With The Stone Roses ending years of speculation about their reunion by announcing two live shows in Manchester next summer, we've had a look at some other band reunions...
After a decade of rumour-mongering and band members themselves crying wolf, John Squire, Ian Brown, Mani and Reni have finally buried the hatchet and announced they will play two gigs at Heaton Park, Manchester on June 29 and 30. They said it would never happen but, as the Happy Monday's Shaun Ryder pointed out earlier this year, the Roses reunion has been on the cards ever since Ian Brown announced he was getting divorced. They can be costly things, those splits.
Whether or not this reunion is motivated by money or not, towering amounts of cash are often the incentive for others. That and a chance to be relive their youth. Boys bands, girl bands, alt-rock bands, bands no one has ever heard of, hip hop crews, punk rock pioneers – they're all at it.
Steps have announced they're returning and recent years have seen (deep breath) The Eagles, Rage Against The Machine, Take That, The Jesus And Mary Chain and Naughty By Nature reunite. Even The Darkness are back, proving you don't even have to wait long to make your grand re-entrance.
Soon it will be quicker to list bands who haven't reformed than it will be to list those who have. And expect will-they-or-won't-they? rumours about The Smiths and The Jam to grow. For now, though, here are six of the best reformations...
Pavement
Probably the most indie rock of all reformations. It didn't look like Stephen Malkmus would ever return to the band that made him a demigod to kids with fringes and plaid shirts – but last year Pavement reformed. The reason cited for the band's reunion were the horseracing debts racked up by their percussionist Bob Nastanovich. The result, however, was magnificent; a hugely emotional slacker rock party. Fellow alt-rock bands to reunite in recent years are Dinosaur Jr, which was surprising given the animosity that existed between J Mascis and Lou Barlow; and My Bloody Valentine, who made fans suffer for having their wishes fulfilled by performing a 30-minute noise holocaust.
Suede
One of the first British bands – post acid house and grunge – to do something eloquent, glamorous, well-read and, yes, quintessentially British, Suede wrote pin-sharp pop songs deciphering small-town British life and the things going on behind the net-curtained facade. Brett Anderson made this seemingly drab reality exciting, inspiring even, and they meant an awful lot to certain people of a certain age. Since announcing their surprise comeback (without original guitarist Bernard Butler, of course), they've become bigger than ever.
Sex Pistols
It was to a mixed reaction that Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and the band's original bassist, Glen Matlock, put the Sex Pistols back together in the mid-90s. There was still a frisson of danger around the band, but everyone – even the most hardcore fan – had to ask themselves: is it really OK, an anti-everything punk band getting back together? They did it again at the end of the noughties. But with John Lydon's other (superior) outfit Public Image Limited back in business and sounding brilliant, it's unlikely we'll hear from the Pistols again for a while.
Kraftwerk
There's some confusion when bands return – did they even break up in the first place? Or were they just on an extended hiatus? Jarvis Cocker and Pulp, who returned for a series of triumphant shows this year, claim this was the case with them. And then there are bands such as Kraftwerk, the original robot popsters. Going years without doing anything, each comeback has always felt like a reunion (even if original members have been discarded). Just as it did in 1997 at Tribal Gathering in Luton, UK. Legions of teenagers went ballistic when they finally got to hear the sound that had inspired the techno and rave they were putting in their ears just then.
Blur
Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon fell out before the band recorded their last album, Think Tank. In fact, Coxon wasn't allowed into the studio after his bandmates made it clear they wanted him gone until he was fully recovered from his alcoholism. Coxon went solo. But this writer got to witness one of the bandmates' first reunions – in the audience at Albarn's opera, Monkey: Journey to the West. What followed was one of the teariest reformations in recent memory, the band members all admitting to being idiots for falling out.
Leonard Cohen
Not a reunion exactly, but Leonard Cohen's comeback neatly explains why so many bands and artists return: for the money. Having spent a good few years living in a buddhist monastery, Cohen eventually discovered that his former manager had made off with more than $5million of his life savings, leaving the Canadian bard almost penniless. It was a tragedy for Cohen, but it did mean he got back on the road to rebuild his pension fund, so it's not all bad. And what a way to return. Every tip of his fedora hat was greeted with cheers and tears and there'll be few finer performances in the old man slot at Glastonbury than his in 2008.
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