Lou Reed - 1975-07-29 - Festival Hall, Melbourne (Re-seed)
Posted: 15 Sep 2013 07:49
Lou Reed - 1975-07-29 - Festival Hall, Melbourne (Re-seed)
Lou Reed
Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia
29 July 1975
01. Sweet Jane
02. Coney Island Baby
03. Leave Me Alone
04. Satellite Of Love
05. How Do You Think It Feels?
06. Walk On The Wild Side
07. Vicious
08. Charlie's Girl
09. Kicks
10. White Light/White Heat
11. Rock And Roll
12. It's Too Late Mama
Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
Doug Yule: guitar, vocals
Bruce Yaw: bass
Marty Fogel: saxophone
Michael Suchorsky: drums
Michael Fonfara: keyboards
Got this one from bootblogger. No lineage, sorry. Fixed SBEs.
Here's the text lurid_uk wrote when he posted this show back in 2007. But, please, be aware that the flacs are NOT from lurid.
Track lengths do not match to this version here.
1975 was the year that Lou Reed's professional life practically fell apart. In January, his manager Dennis Katz listened to tapes of
Lou's latest material ("Kicks", "Dirt", "Leave Me Alone" and "Coney Island Baby") and told him that it was "unreleasable". Katz
(who was probably the subject of "Dirt") then followed up with the news that Lou was penniless, and had to go out and tour
simply to earn money to live. The European tour which followed lurched from one disaster to the next. Italy was in political turmoil:
fascists and communists were battling for power. The opening concert in Rome was cancelled. The Milan show was abandoned after
2 songs when riot police fired tear gas onto the stage (and into the crowd). Projectiles rained down on the stage in Turin. Lou was
denounced as a "decadent dirty jew", and flew to Switzerland threatening to abandon the tour completely. The Frankfurt show was
cancelled (Lou claimed nervous exhaustion) and another riot ensued. At least one show went ahead with Doug Yule on lead vocals.
Despite all this, the performances were well received, and the European leg of the tour finally ended with good reviews in London at
the end of March. Lou flew to the USA to complete some dates there before recording his next studio LP.
Setting aside "Berlin", RCA's early confidence in Lou had been well-founded. "Transformer", Rock And Roll Animal" and "Sally
Cant Dance" had been big sellers. They had now issued the left-overs from the Dec 73 show ("Lou Reed Live") as a stop-gap
measure after the new studio songs had been rejected. The pressure was now on
Lou to produce another big seller, and he was starting to crack. Lou was interviewed by Lester Bangs, who wrote in Creem: "Lou
Reed is a completely depraved pervert and pathetic death dwarf and everything else you want to think he is". On a personal level,
Lou was now living with his transvestite lover Rachel and ingesting vast amounts of methamphetamine. This had the predictable
effect on his creative output and the result was "Metal Machine Music" ("my week beats your year"). After proudly presenting
his masterpiece to RCA, and pointing to the clause in his contract which gave him "total artistic control", he set out on tour again
in July. This time he headed for some tiring but lucrative dates in the far east before planning to join the "Startruckin" package
which would tour European festivals in the fall.
After some shows in Japan (where legend has it they welcomed him at the airport by playing "Metal Machine Music" over the
airport PA system), he flew on to Australia. Lou had always had a big following in Australia, so the shows sold out quickly. The
audience at this Melbourne show is very appreciative even if almost half the songs are unfamilar to them. His 1974 shows here
had been a big success, and these appearance were eagerly awaited. Lou didn't disappoint, with another passionate performance.
The set is an odd mix of old favourites and includes 5 "new" songs. He had been working out new material on stage throughout
1975, and songs like "Coney Island Baby" "Leave Me Alone" and "Kicks" were by now well polished, if unfamiliar to the
audience. "Coney" is given it's usual tender treatment, but "Leave Me Alone" is an angry rant. The rendition of "Kicks" here is
one of my personal favourites, and is a truly frightening piece of music. A very early version of "Charlie's Girl" is still at the
formative stage: Lou is playing around with the lyrics. "Rock And Roll" is long and funky and "It's Too Late Mama" is a
good-time boogie number which allows everyone to take a solo (listen to Lou's "Street Hassle - No hassle" call and reply lines).
Interestingly Lou finally leaves the stage with the comment "that's from Coney Island Baby"...... (and on "Walk On The Wild
Side", the "coloured girls" have become "nigger chicks" for possibly the first (but not the last) time)
The tour finally collapsed only 2 shows after this one. The concert planned for New Zealand's Wellington Town Hall was
cancelled at the last minute (the support band had already performed their set) due to Lou's "physical inability to perform".
The tour promoter, Ron Blackmore, was interviewed by the "Wellington Evening Post" and quoted as follows: "Reed had a
very, very personal problem that should never have damn well happened. It's so personal and serious that I cant even tell you
about it off the record. If you could imagine what it is like to get a call from the other side of the world and he told you that your
mother was not only a drug addict but a hooker, and that she'd hooked some of your friends, then you might be able to
understand how he was feeling. That's not what happened, but it was something that turned him around just like that would.......
He was so upset that I wasn't prepared risk the repercussions of what a performance might have done to him......"
The remainder of the tour, including the "Startruckin" dates, was immediately cancelled and Lou once again flew back to the USA
to do battle with RCA, Katz and even his own lawyers.....the next time he would tour it would be in late 1976 to promote "Rock
And Roll Heart".
This stereo audience recording is reasonably good quality but a bit "boomy" and bass-heavy. The audience are very apparent but
not intrusive.
at DaD
Lou Reed
Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia
29 July 1975
01. Sweet Jane
02. Coney Island Baby
03. Leave Me Alone
04. Satellite Of Love
05. How Do You Think It Feels?
06. Walk On The Wild Side
07. Vicious
08. Charlie's Girl
09. Kicks
10. White Light/White Heat
11. Rock And Roll
12. It's Too Late Mama
Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
Doug Yule: guitar, vocals
Bruce Yaw: bass
Marty Fogel: saxophone
Michael Suchorsky: drums
Michael Fonfara: keyboards
Got this one from bootblogger. No lineage, sorry. Fixed SBEs.
Here's the text lurid_uk wrote when he posted this show back in 2007. But, please, be aware that the flacs are NOT from lurid.
Track lengths do not match to this version here.
1975 was the year that Lou Reed's professional life practically fell apart. In January, his manager Dennis Katz listened to tapes of
Lou's latest material ("Kicks", "Dirt", "Leave Me Alone" and "Coney Island Baby") and told him that it was "unreleasable". Katz
(who was probably the subject of "Dirt") then followed up with the news that Lou was penniless, and had to go out and tour
simply to earn money to live. The European tour which followed lurched from one disaster to the next. Italy was in political turmoil:
fascists and communists were battling for power. The opening concert in Rome was cancelled. The Milan show was abandoned after
2 songs when riot police fired tear gas onto the stage (and into the crowd). Projectiles rained down on the stage in Turin. Lou was
denounced as a "decadent dirty jew", and flew to Switzerland threatening to abandon the tour completely. The Frankfurt show was
cancelled (Lou claimed nervous exhaustion) and another riot ensued. At least one show went ahead with Doug Yule on lead vocals.
Despite all this, the performances were well received, and the European leg of the tour finally ended with good reviews in London at
the end of March. Lou flew to the USA to complete some dates there before recording his next studio LP.
Setting aside "Berlin", RCA's early confidence in Lou had been well-founded. "Transformer", Rock And Roll Animal" and "Sally
Cant Dance" had been big sellers. They had now issued the left-overs from the Dec 73 show ("Lou Reed Live") as a stop-gap
measure after the new studio songs had been rejected. The pressure was now on
Lou to produce another big seller, and he was starting to crack. Lou was interviewed by Lester Bangs, who wrote in Creem: "Lou
Reed is a completely depraved pervert and pathetic death dwarf and everything else you want to think he is". On a personal level,
Lou was now living with his transvestite lover Rachel and ingesting vast amounts of methamphetamine. This had the predictable
effect on his creative output and the result was "Metal Machine Music" ("my week beats your year"). After proudly presenting
his masterpiece to RCA, and pointing to the clause in his contract which gave him "total artistic control", he set out on tour again
in July. This time he headed for some tiring but lucrative dates in the far east before planning to join the "Startruckin" package
which would tour European festivals in the fall.
After some shows in Japan (where legend has it they welcomed him at the airport by playing "Metal Machine Music" over the
airport PA system), he flew on to Australia. Lou had always had a big following in Australia, so the shows sold out quickly. The
audience at this Melbourne show is very appreciative even if almost half the songs are unfamilar to them. His 1974 shows here
had been a big success, and these appearance were eagerly awaited. Lou didn't disappoint, with another passionate performance.
The set is an odd mix of old favourites and includes 5 "new" songs. He had been working out new material on stage throughout
1975, and songs like "Coney Island Baby" "Leave Me Alone" and "Kicks" were by now well polished, if unfamiliar to the
audience. "Coney" is given it's usual tender treatment, but "Leave Me Alone" is an angry rant. The rendition of "Kicks" here is
one of my personal favourites, and is a truly frightening piece of music. A very early version of "Charlie's Girl" is still at the
formative stage: Lou is playing around with the lyrics. "Rock And Roll" is long and funky and "It's Too Late Mama" is a
good-time boogie number which allows everyone to take a solo (listen to Lou's "Street Hassle - No hassle" call and reply lines).
Interestingly Lou finally leaves the stage with the comment "that's from Coney Island Baby"...... (and on "Walk On The Wild
Side", the "coloured girls" have become "nigger chicks" for possibly the first (but not the last) time)
The tour finally collapsed only 2 shows after this one. The concert planned for New Zealand's Wellington Town Hall was
cancelled at the last minute (the support band had already performed their set) due to Lou's "physical inability to perform".
The tour promoter, Ron Blackmore, was interviewed by the "Wellington Evening Post" and quoted as follows: "Reed had a
very, very personal problem that should never have damn well happened. It's so personal and serious that I cant even tell you
about it off the record. If you could imagine what it is like to get a call from the other side of the world and he told you that your
mother was not only a drug addict but a hooker, and that she'd hooked some of your friends, then you might be able to
understand how he was feeling. That's not what happened, but it was something that turned him around just like that would.......
He was so upset that I wasn't prepared risk the repercussions of what a performance might have done to him......"
The remainder of the tour, including the "Startruckin" dates, was immediately cancelled and Lou once again flew back to the USA
to do battle with RCA, Katz and even his own lawyers.....the next time he would tour it would be in late 1976 to promote "Rock
And Roll Heart".
This stereo audience recording is reasonably good quality but a bit "boomy" and bass-heavy. The audience are very apparent but
not intrusive.
at DaD