One of the things that spurred me to start thinking about the book that became Retromania was coming across a bunch of ads for concerts and tours in the back of Uncut and being struck by the jumble they made of rock history - each page a checkerboard of adverts for reformed bands, legacy acts still staggering on, cults who wouldn't quit, tribute groups.... there were also strange line-ups that united unlikely bedfellows from across rock's history. All this being a byproduct of rock's longevity, the fact that the culling isn't coming (at least not quick enough), the elderly seeing no reason (or simply can't afford) to shuffle off stage in to a life of dignified reclusion, but persist in treading the boards beyond retirement age.
I blogged about it under the headline "A Past Gone Mad" (the first in a short series of 2006 posts)
Since then the past has only gotten madder
Here are some tour adverts I saw on a recent trip to the motherland, taken variously from Viz magazine (snapped in the WH Smith at the airport) and from the colour culture supplement to one of the Sunday papers (the Times I think).
Now is that some grotesque version of The Sweet that doesn't include any original members - like a man who's had so many organs transplanted there's barely anything left of him?
Battle of the Pink Floyds - the fake one versus the real remnant
All yesterday's party-hard rockers
I imagine a battle royale over who got top billing
11 comments:
The Sweet - House band on the Cruise Ship of Theseus
The Sugababes were in a similar position, to the point that the original members were able to reform as a separate rival group. But they had to work as Mutya Keisha Siobhan until they won back the Sugababes name in 2019.
"Roger Waters, who created the golden years of Pink Floyd"... Well obviously there is some debate about that. Nick Mason has for a while now been touring with a band playing material from what many people would consider the real golden years: 1967-71. With Gary Kemp, of all people, playing guitar. Apparently they are pretty good. But the anachronic shock is all a bit much for me.
Foreigner and the Little River Band both tour under their respective names, despite having no original members left (from memory, LRB were the first pioneers of this about 15 years ago).
Obviously a dead culture, Kings of Leon's "Sex on Fire" (2008) may well be the last ever new guitar rock song to attain any sort of material cultural significance (talk about ending with a whimper...)
It's like civilisation was punctured and all that existentialist quest for authenticity just gushed out.
As a man in middle middle age, I don't hate this stuff. I have no desire to go to it but I understand why people would enjoy it.
Some suggestions:
- We should tear down and rebuild Pink Floyd every 20 years as a community activity: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-japanese-shrine-has-been-torn-down-and-rebuilt-every-20-years-for-the-past-millennium-575558/
- "This month's outing for our home residents will include a roast chicken dinner, bingo, and a Motley Crue tribute band performing Dr. Feelgood in its entirety. Next month will be pasta, lawn bowls, and EMF's Schubert Dip"
- David Runciman proposes that 6 year olds get the vote: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/16/reconstruction-after-covid-votes-for-children-age-six-david-runciman - how might this work for pop?
I sympathize with the bands - what are they supposed to do with the rest of their lives?
Less sympathetic re. promoters and audiences - although it's very low on the level of crimes really. And I can sort of semi see the appeal - having gone to a couple of nostalgia things (the Go Gos + Psych Furs + Bow Wow Wow at the Hollywood Bowl, the Cruel World alt-fest this summer).
The tribute band thing I just do not understand - you'd have to be desperate to settle for ropey ersatz. Being in a tribute band must surely be a degrading way to eke out a living.
Talking of Bow Wow Wow, that was a prosthetic incarnation with only the singer and (I think) the bassist still in it, the drummer replaced and not well duplicated, and the guitarist necessarily substituted given that he's RIP.
Gong's current incarnation is entirely non-original members - Daevid Allen apparently keen for the group to carry on after his demise and the other surviving members are cool with it. Steve Hillage even played a double bill with this version of Gong - or came on and guested for some songs - can't remember.
The comedian Leanne Morgan has a very funny bit about going to see Def Leppard “with old people”, where she points out there can be not much difference between the superannuated “real” band with new members and a tribute act. https://youtu.be/lqkXTG8GIgY
I think we now need to start thinking more in terms of franchises rather than bands, tbh.
Phil - I think that's true. It's just part of the broader brandification of art and entertainment. You want a durable brand that you can extend into multiple media, merchandising and experience opportunities - guarded with trademarks and copyright. Replace the members with lookalikes, holograms, deepfakes as time goes on.
Simon - Well, some people are desperate. A good tribute band will at least put on a competent show and give you a moment of collective joy with your fellow fans. As for the performers, in a sense it is no different to acting - "Darling, you should have seen my Rick Witter in Shrewsbury. No lesser authority than the Shropshire Star stated 'he really takes you back to the Kentish Town Forum urinals in 1996'".
Anon - Leanne Morgan nails it.
My own experiences of this have actually been pretty good.
- When I saw Kraftwerk in 2013, I was faced with a group of aging, overweight German men in lycra bodysuits. And yet the detail that when into the 3D animation, the staging, even the sleeve that the 3D specs came in was delightful. A bit of Gesamtkunstwerk.
- Likewise seeing Underworld in 2019 was huge fun because Karl Hyde knows how to hype a crowd.
>As for the performers, in a sense it is no different to acting - "Darling, you should have >seen my Rick Witter in Shrewsbury. No lesser authority than the Shropshire Star stated 'he >really takes you back to the Kentish Town Forum urinals in 1996'".
Hahaha!
Kraftwerk's Mobile Museum of the Future is a superior version of this, it's true. I also saw the 3D-spex thing - only complaint was that the sound (in the Disney Hall in LA) could have been much louder. Funny thing, though, the two previous times I saw Kraftwerk were also essentially Greatest Hits / Nostalgia Revue experiences. I saw them in Brixton Academy for The Mix tour and then again in '98 when they toured the USA for the first time in decades. I think there were a couple of new-ish tunes in the New York set but more or less they played the same classics they did at the start of the '90s.
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