- Title: SWITZERLAND: LOU REED AND PATTI SMITH PERFORM AT PALEO FESTIVAL
- Date: 26th July 1996
- Summary: SMITH PERFORMING SMITH FINISHING SHOW
- Embargoed: 10th August 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NYON, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA3EMXTH98JBI2IK4IWEMVTJMJ7
- Story Text: On the second stop of her European tour, singer Patti Smith has topped the bill at Switzerland's largest rock festival, the Paleo Festival in Nyon.
The sell-out evening on Friday (July 26) attracted more than 30,000 people, most there to see and hear the New York punk diva in action.
Smith's tour follows an eight-year absence since her album "Dream of Life." In Nyon, Lou Reed, ZZ Top, Johnny Hallyday and Coolio joined Smith on the playlist.
Festival organisers said 92 per cent of tickets were sold during the six-day event.
More than 180,000 people attended the event, with around 30,000 camping on the grounds. More than 70 groups played and 10,000 people were turned away at the gate, reducing numbers to avoid a repeat of over-crowding, which marred the festival last year.
Lou Reed opened the concert with "Sweet Jane" a less macabre number than some of his other songs and more in tune with the village atmosphere of the festival.
Reed admitted he was older and he had rewritten some of his lyrics to reflect his changing point of view.
Reed said he described his music now as having a sophisticated sense of humour rather than a morbidity.
No Lou Reed performance would be complete without "Walk on the Wild Side" where old and young fans joined in the chorus of the 1972 hit.
Now aged 49, Patti Smith first emerged on the international scene 21 years ago with her debut album "Horses." Smith, who has an aversion to bright light, appeared on a dim stage, the audience in darkness. The music was pure Smith, intense, poetic and consuming.
She said her new album "Gone Again" was a tribute to her husband Fred "Sonic" Smith, ex-MC5 guitarist and leader of Detroit's Sonic Rendezvous Band, who died in 1994. They were married for 14 years.
Blinking before the cameras at her news conference, Patti Smith said the new album was primarily in tribute to her late husband and it was also a positive salute to life.
Smith, the self-declared princess of peace, said she could not tour as much as previously because she had two children but she intended to keep communicating any way she could: via the internet, more albums and books.
Songs including "Dancing Barefoot" and "Summer Cannibals" attest to the fact that she remains a vital contemporary artist.
Smith's tour started at OStend in Belgium with Nyon and Zurich in Switzerland, Prague, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Manchester, London and Stockholm.
Police said a total of 225 people were questioned for drug use - one hundred less than last year. Police seized around 300 grammes of hashish and marijuana, 40 doses of LSD and Ecstacy. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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