Come Back, Baby Come Back!

So, The Icicle Works have announced a 30^th anniversary concert! What a crock of shit!

Has anyone else failed to notice that for a large chunk of the thirty years, The Icicle Works have NOT been together? Maybe they should have called it the 30^th Anniversary (with a bit if a gap in the middle because we split up as we hated each other quite a lot Tour)

Once again, as most of my readers will know, I hate all this money spinning bullshit about bands re-forming!

A few weeks back I was watching Sky Arts and they had a programme on about Duran Duran. They too were also celebrating their thirty-something years ‘together’.

But, during the inevitable boring arse-kissing interview afterwards they never once mentioned the stories about their fights and inevitable break up! And, as the whole subject of this Blog is about – the large gap they had in the wilderness not writing, playing or touring together was the main topic of the interview! All very nice and all very savvy (to guarantee people go to the gigs and buy the album no doubt?)

All they talked about was “getting back on the road” and taking their “great new songs” to their fans (that will never ever come close to the quality of their mid-eighties hits by the way). What they did talk about was the “good times” they had with their model girlfriends and other celebrity “friends”. How very fake!

So, why is it these bands call these comebacks anniversaries? It’s probably a bit along the lines of the culture we have in this country to simply re-name a thing that has become tedious and unsavoury.

The one band I used to have a lot of respect for was The Sex Pistols until they did their ‘reunion’ a few years back. Asked why they were doing it, John Lydon snarled “well we’re not doing it because we like each other, we don’t, and we actually hate each other! We’re only doing it for one thing - the money!” In a rather bizarre way I kind of I admired Lydon for saying that. He was hardly like Simon Le Bon Bon and his nice, sweet answers about his bezzy mates he shares a band with! Then again, the less said about Lydon and his Country Life Butter commercials ………

Recently, some of you may well know that I’ve re-joined the band with Stu, Mart and Ben. We have also recruited the services of a good mate of mine called Dr Mark Slade (who also does Gynaecology part-time)

Now, during our lengthy career together many years ago, we played well over one hundred gigs and released a good few half decent demos. You could say we had a pretty good acceptable slice of success for a band that was never signed to a record label. So, when we decided to get back together (albeit to sing cover versions as the slightly balding hairlines, grey hair and beer guts aren’t really appealing to many record labels these days) we didn’t call it a reunion or an anniversary! We just did it! Simple as that

So, why can’t these bands like Duran Duran and Icicle Works simply just announce that they’re getting back together instead of calling it a bleeding anniversary or a reunion? While their also at it maybe they could take a leaf out of John Lydon’s book and admit their real reasons for getting back together and tell us its simply for the money as to be brutally honest here: anniversaries are celebrations of certain events like weddings or birthdays.

I don’t think they should apply to bands getting back together

And finally the less said about a certain Dad Band from Manchester who has recently re-employed the services of a fat dancer the better!

Ch-ching!

Mol