worst reunions

I vote ELP. Their reunion records were so indescribably bad that you can't even get anybody to admit these days that they were ever anything less than awful. _The Weirdness_ was not a good record, but it didn't make people actually go and throw out their copies of _Fun House_.

1973 Byrds reunion album (w/original members) was kinda lame. Was that the first major rock band reunion?

Also Jefferson Airplane album from 1989. But I should have caught their live show that year.

Smashing Pumpkins without a fucking doubt. For the first four or five years, everything he did and said on stage and off seemed like willful self-destruction.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Ah you lot..

The Pixies one isn't perfect, but.

Write-in for the lifeless Police reunion of 2007. Early songs were slowed down to a geriatric pace that was more dub than reggae. Sting's kid's band opened. $300 million in revenues

I'd heard it was kinda hit or miss and thankfully the show I saw in Milwaukee was pretty decent. I mean the Police always seemed to be a studio band at heart but if the tempos were regularly slower than the records (certainly, for some songs they were) I didn't notice. Stew definitely sounded good, the other two were alright. The only real irritating things were 1) any and all of Sting's stage banter and 2) the song that was slowed down into a Sarah McLaughlin commercial (I think it was "Invisible Sun"??) Also we got Elvis Costello opening which made for an excellent double-bill...never thought I'd see the day

Suede got off lightly then..

The Pixies reunion should have been split into 2 options - with and without Deal. The first go-round, tons of people were excited about them and they played some good shows. After Deal split, there's no way I could even imagine they'd be worth seeing, though I'd almost wager they sound pretty much the same.

page and plant

I wouldn't call it bad (actually, it was pretty awesome), but last year's Terrorizer tour was one of the most confusing events in metal history.

apparently David, Katina and Anthony are indeed out of the band and Sam Molina/Lee Harrison are the new permanent members of Terrorizer. They're coming back here on tour. I just wonder what the fuck it is they're going to play. I don't demand lineup authenticity to enjoy my metal so I mean another "World Downfall" front to back would be fine, but I don't want to go to a show where the 45 minute drive to get there is longer than the set itself.

yet there seems to be no news of a new album, and I can't imagine he'd have hired these two guns to play the material from the prior two albums.

I saw one of the Roth van halen shows and it was probably the worst concert I've ever seen.

Last years Sabbath reunion resulted in a mediocre to fair album but the shoddy treatment of Bill Ward makes it a strong contender here.

― Prince Kajuku (Bill Magill), Friday, July 18, 2014 11:36 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I stand by this. The Roth van halen show was so bad i couldnt believe it was a real band.

what are the biggest sham reunions that have happened? I don't mean "XXX plays the hits of YYY" type reunions, I mean reunions that went under the band's original name with 65-80% of the original members missing, or with the band's most identifiable member not joining (and not for a reason of "being dead")...

The surviving members of Boney M all have their own touring versions of the group, guess you could say that's several examples.

Kraftwek. Although, like Boney M, they put on a hell of a show.

the faces reformed and toured with mick hucknall singing instead of rod stewart.

There was that Cars tour with Rundgren in place of Ocasek. That was pretty lame. (Not much better with Ocasek back in the fold a few years later, tbh)

"The Doors of the 21st Century"

I thought the New Cars thing was pretty cool! Kasim Sulton and Prairie Prince involved as well (along with Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes, so more members of Rundgren's regular band than original Cars). Kind of halfway between a reunion + a tribute act. Maybe more of these groups that are reforming with key original members absent should amalgamate with other bands in the same situation, so that everyone on stage is sufficiently famous?

any number of motown four tops/temptations reunions, prob xp

I'm gonna need some explanation for those five Chameleons votes. "Why Call It Anything" was great.

Have Spandau Ballet been mentioned at all in the thread yet?

Oh were they not crap the first time?

Well yeah, which is why they didn't need to come back a second time.

Good point.

do people still hate the pixies for that reunion? those shows in 2004 or so were pretty good.

does branwell still think slowdive should not have reformed given that the album the wound up putting out is exceptional as have all their live shows?

"Kraftwek. Although, like Boney M, they put on a hell of a show.

― everything,"

if they put on a great show (and they do) I don't know why they'd be up for consideration. also I don't know that I'd ever consider kraftwerk as split up and reformed. they just evolve slowly over huge periods of time.

"what are the biggest sham reunions that have happened? I don't mean "XXX plays the hits of YYY" type reunions, I mean reunions that went under the band's original name with 65-80% of the original members missing, or with the band's most identifiable member not joining (and not for a reason of "being dead")..."

the current iteration of Yes with Steve Howe is pretty much like this, now that Squire is dead. The only other very long time members you have are Geoff Downes, who was only on one proper Yes album at the time, and Alan White, who actually may or may not be involved alf the time because he can't drum anymore and they get a second drummer to follow him. If Howe had any sense he'd join the other Yes with Anderson, Wakeman and Rabin and do a final thing before hanging it up.

Is White’s lack of chops why they take the songs at such a deadly slow tempo, or is it just a function of all these old guys needing the extra room?

A sham reunion that never happened -- few bought tickets, so it was cancelled:

http://www.thewho.net/australia/images/cominglge.jpg

Ironically, it was Pete Townshend who suggested Daltrey and Entwistle tour Australia without him and call it "The Who."

And the current lineup of Dr. Feelgood has no original members, despite the fact that three of the original four are still alive.

I think that's been the case for about 20-25 years? *consults Wikipedia* yes, since Lee Brilleaux died in 1994.

Yeah, but it's a "showband" innit?

Yeah, dunno if they even count as a "reunion," sham or otherwise, since I think they just kept slotting new people in whenever someone left.

It's sort of like The Lurkers (a band without a thread, btw)

The original four split up. They reformed with a new vocalist, and the bass player that replaced the original one for a few singles.

Gradually, they all left apart from that 'replacement' bass player, and that's been the band for the past 20 years. This band are not really representative of the original band, but the continuum is there, sort of.

Anyway, the three original original Lurkers have reformed and they're The Lurkers GLM (as in Gods Lonely Men, their second album).

Still, Howard Wall is having none of it.

Yeah I think they can be grouped with Napalm Death xp

Pop Will Eat Itself's current line-up is just one original member

Mentioned in the AC/DC thread, but with Malcolm now dead, Cliff retired, Brian going deaf, and Phil in legal limbo, the current line-up is just Angus and whomever.

But is there an actual line-up? Obviously it's too soon to answer, but.

Well, maybe Axl? Whoever it is will comprise an essentially entirely new band.

ACDCINXS

I fully expect that post to pop up in the "First Mentions" thread in five years.

J Geils Band touring without J Geils was always hilarious

Pop Will Eat Itself's current line-up is just one original member

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, November 21, 2017 3:14 AM (three hours ago)

Even weirder is that it's one member, the singer from Gaye Bykers On Acid, and three younger dudes from nu-metal bands. Also amusingly, the reunion originally included all five classic-era members, but one by one the rest left because they couldn't work with Gra... who'd been the first to quit in 1995. (Back then they carried on for a year, until splitting over ego that the lead singer had writers' block and the late-joining drummer was bringing most of the songs.)

Mentioned in the AC/DC thread, but with Malcolm now dead, Cliff retired, Brian going deaf, and Phil in legal limbo, the current line-up is just Angus and whomever.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, November 21, 2017 3:16 AM (three hours ago)

For all that it will feel sad and weird if Angus carries on (though if he'd rather tour than mourn, good on him), the "whomever" is currently a guitarist who was in the band in 1988 and grew up with, went to school with (shout-out to Ashfield Boys High), & learnt guitar with the Malcolm & Angus, and a drummer who was in the band from 1989 to 1994. Plus Axl, who's a better singer than Brian Johnson.

the

For sure. And Tommy Stinson played bass in GNR longer than Duff, Richard Fortus longer than Slash and Dizzy longer than anyone but Axl.

Ha, well. My point was that Angus has striven to only use prior AC/DC members in the recent replacement calamities, not just getting in some randos and one actual Replacement.

(pre-Cliff bassist Mark Evans still plays live on the reg, but there's deep beef there.)

Pwei; ditto The Wonder Stuff! Matey and the only other person who can stand to be in the same room as him; his wife. Plus 3 other ransoms.

Wonder Stuff more egregious: when reformed PWEI got down to a duo, they changed the name as it had become something else; after it went down to one, he asked the others if they'd mind him forming a new PWEI and they all gave their blessing on the principle of "well we're not going to use the name, go ahead mate."

Whereas the members of the reformed Wonder Stuff who were managing the band and running the website found out that noted rhyming slang Miles Hunt had decided they weren't in the group anymore, when fans emailed to ask why the advertised tour dates weren't on the website. (Hunt's "main" band The Miles Hunt Club weren't selling tickets or CDs, so he just decided to rebadge them as the Wonder Stuff before sending the second album to print.)

The PWEI drummer, who's always had a gigging career, did a stint in the Stuff for a year or two recently, and the bassist stands in with EMF on their occasional reunion gigs, so I believe there have been nostalgia all-dayers with three Poppies playing, but only one in "PWEI."

Current Eagles is pretty weird: Don Henley, Joe Walsh & Timothy B. Schmit, with Vince Gill and Deacon Frey. So you've got founder Don, longtime replacements Joe and Timothy, ringer Vince Gill and dead founder's son Deacon.

Pwei; ditto The Wonder Stuff! Matey and the only other person who can stand to be in the same room as him; his wife. Plus 3 other ransoms.

Quite like the idea of them being ransoms, not randoms.

"Please let us go."

"YOUR FAMILY HASN'T PAID YET. Now, again with "Welcome to the Cheap Seats.""

"Argh, noooo...."