Tommy is a fifty-something former pop star. He has lost everything and now lives with his elderly mum in South London. When he meets Natalie, a PR guru, he sees his chance to resurrect his career. With the help of amateur songwriter, Max, they set out to make an album. This is the story of unfinished business and new beginnings.

 

In short, this is a comeback story. There have been many cases in the past of huge musical comebacks, let’s see if you can remember any of these!

 

 

Elvis Presley, in the 1968 Comeback Special 

 

 

It's odd to think that Elvis had a rough patch in his career... between 1960 and 1968, Elvis stuck to the army and then shipped off to Hollywood filming movies and staying off the stage, but every movie he released made less money. The changing music scene turned him off coming back (what with the Beatles jumping out of nowhere) but despite this, he did return, and he did so in true Elvis style! This special went down in history for his jaw-dropping performance! Who doesn’t love Elvis…

 

 

Green Day, American Idiot

 

 

Green Day first hit our CD players with the 1994 release of Dookie, which grounded them into the punk-rock history books. But their next few albums just didn’t hit the bar… until 2004, when they released the hugely successful American Idiot. They reinvented themselves with a political vein and awesome punk rock theme. It was wonderful, it had a new age of kid rockers dying their hair black, purchasing bright green striped socks and saying phrases like ‘IT’S NOT A PHASE MOM’ as they smudged a thick line of black under their eyes. They… they were the good days.

 

 

 David Bowie, The Next Day

 

 

If you’re not a hard-core Bowie fan, you’ll struggle to name any of his works from the late 90’s to the 2000’s. As avid Stardust fans ourselves, even we will admit we weren’t the biggest fan of his later work. And we were pretty worried for a while that was going to be it with Bowie. We were just going to have to rely on his extensive back catalogue to get our kicks. But the duke in a shiny suit didn’t disappoint. For 10 years Bowie disappeared from the limelight, and then BAM, The Next Day happened. A beauty. And continued a few years later in 2016 with his goodbye album Blackstar, which is just the epitome of musical art. You did well, David.   

 


Pixies, Indie Cindy

 

 

1993, the year it ended. Pixies went their separate ways. But there was a serious demand for a reform; understandably so. 1999 made any average guy aware of them thanks to the use of their hit song Where is my Mind in Fight Club. So they did! Indie Cindy came about. Now… this is a very hit and miss record; musical marmite shall we say. We’ll be there first to admit that we were pretty late on the Pixies scene. And though we were aware of the hits like Here Comes my Man and Hey, we never really indulged fully. We loved Indie Cindy, loved it. We’d even go as far to say that it was our favourite album by them. Some called it mediocre, we called it magic.  

 

 

Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy

 

 

Another controversial return. Who takes 15 years to write an album? Axel Rose apparently. It cost more than 13 million to create and it lost a hell of a lot. Not a lot of people liked it –so here we are being all controversial again. We loved it. IRS being our favourite of the bunch. Yes, it’s not what we would call ‘typical’ Guns N’ Roses, but if you judge it as a stand-alone album, it’s wonderful. Yeah, it’s no November Rain, but it’s certainly worth a listen.

 

Going back to Robert Brown’s new release. A comeback story can go two ways, it can make that individual a fortune, or it can firmly stamp ‘expired’ on their forehead. Which one will it be in A Song for the Silence, read it to find out!