Say Richie never returns and the band decides to continue (by the way I'd harbor even more pissy feelings towards Richie if he were the reason for the band to finally dissolve :() Would Jon find different writing partners or write alone? I personally would hope for different, maybe even younger co-writers to perhaps pull Jon out of that kumbaya mentality he tends to have when writing.

Richie is off to Japan.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10935686.htm

If we could get songs like on his solo albums and many of the songs he's written alone for the band, I'd hope he'd write the bulk of the next album by himself.

"For press inquiries, please contact Sean Borg"

Ding Ding Ding.

Not that we didn't know already.

Strange they didn't plan this for December! ;)

P.S.: So much for hanging onto August being the time the band gets to calmly discuss matters out of the spotlight. Oh well, whatever.

Jon might pull off better material citing sadness because Richie wasn't there?

I do like a lot of his solo stuff so that would be ok with me and a little melancholy probably would sneak in here and there. :) I would also hope for songs that wouldn't make him pop a vein while trying to sing them!

Haha, well...don't get too excited: This particular woman's husband was hired by a spiteful woman to kill her ex-husband. The plot was discovered before the deed was carried out, but as far as I know, bikini woman is still with him.

It's as simple as this - Richie is not going to be on the WAN tour at any point. He's left the tour, save for some big spiritual revelation (cos he sure as hell ain't getting no pay rise now Jonny's still selling the big gigs without him) he'll not feature on any of the remaining dates.

The band will wrap up the tour and go home. Tico will paint, David will write show tunes, Bobby will scratch around on the shore, Hugh will slap the bass abit and Jon will prep another album and world tour to line the coffers. Richie in the mean time will continue to hop around the world flogging clothes until he gets bored and realises he's ready to play the Prayer solo for the 100,000,000th time.

At which point he'll ring Jon, pick up his writing credit on the latest studio album and the band will proceed to release a collection of songs that some fans will appreciate, others wont and critics will give it 3 out of 5 stars. The private jet will be refueled and they'll be back in Hyde Park by Summer 2015 (with "Brother Phil" on speed dial...just in case).

Thread closed.

Oh ye of little faith and lots of common sense.

Might work unless David or Tico want an extended vacation like Richie had, and decide to blow off the next tour. But only after first playing a few dates. Then Jon has to scramble to find a fill in drummer and/or keyboardist. :D