In It For The Money: The BritPop Reunion Craze
When the popularity of Britpop started to wane in the late 90s and bands began to go their separate ways, many members turned to solo careers or new bands to tide themselves over. Others thought outside the musical box to make a living – we all know that Blur’s Alex James turned to cheese farming, but did you know, for example, that Shed Seven drummer Alan Leach pioneered the concept of ‘SpeedQuizzing’ (see the video here and more information at www.speedquizzing.com) with a mobile app? But ultimately, whether it be for the love of music or the prospect of a significant payday, the late 00s saw many of Britpop’s most notable absentees return to the fold.
York’s Shed Seven could be considered trailblazers of the current spate of Britpop reunions – reforming in the summer of 2007, even the band themselves were surprised at the demand for their reunion shows, selling out three nights at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire as well as many other venues across the UK. They’ve continued to tour since then, including slots at major festivals such as T In The Park and V Festival. However, London three-piece Dodgy might have beaten them to the punch, were it not for the fact that guitarist Andy Miller chipped a bone in his arm after falling out of bed, forcing them to postpone their own reunion tour until March 2008.
It didn’t take long for some of Britpop’s biggest names to kiss and make up – most famously, Blur reconciled their differences in 2008 and went on to play a pair of huge shows in London’s Hyde Park in 2009, as well as revisiting their past with a series of more intimate gigs. Festival headline slots at Glastonbury, Oxegen and T In The Park also followed. Despite Damon Albarn’s instance that there wouldn’t be any more live dates after that, the band returned to action in 2012 for a small run of shows, culminating with another performance at Hyde Park to commemorate the end of the London 2012 Olympics. Despite having also released new material in 2012, the band’s future once again seemed in the balance – but it didn’t take long for a series of European festival slots for 2013 to appear, with dates in the USA, Mexico and Japan also being announced.
Pulp also reformed for a series of festival shows in 2011, including Reading & Leeds, Sziget in Hungary, Sweden’s Way Out West, and a surprise appearance at Glastonbury. The run of shows continued into 2012, with appearances at Coachella and a one-off hometown show in Sheffield among their live performances. The band have also recently released a new song ‘After You’, which was produced by ex-LCD Soundsystem guru James Murphy. Even the forerunners of Britpop have been getting in on the action, with The Stone Roses finally ending their 15-year absence in 2011 in what could be considered somewhat of a holy grail of reunions.
Other Britpop reunions have never quite come to fruition. Echobelly mainstays Sonya Madan and Glenn Johannson played an acoustic show together in Manchester in 2009, sparking rumours of new material from the band – ultimately, however, the pair would go on to release music under the name Calm Of Zero. Sleeper, meanwhile, have released a greatest hits compilation and reissues of their first two studio albums, but despite this no reunion has been mooted.
There is, however, one reunion that doesn’t look like it’ll be happening any time soon. After their unceremonious split at Rock En Seine festival in 2009, the Gallagher brothers have seemed quite happy to forge their own paths – Liam as frontman of Beady Eye, and Noel with his solo project Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Anyone pining for Oasis to reform will have to wait a fair while longer, it seems.
Category: Entertainment, Featured
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