Tuesday 21 June 2011

Festivals: Iggy and the Stooges at Hellfest, Clisson



I mentioned the Hellfest festival in Clisson the other week, so I thought it worth mentioning again to see one of the (many) acts that played the three-day event on June 17, 18 and 19.

More than 100 bands played the festival in Loire Atlantique, France's biggest metal fest and one that is now very much in the top tier of European metal events.

Friday night's headliners were Iggy and the Stooges,a band I've always associated with France. Maybe it's the fact that there have been so many Stooges albums released on French record labels, the seminal Metallic KO album documenting the band's last gig (before they reformed, obviously) coming out of Skydog records in 1976.

This release probably cemented the band's reputation, coming out as it did at the time of the early stirrings of the punk rock movement, which quickly adopted Iggy as an early icon.

Iggy Pop's most recent solo album Préliminaires was steeped in French influence, Iggy saying it was influenced by the work of Michel Houellebecq, and featuring a cover of the Kosma/Prevert song Les Feuilles Mortes in French. It was a very jazzy album, and a sophisticated work by a mature artist.

I'll link top that another day.

This however, is the Stooges in the raw, doing what they do best.

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