Better the Devil you Know?

Better the Devil You Know?

In recent years there has been a surge of bands, both rock and pop, reuniting to have one last stab at the big time. Some reunite because there has been as genuine demand and some just purely jumping on the bandwagon in order to make a quick buck. I have come to wonder, does it ever really do turn out to be a good decision?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 As if it wasn’t painful enough the first time around, the crème de la crème of 90’s pop groups seem to have taken it upon themselves recently to give us another taste of their manufactured talents including; Steps, Blue, East 17 and most recently, S Club 7, the list goes on. However, the more you look at it, the more the “Due to high demand (enter predictable pop group) are reuniting to give their fans one last hooray!”  story that record company’s put out seems to be completely unfounded, in more ways than one.

1)      As most university students would realise, these sudden “reunions” are not quite what they seem. Many of these bands have been, with maybe a member or two short, doing the circuit of student unions for a good while now…it’s just that nobody has cared to notice. Until that is when the record labels want to officially announce it worldwide for publicity, and just like that, it becomes news worthy again.

2)      There isn’t a demand. With a few exceptions, most of the bands reforming recently fan bases have, hate to say it, grown up. It was fun at the time however with the target audience of groups like Steps and S Club 7 at their prime being barely teenagers, it is highly unlikely that the fans of the first time round, who will now be hitting university leaving age, feel the need to go back that far in their childhood, with the exception of a drunken night out maybe.

Take That of course are the shining exception that all of these “wanna be” reformations aspire to, having enjoyed unprecedented success since their return to the limelight, even exceeding that of the first time they were on our screens. However one of the minor details that many reuniting groups seem to forget when deciding to follow Gary and co.’s lead and enjoy chart success once more is that, unfortunately, they never really compared to Take That in the first place.                                                                                                                                                                           Rock bands seem to enjoy substantially more success when hitting the road once more, having a generally more dedicated fan base and therefore a lot higher demand. The Stone Roses recently reformed to thousands of fans delight, instantly selling out shows and going on to have headlining spots in festivals around the world. After Oasis recently called it a day it was merely a matter of days until rumours of them reuniting began circulating, even the band members were adding flames to the fire in interviews themselves when questioned on  a possible reconciliation in the future. It’s nearly undeniable that when this day comes it will wreak success for the unpredictable band. Many of course choose to stay separated in order to maintain and not risk their legacy, Johnny Marr of course recently remarking that he would only reform “the day the government decides to step down”.                                                                                                                                      Whichever the group in question, there is always a substantial risk when resurrecting something that had once been buried. Deciding to give it one more can, for the band individually along with their fans, put the past in jeopardy, not just the future.