Transmission Impossible

THREE BROADCAST RECORDINGS ON THREE CDS NEW YORK 1972, LOS ANGELES 1976 & AUSTRALIA 1978
In December 72, Lou Reed released Transformer. David Bowie and Mick Ronson co-produced the album and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. It was from this period, just after the albums release, that Reed performed in front of a small invited audience in New Yorks Ultrasound
Studios, where he played a blistering set made up of Transformers best cuts, a handful of Velvets classics, the title track of his next record Berlin, and a single cut from his debut.

Coney Island Baby came in January 1976, a rather more traditional rock record, and in October that year Rock & Roll Heart was Reeds first album for Arista, after label boss Clive Davis saved Lou from bankruptcy. It was shortly after the release of this well received work, his seventh solo effort, that he performed at Los Angeles Roxy Theatre where the entire show was broadcast by local FM Radio. Featuring four tracks from his Arista debut, along with classics from his past records, the show is as electric a performance
as Lou ever gave. The backing from esteemed jazz trumpeter Don Cherry (father of Neneh) provided for a unique jazzy sound which was a new style for Reed.

By November Lou and band were touring the Far East and Australia and played the The Regent Theatre in Albury on 1st November '77. Once again, the show was broadcast and the results of that transmission can be heard on this set as the final disc. So, three excellent shows by one of the decades most interesting, eclectic, unique and challenging musical artist whose best work is featured in the set here, albeit in versions rarely heard before.