U2, The Pretenders, Percy Sledge, the O'Jays, blues legend **Buddy
Guy and Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein** were all welcomed into the US Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at a gala event in New
York last night.
When Bruce Springsteen entered the Hall Of Fame back in 1999, it was U2's Bono who oversaw the induction, so it was apt that
Springsteen led the tributes as Bono's own band were inducted last night.
Referencing to the opening of the band's recent hit single 'Vertigo', Springsteen joked: "Unos, dos, tres, catorce; that translates as 1,2,3,14.
That is the correct math for a rock'n'roll band". He went on to recall the time he saw an early U2 gig and how he marvelled at "the young Bono, single-handedly pioneering the Irish mullet. U2 hungered for it all and built a sound, and they wrote the songs that demanded it."
Before playing his set at the Hall Of Fame show, Bono joked: "This is a bit of an Irish wedding. Beautiful girls in beautiful frocks, fights in the bathroom, lawyers with bloody noses."
Accepting a place in the Hall Of Fame for the Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde paid tribute to late members Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon,
"without whom we wouldn't be here. On the other hand, without us they might have been here, but that's the way it works in rock'n'roll."
Both
BB King and Eric Clapton paid tribute to Buddy Guy. Clapton said: "Buddy personified all that the modern bluesman needed to be. His technique is and was unique." King, meanwhile, added: "I never was as handsome as he is. I think [King's guitar] Lucille liked him better."
Guy responded: "To be in company like this tonight, I'm just out of words. I just want to play for you."
Highlights of the twentieth annual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony will be shown on VH1 in the US this weekend.