Above is a photoshop of what could have been had the original Smashing Pumpkins lineup reunited in 2018.
James Iha has shared the first photo from rehearsals for The Smashing Pumpkins’ Shiny and Oh So Bright tour. Touring bassist Jack Bates is featured in the photo. Iha wrote, “@smashingpumpkins rehearsals, having a crazy time (apologies to Jeff who was working on his effects at the time).”
Bates plays with his father Peter Hook from Joy Division and New Order in his band Peter Hook and the Light, and previously toured with the Pumpkins in 2015 on The End Times tour with Marilyn Manson. Fans originally expected the original Smashing Pumpkins lineup to reunite for a tour in 2018, but this didn’t come to be, as in January Billy Corgan informed D’arcy Wretzky that he had picked Bates to join the tour instead of her, and only offered her a small guest role like Steven Adler had on Guns N’ Roses’ Not In This Lifetime tour.
D’arcy recounted and paraphrased the conversation she had with Corgan where he revealed he picked Bates for the tour in a February 2018 Alternative Nation interview.
“Then the last time I spoke to him when I made him tell me, I said: ‘Do I have a shot at being the bass player?’ Because he still wanted me involved ‘in anyway I wanted to be, as much as little as I wanted to be involved. Right?’
‘Well, I can’t speak for James and Jimmy.’
‘I’m not asking you to speak for James and Jimmy. You, just you, would you let me play bass for the tour, to be the bass player for the whole tour?’
‘Well, we’ve got Jack Bates.’
‘I don’t know who that is.’
‘Well he’s a really great bass player.’
‘That’s besides the point, if I did everything more than perfectly, if I crushed it?’
He’s like, ‘Haha, you think you can play bass better than Jack Bates?’
I’m like, ‘Just for argument’s sake, let’s say I did.’
I ignored that slag. ‘Would you let me play, is there a chance?’
Finally he said, ‘No.’”
