Well, they were - and the one-tune Aussie rockers are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bands doggedly soldiering on with albums and gigs to rabid indifference, years after the public thought they'd shuffled off this mortal coil. Here are 10 who won't take "No way! You're still bothering?" for an answer.
Embrace
Like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, just when you think Embrace are dead they come right back at you, wide-eyed and wailing. It was Chris Martin who reanimated their corpse - writing 'Gravity' for them in 2004 - and now they're primed to return once more, six years after we last heard a peep.'The Last Gas' - big tune, even if it is 14 years old
Arrested Development
Good old Arrested Development - wowed us all with the conscious hip-hop of 'Tennessee', 'Mr Wendal' and 'People Everyday' back in 1992, then disappeared without sullying their name, right? Nope. But for a late-90s hiatus, they've stuck around ever since and released their sixth album 'Strong' in 2010. We're sure their mums loved it.Travis
No really, Travis still exist. They even managed the improbable feat of making the Top 20 in 2008 with 'Ode To J. Smith', an album which literally no one - not even the people who bought it - had ever heard of. They're working on their seventh album right now, for some reason.
The Cardigans
It's been seven years since they released an album - 2005's 'Super Extra Gravity' - but Sweden's Cardigans are still a going concern. They've had one of those "hiatus" things, giving Nina Persson a chance to air her A Camp persona and nearly save a dreadful Manic Street Preachers song, and giving the rest of the band time to stare at the wall, but now they're back for some summer dates.
Stereo MCs
They ruled 1992 with 'Connected', 'Step It Up' and any number of other weed-fuelled hip-hop tracks about expanding your mind, then they ruled... sitting on your arse for nine years before easing out 2001's 'Deep Down And Dirty'. Since then they've been astonishingly prolific, releasing three albums in 11 years.Gomez
I know, we're blowing your mind now, aren't we? Twelve years after that Mercury Prize win, and just under 12 years after everyone stopped giving a monkey's, Southport bluesmen Gomez are still singing with that little growl in their voices. Their seventh album 'Whatever's On Your Mind' almost made the Top 64 last year.Electric Six
Nine years ago zany Detroit glam rockers Electric Six amused everyone for at least five minutes with 'Danger! High Voltage' and 'Gay Bar'. Seven (SEVEN) albums later they haven't taken the hint. Not even 'Gay Bar Two' on 2008's 'Flashy' could reignite those LOLs but the 'Six struggle on.The Orb
They - sort of - invented ambient house in the early 90s and even scored a No.1 album with 'U.F.Orb' in 1992, but there have been no hits (singles or albums) for a decade. This hasn't stopped Dr Alex Paterson and whichever-partner-it-is-now noodling away. They're probably still playing the extended 12-year version of 'Blue Room'.
Depeche Mode
Like the vampire Dave Gahan resembles, Depeche Mode will not be vanquished. Even a stake through the heart would probably be used as a slightly seedy percussive instrument on their next album. Their 13th, since you ask. After nostalgic side-project VCMG with former Moder Vince Clarke, Martin Gore is back in the chair for a spot of co-production and deceptively innocent crooning.
Black Kids
It's only been four years since rapturously received debut album 'Partie Traumatic' but - admit it - you haven't thought about them for three-and-a-half. Brother and sister Reggie and Ali Youngblood and the rest made hay that summer but then... nothing. They're still working on that Genuinely Difficult Second Album.We wish we had room for Bran Van 3000, Mudhoney, Therapy?, THE BLOODHOUND GANG, Turin Brakes, Boards Of Canada and The Bravery. And that's not all. The Bluetones and t.A.T.u. split up last year. LAST YEAR.
