If you were there that Friday evening in 1997 when the reunited New
Edition came to town and performed at the long-gone arena known as The
Summit, there’s a good chance you were disappointed by the whole
affair. Apart from the group taking an hour and a half to start the
show, one of them, Ricky Bell, was absent. So, during the part of the
show where the members split up and went into medleys of their
solo/side projects, that meant no Bell Biv DeVoe. Now, Bobby Brown,
Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill are back and have taken BBD out of the
equation altogether. Calling themselves the Heads of State — this
tour is a warm-up before they get in the studio and reportedly record a
new album under the new name — the three main troubadours of the
definitive ’80s boy band (sorry, Menudo!) will most likely do all their
New Edition and solo hits, without those other three guys hogging the
spotlight. Hopefully it won’t take 90 minutes to bring their asses
onstage this time, though.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.