The Ultimate Lou Reed Bootleg Page

Lou Reed
Philipshalle, Düsseldorf, Germany
April 1, 1979
Disc One
01. Sweet Jane
02. Coney Island Baby
03. I'm Waiting For The Man
04. Leave Me Alone
05. I'll Be your Mirror
06. Perfect Day
07. Looking For Love

Disc Two
01. Berlin
02. Men Of Good Fortune
03. Caroline Says
04. The Kids
05. The Bed
06. Street Hassle
07. The Bells

Disc Three
01. Rock 'N' Roll >
      You Keep Me Hangin' On >
02. Sister Ray >
      Magic Touch >
      Twist & Shout >
      Magic Touch >
      Sweet Jane (cut)

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!

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZnb9rZReIwa7Qvt67zOLkCdsGlEhyuIjEX