Farewell Concerts

It’s a familiar story. Band announces farewell tour. Tickets go on sale. Fans pack arenas thinking it’s their last chance to see the band. Merch sales go through the roof as fans want the souvenir. A few years later they’re back again. 

Farewell tours are one of the oldest scams in the music industry. They’re a means to create buzz around a tour, jack up prices, justify taking a few years off before announcing the inevitable reunion tour with even higher ticket prices.

Sometimes they’re planned. Other times there’s an impromptu attempt to rekindle the musical partnership between the artists. It’s been around quite a while too. Eric Clapton brought Cream back. The Who have been saying goodbye for decades.

Here’s a look back at some of rock’s most memorable not-so-final concerts and an MoR Revisited judgment on whether they’re Saints or Sinners.

Kiss.  “We want to go out in style with the people that put us here, the fans.” —Gene Simmons, 2000. Years Until Next Tour: One. Explanation: “Am I doing this for the money or the fans? Both, and let’s not forget I’m doing this for me.” —Paul Stanley, 2002

Saints or Sinners? Saints.  Gotta respect Paul’s honesty and integrity there.

Ozzy Osbourne (1992): “This is absolutely for real. It’s the end of the road for me. I’ve been doing it for 25 years, and I want to go home. I’ve got a house I never see. I’ve got a car I never drive. I’ve got a family I never go home to.” 

Years Until Next Tour: Three. Explanation: “Retirement sucked. It wasn’t too long before I started getting antsy and writing songs again.” —Ozzy Osbourne, 1995

Saint or Sinner? Sounds like total bollocks to me. The Ultimate Sin? Maybe.

Mötley Crüe (2014): “There is no amount of money that would ever make me do it again because I have such pride in how we’re ending it.” —Nikki Sixx

Years Until Next Tour: Six. Explanation: “Mötley Crüe are the band best known for making the rules has destroyed their cessation of touring contract in true Mötley Crüe fashion, by literally blowing it up.”

Saints or Sinners? Even though the explanation is “on brand”, you cant trust a thing the Crue says. Sinners.

Judas Priest (2011): “It’s not exactly the end of the band; it’s just the fact that we won’t really be doing any more world tours. In general, this is probably the last chance you’ll get to see Priest live.” —Glenn Tipton, 2011. Years Until Next Tour: Two

Explanation: “We, uh, lied. It’s pretty arduous out there — almost two years, the last one, playing two-and-a-half hours every night, four or five shows a week. But we enjoyed every second of it. we just got so enthused with the new album and everything that we put some dates in, and we’ll see where it goes from there.” —Glenn Tipton, 2013

Saints or Sinners? Again we respect the honesty here. Also I fucking love Priest. Saints in Hell? You bet!

Lynyrd Skynyd (1977) took the stage at South Carolina’s Greenville Memorial Auditorium just two days after the release of ‘Street Survivors.’ Tragedy struck as they flew to the next stop when their plane crashed, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines. The surviving members and original guitarist Ed King eventually reunited in 1987, with Johnny Van Zant taking his brother’s place as the frontman. Skynyrd continued, even after all of its founders passed away.

Saints or Sinners? Frankly coming back from a disaster like that is heroic.  Saints. 

The Eagles imploded in front of everybody in Long Beach, Calif in 1980. Tensions between Glenn Frey and Don Felder had actually been growing even before the concert.  Words were exchanged and threats made onstage. After the show, Felder smashed his guitar, walked out, got in a limo and was gone. The band was dormant until the Hell Freezes Over tour in 1994. 

Saints or Sinners? You can’t deny the humour in the title of that reunion tour but I remember the ticket prices were ridiculous. Sinners.

The Who (in 1982) gave their pre-announced farewell performance at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. They reunited in 1985 for Live Aid and again in 1988 for the Brit Awards. A full-scale tour followed in 1989, after which they again called it quits again. Well, not really: They were lured back out in 1996 and regularly toured thereafter, mounting yet another farewell tour in 2015. Only, not really. More shows followed. 

Saints or Sinners? Probably the worst offenders at this reunion lark but it gave me the chance to see them live and it was fucking brilliant. Saints.

The ever-combustible Guns N’ Roses hit the road in early 1991 for the ‘Use Your Illusion’ tour, where they played to stadium-sized crowds. Poor internal relations coupled with varying degrees of drug use proved to be a lethal combination. Axl Rose fired Gilby Clarke after a 1993 show in Buenos Aires, replacing the guitarist who replaced Izzy Stradlin before the tour began. Then fellow founders Slash and Duff McKagan departed. 

Eight years later, Rose emerged with a new version of Guns N’ Roses, featuring himself as the only original member. He wouldn’t get back together with Slash and McKagan for a hugely successful reunion until 2016.

Saints or Sinners? If the post ‘Use Your Illusion’ music had been spectacular no one would have given a shit. But it wasn’t. Axl’s a Sinner, the rest of the band are Saints.