I'm totally a sucker for "Bands Reunited" on VH-1. It puts a human face on some really marginal bands that I normally couldn't care less about (Scandal? The Alarm? Kajagoogoo?) and often provides a fun little dose of feel-goodness.
This round, though, features an episode titled "Backstage Pass" which details some of their less than successful attempts. Two prove how completely out-of-touch the producers of this show must be.
At some point they decided it would be fun to try to reunite Generation X. Hmm. Let's see. Billy Idol - intolerable mess with zero career. Tony Scott - intolerable mess who seems to think he has a career with global laughingstock Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Can't imagine why that didn't work out.
My favorite, though, has to be the decision to try to reunite The Smiths. Shall we examine the participants?
* Messianic lead singer who is enjoying his grandiose career resurgence.
* Insolent, brooding guitarist who continues to try to have a post-Morrissey career.
* Bassist who was bitterly kicked out of the band for a vicious heroin habit.
* Drummer who recently said in a Mojo interview - "The idea of standing within 20 feet of Morrissey and enjoying it? It's just not going to happen."
Oh, wait, did I forget to mention that the drummer engaged in a very public and nasty court battle with the band's leaders over royalties?
Yeah, good thinkin'. Good thinkin'.
Posted by mikewolf at November 13, 2004 11:28 AMI think the problem with "Bands Reunited" is that it tries to combine two types of shows, the "where are they now?" show (which I like) and the in-your-face reality show (which I don't). I'm willing to spend 30 minutes finding out what's happening with the members of ABC, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, etc. I'm not so interested in seeing the members get ambushed and asked to reunite -- it almost never works (and it probably only works if the members are totally desperate, which isn't a great formula for success). If VH1 really likes and respects the bands they cover, it seems to me that they would also respect the members enough to avoid jumping out of the bushes and screaming "do you want to reunite?"
Posted by: Joel S. on November 16, 2004 08:52 AMTotally agreed. Totally. In fact, I normally use the ol' TiVo to skip those ambush bits. Seems way to absurdly intrusive.
Posted by: mrw on November 16, 2004 08:53 AM