Lou Reed

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Isle of Wight Festival 2006

Friday 9th to Sunday 11th June 2006
Seaclose Park, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2DN, England MAP
w/e £85 (under-12yrs £42.50), £105 with camping (under-12yrs £52.50), campervans £60 - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 35,000

At last a legend to show us all what it means to be a rock idol and leader of a generation. Arms aloft feedback sparking Lou walks out wearing what looks like a leather T-shirt slowly the feedback warps into a jam and then looking broody Lou starts into ‘Until The End of The World’, “What’s Life Like Without You?” oh no, New York’s original punk is in a mood.

But we’re so pleased to hear musicians after the last act that we receive it happily, Lou’s eyes are blazing and his fist makes the chords and chants repeatedly ‘We Were Meant To Be’ as his tai chi dancer moves about the stage.

“Kids kissing in the street” intones Lou and the rhythm hasn’t changed as far as I can tell and it sounds a little like Dire Straits! What is going on? Last time I saw Lou at Glasto he played all the hits but not this time, occasionally a piece of something will emerge from the one chord soup drone and at other times the music picks up pace and moves those around me to dance. Conclusive proof if you play one chord long enough the audience will dance.

It’s performance art classes from Mr Reed as ‘Dirty Boulevard’ finally falls in pieces amongst us as Lou laments, “Goodbye Charlie, hello ecstasy” in a flat Lou Reed tone that Leonard Cohen would be proud of. A jam ensues for ten minutes with Lou uttering “Call It Ecstasy” over and over. While the band move from blues to punk and back in a huge groove. Which eventually become recognisable as ‘Tell It To Your Heart’ and then finally Lou cracks a grin and fires off ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’ and ‘White Light/White Heat’ and that’s it.

Hugely ambitious of him, it kind of worked, but I wish he’d stuck to the theme and done a greatest hits set rather than some hugely indulgent musical odyssey. But he is Lou Reed and I guess he does whatever he likes. Moody git, you can tell he enjoyed not giving us what we wanted! And more worryingly I enjoyed him not giving me what I wanted too, very Velvet Undergound.