You might have noticed the ongoing trend for bands reforming is currently reaching ever greater and deeper lows.
As we gaze fondly towards the new hopes of 2016, it's now very much the fashion for older, not hugely successful Britpop outfits to dust down their guitars, polish those stage pants and start preparing to get back out there for one last musical hurrah. You can kind of just about stomach this self-perpetuating taste for nostalgia when it's the likes of Fleetwood Mac ironing out their differences and returning to the stage. But over recent months, bands like Space, Cast, Kula Shaker, Garbage, even Marion have either played or announced new gigs. It's like they've just cynically realised they've got more chance of paying the mortgage off by being mates and playing together than being adversaries. Which in some ways, gives cause for despair. Many of these bastards were totally shite to start off so it's hard to imagine now they're 20 years older, grey of hair and pot bellied that they'll be any more cop.
With all this aural shite flinging going on, it's ace to see someone like Mike Skinner being willing to throw caution to the wind, dump his past and live properly in the here and now. Not least because he could quite easily be one of those currently cashing his chips in. Over the course of numerous albums, he earned the tag of genius via a bedroom soul sound hybrid blending garage, house, hip hop and grime that got him in the cooler ends of the music press and also, refreshingly, in the higher end of the charts.
Now, after some time away, he's dipping a toe into the biz again, this time with his label and party Tonga. Handily, it goes on just round the corner from ours and we went for our first trip just the t'other month. Refreshingly, our second jaunt was just a sweaty and as stupid as the last one we attended. All hail Skinner and all hail those willing to leave their pasts behind and keep it totally future...
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| It's a rave dave |
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| Pre-Tonga Saturday night power juice |
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| Lost in the rave clouds |
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