“The day after Man City win the European Cup”- that was bass player Mani’s prediction for the day when an eager public could expect to see a reformation of one of the great Nineties groups yet to jump on the reunion band wagon. United-supporting Mani probably thought his quip, made back in 2006 following City’s modest 15th place finish in the Premier League and two years before Abu Dhabi investment transformed the club, was the sporting equivalent of declaring “when hell freezes over”. Well times, as we know, have changed; maybe he jumped before he was pushed.
The Stone Roses’ reunion, initially two concerts in Heaton Park, Manchester next June that will be followed by a world tour, grew to seem increasingly likely, not just as the fortunes of Manchester City improved, but also as a growing number of their peers succumbed to the temptation of one last swansong and, let’s face it, one last payday. Mancunian compatriots The Happy Mondays did it in 2004, as did James in 2007, when Tim Booth rejoined the band’s original line-up. Blur finally set aside their differences in 2008 only to be rewarded with a headline slot at the following year’s Glastonbury, as were Pulp, the band who struck lucky when they replaced the unavailable Stone Roses for the festival in 1995, who reformed in May and made a critically acclaimed cameo at Worthy Farm this June.
Going further back, the list of rock and roll second comings is pretty illustrious: Led Zeppelin, the Police, the Sex Pistols, the Velvet Underground. But given that all those reunions ended up being temporary and not a single studio album was recorded in the brief hiatus when all those hatchets were buried, are we foolish to get excited by the latest get-togethers, and what is the effect of this phenomenon on artists trying to make a name for themselves for the first time?
Simon Reynolds, author of Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past, is clearly concerned about the potentially stifling impact that the “bands reunited” trend may have on creativity: “There is something peculiar, even eerie, about pop’s vulnerability to its own history … When we listen back to the early 21st century, will we hear anything that defines the epoch?” he writes. It’s easy to see why, for many festival and concert organisers, booking acts made famous in days gone by is a safer option. The secret to the success of reunions like those of Blur and Pulp is that they chose to play a limited number of high profile concerts, thus maximising their appeal to their pre-existing and newly acquired fan bases. The limited edition approach to the comeback if you like. And for many fans that is the appeal: tick a box you didn’t think you’d be able to, say you’ve seen Jimmy Page play live, never mind that he’s in his sixties, not this thirties. This, though, clearly leaves the returning artists with a limited shelf-life – once the novelty of their reappearance has worn off, so will their ability to fill stadiums. Indeed, in the modern era it is only Take That who have managed to maintain their popularity in both their pre and post break-up eras, and that largely is due to the fact that they aren’t still churning out the same old tunes they were 15 years ago.
Whether the Stone Roses reunion endures long enough for them to make a long overdue appearance at Michael Eavis’s festival in 2013 (there is no Glastonbury next year) remains to be seen. But if it does it’ll be hard to shake the feeling that the crowd is participating in the mass re-enactment of a musical era long since passed. Although there will always be those über-nostalgics on hand to tell you it’s not as good second time around. Now, what odds on Oasis headlining Glastonbury 2020?
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