Spotlight on… Reunions

7th Nov 2009

Erica Ver­non: For

BAND reunion: the hot word of recent years, espe­cially just before fes­ti­val lineup announce­ments. Over the years, such hap­pen­ings have turned from being an anom­aly into becom­ing just another part of the music industry.

Granted, some­times after a lack­lus­ter per­for­mance, the gen­eral con­sen­sus is that they shouldn’t have both­ered. Or they are crit­i­cised for doing it just for the mon­e­tary ben­e­fits. But gen­er­ally speak­ing, surely it can be a good thing?

When news breaks out of an antic­i­pated reunion, it fires up immense joy in fans regard­less of whether they are excited because they haven’t seen the band in years, or never seen them live before. To them, the chance to hear beloved songs, per­formed live, amongst a crowd of fel­low ded­i­cated fans is a sure promise for a great show.

Although many reunions are just a chance for wal­low­ing in nos­tal­gia, some have inspired the band to pro­duce new mate­r­ial. And depend­ing on which band, and who you lis­ten to, this can be a good thing. Despite the fear that badly received new mate­r­ial will stain the band’s legacy, suc­cesses have been achieved.

Also, numer­ous bands like Dinosaur Jr, Pix­ies, Gang of Four and the Vel­vet Under­ground have reunited because they have now accu­mu­lated a wider fan­base than when they were active. One could look at it as giv­ing a then under appre­ci­ated band a chance to gar­ner some much deserved, albeit late, respect.

Alex Spencer: Against

REUNIONS are a depress­ing reminder of a sim­ple fact — that the music indus­try only exists to cre­ate money. As some­one who can’t help but believe in pop music as a redemp­tive art form, this soul­less­ness cuts me deeply. Okay, per­haps I’m just bit­ter because I keep miss­ing out on Pix­ies reunion shows, and I have to admit that a large part of my teenage years was spent pray­ing for Carl ‘n’ Pete to get back together and reform the Libertines.

But if a band break­ing up is an admis­sion of cre­ative death, that there’s noth­ing left for them to do under this guise, then this res­cuci­ta­tion is just grave-robbing. Dig­ging up old bod­ies and mak­ing them dance for our enjoy­ment. It’s just down­right distasteful.

Even when I don’t have prob­lems with bands reform­ing on a moral level, it’s inevitably odd. The Pix­ies being back together makes sense: they were always a bit rough around the edges, run­ning off con­flict. Take Kraftwerk, how­ever — their robo-perfection replaced by the middle-age spread. Nev­er­the­less, I still respect them; unlike oth­ers I could mention.

The inevitable truth of it is that these bands just aren’t as good any­more– not (nec­es­sar­ily) because they’re old but because they’re so far removed from the ini­tial cre­ative drive. When’s the last time a band got back together and made some­thing new and satisfying?

Come­backs aren’t entirely evil, (though they can be), they’re just likely to offend the senses — whether aes­thetic or moral. Want to make new music? Fine. But save it for the solo project.