Why make the past your sacred cow?

It seems every single band from days of yore are reforming - some more successfully than others. None of them have been "my bands", so I've been able to keep my opinion that it is a bad idea pretty much intact (and I'm probably lucky because any of the bands that I loved who have split are really unlikely to ever get back together - I can't see George Michael reforming Wham! and it would really take something special for Nirvana to get back together again).

And it is a bad idea I think. Let sleeping dogs lie and all those other cliches. What makes a band so special has a lot to do with the moment - who you were at the time, who you were with, and what you were doing. Now fine if they carry on making records with you - they are evolving, you are evolving with them. But once they've actually split, I think that should be it. It's sad, yes, but there you have it.

Morrissey agrees with me, as does Bernard Butler thank goodness. Now, I was never a particularly big Smiths fan - I was maybe just a bit too young to get into them when they first started. But it would really shatter their myth if they got back together. I loved Suede, and it is one of my musical regrets that I never got to see them play with Bernard Butler, but I wouldn't want to see them reform. It just wouldn't seem right seeing Brett singing "She's a lovely little number" now. I do disagree about nostalgia though, at least to a certain extent. It doesn't have to be a bad thing, so long as it is not the be all and end all. And if you don't indulge in it a little, then are going to miss out. I was born after the Beatles split, so unless I dabbled in a little bit of nostalgia, then I don't get to experience it. And there is something extremely cute about seeing a kid in the "Flower Sniffing, Kitty Petting..." Nirvana t-shirt, who wouldn't even have been born when Nevermind came out. OK, maybe not quite what Bernard Butler had in mind (I'm sure that it isn't), but it demonstrates that it can be a good thing.

Even bands that I never got to see, who I would have loved to. Adam and the Ants, The Teardrop Explodes, Abba... I just don't have that much interest (which is just as well, since it is pretty unlikely that any of these bands will be reforming). Which is why the whole 80s revival tour doesn't appeal. Some of the bands I thought were great at the time, but since I didn't go and see them then, why would I want to now? There are a couple of apparent exceptions. I saw the Human League live about 3 years ago, and I have been to see Duran Duran quite a few times during the last few years. However, and herein lies the point, neither of these bands have split up, or stopped recording. They may not have the original line-ups, but they have continued to release material. And that's the crucial difference for me.

There's quite a baying for the Stone Roses to reform, and I really hope they never do. I saw them live in 1990, and while I don't quite agree they were the deities that some people seem to think, it was quite an experience - they were at the height of their powers. And that's how they should be remembered.

So put them on the stereo, remember where you were when you first heard them, even dance a little. In fact, dance a lot. But don't wish they'd reform.