In the last 10 years, we’ve seen a huge number of bands that were once successful in the past, reform to record an album and go on tour.
Whilst some of them are probably doing it for the sheer love of making music, it’s pretty fair to say a lot of them are doing it for the money.
Hey, I don’t blame them – if someone offered me a truckload of cash to play some crappy songs I originally wrote 30 years ago, I’d be dusting off my guitars before you could say “bandwagon”.
But here’s the thing, some of these bands are reforming with such a motley crue of members that it feels more like a Frankenstein version of the band rather than anything to do with the original line up.
OK, so when a member has died, it makes it a bit hard to get all the guys together [ie: Queen] … and the same applies to when one of the band has decided he wants to retire from the limelight and madness [ie: John Deacon of errrrm, Queen] but it amazes me just how many of these groups are getting huge bucks when it consists almost entirely of musicians who have little or nothing to do with the original line up.
Thin Lizzy, for example, seemingly is made up of more members who had nothing to do with the band in their heyday than genuine ‘names’.
Of course this is nothing new – there’s been lots of bands who have chopped and changed members without so much as a blink of the eye – but when you’re riding the nostalgia gravy train, I find it amazing that some bands can get away with it when the ‘iconic members’ are no where to be seen.
Imagine Led Zep without Plant or Page?
The Who without Daltry or Townsend?
Oasis without the Gallagher’s?
Even the fucking Smiths without Morrissey or Marr?
You can’t can you … well not in any way where you’d think they’d be as good.
The reason I say this is because I’ve just heard that the Faces are reuniting for a gig but instead of Rod Stewart, they’re getting MICK FUCKING HUCKNALL!!!
Yes, the ginger Manc of ‘Simply Red’ fame.
[No, it’s not Kim Jong Ill or even a fat William Hauge, it’s Mick Hucknall]
I know they’ve both sold a shitload of records and shagged ladies that are well out of their league but even with Rod’s recent foray into American Songbook blandom, he is still miles above the bloke who gave the World ‘Holding Back The Years’ and ‘Stars’.
I know there’ll be a good proportion of you who won’t even know who the Faces are, but trust me, Hucknall replacing Stewart is the equivalent of John Goodman replacing Tom Cruise in Top Gun.
The fact the concerts will no doubt sell out offends me to the core, not to mention puts my faith in humanity in serious jeopardy.
Now I am sure some of you are thinking this is a situation that is similar to brands like Virgin or Apple etc.
Let’s face it, those brands are so synonymous with their founders, that the thought of them existing without them around is hard to comprehend.
Except I don’t think it is.
You see whilst those guys have a huge influence in how their brand operates and develops, their thought process, focus and company growth means there are many other voices and factors that get taken into account when decisions are made whereas in the main, a band survives and thrives on the dynamics of the members within that group [+ their manager] and so when one is removed, it’s much harder to ‘capture the magic’ that made them work in comparison to companies who have had time to nurture and train people to take over when the time is right.
Of course people like Branson and Jobs are going to be as difficult/impossible to replace as someone like Mercury or Lennon, however I would argue that due to their companies size, diversity and development, their loss would have less impact on the brands day-to-day operation than when a pivotal member of a band leaves or is replaced.
Please note I’m not saying losing a Branson or a Jobs won’t have an impact on their respective companies – you just have to see what happened to Apple went when they got rid of Jobs the first time around – however compared to a band, I believe it would be less disastrous because they have a wider net of people and systems in place to minimise damage whereas with a band, with the exception of say their manager, what you see tends to be all you have to play with.