The ten best rock'n'roll comebacks
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Independent Minds
In Pictures: The Ten Best Rock‘n’Roll Comebacks
Blur’s performance at the Glastonbury Festival is already being spoken of as one of the all time great comeback shows. In tribute, we’ve compiled a list of the ten best rock’n’roll comebacks.
This list is not just a selection of reunions. Many big bands have reformed over the years but very few could claim to have had a truly successful ‘comeback’. Criteria for inclusion are as follows:
a) The band or artist must have had noteworthy success in their earlier guise.
b) As a collective, their releases and live shows were either non existent, only attended by apologists/stalkers/family friends for at least five years or critically panned.
c) Their return must have been as commercially or artistically significant as before.
Click on the image to the right to launch our guide.
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Comments
I could take or leave The Eagles in their heyday, but only a hardened fan could describe their comeback as being anything other than mediocre.
The obvious one you've missed is Madness. The biggest selling act in the Eighties come back with what has generally been accepted as their BEST album.
Faith No More, guns n roses, Pink Floyd, My Bloody Valentine to name a couple of the top of my head. All bands that have been highly infuential and continue to be.
Is this signs of 'The Independent' letting their summer interns run their paper?
Saw him at Glastonbury at the weekend and it was an amazing, classic rock n roll comeback set, eg loads of kids who don't even know who the Stranglers were. Like the final (let's hope not) reel of a movie, you know, "the front row leapt to t their feet!" stuff.
All hail the rebirth of a legend (and get Hoover Dam off www.hughcornwell.com!), the English Lou Reed.
Some of these artists have never been unpopular and others were never that big. I think Take That is a good call. And The Eagles - both of these meet the "return from the brink of total obscurity" criterion that a real comeback requires. But Dylan has kept going and always been able to sell out, and Green Day (by the admission of the article) always had legions of fans buying albums and filling tours and so on and so on. Brian Wilson doesn't count because he isn't The Beach Boys. You may as well say Sting made a comeback from The Police, or George Michael from Wham.
Most of these choices seem silly and seemingly only picked because they are bands from more than 10 years ago that the writers have heard of. The truth is that very few bands make a successful "come back" - most have just kept going, sometimes in the critical spotlight and sometimes not.
In the meantime, Alex Lifeson & Geddy Lee - the guitarist and bassist/vocalist of the band respectively - decided that all that mattered was for them to support Neil during this crisis and if Rush never performed again, then so be it. They might have gone on to make music with other performers eventually, but they wouldn't have continued using the Rush name.
Then, in 2000, Neil decided that he was ready to start making music again and that lead to 2001's "Vapor Trails." The album was successful enough to warrant a full-scale tour, including the band's first ever trip to South America.
In 2004, they released "Feedback," an EP which features their cover versions of the songs that first inspired them to become musicians, which was part of their celebration of 30 years since Neil had originally joined the band. They also did another tour, "R30" which marked their first live performances in Europe in 12 years.
2006 saw them releasing their next album of original material, "Snakes & Arrows" which many have compared favourably to "Permanent Waves" and "Moving Pictures" from their early 80's heyday. The album debuted at #3 on the American charts, and the tour was successful enough that they ended up adding a 2nd full leg.
For a long time, it's been considered rather "uncool" to be a Rush fan, but following their comeback, even that is starting to change. Their music - and being fans of their music - played a significant role in "I Love You, Man," a film in which the band made a cameo appearance, and their music was also featured in "Adventureland." They were also featured on "The Colbert Show" - their first appearance on American TV in 30 years.
I think that should qualify as one of the best comebacks in rock, eh? :)
Also, Damon whatsisname has said there won't be any more Blur shows; this year's get-together was a one-off.
Lay off the Duff Beer and get serious!