Lou Reed Dusseldorf 01 April 1979 audience recording
"I dont play when people throw things - alright?"
01 April 1979
Philipshalle
Dusseldorf
track 01: Sweet Jane 4.55
track 02: Coney Island Baby 10.48
track 03: Waiting For My Man 6.00
track 04: Leave Me Alone 16.09
track 05: I'll Be Your Mirror 4.36
track 06: Perfect Day 10.59
track 07: Looking For Love 8.28
track 08: Berlin 7.06
track 09: Men Of Good Fortune 5.24
track 10: Caroline Says 2 4.42
track 11: The Kids 4.30
track 12: The Bed 5.27
track 13: Street Hassle 21.29
track 14: The Bells 10.57
track 15: Rock And Roll/You Keep Me Hanging On 35.17
track 16: Sister Ray/The Magic Touch/Twist And Shout/The Magic Touch/Sweet Jane (cut) 23.27
Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
Charles (Chuck) Hammer: Roland guitar synthesiser
Ellard (Moose) Bowles: bass
Michael Suchorsky: drums
Stewart Heinrich: guitar
Marty Fogel: sax, wind instruments
lineage: TDK AD90 cassettes - (Wavepad) - wav - flac (level 8) - you
original recording engineer unknown
transferred to wav by lurid_uk February 2008
uploaded to Dime by lurid_uk February 2008
Lou's booze-soaked spring 1979 European tour to support "The Bells" was a big production. The songs almost all get extended workouts, with lengthy solos from everyone (and lead vocals for Moose on "You Keep Me Hanging On"). The tour was the usual trail round the same familiar countries - at least they were playing larger venues this time. (Chuck Hammer was later quoted as saying that the band travelled First Class and stayed at top hotels). RCA and Arista seemed to be competing with each other with Reed product, in the UK at least. There, "Take No Prisoners" was finally released (by RCA) on March 9th, while "The Bells" eventually hit the shops on April 27th. (Lou still "owed" RCA Europe a double LP to compensate for the non-release of "Metal Machine Music" anywhere outside North America.) Apart from a few dates in mid 1978, Lou hadn't played in Europe since August 1977, so these shows were much-anticipated - there was much speculation as to which persona Lou would adopt this time round. On a personal level, Rachel was now gone - replaced by his wife-to-be Sylvia, who accompanied the tour party. She had weaned Lou away from speed but I think he replaced it with alcohol: his gut now bulged embarrassingly under his tee shirt.
European Tour 1979
March 27: Concerthaus, Stockholm
March 28: Falkoncentrum, Copenhagen
March 29: Kongresscentre, Hamburg
March 30: Eisporthalle, Berlin
April 01: Philipshalle, Dusseldorf
April 02: Pavillion, Paris
April 04: Mozarthalle, Mannheim
April 05: Liedhalle, Stuttgart
April 06, Stadthalle, Offenbach
April 07: Festhalle, Basle
April 08: Circus Krone, Munich
April 10: Hammersmith Odeon, London
April 12: National Stadium, Dublin
There would be crowd trouble at several of the shows on this tour, and this was one of them. Someone throws something on to the stage during "Waiting For The Man" and Lou stops to remonstate with the crowd before leaving the stage altogether. He returns with a killer "Leave Me Alone", but the audience remain rowdy throughout the show. At the Offenbach show, Lou was arrested after (allegedly) assaulting a female fan. He spent the night with the the German police before being released on bail the next day: the Munich show was then cancelled due to Lou's "nervous breakdown". Interestingly, Lou claimed later that the police had tested his blood for (the expected) drugs, but had found none. After the London show Lou came to blows with David Bowie over dinner at the Rendezvous Restaurant. David reportedly offered to produce Lou's next LP but only if Lou "cleaned up his act" first. Cue physical violence...."Lou Bops Bowie - shocking scenes in Chelsea restaurant" was the headline in the next edition of Melody Maker. (Bockris tells it differently - in his version, Lou asks David to produce his next LP, and David demurs, "commenting that Lou needed to do a lot of work on his songs himself". Whatever the reason, everyone agrees that Lou assaulted David....)
Despite all the crowd trouble, these early 1979 shows were great. This one is memorable for the long, long "Rock And Roll/You Keep Me Hanging On" and the lengthy "Sister Ray" medley - I dont know how much longer it lasted after the cut at the end of my tape. "Sister Ray" itself is initially taken at a snail's pace, with Lou spitting the words out contemptuously while the band vamp behind him - at one point he even encourages the audience to sing along with him. Later, the band obviously think that the show is over, but Lou lurches into a ragged "Twist And Shout", continues into "The Magic Touch"(?) and then launches into "Sweet Jane" again!
This is a reasonable quality mono audience recording. There's not much hiss but it's got quite a harsh sound. It certainly doesn't have the warmth of Velvet's stereo recording of the Stockholm show from this tour. There are a couple of cuts in the tape but nothing serious is missing. There are also long gaps between some songs where Lou has left the stage, but I've left them in - what's here is what is on my cassettes.
Also included with the audio files: pic of Lou onstage late March 1979, German and Dutch newsclippings reporting on the Offenbach show riot, and the cover from London's "Time Out", April 1979. Check out the pic of the Stadthalle after the Offenbach riot!
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