HOLLYWOOD — If you've ever wondered what happened to Flock of Seagulls or Frankie Goes to Hollywood or Kajagoogoo or Berlin, obviously you were around during the '80s.
But if you really want to know what happened to them, VH-1 will show you those groups and six others in "Bands Reunited," which premieres Monday at 11 p.m. and runs for 10 consecutive nights.
This isn't just a retrospective, however. Host Aamer Haleem and the show's staff contact former members of the various groups — by bursting in on them unannounced — and try to talk them into meeting their ex-bandmates for a one-night performance that is included in the show.
Haleem said "a lot" of the band members were openly hostile when first contacted. On more then one occasion, the show's producers "would all say to me afterward, 'We thought you were going to get punched. We're surprised you survived that.' "
And that was easy compared to tracking down some of these people. Some of them are still in music, but others are not. People from the four bands already mentioned, as well as Klymaxx, Dramarama, Romeo Void, The Alarm and Squeeze, include an investigator for the D.A.'s office, a computer technician, a security chief, a bulldozer operator, an insurance salesman, and even a llama farmer.
"The toughest was probably Paul Rutherford, with Frankie Goes to Hollywood. . . . We found him in New Zealand, finally, two days before we had to get them together," Haseem said. Jez Strode "denied knowing anything about Kajagoogoo. He denied being Jez Strode.
"Some of them just don't want anything to do with their past and would just sort of say no, flat out." Others were eventually convinced, despite lingering personal conflicts.
"Wait till you see that Flock of Seagulls episode," Haleem said. "It's going to be really special because there's a couple of things going on there. There's the Score brothers, Ally and Mike, who hadn't seen each other in four years until we got to them. And their guitarist, Paul Reynolds, who was a teenager when he went on tour with these guys and, unfortunately, fell apart — started drinking a lot, had a nervous breakdown."
More common are bandmates who had a serious falling out and have lingering bitterness. Monday's premiere reunites the members of Berlin, including Terri Nunn and John Crawford, whose battles over the direction of the group caused, not only its demise but the demise of their personal relationship. Which is why it took VH-1 to bring them back together.
"Being in a band, it's either going to be intense love or massive hatred," Nunn said. "There's no middle. And with him, it went that way when we were together for 13 years. I loved him, I hated him. It was never neutral. So this is what it took.
"I mean, he's been in my life longer than both of the guys in my marriages. And it was like a divorce. . . . It's that intense."
Despite the band members' initial reluctance, "Bands Reunited" seems to have gone a long way toward healing their old wounds. "For me, being onstage with (Crawford) . . . was a healing experience, to get to see him again and say thank you after all these years," Nunn said. "To be able to say to him things that I didn't want to die not saying. He changed my life."
Crawford agreed. But agreeing to go back onstage after years away from music creates a whole 'nother level of angst in "Bands Reunited." "If you watch me . . . I have my head down the whole time, because I was so concerned with screwing up," Crawford said. "I haven't been playing (synthesizers), and it was very hard to do it again."
"I realized that I need to actually put the Berlin CDs in the player and drag a keyboard out from under my bed and see if I could remember the stuff," said band member Dave Diamond. "Afterward, Terri mentioned, laughing, saying that it's got to be in the DNA. It just all comes back to you."
All that angst and no money — band members weren't paid for their performances. "They did it as artists," Haleem said. "And as corny as it may sound, they did it for the love of music."
Was it just a one-shot? Will Berlin work together again? "I don't know," Nunn said. "We haven't gotten that far. I don't know if they want to play, period."
"It pumped me up a bit about the music," Crawford said. "I just had a blast. It was just great to see these guys. It had nothing to do with the fame or wanting to do the show. I didn't really care about the (performance) part of it. I was excited to see Terri, (and I) love this guy. That was wonderful.
"And when I got back, it was so much fun, I sort of started wanting to write (music) again, and that hadn't happened to me in about 20 years. . . . So I bought a little recorder and I've been out in my garage writing music again. . . . So I've done it, and everyone is quite surprised. And my wife wants to shoot me, because I'm out there six or seven hours at a time while she's changing diapers and making dinner."
So Berlin's may not be an ending, but it is happy. Which isn't necessarily the case with all the reunions.
"Not all of them ended as happily as we wanted," Haleem said. "That's actually the cool part of the series. Because if they all just lived happily every after and reunited, it wouldn't be too dramatic. And, trust me, there's a lot of drama in this show."
If you watch
What: "Bands Reunited"
When: Monday, 11 p.m.
Where: VH1 (check your cable/satellite channel guide)
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com