They haven’t got any new material ready and have barely played live outside of their homeland in recent times.
Hence, it’s not surprising Reef bass player Jack Bessant has summarised the UK rock group’s Australian tour in June in one definitive statement.
“We’re really excited to be coming over there and playing some rock music,” he said.
“It’s just gonna be lots of cool-sounding rock ‘n’ roll and playing all our best songs, so it should be really good fun.”
The 90’s rock sensations – best known for their hit Place Your Hands – are making the visit down under after their former manager familiarised himself with our surroundings and suggested they pay a visit.
“The guy who managed us back in ‘the day’ got us back together over in the UK for a couple of tours … then he moved to Australia and said we should come out here and do some shows,” Bessant said.
“We haven’t been doing anything with Reef for a little while, so we thought it’d be a great idea to come play the classics and all that.”
The tour also coincides with the release of a super-special box set, which contains nine CDs, a DVD and other goodies stretching the band’s entire career, including a replica of their infamous first demo – the Purple Tape sessions.
Bessant said it was pretty interesting to see all of the band’s work bundled up into a box.
“We’re really proud of it – it’s all our work collected together, b-sides, demos, videos and the Purple Tape – it’s all remastered and looks really cool,” he said.
It’s also likely to be the only box set they release, as Bessant says the band has no current plans to write or record any new material at present.
However, he hasn’t completely ruled out the possibility of doing so one day – if things happen naturally.
“We don’t really live around each other, and with a natural band you’ve got to be rockin’ out and hooking up like a real band does, and get jamming and writing together in the room,” he said.
“It would be a bit of an effort and the wrong way round if we were to try to do it now.
“I’m not ruling it out, but time goes by and you do stuff that’s relevant to the time … and we’ve all been writing songs in different ways and had different bands going on.”
Reef play in Fremantle, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in June. For all the details click here. You can also order their box set – 93/03: The Ultimate Collectors Box Set from Amazon.com.
