Nevertheless, four of the five spots have gone to “70s and ’80s rock mainstays, which is bound to rankle with some critics, but these popular but sometimes overlooked acts have for some time been considered as ‘holes” in the Hall of Fame that deserved to be filled.
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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its inductees for the class of 2016, with N.W.A., CHEAP TRICK, Deep Purple, Steve Miller and Chicago being honoured at the ceremony on April 8th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. HBO will be there to record everything and may or may not decide to show it in Canada.
Veteran power-pop group Cheap Trick is best-known for such classic tunes as “I Want You to Want Me”, “Surrender”, “Dream Police” and the 1988 chart-topper “The Flame”. Guitarist Rick Nielsen and rumpled drummer Bun E. Carlos gave them an indelible live presence.
Performers are eligible for induction into the Cleveland, Ohio-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first recording, and are voted on by a pool of 800 members of the Hall of Fame Foundation.
Chicago burst onto the rock music scene in the late 1960s, and is notable for its horn-driven jazz- and R&B-influenced sound. “It’s just hard to sum up in words, really”.
The guitar riff for Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” remains one of the most recognizable in rock history.
FILE – James Pankow, Walter Parazaider and Lee Loughnane of Chicago perform in Hollywood, Fla., April 4, 2013. The group’s other classic songs include “Hush”, “Highway Star” and “My Woman from Tokyo”. British rockers Deep Purple have been nominated on three occasions, while Chicago, Cheap Trick and Miller all earned nods for the first time this year.
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N.W.A will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year. “It’s everything that kind of eluded us in a lot of ways when we were coming up”, N.W.A.’s Ice Cube told Rolling Stone, speaking about the historic honour. The group formed in 1986 and disbanded in 1991.
