Page: gets his Mojo
The Mojo magazine awards are the ultimate therapy test for feuding rock bands of a certain age.
In 2008 the Specials were awkwardly reassembled for the first time in 27 years to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame.
Even then one member got stuck on the train and the body language between Terry Hall and Jerry Dammers explained why the latter was disinvited to the group’s lucrative reunion tour.
There was the year that a Jesus & Mary Chain reunion was confidently announced – but slightly undermined when only one of the Reid brothers, who split up after a furious onstage row, turned up and made a barbed remark about his sibling, after collecting the gong.
So what could be simpler at last night’s awards than honouring post-punk legends Teardrop Explodes, who have not shared a room let alone a stage for 28 years, since the endearingly fruitcake singer Julian Cope quit for an occasionally brilliant solo career?
Well, they waited and waited. Teardrops keyboard player David Balfe, who set up the Food record label which launched Blur, explains what happened next: “At seven o’clock I was told, ‘He’s going to be there – he likes to make an entrance.’ At eight o’clock, ”He’s going to be here.’ Then we got a text – and he’s not here.”
Julian Cope: Not turning up
Not quite the reunion that the Mojo editor had confidently predicted. Perhaps the warning signs might have been detected at a Cope gig in Bristol this week, when he told the audience that he considered the Mojo honour pretty irrelevant before launching into Out Of My Mind On Dope And Speed.
Cope will never become a reliable member of the rock establishment like the formerly devilish Jimmy Page who happily accepted his induction into the Mojo Hall of Fame. Page revealed that he has signed with IE Management, the company which looks after Robbie Williams.
A repeat of the 2007 Led Zeppelin O2 Arena reunion gig looks as far away as ever but Page, 66, said he is working actively on new musical projects with some “surprising” collaborators. Not Robbie, surely.
Kasabian, Richard Thompson, Richard Hawley, Marc Almond and Mani, representing The Stone Roses, were other worthy Mojo winners.
The magazine laid on a car to whisk superstar award presenter P Diddy from the Jonathan Ross TV studios to the Brewery in East London. He’s definitely coming, they promised. Did he turn up? What do you think.
