‘Take A (Second) Chance On Me’ (so we can do a reunion tour)

There is something deeply funny about watching two people sing a love song to each other after their marriage has fallen apart. Now imagine doing that with your ex in front of 60,000 people, night after night, for several months. And imagine getting paid very well for it. 

Breaking up is one thing. Having to get back together in front of thousands of people is quite another. Bands split, members refuse to speak to each other, and fans spend years mourning the loss. Then a reunion gets announced and suddenly everyone has somewhere to be on a Friday night. Give us the music, obviously, but give us the lore too. 

I struggle to get through a group project without wanting to block someone, so I cannot imagine doing it with an ex-husband

ABBA’s personal lives make the whole thing even funnier. Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus divorced in 1979, and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad followed in 1981. Two marriages ending within the same band is already a lot to deal with. Having to turn up to work and sing together afterwards is another matter entirely. I struggle to get through a group project without wanting to block someone, so I cannot imagine doing it with an ex-husband. 

After deciding to take a break at the end of 1982, ABBA returned in 2021 with Voyage, their first studio album in almost 40 years. Their concert experience even featured digital versions of their younger selves. It is a very particular kind of reunion when the people on stage are technically not the people standing in front of you. Your ex is back, but at least the wrinkles are CGI. 

Then there is Fleetwood Mac, whose recording sessions for Rumours in 1976 sound like a workplace investigation waiting to happen. 

At Fleetwood Mac’s 1997 reunion, Nicks sang directly at Buckingham with the sort of intensity usually reserved for courtroom testimony

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had broken up. Christine and John McVie were divorcing. Mick Fleetwood was dealing with the collapse of his own marriage. Somehow, they still managed to make one of the most successful albums in music history. 

Buckingham’s ‘Go Your Own Way’ and Nicks’ ‘Silver Springs’ turned their breakup into music. At Fleetwood Mac’s 1997 reunion, Nicks sang directly at Buckingham with the sort of intensity usually reserved for courtroom testimony. He stood there and took it. Thousands of people paid to watch. 

Imagine looking at someone you once loved, years later, with a few more wrinkles and several decades of history between you and having to sing the songs you wrote when everything fell apart. Apparently, Nicks and Buckingham have been talking again. The longest-running situationship in rock history. Some of us are trying to move on from a three-month talking stage. Do not give us hope. 

Someone writes about a relationship falling apart, and suddenly we’re listening on the bus, pretending the lyrics were written specifically for us

And this is the thing about these reunions. We get to watch something deeply personal without having to deal with any of the consequences. We dissect interviews, analyse glances across the stage, and treat the possibility of reconciliation like breaking news. 

Think about how many breakup songs we have made our own. Someone writes about a relationship falling apart, and suddenly we’re listening on the bus, pretending the lyrics were written specifically for us. Some of the best songs come from having something you cannot quite say to someone in person. Maybe that is why we are so interested in the people behind them. We want to know who the song was about, whether they heard it, and whether it hurt as much as we hope it did. 

And we keep buying tickets. Maybe we want to believe people can put the past behind them. Or maybe we just want to see what happens when they try, with excellent lighting and a live band. At some point, the farewell tour becomes a subscription service.