven at the Half Moon in Putney ..... so I'm going to suggest JL's amazing celticpunkparallel crowd bothering band Doll By Doll. Jackie's live outings are pretty much all acoustic these days, be great to see him strap on the Strat more often.
@may1366 .... I'm gonna get you to write all my extended filthy innuendos for me from here on in ... you're so good at it; kudos! :)
Great stuff folks. Feel inspired to write to these folks:
Dear ______
We on the 'Spill have decided that you need to stop whatever it is you are doing and put ______ back together again.
Love and Kisses,
The 'Spill Team
But given the size of Shiv's list, I can't afford the stamps.
More donds for Ride and überdonds for Talk Talk. The reformation that I would most like to see is Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound label back on it's feet.
@TFD, oh that Any Trouble, completely forgot about them, & it's probably Elvis Costello's fault. They should have picked a different record label.
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