Which classic bands still haven't reunited... and why?

31 August 2024, 19:00

Liam and Noel Gallagher have buried the hatchet... and we never thought we'd see the day. But which groups still haven't done the decent thing and got back together?

By Radio X

@RadioX

"If Oasis hadn’t had reached their potential, and there was something left to do, it would be different," Noel Gallagher told Radio X's Dan O'Connell in 2023, "but I just don’t see what the point would be."

Famous last words. Noel was talking about the possibility of reuniting with his brother Liam and getting Oasis back together. Well, t's happened.

Some bands are the last you'd expect to call a truce and get back on the road. Eagles called their reunion live special Hell Freezes Over for a reason.

So which great groups have yet to offer the olive branch and start booking the stadium tour?

1. The Smiths

   • When did The Smiths split? September 1987

   The sad death of bassist Andy Rourke in May 2023 closed the door on a genuine Smiths reunion. While there's still a very vague possibility that Morrissey and Johnny Marr could perform together at some point, it's unlikely that drummer Mike Joyce would ever be part of that - his legal action against his former bandmates has caused too much bad blood.

   And it's not exactly rosy between Morrissey and his old songwriting partner, either. In 2022, Morrissey wrote an "open letter" to Marr asking him to stop talking about him in interviews. Marr hit back, saying the singer just wanted attention, adding: "I just do what I do. I’ll just carry on being who I am.”

   

   But in a post on the Morrissey Central site that acts as the mouthpiece for the singer, apparently the AEG Entertainment Group made a "lucrative" offer in June 2024 to Morrissey and Marr to tour as "The Smiths" in 2025.

   The statement said: "Morrissey said Yes to the offer; Marr ignored the offer."

   The post ended with the dry statement: "Morrissey undertakes a largely sold out tour of the USA in November. Marr continues to tour as a special guest to New Order."

   However, Marr has been out on tour since the Isle Of Wight festival, so he probably hasn't picked up his letters yet.

2. Talking Heads

   

   • When did Talking Heads split? Officially in December 1991

   The NYC art rock pioneers released their last album, Naked, in 1988. While David Byrne went solo, the other members released an album without him, although Byrne took legal action to stop them using the name.

   Apart from a reunion for their Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2002, further collaborations seem unlikely - in 2020, drummer Chris Frantz wrote his autobiography which dealt with Bryne in less than glowing terms, and told The Guardian that the frontman “doesn’t know where he ends and other people begin. He can’t imagine that anyone else would be important.”

   After their concert film Stop Making Sense was reissued in 2023, all four members promoted the movie together, but Billboard went on to report that Coachella had offerd $80 million for a Talking Heads reunion in 2024 and were knocked back. Sorry!

   

3. R.E.M.

   

   R.E.M. reunite after 17 years to play "Losing My Religion" at Songwriters Hall Of Fame

   • When did R.E.M. split? 21st September 2011

   They split in late 2011 after three decades in business. Michael Stipe told Radio X that there would be no reunion, that was it.

   However, June 2024 saw the band inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and all four original members - Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry who left back in 1997 - performed Losing My Religion at the ceremony, The foursome also did an extensive interview on the CBS Morning Show alongside the event.

   Asked what would get the band back together full time, Mills replied "A comet".

   

   Extended interview: R.E.M. on songwriting, breaking up and their lifelong friendship

4. Pink Floyd

   The saga of the Floyd is one of ups and downs.

   No! Bassist Roger Waters was incandescent with rage when guitarist Dave Gilmour took control of the name in 1987 and toured with drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright.

   Yes! Waters appeared with the other members onstage at Live 8 in 2005.

   

   Yes again! Gilmour and Mason appeared with Waters at one of his Wall shows in 2011, following the death of Rick Wright.

   Maybe! Nick Mason has been touring early Floyd material with his own band, Saucerful Of Secrets.

   Perhaps not! In March 2022, Gilmour and Mason recorded a song protesting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, called Hey, Hey, Rise Up! and released it under the Pink Floyd name. Waters told a German newspaper that "To associate that name now with something like this... proxy war makes me sad."

   Er... definitely not. Gilmour's wife Polly Samson didn't hold back on Twitter, calling Waters "hypocritical" and a "megalomaniac" amongst other unpleasant things; Gilmour added as a post-script "Every word demonstrably true."

   Put your credit card away: they won't be booking the reunion tour any time soon. In 2023. Waters revealed he had re-recorded the Floyd classic Dark Side Of The Moon as a solo album. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: "I wrote The Dark Side Of The Moon. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ cr*p! Of course, we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. So... blah!”

5. The Jam

   

   After Paul Weller called time on the Mod uberlords in 1982, he went onto forge a hugely successful solo career, while bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler tinkered with various different bands. After not speaking for 20 years, Weller and Foxton buried the hatchet and the bassist appeared on The Modfather's Wake Up The Nation album in 2010. However, it seems that a full reunion of the original trio seems unlikely.

6. Led Zeppelin

   

   Since the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, the remaining member of the Zep have only appeared together on a handful of occasions, even though Jimmy Page and Robert Plant issued a pair of successful albums together in the 1990s. A full-blown Zeppelin tour COULD happen, with Bonham Jr (Jason) on tub thumping duties, but do they need to do it? We say: REMEMBER LIVE AID.

7. The Kinks

   

   The ongoing saga of Ray Davies vs Dave Davies continues unabated after over 40 years. At one point, the two brothers had fallen out so acrimoniously, the likelihood of a reunion for the original line-up of the 60s pop legends seemed remote, especially since the death of bassist Pete Quaife in 2010.

   In November 2019, Dave Davies said that he was working with Ray on a reunion project that would see the pair revisit some unreleased, older material, but added "There's a lot to do."

   However, Ray told The Sun in March 2023: "Thanks to email, we have a good but distant relationship now."

   Drummer Mick Avory is having none of it, however. He told AllMusic in March 2023: "I don't think we could ever work it out because Dave wanted to do it one way, and Ray wanted to do it the other."

   But if Liam and Noel Gallagher can put their differences behind them, anything is possible, Which is where we came in...