James Cousins
Although I hate Top Ten lists as much as the next self-respecting music snob, 2007 almost jusitified one such list - the Best Band Reunions. A list of the bands that reformed in 2007 reads like ‘A Brief Introduction to Twentieth Century Popular Music’, with everyone, great and the good or truly woeful, well represented. From mystical heavy metal progenitors Led Zeppelin, to The Police’s reggae-inflected New Wave, to that most angry of bands, Rage Against The Machine, it seems that every genre had ancient musical skeletons just aching to be brought out of the closet, dusted down and propped up on a stage. Even the Spice Girls are getting in on the act, miraculously finding time for music amidst pouting and promoting their latest perfumes.
You’d struggle to read the full list without running out of breath, and that’s only including the most famous groups. Start adding in indie legends such as My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus And Mary Chain and Dinosaur Jr. and you’re really starting to test your lung capacity. Now, I don’t want to start a purely theoretical argument about the motivations behind the reformations of these musical behemoths, but I think that it’s obvious that not all of these groups will have been prompted to reform by the same factors. While Led Zeppelin’s motives may have been applaudably altruistic, reuniting to perform in honour of their longtime friend and Atlantic Records boss Ahmet Ertegün, with all proceeds going to charity, surely nobody expects the Spice Girls to reach such artistic heights as Jimmy Page’s solo in Stairway To Heaven? The Sex Pistols, hardly novices at this reunion business, named their 1996 reunion The Filthy Lucre Tour; admirably honest, if a poke in the eye for any remaining die-hard punks lurking around London.
Nothing seems to be able to stand in the way of these bands’ determination to once more appear in all their glory on a stage near you. Or, seeing as we’re York students, it would probably be more accurate to say appear soon on a stage not-particularly-near you-at-all. But let’s leave that minor inconvenience aside for the moment, shall we. I mean, Led Zeppelin’s drummer has been dead for over a quarter of a century, which would seem to put a bit of a dampener on any possible reunion talk. But fear not! John Bonham thoughtfully passed on his rhythmically-gifted DNA, begetting, as he did, a son. The day is saved, and The Great Band Reunion grinds forward.
Well, if death isn’t an insurmountable obstacle, how about total personal incompatibility? Sting once got so angry at Police drummer Stuart Copeland that he scrawled a certain four letter word beginning with ‘C’ across Copeland’s drums in vivid red letters, yet they’re once again polyrhythmically gracing stages after a twenty-year absence. Drug addictions? A minor inconvenience - Smashing Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlain is clean and ready to rock after a reputedly monumental drug habit.
So, no hurdle is too great to overcome in the grand scheme of The Great Band Reunion. Maybe we could be seeing The Beatles live for the first time since 1969. And I’m not talking about replacing John and George, I mean the original Fab Four. We can always dream…
