T.S.O.L. Ends Dispute Over Reunion Show : Rock: With the internal wrangling over, members of the current lineup want to look ahead and just concentrate on music.

The members of T.S.O.L. present have decided that they can accept a one-night resurrection of the ghost of T.S.O.L. past without being spooked into a premature breakup.

After weeks of internal wrangling, current T.S.O.L. members Joe Wood and Mitch Dean have withdrawn their opposition to band mate Mike Roche’s participation in a Dec. 29 reunion show by the band’s original lineup. Bassist Roche is the only current member left from the original lineup of T.S.O.L. (True Sounds Of Liberty), which was a leading attraction on the Southern California punk rock scene of the early ‘80s. The current version of T.S.O.L., which evolved after the original Huntington Beach-Long Beach band split apart in 1983, plays a far different brand of rock influenced by blues and heavy metal.

As recently as Tuesday, it appeared that Roche had bowed out of the reunion because of pressure from Wood and Dean. The three other original members, Jack Grisham, Ron Emory and Todd Barnes, were planning to play the show with another bassist filling in for Roche.

But promoter Gary Tovar, whose Goldenvoice Presents is putting on the T.S.O.L. reunion at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim, began to bring some persuasive pressure of his own to bear so that Roche would be able to play the concert. By Wednesday, Wood and Dean had relented, allowing Roche to go ahead with the reunion without jeopardizing his spot in the current T.S.O.L.

“I’m trying to get away from all the petty things and just get back to music,” Roche said Thursday. “We’re going to play a really good (reunion) show, and the night after I’ll start doing some shows again with the new T.S.O.L. I had an excellent talk with Mitch yesterday, and it looks like (the current T.S.O.L. is) well on the road to recovery.”

The current band’s internal problems erupted in mid-October after only a few dates of a national tour. Angered by the tour’s collapse and finding himself in a financial bind, Roche approached Goldenvoice about staging a reunion show--something he had refused to do in the past, despite lucrative offers.

With an already-recorded album, “Strange Love,” due for release in February on Enigma Records, the current T.S.O.L. members tried to patch up their differences and get the band back on course. But Roche’s involvement in the reunion show was a stumbling block.

Last week, Roche said, he gave in and agreed not to play the reunion. “I’ve got too much invested in my band, and I’ve been working too hard and too long to let anything get in the way,” he said. “I decided that I couldn’t afford to take the chance of destroying my future for one show.”

Tovar, whose company is one of Southern California’s leading alternative rock promoters, said he intervened to save the reunion show after it was “insinuated” that the current T.S.O.L. might take legal steps to “stop the whole show,” even after Roche had dropped out.

“Mike had done a 360-degree turn on us. He was really intimidated into not playing,” Tovar said. “I tried to appeal (to Wood and Dean) that this was a one-show situation and not career threatening to the new T.S.O.L. I also appealed to them that it would look bad for the new T.S.O.L. if they spoiled this one-time opportunity for the fans who wanted to see (the original band’s reunion). I said, ‘Be done with this and move on.’ I think it finally set in with them that they would have looked like villains if they tried to stop it.”

Mike Zoto, manager of the current T.S.O.L., said the band didn’t want to risk the falling out with Tovar that likely would have resulted if the reunion concert had been derailed or its draw weakened because of Roche’s absence.

Wood said Wednesday that Roche’s willingness to give up the reunion show was an important concession that helped the current T.S.O.L. move toward a reconciliation. “That showed me where his heart was. It showed me good faith in the band.”

After that, Wood said, he and Dean, who joined T.S.O.L. in 1984, were less concerned about Roche going ahead with the reunion performance. Wood said he dislikes the prospect of the show raising comparisons between the old and new T.S.O.L., and he would rather the public focused on the band’s future instead of its past. But the real trouble, he said, was that Roche had set up the reunion at a troubled time for the band and that he did it without consulting the other current members.

“I’m glad that it’s all behind us and we can move on,” Wood said. “I hope it’s a good show. I think everybody’s happy. The show’s going to go on, and T.S.O.L. is going to continue.”