Corgan and Iha unsmash the pumpkin

Corgan and Iha (AAP/Reuters)
Corgan and Iha (AAP/Reuters)

Former Smashing Pumpkins bandmates Billy Corgan and James Iha have performed together for the first time in 16 years.

Joining them was former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, with only bassist D'arcy Wretzky missing from the band's classic era line-up.

The trio performed a number of songs, mostly from the band's 1993 album Siamese Dream, as well as the Rolling Stones ballad 'Angie'.

The show, at Los Angeles' Ace Hotel, marked Iha's 48th birthday.

Iha's time with the Pumpkins ended when the band split in 2000, and he has not been a part of the group's various line-ups since reforming in 2005. In 2013 he said he hadn't spoken to Corgan in more than a decade.

In 2012, Corgan described Iha as "a piece of shit" and "one of the worst human beings I've ever met in my life".

"I think he is a good musician when he gives a f**k, which most of the time he doesn't. And that's about it."

Corgan later mellowed, saying Iha "gave me something valuable that inspired something different in me", and earlier this year said he'd like to "find peace" with his estranged bandmate.

Wretzky appears unlikely to be part of any potential band reunion, having had health and drug problems, not to mention run-ins with the law, since being fired from the band in 1999 for "being a mean-spirited drug addict", according to Corgan.

Chamberlin joined Corgan in the 2005 reunion, left the band after 2007's Zeitgeist album, and rejoined last year.

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