’Tis the season for reunions, folks. Smashing Pumpkins, Guns N’ Roses, the Jackson Five, and Led Zeppelin are all in various stages of regrouping (sans crucial members, of course). And now, it seems, a few more of our friends from across the pond have gotten into the game. The BBC News reports (via Spin.com) that the Kinks have gotten back together to write new material. No word yet if the legends will tour again or if a new record will emerge. According to frontman Ray Davies, it’s all about the new tunes. It’s “too early to judge the quality,“ he told the BBC. “It depends if there’s good music. We want good new music. I’d like to do it as a more collaborative thing than we used to do.” Apparently, the band’s future plans would also depend on the health of Ray’s bro Dave, who, for the moment anyway, is all well and good despite the stroke he suffered back in 2004.
And then there’s Blur. Considering Damon Albarn has his band The Good, The Bad and The Queen and that Chinese opera, drummer Dave Rowntree has his fledgling law and political career, guitarist Graham Coxon has his solo career, and bassist Alex James’ has his blue cheese, we didn’t think a Blur reunion was really in the cards. Not so… Albarn and Coxon recently had lunch together, after which Albarn told BBC Newsbeat (via Spin.com) that, “It’s very possible I’ll go back to Blur, it really is very possible.” Speaking of Coxon, the singer said, “He’s great, it’s fantastic to get my old friend back. So it’s good but I can’t really say any more than that.”
For now, we’ll just have to be content with the knowledge that Coxon and super-druggie Pete Doherty (of Babyshambles) are in the midst of a collaboration of sorts. Or, at least that’s what this video suggests. Yes, that’s Doherty on the right bouncing around as Coxon strums the chords to Blur’s “You’re So Great.” (Here’s another video with Doherty and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.) NME.com further reported (via Spin.com), that Coxon would be contributing to Doherty’s upcoming solo album. Babyshambles drummer Adam Ficek told XFM, that Doherty was working with someone whose name rhymes with “Layham Hoxon” before spilling his guts on the colab: “It’s not just musical with Graham, it’s this whole sonic environment he creates and that’s what has brought a really special edge to Peter’s solo album…it’s really interesting.”
Yes, Adam, it is very interesting. We just hope Doherty’s shenanigans don’t end up distracting Mr. Coxon from more pressing matters—i.e. Blur’s reunion.
