The day after Oasis played a sold-out show at Soldier Field in Chicago, My Chemical Romance did the same. After years apart, the appetite for both bands has been enough to fill numerous stadiums. You’ve probably seen videos online of people being impressed by how A.I. can create a song in only seconds. Yet no one in their right mind would be impressed by that slop if they’d witnessed Noel Gallagher ignite 50,000 people with “The Masterplan”.
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Though Oasis and My Chemical Romance are back, the same isn’t true for the iconic groups below that also called it quits this millennium.
The Verve
If you’re going to split up, do it after releasing a masterpiece. Yet, breaking up was nothing new to The Verve, who had already survived one collapse. Richard Ashcroft began recording Urban Hymns as a solo artist after his group had imploded following its second album, A Northern Soul.
Thankfully, Ashcroft reconnected with guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury to finish Urban Hymns, which also features his defining hymn, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”. Though Ashcroft had written one of his generation’s greatest anthems, he couldn’t keep the band together. To add to the drama, The Verve reformed again, only to break up again. Ashcroft opened Oasis’s Live ’25 U.K. stadium dates, so maybe the Gallagher brothers’ truce will inspire him.
R.E.M.
The path of alternative music’s rise to the mainstream went through Athens. R.E.M. had steadily built an audience through college radio and a stubborn persistence against major label wishes and rock clichés. With a punk rock ethos, the band’s jangly anthems were powered by the guitars of Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills’ Pet Sounds harmonies, Bill Berry’s reliable drumming, and Michael Stipe’s abstract poetry.
And they could have kept going. R.E.M. didn’t have to stop in 2011. They knew the path laid by The Rolling Stones and U2. But had zero interest in rocking past their prime. What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” Stipe once asked. It’s a little less dialed in since R.E.M. broke up. But a thousand times more electric because they happened in the first place.
The White Stripes
The hardest thing about being in a band is keeping it together. It’s hard to get a group of people to agree on anything, so you imagine a duo might have better luck surviving the usual turmoil of rock musicians. Between 1999 and 2007, The White Stripes released six stellar albums. And on Jack and Meg White’s final studio recording, Icky Thump, it doesn’t sound like the Detroit duo were running out of ideas.
Yet at the height of their powers, The White Stripes called it quits. Meg has avoided the spotlight since the band split in 2011. But Jack has kept busy with a deluge of bands, projects, a solo career, and guitar hero status. In November, The White Stripes will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It’s not known at this time whether they’ll perform at the ceremony. But to hear “Ball And Biscuit” one more time would be like drinking the finest cream soda, oh well, oh well.
Photo by Tabatha Fireman/Redferns
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