NME reports today that Dead Kennedys have turned down the opportunity to reform, after being asked by Riot Fest to rejoin forces. The band initially broke up in 1986, and a lawsuit followed where members sued frontman Jello Biafra over unpaid royalties.

According to DK co-founder East Bay Ray, Riot Fest made attempts to reach out to all members of the band, to try and secure a reunion performance, and whilst he and his other members were keen on the idea, Biafra was the one who rejected the request.

Speaking in a Facebook post, East Bay Ray wrote “Dead Kennedys had a sincere invitation to play a reunion show at Riot Fest in Chicago this fall. Jello Biafra turned it down. Klaus Flouride, DH Peligro and I were looking forward to doing it.”

Biafra has been vocally critical of the Kennedys attempts to use their catalogue for commercial purposes, and the re-releasing of their classic albums. He also referred to their new line-up, featuring replacement singer Brandon Cruz as a “Karaoke band.”

Biafra once recalled an instance to Morphizm.com, where Dockers had wanted to use ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ in one of their advertisements. “The ad agency contacted Ray who contacted me and I said no, so Ray threatened me, saying if I didn’t do it there were going to be repercussions.

“The commercial aired. But they used a Pretenders song instead. The commercial didn’t last very long, for good reason. It wasn’t just the obvious moral reasons that I didn’t want my favourite Dead Kennedys song trashed by being in a corporate commercial; it was also personal or emotional because of the sheer nausea of being in a commercial, and this one was pretty damn bad,” he added.