Manchester International festival: Lou Reed

12:23pm Tuesday 12th June 2007

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LIVING legend Lou Reed will be performing Berlin, the dark concept album which was reputably unplayable live, at the festival.

And Reed has promised fans that the concert will be something to remember.

"I only do this every thirty years," he says. "One time, one time only. You can tell your kids you saw Lou Reed's Berlin."

The album tells the story of drifting, tormented addicts in love but broken hearted and wilfully disabled ex-pats, plotting their own downfalls in the outskirts of a divided city.

And the album met a huge range of reactions on its release in 1973.

The New York Times called it "one of the strongest, most original rock records in years," while Rolling Stone named it, "the Sgt. Pepper of the 70s."

But the same magazine - among many others - attacked Reed for the work, saying: "There are certain records that are so patently offensive that one wishes to take some kind of physical vengeance on the artists that perpetrate them. Reed's only excuse for this performancecan only be that this was his last shot at a once-promising career."

He never performed Berlin live... until last year.

After 33 years, Reed launched the performance at a spectacular show in New York, where he and his band were accompanied by a string and horn section and a children's choir, amounting to a 35-piece ensemble.

Lou Reed presents Berlin at the Manchester Apollo on Friday June 29.