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Rock Reunions

There have been 2 reunions of major rock groups in the last couple of years. The first was in April 2006, when the Cream reformed and played 4 excellent gigs at the Albert Hall. This led to the release of a top-class and amazingly well recorded DVD featuring about 95% of the bands repertoire. There will have been lumps in many middle-aged throats brought about by the sight of these 3 upper middle-aged to elderly men playing the acme of progressive rock even better than they had done 38 years before. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker played for about 90 minutes in the heat of the stage lights of the Royal Albert Hall.
Worryingly, the music as displayed on the DVD was the best I had seen for some years. Worryingly, because 38 years had passed without any combo with equal musical skills getting together. It may be arguable whether each is the best player of his instrument in the world (although I can’t think of any better) but it would be very difficult to argue that any other group had the same musical ability overall.

In late 2007 Led Zeppelin reformed for one concert. Unfortunately, if the reports are true, there was no filming or recording except for a few short excerpts for the TV news. However the interest aroused by the gig was greater than would be produced by any modern band playing. Again this is worrying, as it points out the structural decline in the British music industry.

What is wrong ?

I was recently at a concert given by another, less well known, but excellent reformed seventies group, Stackridge. They had plenty of experience of the hard work that goes into getting a self-made group into the public mind and a recording contract. I spoke to the front man, Mutter Slater, and he believed that one major cause of the relative lack of new bands producing high quality material was the pressure on the bands to play covers of well-known songs, rather than their own material. This basically means that the underlying cause is us, the gig attending (or not attending) public, and the answer is to make more use of the small venues where new bands still get the chance to play their own material. Stackridge are hardly a new band, but they are touring on an ongoing, now and then basis, as well as being on the verge of recording some new material. Details of gigs and more information about the band can be found at the URL given in the appropriate place

By: Mr Rambler

www.stackridge.net

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