Band Reunions

Band Reunions

With the news coming out that The Specials, 2Tone founder and musical genius Jerry Dammers is claiming he has been 'excluded' from any involvement in the upcoming '3oth Anniversary' Specials reunion shows, I have to vent on band reunions in general...

The Specials are up there in my fav bands, legendary stuff. What makes them legendary is the fact it's era music, exclusive to England and the state of England in the late 70's and early 80s; the style, message, honesty, angst, vibe, the whole package that came with the amazing music & time period alongside; The Clash, The Jam, Costello, The Damned, Squeeze, Joe Jackson, Joy Division and the list goes on.

It's interesting that the whole original Specials line-up is on board for this 'reunion' besides Jerry Dammers, who wrote and started it all, but in addition to the missing Dammers, I have other problems with these 20 - 30 year type of reunions for other reasons. The main one being it's 2009, and The Specials = 1980. I don't see a Specials show (with or wihtout Dammers) working too well in 2009, I'm sure it will be a decent show, but to me it's just an unecessary attempt to re-capture 'back in the day' + a decent paycheck, under the umbrella of a '30th Anniversary'. Why not re-issue a big bunch Specials stuff on vinyl / deluxe CDs / DVDs of classic footage etc. so fans can have something fresh that yet still captures the time and essence of the band. It's a tad painful to see an amazing cornerstone of English music (The Specials) reducing themselves and in my view fuckin up their legacy a bit by doin this.

20/30+ year reunions should be reserved for the shit. They're cliche, and it's usually crap bands that are responsible eg. The Police, Led Zepplin, Queen! fuckin piss-take. Even Blur are pushing it by doing a show again, 9 years later.

The only recent reunion I've fully backed, and was even reluctant about at first is California's face to face's decision to start playing live again. It's only 4 years since they initially finished, the performances are still fresh and energetic and the whole thing is still relevant. That's probably the most important point here... is it relevant?

Ref: the main man himself, Mr Paul Weller on re-uniting the Jam:

“Nah that would never happen. Why would I want to go back? For nostalgic reasons? That’s never good enough. My philosophy is to embrace the new day and get on with it. If The Jam reformed now it’d just be a sad cabaret and that’s not what I’m about at all.”

Perfect.