JANES ADDICTION REUNITES FOR 2008 NME AWARDS

NME, the longest running music weekly in the world, held their first ever NME awards in The U.S. on April 23rd in Hollywood, Ca. and the event will forever be known for getting the original lineup of Janes Addiction back together. Singer Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins performed four songs with original bassist Eric Avery for the first time in 17 years thrilling the small but raucous crowd who were lucky enough to attend. For years, Avery had denied performing with Janes Addiction but changed his tune last week, since he thought the band was honoring their legacy rather than trying to recreate it. NME recognized Janes Addiction with a Godlike Genius Award for their services to music. Previous winners of the award have been Ozzy Osbourne, The Clash and New Order. Following two months of online voting by NME.com’s American audience it was The Killers who took home two awards, one for Best Band and one for Best Track for their collaboration with Lou Reed on the song ‘Tranquilize.’

Two legends were also honored at the ceremony with The Lemonheads album ‘It’s a Shame About Ray’ named as this year’s classic LP and The Clash hero Mick Jones who was honored with an Inspiration Award. We caught up with Mick Jones, who was with Tony James of their current band Carbon Silicon to get his thoughts on what the legendary Joe Strummer of The Clash would’ve thought of getting the inspiration award from NME.

“I’m not sure. He liked L.A so there’s a good chance he would’ve thought it was ok. He spent quite a lot of time here and he has a lot of friends here, so he liked L.A. I think he would’ve wished us all well you know what I mean? He worked hard at it and we’re enjoying ourselves and I think he would wish us to enjoy ourselves.”

We also caught up with Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, who was presenting an award at the ceremony to get his thoughts on being asked to be a part of the first annual NME Awards in The U.S.

“I’ve never been to the NME Awards before but I can say the awards shows that I’ve seen on T.V. in the U.K. and the ones that I have been to seem like a lot more fun than the awards shows in the U.S. in general. They are a little more rowdier and that’s what I like about it. So, hopefully it’ll be rowdier.”

Although Janes Addiction didn’t stop to talk much on the red carpet upon arrival, Stephen Perkins, Dave Navarro and Perry Farrell were clearly happy to be back together, if only for four songs which included “Stop,” “Mountain Song,” “Jane Says” and “Ocean Size.”

Others who received NME Awards were Albert Hammond Jr., My Chemical Romance, The Foo Fighters, Vampire Weekend, Mark Ronson, Arcade Fire and Kate Nash.