Band Reunions: The 7 Best And Worst, From Led Zeppelin To The Spice Girls (VIDEO)

Bow Wow Wow announced they will be reuniting for the first time in 30 years for a UK tour. The band best known for "I Want Candy" gained its charm partially from lead singer Annabella Lwin's 15-year-old girl vocals. At 45, will she, and the rest of the band, be able to recreate the hype they had in the past?

Bow Wow Wow certainly isn't the first band, and it's guaranteed they won't be the last, to venture back into their old ways -- many a popular-gone-defunct band has toured, from Led Zeppelin to Pinback. And, while these reunion shows and tours can stir excitement for many a super fan, they sometimes strike the wrong nerve. Some argue these tours stall creativity with the reliance on old hits instead of original material.

With that in mind, here are our picks for the best, and the best of the worst, reunion tours:

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Comments

[catsforme]

11:48 PM on 09/13/2012

I'd love to see The Police, Eurythmics, Blondie, Genesis, and I know this is like sacrilege but The Beatles with Paul, Ringo, George Harrison's son and John Lennon's son Sean.

[pragmaticalpaula]

03:15 PM on 03/12/2012

'These dudes are gods", so says the video about Led Zeppelin. No they are the"God's of Rock" always will be. I was lucky enough to see them in 75 and 77. Pure Rock n Roll Heaven! Led Zeppelin is the four together, with John Bonham gone there really cannot be a true reunion, at least not in this plane of existence.

[Bebop210]

07:50 PM on 03/05/2012

Best Runion: Throbbing Gristle 2002-2011
Worst: Blink 182 is bad but Smashing Pumkins without the pumkins and one third of the smashing comes to mind too...

[Bebop210]

07:56 PM on 03/05/2012

Yikes i should try not being SO high when i type... its "Reunion", and TG was 2004-2010... and it's "Pumpkin"

[Gronkie]

03:00 PM on 03/05/2012

Guns & Roses never broke up, they're just waiting for Axel to arrive.

[concertina8]

09:56 AM on 03/05/2012

Not-quite band reunion and therefore slightly off topic.

A German girl trio (Tic Tac Toe) split up on bad terms, if I recall correctly. A year or two later they put on a press conference to announce their reunion. During the press conference, they started yelling, crying and insulting each other right in front of the cameras! Needless to say, the re-union never happened.

EPIC!

[Gronkie]

03:00 PM on 03/05/2012

THAT'S Rock & Roll!

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

04:50 PM on 03/05/2012

Sounds like Sting and Stewart Copeland during The Police press conferences in the 90s.

[Sunflo]

02:14 AM on 03/05/2012

The Police!

[Gronkie]

02:59 PM on 03/05/2012

I was a HUGE fan, saw them live several times, but they all hated each other back then (and it occasionally showed on stage) so I doubt it.

[edfou5]

10:57 PM on 03/04/2012

I don't know if someone who thinks that very old Led Zep clip from Knebworth is a "reunion" is qualified to pass any judgments... here's a clue... who is that on drums?

And you trash the Spice Girls show? It was pretty universally regarded as a smash hit, the audiences were euphoric, and as I said to a friend halfway through the show, a jaded old rocker like me, "you'd really have to have a stick up your *** not to love this."

And to the Huff Post editors... the next time you give us this kind of rubbish, make the author sign their name to the piece.

[donnyraindog]

08:24 PM on 03/04/2012

Nah ,Neil Young said it best--'it's better to burn out then to fade away".

[davidb1959]

10:10 PM on 03/03/2012

Axl Rose may be a MAJOR league idiot and psycho for what he did to GNR but the new line up and tour has been absolutely GREAT so while I have great love for the original I must admit much to my surprise Axl and the current line up are very, very GOOD!

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

04:52 PM on 03/05/2012

That makes one. So far, everyone I know who has seen them recently, including the DJs on the radio around here who spew a load every time Axl's name is mentioned, thought it su.cked worse than anything Axl has ever tried to do with the post-Slash line-up.

[davidb1959]

12:36 AM on 03/08/2012

That my friend is residual hatred because Axl Rose has taken the blame for the original line ups destruction. Given the evidence that's probably the right call.
That said, after the years of waiting for a return to sanity, he's done well on the tour, his choice of line up to support the music , and deserves the credit for FINALLY getting his head out of his posterior.... the evidence is all over youtube you just have to take a look....Forget what you heard and trust your EARS. Friend here's a few to start the process
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sybxctNFShI&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uBaHuz0RUU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z75SJ2jg3Tg

[benjohnsonrocks]

08:39 PM on 03/03/2012

My favorite reunion for 2012 is The Nerves featuring founders Paul Collins and Peter Case. The Nerves did the song "Hanging On The Telephone," which has been covered by Blondie, Cat Power, Def Leppard and Green Day. The Nerves were one of the first punk rock bands, forming in 1974 and later touring with The Ramones and Devo. The Nerves 2012 tour is basically Collins and Case backed by Collins' group The Paul Collins Beat aka The Beat, not to be confused with The English Beat. One could say, The American Beat.

[ptrgamb]

04:31 PM on 03/03/2012

Roxy Music's reunion tour around 2002 was the best I've seen

[Billk29]

06:30 PM on 03/02/2012

I loved it when Blondie got back together and made the Live in New York concert video,one of the best ever.
They're still together and touring now.

[Scurvybro]

06:01 PM on 03/02/2012

The reunion of Steely Dan is distinctive -- and possibly unique -- considering that it always has been a vehicle for the compositions of its two principals, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. In their first go-round, the duo hired an array of session musicians to play on their recordings. After their third album, "Pretzel Logic," they completely disbanded their original group and relied entirely on session musicians through "Gaucho" in 1980, when Becker and Fagen parted ways.

Becker and Fagen reunited in 1993 to tour. Ironically, since releasing their first album of new material in 2000, Steely Dan has been more of a band than it ever was in its first incarnation. The personnel has largely stayed the same and, as you might expect, the musicianship is stellar.

They are mind-blowingly good in concert. Of course, if you're one of the nitwits who are hopelessly rooted in the past and will endlessly implore the band to play "Reelin' in the Years," then you are lame beyond redemption.

[Gronkie]

03:04 PM on 03/05/2012

The best performing studio band in rock history, and pretty great live, too. I have had a homemade Steely Dan "hits" tape or CD in my car at all times for the last 30 years. Just made a fresh one last week.

[Mark Montgomery]

03:27 PM on 03/02/2012

Van Halen?

[Eric Dean Johnson]

01:22 PM on 03/02/2012

Where are the Beach Boys?