It was to be the concert event of the '90s, but the New
Edition Reunion tour, by most accounts, has fallen WAY short of
expectations... Late starts and short performances seem to be the
order of the tour, which is now in its second month... Still the guys
continue to impress on the charts... New Edition is back and better
than ever, that is at least, according to many of their fans...
The group kicked off their reunion album with their number
one single "Hit Me Off," and are now back in the top ten with the
Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis produced track "I'm Still In Love With You"
and the "B" side cut "You Don't Have To Worry" which is also on
the charts... "Still In Love" has become such a popular cut for the
group, that they've re-recorded it in Spanish as "Siempre Tu'."
Group member Ralph Tresvant says the secret to their renewed
success is that their sound has never changed... "It's because everybody in the group, it's the same
characters," he says. "The same characters that are in the group
have been there, it's just now they've been exposed through their
solo careers in a way that when you see us together now, you see
what was there before but never got utilized to their fullest abilities... Now with this album we were forced to use everybody's abilities... It was just a matter of the producers incorporating what everybody
looked at as individuals back into one New Edition sound again."
The New Edition sound may be back in full effect, but their
concert performances have left audiences with a lot less than they
bargained for with the New Edition "Home Again" reunion tour... Instead of dazzling choreography and state-of-the-art set designs,
concert goers have been met with 2-hour delays, shortened
performances, over-modulated tracks -- and in New York and Orlando, audiences got an eyeful of Bobby Brown's behind... His little
display in N.Y. didn't sit too well with wife Whitney Houston, who
reportedly left the concert in a huff with daughter Bobbi Kristina...Yet
Bobby contends all the rumors of their troubled marriage are totally
untrue... And he blames the press for spreading lies... "Basically they are trying to break the biggest black couple up that surfaced since Ozzie and Harriet," says Brown (Ozzie and
Harriet are white, duh! Don't you mean, Ossie and Ruby, Bobby?)
"It's okay with me, they can do what they want to... But our love
is stronger than words and ink and paper... I don't look for the
bad in anyone, and I wish people wouldn't look for the bad in me
or my wife... "I'm unhappy with them telling all the lies that they tell... The bullsh*t about me cheating on my wife, that's like some
ludicrous sh*t... I wouldn't of gotten married if that's what I
wanted to do... I married the most beautiful woman in the world,
first and foremost... Now I must be some kind of crazy nut to try
and mess something like that up." Whether Bobby wants to admit it or not, he does have a few
problems -- and an over inflated ego seems to be one of them... As
we reported in an earlier EUR, prior to the tour Bobby spouted off
about what a great performer he was, telling us he was going to
kick Johnny Gill's you-know-what if Johnny dared to follow him in
the solo portions of the concert... But as it turns out, Johnny does
go on after Bobby -- and has actually received more accolades for
his performances... While New Edition's tour is scheduled to end
on March, there are talks to have the tour extended for a few more
months... HEAR more from New Edition and the music from their "Home
Again" CD on this weekend's hour long edition of RadioScope...
January 27th...'97...EUR Article On New Edition...January 10th...'97...RollingStone Article On New Edition's Madison Square Garden Concert...December 27th...'96...New Edition Reunites After Years Of Solo Projects...July 23rd...'97...New Edition - Second Chapter...September 11th'96...MTV Article: That Was Then, This Is Now...
