In a year full of classic reunions, most people will gloss over the reforming of Extreme. We’ve been particularly spoiled this year, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for this bunch of rockers.

Nuno Bettencourt, as we all know, has bounced around the music scene, releasing solo efforts and forming moderately successful groups like Dramagods and Perry Farrell’s Satellite Party. Gary Cherone had a short-lived career as the frontman for Van Halen where he was resoundingly rejected by critics and fans alike. He seems to have been doing a fair bit of solo work over the intervening years too.

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Continuing my obsessive Exteme fanboy thing, I looked up Gary Cherone on MySpace this evening.

After Gary left Extreme, he joined Van Halen for a short while, although I think he joined the band at a bad time in their career and wasn’t particularly well received as frontman.

He’s done some solo recording, and been involved with his brother in a The Who tribute band. (He’s not the only rocker to do the cover tribute band thing – Joe Elliott from Def Leppard had a side project called Cybernauts)

Recently, Gary seems to be involved with a band called hurtsmile, a group which also features his brother Markus. I listened to a few of their tunes on MySpace, and it’s great to hear Gary’s distinctive voice again. It seems to be more straight rock than his solo material, I’ll be interested to see how they develop. I think it’s seriously early days for the band, because they don’t have any group shots, logos or identity yet.