Smashing Pumpkins Will Tour With Classic Lineup Minus Bassist D’Arcy Wretzky

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

The Smashing Pumpkin’s frontman Billy Corgan has spent year creating excitement and mystery over a possible reunion tour. He’s even talked about an album. The tour, however, was supposed to include all of the band’s original members; D’Arcy Wretzky, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin and Corgan. However, Wretzky isn’t included in the new tour.

A photograph Corgan posted of himself with Iha and Chamberlin in a recording studio conspicuously left D’Arcy out. D’Arcy told BlastEcho that the Smashing Pumpkins “decided to go with a different bass player” for their tour.

“My apologies to all of the Smashing Pumpkins fans out there who are excited about this oncoming reunion tour of the original members of the band. I know this is a huge disappointment for me, as well, but it’s not going to happen,” she wrote in a text message sent to BlastEcho.

Corgan and Wretkzy, though friends, had an often combative relationship during their time together in the band. Corgan told reporters that he fired her “for being a mean-spirited drug addict who refused to get help,” after she’d been arrested for trying to buy cocaine. it is unclear why she’s been left out of the tour; Corgon responded warmly when Wretzky reached out to him in 2016.

The Smashing Pumpkins’ original lineup produced ten studio albums together. They broke out in 1993 with Siamese Dream, which sold 21 million copies. Corgan wanted The Smashing Pumpkins’ sound to reject the punk rock elements of their contemporaries, and to embrace more progressive, dreamy and sometimes gothic sounds. Corgan’s whispery voice and Iha’s layered guitar are some of the group’s signature characteristics. D’Arcy sang on many of the song’s that she played bass on and co-wrote their hit, “Daughter.” Corgan might reveal more information on why the group did not invite D’Arcy in the coming days.

Photography Credit: Raymond Flotat

Conrad Brittenham: My name is Conrad. I am one year out of college and pursuing a career in writing and journalism. I studied literature at Bard College, in the Hudson Valley. My thesis focuses on the literal and figurative uses of disease in Herman Melville’s most famous works, including Moby-Dick, Benito Cereno, and Billy Budd. My literary research on the topic of disease carried over to more historical findings about how humans tend to deal with and think about the problem of virus and infectivity. I’ve worked at a newspaper and an ad agency, as well as for the past year at an after school program, called The Brooklyn Robot Foundry. All of these positions have influenced the way I approach my work, my writing, and the way I interact with others in a professional setting. I’ve lived in London and New York, and have always had a unique perspective on international cultural matters. I am an avid drawer and a guitarist, but I would like to eventually work for a major news publication as an investigative journalist.
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