Farewell The Maccabees, Wild Beasts, Stornoway and HIM…
As Peaches ended her set with a bout of no-holds-barred simulated dancer sex, it fell to Wild Beasts to follow it with their falsetto synth rock. Tough slot...
With Wild Beasts deciding to “leave this orbit” next year like a helium-indie Cassini, music in 2017 is turning into a virtual Adele album of break-ups. Under the radar, we’ve bid a fond farewell to instrumental hip-hop duo Friendzone and US boyband Mindless Behaviour, and it’s been a lonely Uber to Dumper Central for Las Vegas’ The Cab. Metal has taken a beating, with Amoral, Hail Of Bullets, Heaven’s Basement, Textures, Xerath and (sniff) Spawn Of Possession all falling into the grasping claws of eternity. And South Korean girlband Wonder Girls have done a runner before their day-glo kiddie pop vibe is dampened somewhat by peninsula-wide nuclear conflagration.
But what of the bigger names? Well, we lost A Tribe Called Quest, Mobb Deep, Audioslave and Linkin Park due to the deaths of various members, but here are the bands we’ve consciously decided to call it a day in 2017. Long may they reissue, repackage and reform in five years’ time for a hefty festival cheque, when us ungrateful bastards finally appreciate them.
Black Sabbath
Not averse to the lengthy hiatus and the cash-in reunion, Black Sabbath disbanded at the end of The End – their final tour which wrapped up in their hometown of Birmingham in February. Although Tommy Iommi has kept the crypt door open to one-off shows in the future. Maybe an album. Who knows, maybe another farewell tour…
Chairlift
Having never quite lived up to their initial hype, and with founder member Aaron Pfenning leaving to start a solo career back in 2010, Colorado’s Chairlift finally stalled last December and split after a final tour at the start of 2017.
The Dillinger Escape Plan
Most famous outside hardcore circles for the time frontman Greg Puciato shat in a towel and threw it at the crowd at Reading 2002, TDEP finally hit the fan this year, having reached “a thematic conclusion to the band” after their sixth album ‘Dissociation’. They almost had a tragic end too, when a truck smashed into their tour bus in Poland on the final tour, but luckily escaped unharmed.