Longtime readers of my little bloggie-poo may recall that as a teenager and young adult, say from 1977-1982, I was very slow to embrace or even develop much of a taste for Punk and New Wave music. As a Kentucky boy, I just couldn't relate to all the synths and attitude. The things that motivated the Punks and New Wavers just didn't register with me, plus I was very happy with the music I was hearing from all those dinosaurs in 1975, thank you very much. However, eventually my instinct for good tunes won out over my stubbornness, and I came to like a lot of what came to typify the late 70s-early 80s music scene, at least according to the media. Television, Talking Heads, Human League, The Ramones, U2, and so on. A couple of groups that I had no interest in, though, were Berlin and Romeo Void.
Which brings me, in my typically roundabout way, to what I've watched on TV the last couple of evenings: VH1's Bands Reunited, which features hyper host Aamer Haleem going around and digging up past members of groups which have broken up long ago, and persuading them to get together for a reunion and one-off concert two days later. The first episode was devoted to Eighties synth-band Berlin, of "You Take My Breath Away" fame. People, I hated that group back in the day, but I could not help but watch in helpless fascination as Aamer hunted down each fat, balding past member, stuck his foot in their door, and convinced each of these faceless people to reunite one last time. There was even a strong soap opera element as lead singer Terri Nunn and one of the keyboard players, whose name eludes me, and who apparently had some sort of relationship and parted acrimoniously (to say the least) had their own tearful reunion. Last night's group was another 80s synth group, Romeo Void, who broke up without anybody noticing back in the mid-80s and apparently hadn't seen each other since. Actually, I kinda liked a couple of Void songs: "Never Say Never" and "A Girl in Trouble is a Temporary Thing"...but I didn't like them enough to buy any of their albums. They were all up for it, but there was one problem: the sax player- Benjamin Bossi, I think his name was- had experienced severe hearing loss and couldn't play anymore. They still all got together, but Bossi had to remain a spectator. Very sad, and the VH1 people milked it for all it was worth. Still, I was fascinated...and tonight is A Flock of Seagulls! Hope they mention producer and musical inspiration Bill Nelson.
"Bands Reunited" is a great idea for a show, something VH1 manages to pull off once in a great while, and so far the results have been great. Now, fellas- get to work on reuniting Jellyfish, the Rave-Ups, Green on Red, 1994, and the Pursuit of Happiness!
