Most all major bands reassemble at least once for a comeback tour. These bands reunited, too—for one concert.
Pink Floyd
The band—or what was left of it, after the departure of multiple founding members over clashing egos and constant infighting—quietly disbanded after it wrapped up its 1994 tour. It would take a good cause to ever reunite Pink Floyd. On July 2, 2005, the Live 8 concert took place in London’s Hyde Park. Organizer Bob Geldof (who starred in the movie version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall) asked the main four members of the band to reunite to play the anti-poverty awareness benefit, and they did, including Roger Waters, who’d left the band in 1987. Pink Floyd’s set is the highlight of the show, but that was that—the band turned down a $130 million offer to go on tour.
Led Zeppelin
After drummer John Bonham died in 1980, Led Zeppelin broke up immediately. The surviving members have all regrouped twice, each time for just one night. At the 1985 Live Aid concert (organized by Bob Geldof), the band—Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones—played a set of just three songs. It didn’t go well—singer Plant’s voice was hoarse after a long solo tour, guitarist Page couldn’t hear himself play due to a broken onstage monitor, and sit-in drummer Phil Collins frequently fell behind trying to replicate Bonham’s intricate drumming. The surviving three members reunited once more in December 2007. They played at the O2 Arena in London at a benefit concert in tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, Led Zeppelin’s longtime label. Sitting in on drums this time: John Bonham’s son, Jason Bonham.
ABBA
The four members of ABBA broke up in 1982, and hadn’t played together since, even once turning down a $1 billion offer for a reunion tour. In 2016, the group attended a private party in their native Stockholm, Sweden, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of members and chief songwriters Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson’s first meeting. Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstadon joined them on stage. After some conversation, all four broke into an a capella version of their 1980 hit “Me and I.” Ulvaeus said it was no big deal. “We took a break in ‘82, and it was meant to be a break.”