After breaking up more than a decade ago, the Bangles have made what singer Susanna Hoffs calls "little baby steps" towards the inevitable reunion, starting with the band's first original song in a decade for an Austin Powers soundtrack last summer and now culminating in a mini-tour this September, with plans for a new album and a full tour next year.

"Sue gets the credit/blame," guitarist Vicki Peterson told Rolling Stone. "She was the most obnoxious, the most persistent, calling everyone. It was a tough sell, but little by little, we came around."

"I would just keep calling and say, 'Wouldn't this be really fun?' I mean, she gets to perform every week," Hoffs said, referring to Peterson's involvement with the New Orleans-based Continental Drifters. "Some of us don't have that outlet. Some of us start longing for an amp, an electric guitar."

Despite Hoffs' efforts, the band at first resisted her attempts, not surprising since she was the one who initiated the 1989 split. "We sort of went out at the top of our game," Peterson said. "You can't beat that. And to revisit that, there's a risk."

After turning down offers last year to co-headline a tour with the Go-Go's and to play Lilith Fair, the Bangles eventually gave in to Hoffs, regrouping to collaborate on "Get the Girl" for Austin Powers, which Hoffs' husband Jay Roach directed. "Austin Powers, it was so silly, so fun, yet so Bangle," Peterson said. "We do the very thing that Austin Powers celebrates, Sixties pop culture. It just made sense."

The next step for the Bangles to start feeling like a band again was a tribute in June of last year where they sang six Beatles songs conducted by Fab Four producer Sir George Martin at the Hollywood Bowl, their first performance in ten years. "There's a perception that lingers that the Bangles were some slick pop Eighties entity," Peterson said. "Obviously there's some truth to that, but if you saw us play live, you'd know that's not the whole story. There's a lot of musical layers to us."

As for the next album, the Bangles are going into the studio in August with Black Crowes producer George Drakoulias. Titles of the new songs -- the band has thirty so far -- include "Stealing Rosemary," "One of Two," "Single by Choice," "The Good Son," "Lost at Sea" and "I Will Take Care of You." As of yet, the band has no record deal and is considering putting out the album online for a spring release.

Bangles tour dates are as follows:

9/13: San Diego, CA, 4th & B
9/15: Las Vegas, CA, House of Blues
9/16: Ventura, CA, Ventura Theater
9/21-23: West Hollywood, CA, House of Blues
9/26: Chicago, IL, House of Blues
9/28: Toronto, ONT, Government Center
9/30: New York, NY, Irving Plaza

JENNIFER VINEYARD and BILL CRANDALL
(July 19, 2000)