Bands Who Reunited After Breaking Up

Being in a band is difficult, as we both know. You’ve already read my Most Dramatic Band Breakups in History article, so I know we’re on the same page about this. Egos, money, substances and other factors can all rub band members the wrong way, resulting in premature splits. However, sometimes the lure of the stage/studio/crippling debt is too much to ignore. Sometimes, these fragile relationships can endure one more go as a band, for the joy of all. 

Today, I offer you ten and-a-bit examples of just such reconciled bands…

After the tragic death of drummer extraordinaire John Bonham in 1980 aged 32, rock legends Led Zeppelin sensibly called it a day. They understood that it would be impossible to continue without his huge presence and extraordinary playing, and issued a statement saying that their ‘deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager’ meant that they were done.

For about five years.

The mighty Led Zep hustled back together - with silk shirts now instead of pagan-symboled suits - for 1985’s Live Aid. Filling in on drums was a somewhat overworked Phil Collins, who was flying by Concorde between London and Philadelphia in order to perform at both venues. Performing at Live Aid was a badge of honour for most artists involved, but Led Zeppelin’s stint was so appalling that even they banned the footage from being included in official accounts for years and years, which only made people want to see it even more. 

The band blamed poor Phil (a clearly exceptional drummer judging by his Genesis output) for their horrific set, even though they’d had no rehearsals, Page’s guitar was out of tune, and Plant struggled with certain notes. 

If you feel like it, you can see the full 20 minute ordeal/performance below.

I suppose hell did freeze over after all, right? That was the nicely witty pun title for The Eagles’ reunion in the 90s. Those who read my blog about band breakups will no doubt remember the immortal words from one of the Dons (Henley or Felder, I do not remember) onstage, where he hilariously fumed “Only three more songs before I get to kick your ass”, like only a rich rockstar baby could. I wondered whether he actually gave it a shot after the show?

Well, hell must’ve frozen over after all, or The Eagles just loved unbelievable amounts of money (understandable) because their Hell Freezes Over tour was one of the biggest-grossing in history. Hey, chill out, guys!

Again, readers of my other article will remember with disdain the poor behaviour of Fleetwood Mac. That was the famous ‘pop’ iteration of the band, but as all rock bores will tell you, they were a ‘proper blues band’ before that. Yes, Peter Green, Albatross, and all of that noise.

Whether they fully stopped in 1970 isn’t really clear to me, but if they did, it wasn’t for long. Peter Green’s mental health issues brought his untimely exit from the band, and in doing so, unravelled the rest of the lineup. It took a whole two months before bassist John McVie’s wife Christine joined on vocals and keyboards. By 1974, all original members apart from drummer Mick Fleetwood had hit the road, replaced by Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, a romantic couple and songwriting duo.

This was when they hit their huge pop era, but that - and all of the subsequent fights and double-crosses - are stories for another day.

Another band who love money above all things (including their fans, judging by their indifference to last year’s dynamic pricing scandal for their tickets) are Oasis. The constantly feuding Gallagher brothers did finally quit in 2009, some 15 years after Definitely Maybe hit the charts. Solo artist-itis broke out after, with Noel’s High Flying Birds competing with Liam’s band ‘Beady Eye’ for post-Oasis relevance. Realizing that audiences would forever be limited in their singular careers, they decided to tolerate each other once again, a good 16 years after their initial split.

No new material has surfaced, which fires the speculations of the tour being a cash grab, but did you want new music from Oasis? Or a set’s worth of indisputable hit song indie-bangers?

Horror punk icons The Misfits actually only existed until 1983 in their original iteration. Led by vocalist Glenn Danzig, the Misfits managed one album and one E.P. (two albums if you count The Static Age, which was only released much later) before splitting up due to a compulsion they seemed to have about constantly fighting each other. Danzig formed a new band called Samhain and then went solo, whilst the rest of the Misfits got day jobs, started families, dealt with angry lawsuits and found religion. The usual stuff.

Then, in 1995, they were back, sans Danzig and with new vocalist Michale Graves (real name Michael Emanuel) in tow. This lineup yielded a couple of near-classic records before inter-band tensions saw Graves and drummer Dr Chud (real name David Calabrese) leave the band mid gig! Bassist - and only original member - Jerry Only (real name Gerard Caiafa Jr) continued the band as lead vocalist, until - many legal disputes later - Danzig rejoined the group, where he remains as frontman today.

Legends abound at how late to the stage LA rockers Guns ‘n’ Roses routinely were in their heyday. Further legends describe the intent substance abuse issues that plagued the band, with Geffen Records A&R man Tom Zutaut even famously saying “I woke up every day listening to the radio, fully expecting to hear that Slash was dead”.

Well, he’s still with us nearly 40 years later, and so is the band, but for a long while there, GNR were a done deal. Fractious inter-band relations, ego issues, drugs and the classic ‘creative differences’ were all nails that went into the coffin for Guns ‘n’ Roses back in the 90s.

Slash called time in 1996, after three years of playing precisely zero gigs with the band. A year later, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum (bass and drums respectively) followed suit, leaving vocalist Axl Rose alone to work on a more industrial-sounding record. It would take Axl until 2008 - over a decade of languid stop-start recording - to release the divisive Chinese Democracy album.

Understanding that the jig was up, Axl made his peace with Slash and the boys, and in 2016 (it took them a while), the band was back touring all over the world.

The Grateful Dead are almost like a cultural institution and full-time lifestyle for their fans, who are affectionately known as Deadheads. So it must’ve hit hard in 1995 when chief creative spirit Jerry Garcia passed away, some 30 years after starting the band. 

Thankfully, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio got involved and kept the caravan moving for a few gigs. Things then lay understandably dormant for years, until a certain John Mayer took the reins and headed up Dead & Company, which is essentially the same band but with him instead of Garcia. Deadheads rejoice!

As undeniably influential as Lou Reed was, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people fell out with him. You’ve seen the YouTube clips of him being agonisingly rude to interviewers, and you’ve heard the stories about his on and offstage behaviour, so I doubt it’ll be much of a surprise that his first band, the epochal Velvet Underground, didn’t get on, either.

The main beef seemed to be between Reed and John Cale, the Welsh bassist and viola player. Opposites attract, but maybe near-opposites repel each other worse than anything, because as talented and driven as both Cale and Reed were, they bickered and fought back and forth, with Lou wrestling for dominance in the band. In 1968 (a mere year after their iconic debut), he even got VU guitarist Sterling Morrison to fire Cale on Reed’s behalf!

Despite this shocking behaviour, both men agreed to be part of a reunion in 1993. Sadly, nothing had changed much between the two of them. Reed couldn’t stand sharing the limelight with Cale, and Cale didn’t like the idea of creating no new music. They fell out and agreed never to work together again.

Bleach-haired reggae-pop band The Police were a huge proposition in the early 80s. Led by bassist/vocalist Sting, The Police seemed to walk the line between jazzy/artsy and accessibly mainstream. They had it all, but there was one problem: they couldn’t stand the sight of each other. During the making of Synchronicity in the Caribbean, feuds over songwriting credits (each member could write but Sting wanted to be the focus) and more resulted in drummer Stewart Copeland painting ‘I HATE STING’ on his drum kit.

Who says musicians are infants?

Anyway, many years later in 2007, the original three members teamed back up for a reunion. The tour was phenomenally successful, raking in a reported $360 million. Still, a recent lawsuit from Copeland and Summers last year resulted in Sting paying them over half a million quid in owed royalties. Ouch.

Were the Sex Pistols ever meant to last? I don’t know because I wasn't there to witness it all first hand, but however they captured the zeitgeist, they still only managed one album and a tour before disbanding. A shooting star of punk, I suppose. But that didn’t stop them trying to regain the old magic years later.

1996 saw the original lineup reunite for the ‘Filthy Lucre’ tour, with original bassist Glen Matlock returning after being given the boot for not being ‘punk’ enough, in favour of Sid Vicious. This rekindling lasted surprisingly long, performing together for various one-off anniversaries until around 2008.

Nowadays, the Sex Pistols are still a thing, fronted by ex-Gallows vocalist Frank Carter. John Lydon declined to join them this time, calling the reunion ‘woke’.

I realise that this maybe isn’t the platform for ‘male vocal harmony groups’ but given the focus of this article, it’s fair to comment how alarmingly often they break up, start again, form new variants, performing joint co-headlining tours, and generally faff about whilst trying to retain their former glory.

*NSYNC couldn’t compete with ex-member Justin Timberlake’s solo megastardom, and even a slightly pathetic reunion performance during a JT solo medley at the 2013 MTV awards couldn’t hold off the rot.

East 17 became E-17 after the one who wrote the songs grew fed up and bounced. One of the other members then somehow ran over himself with his own car after ‘eating too many jacket potatoes’. How many is too many? They sporadically reform when the tax bill comes around again, presumably with alternative catering arrangements nowadays.

Boyzone never fully recovered from the loss of their lead singer Ronan Keating (to a solo career, I hasten to add) but did eventually team up with fellow boy band (man band?) Westlife to create the 2-for-1 group Boyzlife. Actually, Boyzlife is one one member from each band: Boyzone disbanded in 2000, reunited in 2007 and then finally hung up their wee suits in 2019. As far as I can tell, Westlife are still going!

Pretend pop punks Busted played a similar move, teaming up with the B-list version of themselves. When auditions were being held by dubious industry types for Busted band members, some hopefuls who didn’t make the grade were then used for also-ran band McFly. Each ‘band’ had their hits, and when their time was up, they simply joined forces to create McBusted. The internet describes McBusted as a ‘supergroup’ but I think you can make up your own mind about that.

As you’ve now seen, all is not lost in the land of musical breakups if you can just communicate with each other. No amount of egos, drugs or jacket potatoes can stop the faithful from reconnecting for their audiences and for themselves.

Band breakups are hard for everyone - especially the fans- but these examples of artists going beyond their own petty squabbles for the greater good is a glorious example to us all. Communicate, let bygones be bygones, and sort out your contracts before you shake hands.