Roman Remains (Coughin Vicars - vocals)
SPB: What is the worst reunion concert you’ve seen? –
Roman: I can't recall ever walking away from a reunion gig I've invested in with disappointment.
Rocket from the Crypt, Danzig doing Samhain, The Make up, Jawbreaker, E.S.G, Pentagram, Bl'ast, Negative Approach, all falling into this category.
Others I maybe got a little too sauced before they even hit the stage and can't honesty recall if they were up to scratch or not.
The Beltones, The Stitches, Nitzer Ebb, and Walk the Plank stumble into this joyous and hazy reminiscent box.
I’m not sure it falls technically a reunion but Jerry Only's Misfits, doing Static Age with his son and some bald chap with ear to ear cheshire cat smile make-up was only memorable because Jerry's presence made it so.
The expectation was high for Sisters of Mercy's return; however, the dry ice clouding the entire stage meant it could have just been any old ghouls in black with a backing track.
However, reunited bands I have witnessed where my inner cynic strikes and lures me in a direction away from the stage have been festival performances where I’ve been lucky enough not to have had to pay for the privilege. Making coffee at music festivals and taking strategic shift breaks is where I might recall such underwhelming performances.
Vince Neil whimpering, squealing -- but mainly pointing a cordless mic into a soggy unresponsive crowd at Download. Omar from At the Drive In going through the motions as he appeared to intentionally do anything but his unhinged and deranged expressive dancing I'd seen on videos from a decade before. The New York Dolls playing a day slot to a poorly attended field in London one summer afternoon.
I think the one that tops them all for shattering childhood hero 'Illusions' was Gun N' Roses
at Leeds 2010? The delay, the audience, the setlist, the sound, the nu' band...it was all not quite right. I controversially like a few tracks off Chinese Democracy but even these couldn't cut through. Axl is too easy to pick holes and I personally feel he redeemed himself doing 'Down on the Farm' at Glasto last year, but in 2010 he wasn't earthed correctly. Planets away from the guy I had bedroom wall posters of.
He who had me shrieking obscenities in falsetto.
The one who had me flexing my lung capacity by holding an elongated note the word “Toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhht”
He was also the one who convinced 12 year-old me to going out the house to wearing a stars & bar bandana under a giant trucker cap and any form of layered trinkets around your wrists.
Needless to say, the man, his silver jacket and his Guitar Hero-looking backing band got boring quick. I felt more tired with each inflated solo. I retreated back to the coffee tent with ease. On returning, I found the hospitality tent id been working in had turned into a full blown closing party. In a strange and unpredicted turn of events I met a Bradfordian magician called Dynamo. Turns out he really enjoys his heavy music as well as card tricks.
We spoke at length about time travel and its possibilities. “Imagine seeing G N’R in The Rainbow…”
I don't recall much at all after that.
Many years later I saw Dynamo across a crowded room at a Turnstile gig.
When they kicked into the song “Time and Space” I wonder if he thought of me?
