Lou, the Velvets, and Nico

(A celebration, at the Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide, 31 January 2026)

The first record I bought with my own money was Transformer, which started a lifelong love of the music of Lou Reed. And a discovery of his really diverse work, travelling from poems of urban depravity to ones of great love and beauty. Did get to see him once, and he was wonderful, but he was definitely emblematic of the truism, ‘never meet your idols.’

Orson Welles didn’t sell a huge amount of tickets, but he made every moviegoer want to be a cinéaste. The Velvet Underground made every amateur musician want to start a rock band. Commercially poison; its influence immeasurably outstripped its record sales. Reed and his cohort exulted in their unpopularity, Lou’s favourite quote being “the flowers of evil are in bloom. Someone has to stamp them out before they spread.”*

Reed’s success as a solo artist began in the 1970s but plateaued when he declined to keep making more ‘Transformers’, instead embarking on heart-rending concept albums such as Berlin and The Bells.

A celebration of Reed’s work (he died in 2013) has been staged around Australia, and we caught the show at the Gov, where an impressive number of excellent musicians were fronted by Robert Forster (The Go-Betweens), Mick Harvey (The Bad Seeds/The Birthday Party), the great Dave Graney, Rob Snarski (The Blackeyed Susans), and Stefanie Duzel in the role of Nico, who all took the lead or lead duo for the songs.

They took the stage an hour late (that’s rock ‘n’ roll) but made up for that with a stunning set that covered a lot of Reed’s immense catalogue. Of course a few personal favourites were not covered, but so what? The song-list (and I’m sure I’ve missed one or two) ran as follows (not necessarily in order):

Rock and Roll Heart / What Goes On / Vicious / Venus in Furs / I’m Set Free / Sally Can’t Dance / Satellite of Love / Caroline Says / I Can’t Stand It / Perfect Day / Stupid Man / Pale Blue Eyes / The Bed / Sunday Morning / Charley’s Girl / Kill Your Sons / Waiting for My Man / Walk on the Wild side / Femme Fatale / Slipaway / Sweet Jane / and for a great finale, Rock & Roll. A worthy effort, and night.

Only one quibble: the Gov had a stage with limited seating under cover and more seating in the garden patio area, from where you could hear the concert, but not really see it, because most folks inside were standing. Once when the Velvets played Texas, in the early 1960s, Lou asked the crowd to “pull up your cushions…or whatever else you have with you…that makes life bearable in Texas.” If the venue had cushions inside, we could have all seen the show. That’s an old man’s quibble, but after all, oldies were the predominant demographic on the night.

[*Mick Wall, Lou Reed: The Life (2013)]