What is it with comebacks?

What does it say about us as audiences? What does it say about the authors and musicians, the creators and artists we love, when after a decade or four in solitude, they decide to triumphantly come back and try to nurse cold embers into a blazing fire?

Most of the time it’s for money. And most of the time, it’s a flop.

My Dad is a huge fan of the band, Cream. Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker. We grew up with their music blasting around the house. Apparently I’m named after Jack Bruce!

But Cream broke up in 1968. Dad never saw them live. So when the band announced a reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005, we all assumed Dad would do anything to go.

‘Go on!’ We said. ‘We’ll remortgage the house, if that’s what it takes.’

But Dad decided not to go. And whether or not this is true, he gave me a really interesting reason.

‘I don’t want to spoil the image I have of my favourite band.’

I think about Harper Lee. She published To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the most loved and influential novels of the 20th Century. And then she went quiet. For the best part of 55 years she said she wouldn’t publish another book. That was, at least, until 2015, when her publisher announced to fanfare that it would soon release Harper Lee’s ‘Go Set a Watchman.’

To be fair, this wasn’t a pure comeback as such. The official line was that the book was a previously undiscovered manuscript, although that seemed a bit cute. Some people reckoned Harper Lee had been manipulated or taken advantage of. Either way, Go Set a Watchman was no Mockingbird. It seemed a shame.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I’ve just endured ABBA’s new album. Their first in forty years. And although I’m very much of the opinion that any one person’s music tastes are as legitimate as anyone else, ABBA’s Voyage is... awful. Just awful. You’re free to make up your own mind but I really cannot foresee even the most die-hard fans truly preferring ‘When You Danced With Me’ to ‘Dancing Queen,’ or preferring ‘I Can Be That Woman’ to ‘Man After Midnight.’

This is the problem with comebacks. They give you a rush of nostalgia when they’re first announced, but they almost never recreate the magic, the je ne sais quoi of the past. I can only think of one recent example of a production that’s turned out better than the original. Funnier, smarter, more authentic.

Bravo, Celebrity Treasure Island.

It might be the best reality television New Zealand has ever made.

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