Long before the current wave of musical greed-hounds discovered they could mortgage their souls by selling every note they've written for use on commercials, an annoying little combo called Sigue Sigue Sputnik (translation:Burn Burn Satellite) actually sold commercial time on their debut album,Flaunt It.

It would be stretching things to say that their imminent reunion was long-awaited-inevitable, perhaps? -- but in any event, SSS has become the3,764th Eighties-era act to reform as we hurtle towards the millennium.

Leader Tony James (who had embarrassed himself even before SSS by consortingwith Billy Idol in Generation X) has dubbed the new version of the bandSputnik 2.0, and promises a new album (reportedly entitled History WillProve Us Right) by the early part of next year. And you thought the Y2Kvirus was the worst of your technological worries.

DAVID SPRAGUE