Rock reunion combines Cars members and Rundgren

LOS ANGELES - Two former members of the defunct new wave rock band the Cars have refueled the group, installing singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren in the driver's seat and will hit the road as the New Cars.

The new model, featuring Cars lead guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes, will be accompanied on tour by fellow classic pop refugees Blondie, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on yesterday amid a tense stand-off with former members.

Blondie singer Deborah Harry said from New York that the tour would be the band's last.

Absent from the Cars reunion are singer/guitarist Ric Ocasek, who wrote all the band's hits, such as "Good Times Roll" and "Let's Go," bass player Benjamin Orr, who died of cancer in 2000, and drummer David Robinson. The band broke up acrimoniously in the late 1980s amid declining sales.

Ocasek and Robinson declined to participate in the reunion, but "they've been actually pretty supportive," Easton said at a news conference where the band played some of its big hits.

A source close to the band said Ocasek, not the most charismatic frontman, recommended the more-gregarious Rundgren as his stand-in.

Rundgren, 57, a maverick pop songwriter famed for such tunes as "I Saw the Light" and "Can We Still Be Friends," said he was "intrigued" by the reunion idea, and played with the band.

"And nothing went horribly during the course of that, so here we are," said Rundgren.

By calling itself the New Cars, the band did not want to risk misleading fans who thought they would be seeing the original lineup, said Easton.

Rundgren joked that they considered calling themselves Nazzcar or Autopia, references to his former bands the Nazz and Utopia. As with Ocasek, Rundgren also has many producing credits, including Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell," one of the biggest albums of all time.

The Cars, founded in 1977, were among the most successful American rock bands to emerge from the remains of the short-lived punk rock revolution. The group managed to appeal to fans of both disparate genres thanks to radio-friendly pop tunes flavored with a hint of detached irony.

Its self-titled debut album, issued in 1978, yielded the hits "Good Times Roll," "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Just What I Needed," and turned the band into FM rock staples.

The Cars became MTV favorites in 1984 with a slew of videos stemming from its fifth - and most successful album - "Heartbeat City." But the belated follow-up, 1987's "Door to Door" sold disappointingly, and the band broke up at Ocasek's behest after a poorly received tour.

Also aboard the New Cars are bass player Kasim Sulton, who played with Rundgren in Utopia, and former Tubes drummer Prairie Prince.

Blondie, the rock-disco crossover act behind such tunes as "Heart of Glass" and "Rapture," inadvertently stole the spotlight at the hall of fame induction in New York. Three former members joined the current lineup on stage, but were rebuffed in their attempt to perform because of long-standing litigation.

"I actually sorta expected much worse, if the truth must be known," said Harry, 60, who was speaking via a satellite link.

- REUTERS