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Jane's Addiction to reunite for award
2008-04-16
The four original members of pioneering alternative rock band Jane's Addiction will perform for the first time in almost 17 years next week, temporarily burying the hatchet so they can receive an award for career achievement. Bass player Eric Avery, who had declined to play with the band since it first broke up in 1991, said on Tuesday he would hit the stage at the inaugural NME Awards in Los Angeles on April 23 with singer Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins. His bandmates, who have resurrected Jane's Addiction a few times, had previously agreed to attend the event at the El Rey Theatre, leaving Avery once again as the holdout. The band will be honored with the "Godlike Genius Award" for its contribution to the development of alternative rock with such albums as 1988's "Nothing's Shocking" and 1990's "Ritual de lo Habitual." "I have always considered reunions to be a way to make a quick buck, and it sells short my own experience of it the first time around," Avery said in a statement. "The reason I started to even consider this is because it's honoring the past instead of trying to recreate it." Avery has kept a relatively low profile since leaving Jane's Addiction and just released his first solo album. The band first reunited in 1997, with a succession of bass players filling in for Avery, including Red Hot Chili Peppers member Flea. The last Jane's Addiction show was in December 2003 when the band, featuring session musician Chris Chaney, cut short a tour to promote its album, "Strays." The split was acrimonious but evidently not irreparable. In a statement on his blog published on Sunday, Navarro said he, Farrell and Perkins "have been speaking regularly (and) have decided to focus on what's most important ... The music." His comments doubled as a preemptive strike against journalists and bloggers inclined to bring up old quotes in which the band members trashed each other. "Everybody in the world has said something over the top due to an emotional charge," Navarro said. "The bottom line is that we have been getting along great and are moving forward with our personal and musical relationships." The NME Awards are being held by British music magazine NME, which has organized an event in the UK since the 1950s. (Editing by John O'Callaghan)
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