The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was held at Barclays Center where somewhat unbelievably, bands from the 1980’s are now getting their due. As usual for this made for HBO special event, the speeches go on for way too long, while the musical performances leave you wanting more. My wife and I missed Stevie Nicks open the festivities with guest appearance by Don Henley. Stevie’s set got good reviews but I don’t mind having missed it as Don Henley usually comes off as being a miserable rich guy and the last time I saw Nicks solo at Nassau Coliseum we walked out as she rambled so much between songs that the increasingly angry audience yelled for her to shut up and sing.

Roxy Music, The Cure and The Zombies played nice sets. Bryan Ferry was as dapper as ever, Robert Smith looked like the love child of Edward Scissorhands and Susan Boyle and gave an uncomfortable speech before rocking out with the band and The Zombies played legendary hits from their 50+ year career.

Radiohead, inducted by David Byrne, did not play (too cool?) nor did Janet Jackson who showed up and gave a speech that no one around us paid attention to. What is the point of inducting Janet Jackson, who arguably is not deserving of a Rock Hall Induction, particularly if she is going to decline to perform?

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails gave the best speech of the night while inducting The Cure but the live event itself is tough to sit through (is the E Street Band dome accepting their recognition?)

We missed all of Def Lepperd also and the “All the Young dudes finale but I will catch the edited show down the line on HBO.

Get well soon Mick Jagger.

Rock on!

GQ