The Smiths were considered one of the most important bands to emerge out of the English
independent music scene during the 80’s. While they were only together for half a decade they
would be highly influential on the bands who came after them, By 1987 the band disbanded due
to internal tensions between the members. but almost twenty years after the group broke up,
one TV show attempted the impossible, reuniting the Smiths. Stay tuned for the full story.
For two seasons in the mid 2000’s VH1 ran a show called Bands Reunited. As the title suggest the
show would try reunite bands from the 80’s, most notably forgotten bands including ABC, Dramarama,
A Flock of Seagulls, Haircut One Hundred, Romeo Void and Klymaxx to name a few.
The premise of the show was quite simple. Viewers would watch host Aamer Haleem simply approaching
members of these bands out in public or in the actual offices where they worked. They would
talk through some the reasons their band broke up with the goal of each episode having the band
reunite at the end for a one-off performance. Surprisingly, the show was mostly successful
in reuniting the bands they went after. Some of the outcomes were better than the show imagined.
Dramrama for example recorded a new album. Not everyone though was happy as Kurt Harland of the
Information Society slammed the show for the tactics they employed.. Although Information
Society have since reformed with Harland as a full-time member he would not be involved in
the reunion that came about due to the show. He would criticize the show’s presentation
claiming the show edited interviews to make it appear more dramatic than it really was.
He would say the following on his website: “What irritated me throughout this process,
but especially when they intruded into my company’s building, was that they seemed
to be walking in this cloud of unreality about the true nature of what was going on,”
“Somehow they just seemed to think that once everyone realized that ‘it’s for TV! it’s for
TV!’, that suddenly no one would really mind the disruption and lack of respect for real people
doing real work to create real content" he'd say. This brings us to the Smiths reunion. The
producer’s called it the “holy grail” for music fans, but the odds were pretty stacked against
the show. The band had reportedly already turned down 50 million just to do a handful of shows
and frontman Morrissey once claimed he “would rather eat my own testicles than
reform the Smiths, it’s no surprise it was a tall order to even attempt to reunite the band.
Morriseey at the time in 2004 was out doing a solo tour promoting his album You Are the Quarry and he
was in New York to perform a five date residency at the Apollo Theatre. The show’s producers and
production staff sat outside the venue hoping to catch the singer before a soundcheck and
convince him to reunite the Smiths. Here’s what actually happened. The 1st person in the lead
followed by camera and sound. Now the Smiths is the holy grail for us. They are one of the coolest
bands in the world and the whole entire network was pulling for us to pull it off. The idea was
as soon as he gets out of his car we pounce and get something. We knew he had a soundcheck
scheduled in the afternoon. When we went we sort of went around the corner to a parking lot
and we're waiting for him to be there because we gotta get him during the soundcheck. Steven
Morrisey, Steven Patrick Morrisey hasn't arrived yet for his soundcheck. He hasn't shown up.
Burgers are here. We wait some more and we wait some more for a good gotta be a good 4 to 5
hours and it's getting closer and closer to show time. You know we have to at least get him before
he goes into the show. Is that him. Suddenly you hear Morrissey! Morrissey! Morrissey! Morrissey!
Morrissey!So he went straight in. No shot. 6 hours of waiting and he went right by us and that's when
we suddenly all sort of said to ourselves maybe this isn't the right time to try and do the Smiths
Bands reunited would be pulled off the air in 2006 after only 2 seasons in 2006 and there's
been no talk about bringing it back.So let me know what your thoughts are on this story in
the comments section below and we'll see you guys next time on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.