There’s a fragile alchemy to a band – a blend of musical affinity, shared ambition, friendship and rivalry – that often transforms the project into something greater than the sum of its parts. But that mix is inherently unstable – the magic doesn’t usually last for long, and things hardly ever end well: eventually somebody gets kicked out. Being in a band is all about trust, until it’s all about betrayal.
The Rejects offers a new history of pop told from the perspective of the ones who got left behind, often on the very brink of the big time. Those early sackings are sometimes equivalent to the jettisoning of ballast – getting rid of a member who might otherwise hold you back. “Musical relationships are often forged in youth,” writes Jamie Collinson, “and a breaking of them appears emblematic of a terrible, adult hardening.”
