In ‘80s fashion, Bangles return with reunion tour

Lisa Ferguson

Friday, Sept. 15, 2000 | 9:24 a.m.

What: Bangles

When: 8 p.m. today.

Where: Mandalay Bay's House of Blues.

Tickets: $23, $28, $33.

Information: Call 632-7600.

A lot of things can change in 11 years. That's a fact not lost on Vicki Peterson.

Luckily, she says, the changes were for the better in the case of the Bangles, the '80s pop group that enjoyed such hits as "Manic Monday," "Eternal Flame" and the infectious ditty "Walk Like An Egyptian."

Peterson played lead guitar for the "girl band," alongside Susanna Hoffs, bassist Michael Steele and Peterson's drummer-sister, Debbi Peterson, before the foursome parted ways in 1989, seemingly at the height of their popularity.

But just as so many things from the '80s have resurfaced -- dig out those giant earrings and rubber bracelets, folks -- so have the Bangles. The group, featuring the original lineup, performs tonight at Mandalay Bay's House of Blues.

The women return as wives and mothers (Hoffs, 41, has two children; Debbi Peterson wed and is the mother of a toddler son), having learned about themselves (Steele moved into a 100-year-old Northern California farmhouse where she writes, paints and records) and, in the case of Vicki Peterson, having grown as a musician.

"It's sort of strange and sort of wonderful," 42-year-old Peterson, who wrote many of the Bangles' songs, says of the group's reunion tour. It officially kicked off Wednesday in San Diego (though the band played a preview gig earlier this month at a Los Angeles club).

Having lived "a very different kind of life" for the past decade, she calls it "a return to a part of myself that is true and real, and yet I was wary about it."

In fact, it has been reported that she was the holdout among the women when plans for a reunion were initially discussed. "Between Michael and I, we're sort of wrestling for the title, but we were both skeptical," she says.

"I had many reservations, and one was I didn't want anything to happen to sort of taint the legacy ... I didn't want to come back together and be something that wasn't worthy of us or do something for the wrong reasons or do something that looked like we were just trying to make house payments or whatever."

And with good reason. Following the split, Peterson embarked down another musical path -- one she's rather proud of -- with the Continental Drifters, a New Orleans group that plays "everything from folk (music) to Celtic to Cajun to rock to pop."

She also collaborated with Susan Cowsill, of the '60s group the Cowsills, in the Drifters and as half of a duo called the Psycho Sisters.

With the Drifters, she says, "It's just this free-flowing kind of a situation where everything is not pressurized. With the Bangles we had to kind of struggle to do it for the music because everyone was trying to get us to do it for other reasons. With the Drifters that's not even a question ... We're not rock stars, we're just this band."

She even went on the road with another '80s girl group, the Go-Go's, filling in for guitarist Charlotte Caffey during her maternity leave.

Finally Peterson agreed to bangle once again. In conversations with the other band members, she says, "I just let them know what I would feel good about."

They started writing music again. "Then we had the opportunity to write a song ("Get the Girl") in 20 minutes and get it on the soundtrack of the 'Austin Powers' sequel," she explains. (Hoffs is married to the hit film's director, Jay Roach.)

Shortly after, the Bangles were invited to perform at the Hollywood Bowl in a tribute to Beatles producer Sir George Martin. "That was something I couldn't turn down," she says.

Peterson reports that so far, so good.

"There's been a lot of thoughtfulness and a lot of reflection and a lot of personal growth and just life ... One of the best things about returning to the world of Bangledom is that it's not the only thing in our lives. And so that makes it special and yet not exclusionary."

Earlier this year the group was profiled in an installment of VH1's "Behind the Music" biography series. It was a relatively tame offering compared with the wild-and-wooly exploits of some of the show's previous subjects.

Peterson says she used to joke, while with the Drifters, that the show would never profile the Bangles.

"Because there wasn't enough sex or drugs or amputations involved. But there we were. I think they saw a more personal story."

Another thing about the Bangles has changed since the '80s: the music the band plays. Oh, count on hearing the aforementioned standards that may have undergone some tweaking to suit the bandmates.

"Manic Monday," penned by songwriter Christopher (aka the purple enigma, Prince) is an example.

"We've rewritten the bridge a little bit," Peterson reports. "We've taken some liberties, we've performed a few musical non sequiturs -- I'm not gonna tell you what they are.

"We've been able to sort of lighten up the stuff that felt weird to us, so that way it makes it palatable for us and kind of fun for people to hear something different. The stuff we don't like we're just not gonna do."

Relax: The "don't play" list does not include "Egyptian." In fact, Peterson these days defends the song, penned by songwriter Liam Hilliard Sternberg. It was a staple of the decade and, like other tunes, is enjoying a new life on '80s-friendly radio stations.

"It's a very clever song," she says, "and it's a song I never would have written."