LOU REED

  New York poet, a noise drone guitar innovator, that droll, drawling voice, capable of harsh, cynical anger and truthful, courageous intimacy, one of the very best. He made interesting, rewarding records till the end- Junior Dad is a monumental last song- but these are the seminal works in a magnificent career; Velvets albums 1,2,3,4, Transformer, Berlin, Metal Machine Music.

UNDER THE SKIN

 This is a startling film. Entrancing, buzzing, with unusual, hostile imagery, left over from Birth's echoes. Sharper, more focused than the book, a younger cousin to Deathwatch, perhaps. Dark, vulnerable star, gritty humour of Glasgow life, coexisting with a forbidding, internal isolation.