Simon Rushworth
With less than a week to go until the final big festival of the summer we continue to look at the must-see acts at Reading/Leeds 2011.
And if there’s one band you really can’t afford to miss it’s the reformed and certifiably loopy Jane’s Addiction.
Forget Satellite Party, forget reality television and forget just about anything that forms the fringes of the Jane’s circus. This band is what it’s all about and always has been!
Band Name: Jane’s Addiction
Date: Saturday August 27 (Reading)/Sunday August 28 (Leeds)
Stage: NME/Radio One
Hit or miss: HIT – There was a time in the late 80s when Jane’s looked like they’d become the biggest alt rock band on the planet. But instead of going all Chili Peppers and trading credibility for the big dollar Perry Farrell and co. continued to do what they did best and imploded in a haze of creativity, drugs and in-fighting. In 2011 they’re cleaner, leaner and meaner.
Craziest song title: We’re spoilt for choice where this zany crew is concerned but Standing In The Shower…Thinking is well daft.
Most bizarre band member name: Former/occasional member Flea is the only past or present band member named after a bug.
Current album: Strays (2003). The Great Escape Artist is released next month.
Future prospects: Better than they have been for some time. Incredibly it seems as if the various and once disparate members of the band have matured (it’s all relative). And the word on the street is that in growing up Jane’s have lost none of their talent for writing edgy, sarcastic, humalong alt rock. Could be one of the biggest bands of the next 12 months – if they can keep it together.