AC/DC, Elvis Costello, The Police, & Others Inducted Into Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

NEW YORK (RnRHOF) - Hard rockers AC/DC, British punksters the Clash, new wavers Elvis Costello and the Attractions, post-punksters the Police, and blue-eyed soul artists the Righteous Brothers have been inducted into the 2003 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The ceremony will be held in March (date TBA) in New York at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. This year's class represents no female, black, or doo-wop artists, and only one American group, the Righteous Brothers. AC/DC is Australian, and the Clash, the Police, and Costello are British.

This is one of the smallest classes since the Hall of Fame was founded in 1986 -- five were also inducted in 1988; the Hall usually enshrines between six and eight artists. The inductees in the sidemen and nonperformer categories will be announced shortly.

Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first recording (in this case, 1977 or earlier); the Clash, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and the Police were voted in their first year on the ballot. AC/DC finally made it after three times on the ballot, while the Righteous Brothers were on the ballot for the first time but were eligible for more than 12 years.

Uncharacteristically, the Hall also named each inducted groups' individual members:
- AC/DC (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson, Cliff Williams, Phil Rudd, Bon Scott, and Mark Evans)
- Clash (Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicky "Topper" Headon, Joe Strummer, and Tory Crimes)
- Elvis Costello and the Attractions (Elvis Costello, Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas, and Bruce Thomas)
- Police (Stewart Copeland, Sting, and Andy Summers) and
- Righteous Brothers (Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield).

Artists who made the final ballot, but were not enshrined, were Black Sabbath (six times), Lynyrd Skynyrd (four times), the Dells and the Sex Pistols (twice), and the Patti Smith Group, MC5, Kraftwerk, ABBA, Steve Winwood, and Chic - each first-timers.