Can you imagine the 1970s dollars and pounds that must have been waved in the direction of the former members of The Beatles to reunite? In a memorable parody of those offers that the tightasses who own the rights to Saturday Night Live continually wipe clean from YouTube, producer Lorne Michaels, offered John, Paul, George, and Ringo a whopping $3,000 to come back together. Bless the boys for resisting the temptations they must have faced, although that “Free As a Bird” thing and news of Paul releasing his avant-garde recording, “I Could Have Slept With Yoko First,” have threatened to make that blessed holdout a distant memory.
Recently, the members of ABBA have made much of the fact that they shan’t be working together again for any amount of money or good cause. Good for them! Who really wants to see those once-hot Swedish guys prancing about in silk jumpsuits at 60?
Yesterday, there was a discussion in The Back Office about the wads of cash offered to Syd Barrett, long after he’d drifted off the radar, to produce a single recording of any quality or content. His family turned away all offers. Think about it, Syd fans: in the years before free downloads off the Internet, we’d probably have dropped $8.00 to hear the man fart.
Which band member or entire band do you most wish would drop the holdout routine and reunite already?
What rock band reunion holdouts most impress you for their integrity?
I went to see The Somewhat Reunited Undertones a couple of years ago. They were lacking singer Feargal Sharkey (and, for that night, drummer Billy Doherty). The show was a lot of fun, but Feargal couldn’t be replaced. In that awesome Undertones documentary from a few years ago, Feargal’s comments blow me away at parts. I wish I could find the clips, but the pride he displays – in himself, in his accomplishments both with the band and as a solo artist, in his life today – blew me away. As a fan of The Undertones and as a guy who’s played in his own little band for decades, I would have loved to have seen a fully reunited Undertones that night in Hoboken, but what Feargal has to say on the subject – and how he says it – gets to the heart of all that’s right with a commitment to holding out on the lure of the reunion show.
Ah, Mr. Mod, a fellow Undertones fan. I just had the Positive Touch album playing in my car this week in lieu of the morning radio. I also have that Undertones documentary on DVD. The impression that I got from it was that there was always a bit o’ distance from Feargal & the rest of the band from the very beginning. Didn’t he look like Bono w/those yellow lensed sunglasses? Also, that video for “A Good Heart” was a piece of wretched ’80s excess (Although I do like the song itself).
Here it is for your judgment Townspeople:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx9qUR9P2ZQ
And here’s a clip of Feargal from the documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGQhsz8cWks&feature=related
There’s been a lot of talk about the Kinks getting back together w/the 1964-69 lineup. Personally, I wouldn’t mind it, but I don’t think it will happen because of Dave.
Yes, Feargal definitely seemed more a mercenary than the other guys, but despite his ridiculous amount of pride – or maybe because of it – I thought he came off better than I would have expected in that documentary. At a certain point, I was able to write off his cluelessness about his solo career, etc as the result of him being, you know…A SINGER;-)