Bands Reunited: Reality Sucks

Back in 2004, VH1 aired a program called Bands Reunited in which producers would attempt to reunite a band that had broken up under bad terms. In most cases, the bands profiled on Bands Reunited didn’t reunite, but it certainly made for good TV. I forgot all about the show until coming across an item on The Daily Swarm called VH1 Killed The Beat Reunion.

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The Daily Swarm’s piece links to an article on the Marco On The Bass blog that details how the program seems to have ruined any chance that the original members of 2-tone band The Beat would ever get back together. You see, when the producers of Bands Reunited weren’t able to get the members of The Beat to commit to a reunion concert, they started instigating fights and playing games to create drama for the show. All the name-calling and innuendo led to bad blood that makes a reunion near-impossible in the future.

While it was interesting to read about The Beat’s experience with Bands Reunited, I came upon a link to an insane essay written by Kurt Harland Larson of ’80s synth-pop act Information Society detailing his experience with the Bands Reunited crew. The efforts the show’s producers went through and the lies they told are just unbelievable. Sure, we all know reality TV is far from real, but Harland’s essay shows just how fake reality TV can be.

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6 Responses

  1. Actually in most cases, they did get the bands to reunite, so that most bands didn’t reunite, you’re wrong about that. The few that didn’t reunite on the show were Extreme, Squeeze, New Kids, and ABC was only 2 members with another band, and yes Information Society the singer didn’t show up, Holly Johnson of Frankie refused to perform, but most cases, the bands reunited AND performed. The English Beat led to only a partial reunion of Dave Wakeling joining the existing Beat at a club.

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