Band reunions are a strange beast: they are a mix of doing it for the fans and doing it for the money, they rarely last very long, and they even more rarely live up to expectations. But despite all of this, millions of people want to see their favorite groups reform.

British groups seem to be making a habit of reforming. Since I’ve been writing Brit Music Scene, we have seen The Verve, Boyzone, Led Zeppelin (for a one off concert), The Police, The Sex Pistols, The Spice Girls, Blur, and Take That all get back together in some form.

Then there are the ongoing rumors surrounding further reunions. The big ones are Led Zeppelin, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, and Robbie Williams rejoining Take That to make it a proper reunion. So no surprise then that those four bands were all included in a recent MTV poll to find out which group most people would like to see back together.

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2009 is approaching fast and so it’s time to look back at 2008. Here we’ll see the high and lowlights of Spring, with a selection of stories we covered between April and June.

April

The month started, as it always does, with April Fool’s Day, and while Brit Music Scene didn’t hoodwink its readers, YouTube did. I detailed the prank in a post entitled The Day Rick Astley Ruled The World.

I shared my Soundtrack For A Day in the middle of the month, and was joined by other b5 Music bloggers. Meanwhile, Boyzone announced their reunion shows, an event I was ecstatic about… yeah right.

The end of the month saw Amy Winehouse accused of assaulting people on a night out in London, and this was just the first time she got up to mischief while drunk during 2008. Phil Collins also announced his retirement even though most people assumed he had already retired years ago.

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Reforming is obviously the thing to do now. We’ve already seen Take That make a successful comeback, The Spice Girls a less successful one, and The Police reforming and then splitting up again. We’ve also seen Boyzone reform even though no-one asked them to, and Led Zeppelin announce plans to tour and release new material even though Robert Plant won’t be involved.

Then, more recently we learned about The Faces making plans, and just last week, Blur announced they were reforming after Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon put their differences aside to work together again. So, who is next? Could it be the time for The Smiths and The Stone Roses to get back together?

Both these bands fell apart due to creative differences, otherwise known as big arguments between at least two members of the group. And ever since they split, fans have been calling for them to get back together for one last hurrah to see if the magic is still there.

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The Police have topped the Forbes Magazine poll to find the highest-earning musicians of 2008. The British rockers beat the likes of Beyonce Knowles and Madonna to come first in the list. Only one other British act featured in the top ten, with Genesis making it to number nine.

The Police managed to rack up income of $115 million over the past year, mainly down to the incredibly successful reunion tour which drew sell out crowds around the world and raked in $84.9 million. That’s an incredible $28.3 million each earned by each member of the group for a year’s work.

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The Stone Roses are one of the best bands to have ever come out of Britain, but their musical legacy was pitifully small due to only two albums being produced before they split up. Although that was way back in 1996, there have been numerous calls for them to reunite from the public and band members alike.

The split was somewhat acrimonious, and so the chances of a reunion seemed to be as likely as The Verve or The Police getting back together, both of whom also split up due to band tension. Now those two have managed it, although The Police have now split again after picking up their hefty pay cheques, maybe The Stone Roses could follow?

Mani, the bassist for the legendary Madchester indie band, certainly thinks it could happen, and stated that lead singer Ian Brown was the only original member against the idea. Now, Ian Brown has confirmed that view, and gone on to state quite categorically that he would never be involved with a Stone Roses reunion.

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We knew it was going to happen, but now that it has, it’s kind of sad. The Police announced back in May that their last date on this current tour was going to be their final gig ever, and so it has come to pass. They played Madison Square Gardens last night, and that it is, it’s all over folks… maybe.

The Police originally split up rather acrimoniously in 1984 after the three of them got sick of arguing with each other. Tensions were said to be so bad that towards the end they hardly spoke. But last year saw the trio reunite for a massive world tour after 20 years had seemingly proved enough time to get over their differences.

They seem to have managed to have stayed civil this time around, which begs the question: why split up again? I know none of them need the money now, especially after this 150 date tour is said to have netted them £180 million, but still, wouldn’t it be good to stay together and write new material?

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Being the offspring of a famous celebrity is a double-edged sword: it can help you forge your own career in the world of entertainment purely by people knowing your name, or it can make you subject to unfair comparisons, and accusations of getting an unfair advantage.

A high percentage of celebrities offspring choose to follow their parents choice of career, and with wildly different outcomes. One who seems to be doing well at it is Coco Sumner, real name Eliot Pauline Sumner, who is the daughter of Sting from The Police, and Trudie Styler.

She performed an intimate gig at the Boogaloo bar in North London with her band, I Blame Coco, as part of the Trekstock event, and seems to have wowed everyone with her talent. Which is nice to hear after we’ve been subjected to Peaches Geldof trying, and failing to forge a career as a singer, and DJ.

Coco played an acoustic set, which according to Hello magazine, included a cover of Estelle’s American Boy. She also performed a song called My Name’s Not Sting, an obvious attempt at distancing herself from her famous father.

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The Stone Roses remain fresh in people’s minds as one of the seminal bands of the late 80s and early 90s, and a founding member of the much-acclaimed Madchester scene. However, they split up in 1996, and have all gone their own ways, and concentrated on solo projects since.

As much as many of us would like to see them reform, the split was acrimonious, and the chances have always been very slim of a meeting of minds, and any sort of reunion. In particular, the relationship between lead singer Ian Brown, and guitarist John Squires is non-existent, with Brown angry after Squires left the band in April, 1996, which lead to the band splitting later that year.

There has been many reunion tours and bands reforming over the last couple of years, with The Verve, and The Police two of the most credible and biggest names amongst that ever-burgeoning list. So, could it now be time for the Stone Roses to finally put their differences behind them and reform to show us all what we’ve been missing?

Mani, who lives just down the road from me, and who I see on a regular basis, recently spoke to the BBC about his career, his current band Primal Scream, the state of the British music scene, and the Stone Roses.

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How do you decide when the summer is finally upon us and the rain clouds are going to give way to glorious days of sunshine? Personally, being a music freak, I wait until the summer festival season kicks off in the UK, which is this weekend with both the Isle of Wight and Download festivals taking place.

The Isle of Wight Festival is one of the oldest pop and rock festivals in the UK, with some particularly memorable performance from artists such as Bob Dylan, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors when it first ran between 1968 and 1970. It was then brought back, and bang up to date in 2002, and has been running ever since.

This year’s line-up sees The Sex Pistols, Ian Brown, The Police and The Kooks headlining tonight and tomorrow, but it all kicked off on Friday night with Kaiser Chiefs headlining their first festival in the UK.

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I think there must be something in the water here in the UK. Something potent that is making old groups decide to reunite and start plying their trade again. The last few years have seen many such reunions occurring, and there could be more to come.

We’ve already had Led Zeppelin reform for a one-off concert at the London 02 Arena, with rumours of a longer tour constantly bubbling around the press. We’ve also seen The Police forget their differences to embark on a huge world tour, which is due to come to an end this year in New York.

There was also the ill-omened Spice Girls tour which unfortunately ended before it was meant to due to poor sales. However, a positive note to come out of it is the retirement of Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham from singing. Two down, three to go.

Then there has been the more permanent reunions such as Take That (hoorah) and Boyzone (boo, hiss), as well as rumours of long-awaited returns for both Blur and The Smiths, both of which still could happen.

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