I'm generally against bands getting back together without key members. For instance The Doors are currently touring with two of their founder members and Ian Astbury of 'The Cult' replacing Jim Morrison on vocals. In a magazine interview Ian said he was helping Ray (keyboards) & Robbie (guitar) to play their songs live one last time. That's fair enough but what they're doing is nostalgia. There's no substance to it - they're playing the Doors songs stripped of their meaning and context.
The other day, my friend Matt and I were listening to his Talking Heads box set. There were a couple of tracks that the band recorded towards the end of their career - 'Sax & Violins' & 'Lifetime Piling Up' that didn't make it onto albums and they were fucking great. I made Matt play 'Lifetime piling up' three times in a row because I thought it so brilliant.
I said it was a shame that the band had split up when they were still recording near the peak of their powers and that they were unlikely to get back together.
I remember David Byrne (Former lead singer of Talking Heads) saying that being asked when you're going to get back with your old band is a bit like being asked when you're going to get back with you're first girlfriend.
Matt reminded me that Talking Heads had reformed as The Heads, minus David Byrne, and made a terrible album with guest vocalists. Byrne was such a focal point in that group that it seems madness that the other three members would try to carry on without him.
I'm only really into bands reforming if all the key members are able and willing to get back together and they still have something to say.
Sad man that I am, I was really pleased when Donald Fagen & Walter Becker reformed Steely Dan because they've put out two great albums that stand alongside the seven albums they'd released a couple of decades earlier.
