No Doubt and Sublime will be reuniting at this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival for the first time in years, but there's one huge supporter of the reunion they couldn't get together: Talking Heads.
Last September, festival curator and president of Goldenvoice Paul Tollett traveled to the Toronto International Film festival to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Talking Heads concert film, Stop making sense. For the first time in over 30 years, David Byrne sat down with his former bandmates Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth to discuss the film project in a live panel moderated by Spike Lee.
Tolett says Advertising sign had traveled to Toronto to discuss a possible Talking Heads appearance at Coachella and met with band members and their representatives, but that he “felt that there were no shows coming up, so I didn't make an offer.”
Tollett stressed that he never raised the issue of payment with the band and ultimately went home empty-handed. He wouldn't discuss how much he'd be willing to pay for a Coachella reunion show, though a source familiar with how much artists are paid to headline the mega-festival says the gig could have earned the group as much as $10 million.
Shortly after Tollett returned from his trip, a second offer came, this time from Live Nation. The promoter told Talking Heads he was willing to pay the band $80 million to headline six to eight festival dates and headlining slots, sources close to the group say. Talking Heads eventually turned down this offer as well. Live Nation declined to comment when asked about the offer.
Since Jane's Addiction agreed to reunite at Coachella in 2001, the Indio, California music festival has become the most popular platform for reunion concerts, featuring acts such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Pixies, Rage Against the Machine, the Specials and dozens more find a way to get back together for one more performance in the desert. But as the event ages — it's now in its 23rd year — and competition in the festival market intensifies, putting together these kinds of comeback gigs is becoming increasingly difficult.
More than two months after the Toronto Film festival in early December, Tollett found himself at the center of a controversial controversy surrounding the Sublime reunion. Mike “Cheese” Brownwho managed the Sublime group with Rome, had learned this music director Kevin Singer with the Regime Music Group had joined forces with Vandals bassist and musician-turned-executive Joe Escalade to stage an official Sublime reunion with original bassist Eric Wilson, original drummer Bud Gaugh and the late singer's Nowell's son, Jakob Nowell, on vocals.
Brown also learned that Zinger and Escalante were targeting Coachella for the band's first major reunion show, and invited Tollett to chat. Just months earlier, Tollett had closed Sublime with Rome to headline the Cali Vibes reggae festival, scheduled for this February in the band's hometown of Long Beach, California.
While Tollett and many other festival talent buyers had heard about trying to launch a Jacob Nowell reunion, at the time Brown called him, Tollett had yet to make any offers for the group, which had yet to perform live. together. A test gig was finally held weeks later as part of a charity event, and by the end of December, Sublime with Rome and the new Sublime had reached an agreement. Brown and Sublime with Rome agreed to end the band's 13-year run after playing festivals and dates already booked for 2024, while the newly formed Sublime would prepare for its first comeback concert as a band, scheduled for April. 13 at Coachella.
No Doubt's much-discussed reunion in late December and early January will prove easier and simpler than Sublime and Talking Heads.
It was Tollett who initiated talks with Stefani's manager, Irving Azoff, for the idea. The discussion with the bandmates took longer than expected as discussions turned to the band's work outside of the reunion, but in the end, the group agreed to reunite in large part due to their long-standing relationship with Goldenvoice, who promoted some of the band's first concerts. The $10 million payday would be significant for bandmates Adrian Young, Tony Kanal and Tom Dumont, whose current band, DREAMCAR, is fronted by AFI singer Davy Havoc and has been booked to play the Cruel World festival of Goldenvoice in May.
For her part, Stefani was already booked to play Cali Vibes in February when she agreed to play Coachella. A source close to Stefani says Advertising sign don't expect a major No Doubt tour to follow the one-off reunion set, as he already has plans for the second half of the year to promote the new solo music he plans to release this summer.
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