The London Beat London, Ontario’s stream of consciousness
Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins are coming to Budweiser Gardens. Today, the popular alt-rock 90’s band added three Canadian dates to their upcoming reunion tour called the Shiny And Oh So Bright tour – London, Calgary and Edmonton. It will be the band’s first tour in nearly 20 years with founding members Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and James Iha, along with long time guitarist Jeff Schroeder.
The Pumpkins also confirmed today, that alt-rock band Metric will be the supporting act.
Not surprisingly, bass guitarist D’arcy Wretzky will not be in the line-up.
When Billy Corgan announced his plan to reunite the original line-up of Smashing Pumpkins for a tour back in February, any hopes from fans that Wretzky would end a two ddecade hiatus and be a part of it, were quickly dashed when she gave her first interview in 20 years to Alternative Nation. Wretzky had already sowed the seeds of dismay on social media leaking screenshots of text exchanges between her and Corgan before the reunion tour was even announced; but the explosive Alternative Nation interview pulled no punches, and left little doubt that Wretzky would clearly not be participating in the reunion tour.
It was a fantastic piece of rock ‘n roll ping pong.
Corgan towing a corporate line, “She has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred.”
Wretzky clawing at eyes, “He says that he’s invited me to come out and play for all of these things, which is a complete lie. He’s never invited me to anything,” she said in the interview.
The whole interview is worth reading if you haven’t seen it. It’s the sort of angry rhetoric that makes rock and roll what it is. Wretzky raves about a lot of things, including that in her opinion, Jack Bates was always going to be the bassist on this tour, and she was only ever going to be a ‘special guest’.
“It took me a long time to not care, and not hate him. Now I don’t hate him, I’m back to where I was at the beginning. I laugh at his antics, and I’m going to go about my own life, but I don’t feel sorry for him. I do think he needs to get an MRI though.”
Wether you side with the ‘power wielding front man’ or the ‘underdog bassist,’ it makes for good rock and roll.
If that’s the way the 39-city tour is going to be launched, then with or without Wretzky, the Smashing Pumpkin’s first ever appearance at Budweiser Gardens promises to be a great show for Londoners.
The tour kicks off in Glendale, Arizona on July 12th, and coincides with the 30th anniversary of the band’s formation. It will feature material from their first five albums: Gish, Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore, and Machina. The Chicago-based band found mainstream success with Siamese Dream, a 4x multi-platinum release, and then of course Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was a smash hit in 1995, reaching a whopping 10x multi-platinum level.
Today’s announcement comes on the heels of Corgan teasing the new track “Solara” yesterday on his Instagram account:
“Solara” will be one of eight tracks on a comeback album, that is “coming soon”.
Tickets are $92.50, $122.50, and $152.50, and go on sale Monday, May 14th at 10am. They are available online at www.budweisergardens.com, or at the Box Office at Budweiser Gardens. They are also available at BooksPlus, and the Fanshawe College Biz Booth.
