It must be the weather. Or the time of year. Or something to do with age. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s revelation about Led Zeppelin’s on-and-off-reunion tour being, well, maybe on: today it’s the turn of Roger Waters.
In what reads like a rather grouchy statement, Waters declares that David Gilmour, Pink Floyd’s guitarist from 1968, is ‘not interested’ in touring. With the thirtieth anniversary of The Wall coming up, Gilmour it seems has no desire to team up with Waters again, with whom hostilities have been maintained since the arguments over the album following The Wall’s release in 1982.
There was a brief cessation of hostilities in 2005 with the Live 8 concert, although Gilmour’s attempt to walk off-stage after the performance failed when Waters cajoled him into sharing a hug on-stage.
Still, one can but hope that other bands will also decide not to attempt to rekindle their former days of glory. There was nothing so depressing as watching super-group Cream at the Royal Albert Hall several years ago, and reflecting how much they had lost their youthful edge and committed drive. (They are still great, though).
So, the question (as with yesterday’s post) remains: should they or shouldn’t they ?
Surely there is so much inherent risk with reunions?
A lot of the time, all it does is lift the rose-tinted spectacles that people view classic idols through.
Sure, intentions can be all well and good, and artists can go out there thinking they’ll break the mould all over again, wow the audiences at every show with their prowess and their magical skills..
But then, you realise you’ve gotten older, slower, cloth-eared, your hip is acting up, it’s too loud…..
Sometimes bands split for a reason, they’ve reached the peak of their success, they feel they’d like to try something new. Bands will have myriad reasons, but sometimes thats just the way it goes.
There are plenty of bands who will get back together and rock the house, for a less than altruistic or artistic reason, a great example of course being John Lydon reforming the Sex Pistols, solely for the money (filthy lucre tour indeed..)
Fans might really love it though, but their demand, hunger, maybe even greed to see what they want, to hear what they want, can sometimes be their undoing.
After all, asking for one more album, just one more, ONE MORE, and the braying hoardes get so worked up, so expectant, that if it doesn’t end up how they wanted, then they’ve effectively dumped on their own doorstep and ruined for themselves what was once a more beloved group.
Trying to squeeze every last mote of music that someone has in them, of course the bottom of the barrel will be the dregs.
Same on the most part with performance, touring, and reformations.
Most bands, unlike a fine wine, will reach a point, and then degrade with age, not improve.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but it’s worth letting musical titans lie, if they had something new they were sure was going to light a fire in everybodys brain then we’d surely have heard it by now.
Not in favour, then…?! I agree: let sleeping dinosaurs lie.