Reunions: may they be defined as the events in which band members who had been separated for many years, decide to come together and rejoin their old band, in order to relive their past success, and maybe even -although not the main priority, and highly unlikely- create new ones.
Rage Against The Machine reunited, and Oasis just recently reunited, which is what prompted me to write today’s entry. But which bands have featured break-ups so intense that the possibility of a reunion is zero percent? I had always thought there were five and I have to be honest and admit that Oasis was one of them, although they were not my number one. However today’s entry will be about the band I had at number five: Supertramp.
Supertramp was it was Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies who were the driving forces behind their success, with both of them being the main songwriters and singers of the majority of their hits from 1970 until 1985 when Hodgson left the band. Although the actual reasons for the breakup have never surfaced, the most popular was that both Roger and Rick wanted to spend more time with their families, and that even their respective wives had a part in the breakup, by complaining to their husbands that the tour life was exhausting and destroying their marriages. Nobody knows if this is the actual truth. In 1993 they briefly reunited for a special presentation that featured them playing “The Logical Song” and “Goodbye Stranger”, but parted ways shortly thereafter.
A number of years went by, and the band -led by Davis- announced a tour. This news was not well received by Hodgson, who at first confronted Davis about Supertramp being on tour without the guy who actually represented everything Supertramp was, and more importantly, playing songs that had been written / sung by Hodgson, which -according to Hodgson- was a violation of a verbal agreement they had made back in the early days of the group, in which they promised not to play each other songs in case either of them left the band. Supposedly Davis tried to reach an agreement with him so he could join them, but nothing was worked out. With financial and legal commitments made, Davies and the band went on tour as “Supertramp”, which enraged Hodgson.
Several legal battles ensued; long story short is that any chance of saving Davis’ and Hodgson’s relationship went to the Grand Canyon. The latest is that they are not even in speaking terms. At some point during the 2010s, Hodgson stopped paying royalties to some of the other band members, which led them to sue both Hodgson and Davis: Hodgson won the suit in court, and Davis settled out of court. Additionally, Hodgson has been known as being notoriously outspoken against having any of his Supertramp songs or live performances posted or shared online. That is the reason why for a long period of time, it was almost impossible to find any live performances of the original Supertramp lineup on YouTube, and instead the results would show Hodgson’s solo tour performances.
Stay tuned for the next entry: Styx.