FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SMASHING PUMPKINS: FULL CIRCLE
SUBJECT: SMASHING PUMPKINS' One-Hour Farewell Special
WHEN: New Year's Eve 12/31/00
TIME: 10:00 PM
WHERE: WFLD-TV FOX 32

Chicago's Smashing Pumpkins, one of modern rock's most successful and influential bands of the past decade, are the focus of an exclusive one-hour documentary, "SMASHING PUMPKINS: FULL CIRCLE," to air on FOX 32, WFLD-TV December 31st, 2000 at 10:00pm. Moving beyond the typical cut-and-paste retrospective, FULL CIRCLE boasts intimate involvement of Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan, who partially initiated the project and granted WFLD an exclusive, in-depth interview a week before the band's final concert appearance on December 2nd. In addition, FULL CIRCLE offers viewers an ultra-rare glimpse of the band's very first performance before the cameras on their late 1980s, pre-stardom beginnings.

Smashing Pumpkins have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with Fox Chicago for many years. This joining prompted Corgan to contact another longtime associate and supporter, Metro nightclub owner Joe Shanahan, to involve Fox in the band's farewell salute. Through Shanahan, Fox Coordinating Producer Jock Hedblade and Special Projects Editor Lou Hinkhouse set about organizing FULL CIRCLE with a vision of presenting a distinctly local perspective of Smashing Pumpkins' full career. The project gelled when Corgan entered the Fox studios a mere seven days before the band's final concert at Metro and settled in for a nearly two hour remarkably candid and reflective interview that will be the thrust of FULL CIRCLE.

Though the story is compelling enough to tell itself, FULL CIRCLE is a unique retrospective not only for it's subject matter, but because the behind-the-scenes talent that pulled the project together have a special relationship with music in general and Smashing Pumpkins in particular. Hedblade's experience in video production made him the obvious choice for supervising and coordinating the project, but it was his vast knowledge and background in music that brought him to the fore to conduct interviews that tell the FULL CIRCLE story. Professionally, Hedblade spearheaded one of the nation's first Internet integrated music radio stations (The Web / WEBX-FM) while simultaneously serving as on-air talent and Music / Program director for the pioneering venture. While in this post, Hedblade prophetically predicted the hit singles that came from the Smashing Pumpkin's Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (SP) release when he reported "Tonight, Tonight" and "1979" to radio trade bible Gavin nearly 12 months before the songs became airwave staples.

Hinkhouse also boasts impressive credentials in respect to Smashing Pumpkins. As the creator of the late 1980s cable music series Pulse, Hinkhouse was at ground zero when the Pumpkins were developing their craft. Ahead of the pack in spotting the group's talent, Hinkhouse booked the band to perform on the show in 1988. That exclusive, never since seen footage, along with the band's first Metro appearance recorded for Pulse, will be featured in the special, making the title FULL CIRCLE a statement of fact over style.

In addition to Corgan's exclusive interview and the coveted early footage, FULL CIRCLE will feature interviews with many music industry movers and shakers who have witnessed and participated in the band's assent to super stardom. Contributions from fellow musicians Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick) and Nina Gordon (Veruca Salt), club-owner Joe Shanahan (Metro), rock critics Greg Kot (Chicago Tribune), Jim DeRogatis (Chicago Sun-Times), and Michael Harris (Illinois Entertainer), and radio programmers Norm Winer (WXRT) and James Vanaosdol (Q101) offer FULL CIRCLE an in-depth analysis of the band from those who have tracked their progress from gestation to bonafide rock idols.

In all, FULL CIRCLE documents the extraordinary career of Smashing Pumpkins from an extraordinary hometown perspective, and promises to be the final word on one of Chicago's most important musical exports. Like the band's farewell that set the special in motion, FULL CIRCLE is certain to be an event onto itself.

Pumpkins To Head Into Afterlife With Reissues, Corgan Says

The Smashing Pumpkins may have hung it up last week, but fans of the band haven't heard the last of the Chicago rockers.

Frontman Billy Corgan said he plans to reissue all of the group's albums within the next few years, with several of the reissues packaged with previously unreleased bonus tracks.

"There's tons of stuff - we can live posthumously for a long time. We recorded a lot," Corgan, 33, said, adding that the band has multitrack tapes of more than 400 live shows that he would like to make available to fans when a reliable online distribution scheme develops.

"The band's archives are pretty deep. From a fan point of view, the variations on how the band played the songs live give us a lot of leeway," he said. "It's not like we always played one version of 'Bullet [With Butterfly Wings]' (RealAudio excerpt) - we have five different versions of 'Bullet,' seven versions of 'Silverfuck.' The band's sound and the band's attack always changed from year to year, so we can go pretty deep into our live catalog."

Among the unearthed gems that Corgan plans to bring to light are previously unreleased demos from the band's 1991 debut, Gish, as well the 28 additional songs recorded for the 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

The group's final, four-and-a-half hour show on Saturday at Chicago's Metro nightclub, as well as the five-hours-plus rehearsal the night before and a number of dates on their final European tour were videotaped. A spokesperson for the band said it has not yet been determined if those performances will be released commercially.

First, Sleep

As for what will become of Corgan next, the singer said he has no idea.

"I can sleep in for the first time in my life," he said, laughing, during rehearsals the night before the Pumpkins' final show.

Perched on the steps leading to the balcony of the 1,100-capacity Metro, dressed all in black, a slightly hoarse Corgan joked that for the first time since his teens he could think about spending a month in bed watching movies.

As tempting as that prospect was, though, Corgan said he could not rule out the significance of the band's last show, since it served as the final chapter in the first act of his musical life.

"This is the last time I will play all these songs for the rest of my life," Corgan said emphatically. "I don't want to play these songs with other people. I don't want to rely on the past to pave the future."

He said the members of the band - which also included guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin - had discussed their musical futures and agreed that they would never play live together again. "Other than that, all doors are open. If I'm working on an album and three songs need Jimmy, I'll call Jimmy," Corgan said.

Although he hasn't officially started work on a solo album yet, Corgan said it's possible he and Chamberlin will work together fairly soon. The duo, along with Pumpkins touring keyboardist Mike Garson (David Bowie), have discussed recording a prog-rock instrumental album under an as-yet-undetermined name.

During their 13-year career, the Pumpkins released six studio albums that sold more than 22 million copies. Although the group's signature mix of new-wave keyboards, heavy-metal guitars and prog-rock aesthetics pegged it as one of the most influential groups of the '90s, poor sales of the band's final album, MACHINA/the machines of God, helped convince Corgan that the time had come to pull the plug.

After the Pumpkins' label, Virgin Records, passed on the opportunity to release it, the Pumpkins offered their final album, MACHINA II/friends and enemies of modern music, for free on the Internet in September.

"It's a sad thing to see the Pumpkins finish, but I think it's something that had to be done," said Corgan's father, William Corgan Sr., following the Metro show. "The Pumpkins reached the top of their thing and they really said everything they could say, and Billy did the smartest thing by putting the band to bed at a high point."

'Completely Different Deal'

When he does record new material, Corgan promised that it wouldn't simply be a variation on the loud-quiet musical dynamics and lyrically cathartic themes of the Pumpkins. "It will be a completely different deal," he said, "a completely different part of my person - I want to look at my music with different eyes."

Iha said he has plans to release another solo album, the sequel to his melodic, acoustic 1998 debut, Let It Come Down.

"First I'm taking a vacation and getting some shock therapy," Iha said with a grin after the Metro show as fans seeking autographs descended upon him. "Maybe write some songs on the acoustic guitar and listen to some techno. I'll do another solo record, not immediately, but eventually."

A spokesperson for touring bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur said her future plans were not yet known.

Although he didn't know what the future would hold, Corgan was in a reflective mood just prior to the final show. "I would like to think we'd be remembered more like the Doors or the Velvet Underground," he said of his group's legacy.

"We've shot ourselves in the foot [sometimes], but sometimes shooting yourselves in the foot is the most exciting and bravest thing to do," he said. "That's why breaking up the band is like when Obi Wan Kenobi falls on his sword [in 'Star Wars']. Sometimes the hero has to fall on his sword.

"With MACHINA I and MACHINA II, we fell on our swords. We literally died for rock and roll, and it will mean something 20 years from now."

Smashing Pumpkins bid farewell

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- The Smashing Pumpkins have come full circle, playing a farewell concert in the intimate venue where they first performed as a band 13 years ago.

With a maximum capacity of 1,100, tickets for the band's Saturday night finale at the Metro sold out in under 20 minutes on October 21. Fans called from almost every continent for a shot at one of the hottest tickets of the year.

Those who weren't able to purchase tickets first hand were reportedly paying as much as $1,000 to see one of the definitive rock bands of the last decade one last time.

Last month, Maria Alfarjes went to the band's concert in Barcelona, Spain, where she lives, thinking it would be her farewell to the band she grew up listening to. But Alfarjes decided that long shot or not, she'd go online for tickets to the final show in Chicago.

And she scored big. "It was like I won the lottery," she said. "I just started to scream and the woman on the phone told me to settle down, but it didn't work. I called my friends and we started calling around for tickets to America."

The Pumpkins opened the set powerfully with "Cherub Rock" and spent little time with talk between the next handful of songs.

Fans were, however, grateful for something far more important than talk: water. Before the concert, managers at the Metro stashed bottles of water at the front of the stage. The bottles were passed back through the crowd during the show.

When lead singer Billy Corgan did speak, he told the crowd something they already knew.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome...to the last gasp of the Smashing Pumpkins."