Ten Bands We Would Like To See Reform For Bluesfest

The fine crew at Bluesfest this week left a cryptic hint on their website about them dropping a massive surprise in their second line-up announce – scheduled for next Tuesday (10 Oct) – stating that:

“Bluesfest will be presenting a world premiere reunion of one of the greatest bands around the globe. Yes, this will become international news and we are so excited”.

Of course, everyone’s definition of “one of the greatest bands around the globe” will vary depending on where your individual tastes lie – which is essentially the beauty of music – but we figure that it will have to be a band which fits into the template that Bluesfest have established for their line-ups over the years. Which, when you think about it, is quite a wide parameter because they’ve showed a complete willingness to think outside the box when selecting line-ups (we vividly recall seeing Iggy & The Stooges lay waste to Bluesfest a couple of years ago, and Cold Chisel pulled a huge crowd in 2012) which is one of the reasons why the Byron Bay festival is such a magnetic attraction every Easter.

The post has naturally sent the rumour mill into overdrive, a quick scan online showing that early faves include heritage acts like The Faces, The Kinks, CSNY, Creedence Clearwater Revival and local heroes Midnight Oil, but we’ve cast our net a little wider in case they’ve really pulled one out of left-field as they’re so often wont to do (and we’re discounting Coachella holograms so Nirvana, Velvet Underground and the original line-up of The Blues Brothers are all off the table);

THE SMITHS

Musically not the blues. Lyrically completely the blues, probably beyond blue to somewhere verging on black. Morrissey and Marr burying the hatchet over football and agreeing to never discuss Mozza’s autobiography, Morrissey and Rourke joking about heroin, Morrissey and Joyce having a laugh about past (and future) litigation – all (or none) of these things could definitely happen between now and Easter. Watch this space.

THE MODERN LOVERS

Jonathan Richman notoriously hates looking backwards, but he can’t be that wealthy so surely a huge offer would make them think about getting his original band back together? Not strictly a blues artist (not even close really) but definitely introspective enough to give someone the blues, and Phish have covered Roadrunner in festival sets before (almost certainly jamming it out beyond recognition) which is close enough for us.

TALKING HEADS

Okay, so The Modern Lovers is a long-shot, but when they split back in ’74 keyboardist Jerry Harrison went straight to the awesome Talking Heads, who also haven’t played together in anger since 1991. Imagine a packed Mojo tent singing the choir-sounding bit at the start of Road To Nowhere – goosebump city!

ABBA

If the Swedish awesome foursome were ever going to get back together it would be in Australia, right? And due to logistics, and the like, it would probably be for a festival, yeah? And Big Day Out is gone and we can’t see them doing Soundwave or Golden Plains (although possibly Meredith), so Bluesfest makes perfect sense! Dancing Queen!

UNCLE TUPELO

One of the defining bands of the alt-country movement, they split down the middle in 1994 like some weird replicating cell and became two great bands instead of one (Wilco and Son Volt). Imagine getting both of those bands to play and then cap it off with an Uncle Tupelo set! Obviously Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar would probably need to be in different tents at the time, but technology is pretty amazing these days.

THE VERVE

Okay, so no one really wants to see The Verve reunite (unless they pumped out Bittersweet Symphony over and over), but imagine if we all got together and made sure that no one went to see them in the hope that Richard Ashcroft would revisit his Splendour tantrum – except like 50 times bigger because this time people are seeing like BB King (no offence to the great man) instead of The Verve which to him would be about 100 times worse than people seeing Pixies instead of Richard Ashcroft solo! His head might actually explode!

DIRE STRAITS

They’ve got a song called Millionaire Blues, which immediately puts them in the hunt. Can just imagine everyone merching out on replica Mark Knopfler headbands and the whole of the beautiful Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm doing the dance to Walk Of Life and singing Sting’s really high bit about wanting MTV on Money For Nothing – we are so there…

FUGAZI

Has to happen eventually and as one of the most contrary and unpredictable bands in the history of music they might just say a big ‘fuck you’ to everyone and reform in Australia during Easter at a festival that basically none of their fans would be interested in otherwise. They might have to book Ian’s other band The Evens to sweeten the deal, but they’re pretty quiet so could easily slot in mid-arvo on one of the side tents.

REM

Okay, this one might actually work. Played Bluesfest back in 2005 in their then-trio formation, but this time drummer Bill Berry (who left the band after a brain aneurysm in 1995) would return to the ranks and they’d sign a contract not to play anything written after Berry left their ranks. And next year will be 2015 which is scary symmetry when you think about it (not too hard).

TISM

A TISM reunion might possibly be stretching the whole premise of “becoming international news”, but they didn’t say it would be massive international news. Some blogger would mention it for sure, and imagine how great it would be! They’d design some awesome costumes taking the piss out of some headlining act at the event and no doubt finish with a Hitler-Barrassi spoken-word diatribe about being born in the Mississippi Delta but that’s not why he’s got the blues, it’s because he’s at Bluesfest – or something equally awesome – and we’d all laugh and dance and the world would be great again for an hour.

But we’re predicting that the eventual announce will sadly be none of these, most likely some slightly far, far more appropriate heritage blues act. Bring on Tuesday!